Helena observed her in silence. Then she switched off the stove, slid her scrambled eggs onto a plate, and joined Leah at the table. “So I take it you’ve seen it.”
Leah finished dumping sugar into the mixing bowl before asking, “Seen what?”
“You know, the column.”
She gave Helena a baffled look. “What column?” She looked around, half-expecting a giant beam to have appeared overnight in their apartment.
“The newspaper column,” Helena said, sounding exasperated.
“Oh. I knew that.” She dropped two sticks of butter into the sugar and began mashing them together with a whisk. Damn burglar had taken her stand mixer. “And no, I haven’t seen it. What are you talking about?”
Helena took her time chewing a mouthful of eggs and washing it down with milk. It was annoying that she knew precisely how to time her delays—just long enough to annoy Leah but not before she lost interest and no longer cared about the answer. Leah rolled at her eyes at Helena’s baiting and finished mixing her wet ingredients.
“There was an editorial in the University newspaper on Friday,” Helena said. “Word’s out that there’s a student attending a program for sex addicts.”
“Two students,” Leah said as she went to get a second bowl for her dry ingredients.
Helena lifted an eyebrow. “Hello? Don’t you care that they might find out—” She stopped, shook her head, and resumed poking at her eggs. “What am I saying? Of course you don’t care. How did they find out anyway?”
Leah shrugged. She was never going back to those meetings anyway, so if anyone asked, denial would be the name of the game. “Maybe someone saw me leaving the church and got curious. Or maybe someone overheard Will’s friend when he announced my problem to the entire theater. What else did it say?”
“Just that they think it’s someone in the arts.”
“Well, then it must have been at the theater. No worries. I’m humanities.” She whisked together the dry ingredients and then began gradually stirring them into the other bowl. A white tuft of flour shot out in Helena’s direction.
Helena flapped her hand through the air, grimacing. “You’re going to get flour in my breakfast.”
“At least it’s tasty flour,” she said, stirring in earnest now to smooth out the batter. This was actually kind of relaxing. Maybe she didn’t need a new stand mixer.
“Well, if you’re not upset about the column, then what’s wrong with you?” Helena asked, confused. “You’ve been downright morose for the last couple days.”
Leah frowned at that. “I haven’t been morose. Where do you learn these words? I’m taking away your dictionary.”
Helena rolled her eyes. “For you, it’s morose. And you’re making brownies.”
“What’s your point?” She returned to the kitchen again to get the baking pan.
“Brownies are your comfort food. Now tell me what’s going on.”
Resigned, Leah told her.
And passionately resented the huge grin on Helena’s face when she was finished.
“So, let’s get this clear,” Helena said, smirking. “Despite the fact that you have done nothing but self-sabotage yourself with every guy you’ve ever met, he still seems to want you.”
“I don’t self-sab—”
“And you, uncharacteristically, have forgiven him for lying to you—keeping in mind the only thing he lied about was being a sex addict, which frankly, I’d be relieved about if I were you—
“He was researching—”
“It’s anonymous! Now what was I saying? Oh yeah, you’ve forgiven him even though it took you six months to forgive me that time I scratched your CD—”
“I haven’t forgiven him,” she said, but Helena continued to ignore her protests.
“And then you ‘accidentally’ left your contact details at his apartment when you stormed out in what I can only imagine was the most dramatic hissy fit in the history of everything. Am I right?”
Leah tried to glare her into the wall. She had actually made those bunny-ear air quotes when she said ‘accidentally.’
“Are you suggesting that I subconsciously left my purse at his apartment on purpose?” she asked, returning her baking supplies to the pantry a bit more forcefully than necessary.
“Well, you did, didn’t you?”
“No!”
“How could you have made it all the way home without realizing you didn’t have your purse?”
Leah sat down and opened her mouth—and then shut it again. Damn it.
“Ha!” Helena cackled, waving her fork with all the maniacal energy of an animated sea sponge. “Leah’s in love! Leah’s in love! Oh my God, break out the bubbly and check the sky for raining fire.”
“What are you, nine?”
Helena leaned across the table, beaming and not the least intimidated by Leah’s ‘the Death Star was a minor complication compared to my retribution’ glare. “Leah’s so in love that she can’t sleep even though most mornings, I have to drag her out of bed by her hair so that she won’t be late for class."
At which point, for the second time in three days, Leah stormed out.
Helena shouted after her. “Don’t forget about your brownies!”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The address on Leah’s driver’s license matched the mailbox that marked the entrance to a long gravel path. Will followed the path up to a pair of dilapidated gates and a mansion bigger than some of the University buildings. His brows rose at the sight. Leah hadn’t been kidding when she said her parents had come from money. Care of the place had clearly been neglected for a while, but it was still grander than any home he had ever been in.
He parked his car and then stepped out to examine the lock on the gates. A rusty metal interface sat in the brick wall alongside the left gate. Since there was only one button beneath a broken monitor, Will pushed it and hoped it still worked.
He was in luck because a moment later, the speaker beneath the broken monitor crackled to life and a familiar voice asked, “Who is it?”
Will smiled. “Hey Elijah. It’s Will. We met at the party last weekend. Can I come in?”
“Will! Sure, one second.”
The speaker went silent, and a moment later, the gates gave a low buzz before slowly swinging open. Will left his car where it was, grabbed Leah’s purse and the gift bag sitting in the passenger seat, and continued through on foot. He couldn’t help gawking a bit as he walked up the drive to the front of the mansion. Ivy had begun creeping up the columns that framed the entryway.
The Carter Estate held a similar sort of aged beauty to the buildings in Glasglow. For a moment, he felt a pang of nostalgia.
The front door swung open, and Elijah leaned out, his head tilted and a broad smile on his face. Like Leah, her brother had hazel eyes, but his hair was dark where hers was light. Even so, it was easy to tell they were siblings.
“What are you doing here?” Elijah asked, throwing open the door to allow Will inside.
Matching Elijah’s cheerful greeting with a smile, Will followed the boy into a circular foyer. An aging chandelier hung from the high ceiling, and a curving staircase hugged the wall along the right side. The marble tiles beneath his feet were scuffed and dull, but he still felt a bit like when he’d attended the party last weekend—like he’d stepped into some alternate dimension where opulence was expected and people said things like ‘Care for some wine?’ or ‘Where are the hors d’oeuvres?’ And they could actually spell ‘hors d’oeuvres.’
He’d made a few connections at the party, and as far as he could tell, James had been impressed. Or at least, that was how he had chosen to interpret his boss lifting his brows and giving him a vague nod. It really could have been either a sign of approval or just daydreaming. Will had even struck up a conversation with the head editor of a premier medical magazine who expressed interest in reading some of his essays.
All that aside though, he’d mainly wandered around the large roo
m feeling uncomfortable and out of place. His relief at spying a familiar face had been immense, especially since that face had belonged to Leah.
“Are you here to keep your promise?” Elijah asked, suddenly looking at him with huge, eager eyes.
“I will absolutely keep my promise,” he said, “but there’s something important I need to talk to your sister about first.”
Of course, he still didn’t know what he would say once he saw her again. There were a number of things he’d like to say, but he wasn’t sure she would want to hear any of it. Either way, he supposed he’d just have to say his piece and then hope she reacted well. If not, he might have to resort to Finn’s suggestion, which was to break out into song and dance in order to convey his feelings.
But he would leave that as Plan Z.
He followed Elijah through an obscenely fancy kitchen and into what he supposed was the living room, although it was nearly the size of his entire apartment.
“Leah’s not here,” Elijah said, dropping onto a plush sofa piled high with cushions. A couple comic books lay scattered across the floor, and a wireless game controller had been tossed on top of the sofa cushions. On the TV, he had paused his shooter game to answer the door for Will.
“When will she be back?” Will asked, sitting next to him. He set the gift bag and Leah’s purse on the floor.
“Tomorrow.” Elijah’s eyes fell on the purse, and his expression took on a wary slant that was remarkably similar to his sister’s. “Why do you have her purse?”
“I thought it was pretty,” Will said, and then grinned when the wary look on Elijah’s face turned to confusion. “I’m joking. She just forgot it, and I came to return it.”
Elijah regarded him with the same uncertain, scrutinizing look Leah had during that first meeting after he’d given his introduction speech. But unlike his sister, he seemed to come to a decision about Will fairly quickly.
With a shrug, he went back to his game and said, “Okay.” He leaned over the controller, eyes squinting at the screen as his thumb jabbed the buttons. “She got her apartment robbed a few months ago. It would be bad if she lost anything else.”
“I agree,” Will said. “Which is why … wait, what?” His thoughts ground to a halt. “Her apartment? She doesn’t live here?”
Elijah gave him a funny look. “No. She moved out a few years ago.” He dug through the cushions until he unearthed a second controller and held it out to Will. “Want to play against me?”
With a quiet laugh, Will accepted the controller and then slumped over his knees, scratching the back of his head. She must not have updated the address on her license. Once again, he was an idiot. He recalled now that she had mentioned a flat once. And that it had been robbed by someone she slept with.
An unpleasant feeling rose in his stomach at the thought of her with anyone else, never mind the fact the arse had robbed her. Getting her to trust him would only be that much more difficult with guys like that in her past.
He shook his head. Ever since meeting her, he’d been playing host to a whole new range of feelings, and they still caught him by surprise sometimes.
“Well,” he said, reaching for the gift bag. “This is for you then. I hope you like to read.”
Elijah’s face lit up, and he took the gift bag with far more care than any other nine-year-old Will had ever met. Peering inside, he poked at the green tissue paper before pushing it aside and reaching in to remove a book.
It was one of Will’s favorites. He wasn’t sure how Leah felt about fantasy, but with her being a writing major, he had figured she would appreciate a book, whatever the genre.
“What’s it about?” Elijah asked. He admired the cover and then turned it over so he could read the back.
“Dragons and war and mad princes. Think you might like it?”
“It doesn’t have kissing, does it?” he asked, setting the book on top of his comics. “Leah gets me books like that sometimes.”
Will laughed. “You probably won’t mind in a few years, but no. No kissing. Promise.”
Elijah looked mollified. He reached again for his controller and then nodded to the other one in Will’s hand. “Do you know this game?”
“I’ll figure it out,” he said.
Elijah grinned and set the game to two-player mode.
“Are you home by yourself? Who else lives here?” Will asked as he scrolled through the menu options to check what the game commands were.
“Leah says I shouldn’t answer questions like that, especially if it’s from strangers.”
“But you’ve already let me into your house,” Will pointed out with a small laugh.
Elijah went still. “Oh. Oops. Well, I guess you don’t count.”
“I appreciate that.”
“It’s just me and my parents.”
“Three people in this huge house?”
“Most of the estate is closed off. No one’s been beyond this section of the mansion since before I was born.”
Will’s lips quirked. “That’s not at all creepy.” Just the rooms he’d seen so far had appeared spacious enough for more than three people. Then again, Americans did have a strange sense of space. They thought three-bedroom houses were ‘small.’ “Where are your parents?”
“I don’t know. Out. They’re gone a lot.”
He said it off-handedly, but Will could read beneath his words. He cast him a sidelong glance. He was still just a wean. Not nearly ready to be alone all the time. And Elijah knew it too. The loneliness, the resentment, the hurt—they were there, hidden beneath the mask he had no doubt copied from his sister. Will could spot it only because of the familiarity.
“I’m kind of impressed. So much time to yourself and keeping out of trouble? Your parents are lucky. When I was your age, I was terrorizing my neighbors and vandalizing public property.”
Elijah smiled and rustled about through the sofa cushions. A moment later, he pulled out a bag of gummy bears. “I don’t have any neighbors.”
“That’s true,” Will said. “But with so much wooded land, I would have found ways to create mischief. Like building myself a fort and going camping on my own for a few days. Or digging holes. Chasing rabbits. Building a bonfire. Lots of bonfires. All at once.” He gave Elijah a look. “Don’t get any ideas now.”
Elijah laughed loudly. “Leah would kill me. She doesn’t like me leaving the house by myself except for when I get picked up by the school bus.”
She sounded quite protective of her brother. It was endearing. “Does she visit often?”
“Every day,” he said. The way his expression changed when he thought about her—the soft smile, his eyes shining—made it obvious he loved his sister a lot. “Usually in the evenings to make me dinner and help me with my homework, but some weekends, she comes earlier. She was here this morning. She brought me brownies, and I was supposed to share them with my class tomorrow, but then we ate them all so we made cupcakes instead. She says I’m going to move in with her soon.”
“That’d be great.”
Just from their interaction at the party, he’d been able to tell that Elijah and Leah were close, despite the large age gap between them. She hadn’t mentioned a brother when they’d spoken about their childhoods, but Will was just glad (and a wee bit surprised) that she’d been honest instead of feeding him a made-up past like Will had considered doing.
“Want a cupcake? I’ve got extras. Wait here.” Without waiting for Will’s answer, Elijah paused the game and hopped off the sofa. He dashed into the kitchen.
The sound of banging cupboards rang out. Just as Will was rising to see if he needed help, Elijah returned with two saucers. A cupcake with blue frosting and a napkin sat on each saucer.
“Thanks,” Will said, accepting one.
“It’s a surprise cupcake,” Elijah said. He took a huge bite before he’d even settled back into the sofa cushions. Frosting stained his upper lip, and he licked it away.
“What kind of surprise?�
� he asked as he peeled away the wrap from the sides. Elijah was too busy devouring his cupcake to respond so Will smiled and took a bite. “Cookie dough. That’s excellent.”
“Isn’t it?” Elijah asked around a mouthful. “Leah’s really good at baking.”
“I didn’t know that.” The thought of her baking didn’t quite match her grumpy exterior, but he supposed that was what he liked about her. She was never what she seemed.
It would probably be wrong of him to find out more about her through her brother.
“Yeah, she’s pretty much my mom, so I can’t wait to go live with her.”
Cupcake break over with, they resumed their game. Will shouted and then laughed when Elijah’s character spotted Will’s from across a stack of crates and killed him. As he waited to resurrect, he said, “Think it’d be okay if I dropped by again sometime? We could hang out, and I’ll teach you some defense like I promised.”
The smile on Elijah’s face was answer enough.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Ta-da!”
Leah leaned back so her eyes wouldn’t cross looking at the book Helena had shoved into her face. “What is this?” she asked, accepting it from her roommate, who was looking much too pleased with herself.
“A new journal,” Helena said. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and returned to her spot at the dining room table where all her books were spread out. She was studying for an exam. “You haven’t written anything for yourself since your journal was taken so I figured you needed a new one. You’re welcome.”
A smile tugged at Leah’s mouth as she ran her fingers over the cover. It was more Helena’s style than Leah’s—lots of color and sparkle and texture—but she loved it anyway.
“Thank you.” Already, the urge to fill the pages made her fingers itch. It had been much too long. She set it in her lap and then turned down the volume on the documentary that playing on the TV about the reproductive cycle of sharks. “Toss me a pen.”
Helena dug around in her backpack before removing a blue ballpoint. Then she launched it at Leah’s head. Leah ducked sideways and managed to catch it before it sailed past her. Helena smirked.
Heat Up the Fall: New Adult Boxed Set (6 Book Bundle) Page 36
