House Without Lies (Lily’s House Book 1)

by Rachel Branton

  That was when Zoey and Bianca arrived home from school, having caught their usual ride with friends. Zoey’s jaw dropped, and Bianca did a double take. “Wow,” Zoey said. “You two look so different! For a moment, I thought Lily had brought home some new girls.”

  “Yeah, me too.” Bianca fingered Halla’s wig. “Can I try it on?”

  “Yes! Ugh, it’s getting hot anyway.” Halla slipped it off.

  “Who wants chocolate chip cookies?” I asked. The girls cheered and chatted together in the kitchen, snapping pictures with my phone until the cookies were ready.

  Five o’clock had rolled around before I got up the nerve to text Jameson. So, I wrote, what time are you off?

  Just left.

  Want to see a movie?

  A long pause and then he sent: I have something better in mind. Is that okay?

  More than okay. At least he wasn’t bailing on me. Sure.

  Pick you up at six?

  I could pick you up.

  No, that’s okay. I’d rather drive the Mustang, if you don’t mind.

  I’m fine with that.

  I looked up from my phone to find Ruth staring at me. She appeared eighteen with her transformation, but no doubt in four years when she really was eighteen, she’d still look the same. “So, does he like the movie idea?”

  “He says he has something better in mind.”

  Saffron squealed. “Ooh, I can’t wait! We’d better do your makeup now.”

  I let the girls fuss over me and choose my clothing—a rather snug pair of jeans and a fitted Hard Rock Café T-shirt from Cabo San Lucas, where my parents had once taken Tessa and me on a cruise. I’d been collecting Hard Rock shirts for years, though all the European ones except London had been gifts from my mother’s friends.

  “I don’t even know where we’re going,” I protested. “What if it’s someplace nice?”

  “If there was a dress code, he’d have told you,” Saffron said.

  I was beginning to have second thoughts. Surprises usually weren’t good these days. “But I forgot tonight’s our movie night.”

  “Not when you have a date,” Zoey said. “Stop trying to find excuses to stay home. Besides, we’re moving it to Saturday, right?”

  “And Halla can’t go nowhere right now,” Ruth added, “so we’ll all hang here and watch TV without you. We’re fine with that.”

  “Or we can grab some movies from Redbox,” Bianca suggested.

  “Remember, I have a date tonight too.” Saffron gave me a mischievous grin. “But I won’t be late if you won’t.”

  “Deal.” We shook on it, and then I took Zoey, Bianca, and Elsie to pick out some movies.

  We passed our second-floor neighbor on the landing, and his eyes wandered over us, pausing briefly on Elsie, but the girl was in the middle of the others and didn’t seem to notice. What was his obsession with her anyway? One thing was certain: the sooner I got out of this dump, the better.

  By the time we returned with three DVDs, Jameson was already there. We found him pacing outside the apartment, his hiking boots loud on the concrete landing.

  Hiking boots?

  “Ah, there you are,” he said, flashing the smile that made me feel as if I were the only person in the world. He must practice that smile in the mirror at home. “I was beginning to think you stood me up.” That made the girls giggle.

  “Nope,” I said. “Remember, I was the one who asked you.” I opened the door with my keys and ushered everyone inside.

  Halla and Ruth stared at us from the couch, and I felt a rush of pride that they hadn’t cracked the door even to “hot” Jameson. Halla was wearing her wig again, and Ruth was still wearing my clothes.

  “Hey,” Jameson said to them. “You two look nice. Did you dress up for me? What’s with the wig, Halla?”

  “Aw, you’re not supposed to recognize me.” Halla stuck out her bottom lip in a pout.

  “Well, I almost didn’t. But there was no mistaking your sidekick. Honestly, Ruth, I’m loving those braid thingies in your hair. You’re going to have to show me how you do those.”

  It was exactly the right response. No comment about her beauty or the clothes showing her figure—just that she looked nice, and he liked the cornrows.

  “We thought you was gonna leave when we didn’t answer the door,” Ruth said. “We bet on it.”

  “No way. It’s not every day I get asked out by a pretty girl.”

  “Where’re you taking her?” This, surprisingly from Elsie.

  “It’s a secret,” he whispered, winking at me, “but she’ll tell you when we get back.” Then he saw the DVD in her hands. “What, seriously? You found a Redbox with a copy of Back to the Future? No way. I always have to find that somewhere else. No one stocks classics these days.”

  I gaped. “You think that’s a classic?”

  “You bet! And if we didn’t already have plans, we could stay right here and watch it.”

  That was going overboard. “Come on,” I said. “We’re out of here. Girls, you know where the leftovers are from last night. Enjoy dinner.” To Jameson, I added, “I hope these plans include something to eat because if they don’t, we—”

  “They do,” he said. “But you’ll need a jacket.”

  I grabbed one from the small closet by the door. With a final glance at the girls, who were grinning at me and giving me the thumbs-up when Jameson wasn’t looking, I closed the door behind me. I didn’t remind them to lock the deadbolt, but I stayed close until I heard it.

  Jameson grinned at me. “They’ll be okay. We won’t be long.”

  Strangely, I felt comforted.

  Once again, Jameson drove us to South Mountain, but not to where we’d watched the sunrise. This place had a lodge, three cabins, and a small stage set before rows of stadium-like benches. Teens emerged from the lodge, talking and laughing.

  Jameson grabbed my hand. “Come on. If we miss dinner, I don’t know if I have enough strings to find us anything.” He waved at some teens as they passed.

  “Teen Nature?” I guessed.

  “Yep. I thought it might be a good idea to get you acclimatized before you jump into the fire next week.”

  “It’s really cool. I’m not sure what I expected—they told me there weren’t tents—but this is more like a . . .”

  “A motel in the mountains?” He laughed when I nodded. “I told you it wasn’t a wilderness survival thing. We do a lot of getting back to nature, but we don’t want kids to hate it. We even have showers.”

  He opened the door at one edge of the lodge, and we walked into a cafeteria. There were two lines of food, but one had already shut down, and the workers looked ready to clean the other one up too. Jameson hurried over, grabbing both of us a tray.

  “Hey, guys,” he said to the two young men and the young woman, who were all near my age or maybe a year or two younger, “this is Lily. She starts next week. I thought I’d bring her to see what she’s getting into.”

  “Hey,” said the men together.

  The woman smiled and waved. “Good to see another woman around here.”

  Jameson introduced them, but I only caught the woman’s name—Dalia—before I was distracted by the food and my rumbling stomach. It was soft tortillas with all the fixings, and little containers with sherbet ice cream for dessert.

  Jameson pointed to a group of kids still at a table. “We usually have about fifty kids up here each time, and twenty counselors. And some parents.”

  “The parents stay all night too?” I heaped a portion of taco meat onto my tortilla.

  “Some do—not all of them. Not all the counselors stay, either. Only a certain number are required to, and only those few employees get paid for sleeping here. It’s a great way to put in your forty hours.” He grinned. “So I always opt for it when I can, now that I have enough seniority to be considered. I’ll be sleeping here on Friday nights starting next week, and cutting down my day shifts accordingly.”

  I was glad they
hadn’t asked me to stay overnight, even though the drive out here to South Mountain on both Friday and Saturday would make my shifts longer. I might sleep better in a real bed here, but I’d worry too much about the girls.

  We laughed and joked for the few minutes it took us to eat our food. The sun was already out of sight in the sky when we finished, though it was still fairly light, and Jameson took me to the benches in front of the stage, where the kids were gathering.

  “You’ve got to see these skits,” he said. “They’ve had only today to work on them. Some make you feel like you’re back in kindergarten, but every now and then you get some really brilliant ones.”

  Numerous teens greeted Jameson as we approached, offering high-fives or complicated handshakes. They gave me subtle glances, but when Jameson introduced me, it wasn’t as a future camp counselor, which made everyone assume I was his girlfriend. I decided I was okay with that for now.

  There were six skits, and to my surprise, a few parents participated as well. The first four skits were funny only because they were so awful, but the fifth, a parody of a hospital stay, had me laughing out loud.

  “That kid in the bed?” Jameson whispered. “His mother died last year, and that was when he started giving his father trouble. He’s been writing some short stories, and I’m pretty sure this idea is based on one of those—very cathartic for him.” The boy had brooding eyes, and he delivered every line with deadpan humor, but every now and then a smile escaped his control.

  He’s going to be okay, I thought.

  The final skit was heads above most of the other presentations, but only half as good as the hospital one. “Okay, let’s vote by clapping,” said a counselor in a blue shirt with Teen Nature stamped in bold across his chest. The microphone squawked with feedback, and he grimaced before continuing.

  The hospital skit won a standing ovation, and the actors received oversized chocolate bars and pats on the back for encouragement. “Okay, card games in the lodge,” said the counselor, “but don’t stay too late. Remember we have Chat Time in the morning, bright and early at six.”

  The kids booed, but only softly, and no one seemed very upset as they beelined for the lodge.

  “Well?” Jameson asked, his arm around me as we sat close together on the bench. “How do you like it?”

  “This is what I’ll be helping with on Fridays?”

  “In the evenings, at least. How are your acting skills?”

  I thought of my roommates, school officials, and my mother. “Pretty good, I think.”

  “Then you have nothing to fear. Earlier, they had trust exercises, activities, and counseling sessions led by certified therapists. You’ll get the hang of it, but I didn’t want you to be in complete shock your first day on the job.”

  “It looks really great.” I wanted to help the kids here, but I was even more excited about the things I’d learn to help my girls.

  He offered a hand, and I took it, allowing him to pull me to my feet. “Come on. I’ll show you my favorite spot.”

  He led me along a path and up some wooden stairs laid into the mountainside and then down another path, his footsteps sure in the dark. Obviously, he knew the place well. “There,” he said, as we rounded a bend in the path that opened up to the valley below.

  “Oh,” I said, the word coming out as a partial sigh. “It’s beautiful.” In the distance, we could see city lights shining and twinkling like an early Christmas display. Even better were the overhead stars, glistening in an uninterrupted blanket of darkness, infused with mystery and magic.

  “Stars are always brighter here than in the city.” Jameson stood close, our jacketed arms touching.

  “It’s like a surprise, appearing around that bend so unexpectedly.”

  He chuckled. “Yeah, just like our so-called date.”

  I turned to face him. “You knew?”

  “That you were referring to work? That you weren’t really asking me on a date? Oh, yeah.”

  Now I understood the gleam in his eyes. It hadn’t been excitement at being with me, but rather enjoyment at my slip. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  The moonlight illuminated his face, and there was no mistaking the way his eyes drank me in. “And miss out on my opportunity to do this . . .” Deliberately, he placed his lips on mine. Warmth flooded through me in a delicious, heady rush.

  Okay then. I didn’t know what to say, so I kissed him more deeply. He tasted of the mint gum we’d had after dinner, with maybe a hint of hot sauce, which turned out to be an intoxicating combination. His arms went around my back, anchoring me in the moment. He was significantly taller than I was, but our bodies fit together effortlessly.

  Slow down, I told myself.

  I didn’t listen.

  He pulled me closer, his hands running over my back on top of my jacket. My stomach fluttered, my heart pounded, and my mind was full of nothing but him. Being here like this, having him hold me—it was new and familiar all at once. A contentment I’d never experienced settled over me.

  After long moments, Jameson drew reluctantly away. “I guess we should get going,” he said, his breath short and his voice husky.

  “Yeah.” I had no idea what time it was. It could have been three days for all the awareness I had of anything besides him.

  “If we hurry,” he added, reaching for my hand, “we might be able to catch the last of Back to the Future.”

  “Oh, brother.” I rolled my eyes, but I was glad. Halla had been upset about her father’s disruptive activities on the Internet, and I wanted to see if she was still as okay with everything as she’d been after the makeover. Because I wasn’t as sure as I’d acted that I could keep her safely hidden.

  I was still thinking of Halla and what to do about her all the way to the car, down the mountainside, and most of the drive back to Phoenix. As if sensing my preoccupation, Jameson kept up the conversation, talking about the camp and the kids, but I was only half listening.

  “What are you thinking?” Jameson asked, sending me a worried glance. “Is it all more than you bargained for?”

  “Oh, no. Sorry. It’s just something that happened today with Halla.”

  “Something, by chance, that explains the wig?”

  Internally, I cursed his perceptiveness. “Maybe.” I wanted to tell him, to share the burden, but months of keeping certain things to myself stilled my tongue.

  His hand slipped across the space between us, landing on my thigh and sending spikes of electricity through my nerves. “You can tell me. I mean, if you want.”

  I made the decision the way I always had with the girls—with my heart. It hadn’t led me astray yet. “Remember how I told you that Halla escaped from a room her father had locked her in?”

  “For six months, right? Until she jumped out the window and broke her arm.”

  I nodded. “Well, he’s somehow tracked her here. There are pictures of her plastered all over Facebook and elsewhere on the Internet. He’s saying he won’t leave Arizona until he finds her. We saw the pictures today, and it freaked Halla—all of us—out.”

  “Sounds like he really wants to find her.”

  “It’s more than that. I’m afraid she’ll run again. Because if he knew where she was, he’d come for her, and I . . .” Would he think I was exaggerating? “I don’t know if she’d survive it.”

  “You need to talk to Bea about her.”

  “What? No! It’s only Halla’s word against his. Her mother knows, but apparently she’s a spineless idiot. Remember, Halla already gave in to despair once when she jumped out that window. I can’t let that happen again.”

  Jameson didn’t say anything but stared at the road ahead. I wished he’d say something—anything. His hand was still on my leg, but I wanted it off. I wished I hadn’t sat in the middle seat.

  “Did you ever consider that maybe Halla is stretching the truth?” he said finally.

  “No.” I was offended that he’d even suggest it. I was glad when he reac
hed an intersection and he had to lift his hand to shift. Maybe it was my silence or my stiffness, but he didn’t return his hand to my leg. I felt both glad and bereft, which made no sense.

  “Kids do that all the time. You know that—you have to know that.”

  Anger flooded me, as hot as the passion I’d felt for him earlier. “He starved her and locked her in a room. She tried to kill herself because her life was so bleak.”

  “That’s what she says. Did you see her arm broken?”

  “No, it had healed by the time I found her. She went to a free clinic and had the cast cut off on her way here from Idaho.”

  Jameson glanced over. “There are two sides to every story, and I’ve seen a lot of kids and parents at Teen Remake butt heads because neither side is willing to bend.”

  “Are you saying Halla’s a liar? Because I’m telling you she’s not. I’ve known her for six months. You’ve known her for, what, three days?” Questioning her was the same as questioning my judgment, because I’d taken her in.

  “It doesn’t take much for these kids to begin to believe what they’re saying. Perceptions vary, and time changes perceptions. Besides, if her father does want her back, maybe he’s willing to make changes. Being with a parent is the best thing for a child, if they’re willing to make changes for the better.”

  “Not if he abuses her. Look, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Just take me home.”

  We were already on the street heading to the apartment. When he pulled into our lot, Jameson said, “I’m only saying you need to check out both sides. That’s where Bea comes in. Just like you, I want Halla to be safe and happy. What if Halla is exaggerating and she belongs with her parents? I’ve seen it happen so many times at Teen—”

  “At Teen Remake!” I finished. “You said yourself they never have the toughest cases. You have parents paying for their children to go to camps and for themselves to get training. Those parents want the best for their kids. Generally they’re not hurting them, right?”

  “That’s true, but—”

  I pushed opened the door. “You only know a tiny slice of what these girls have been through. You’re not the one who was with Halla six months ago when her body was so wasted she could do little more than sleep. Halla’s not a liar. But now you want to tell everyone about her—and you probably will, just like you did with Zoey and Bianca.”