Edge of the Blade (Bryant Rockwell Book 4)

by Jacky Gray

  “Compromise is about right. If this were Victorian times you’d have no choice but to marry me after what I just did to you.” Ray flashed a suggestive grin at Liv.

  “Which bit?”

  “Cheeky wench.” They heard the front door slam.

  Liam’s glare said they should mind their language. “Quiet in the stalls. Now it’s very similar to the last game; think of that one as a kind of warm-up. The male partner has to pass one end of the tinsel through the clothes of the female ...”

  “Similar, it’s identical.”

  As Liam handed out the tinsel strands, Luke’s dad appeared at the door with a sleepy Pete. “Sorry to be a party pooper, but it’s after half twelve and your parents are ready to go, Jude.”

  She frowned. “But we weren’t supposed to go ’til one.”

  “I think your sister’s had enough.” He nodded at Liam. “You seem to be having good clean fun. I had visions of coming into some kind of orgy. Well done. I’ll feel a lot happier about having teenage parties in future.” He continued up the stairs, pushing Pete up in front of him, and the gang breathed a collective sigh of relief.

  Ray punched Liam’s arm. “Five minutes either way and his worst fears would have been confirmed. You are some kind of wizard when it comes to timing.”

  “My middle name’s Harry; did I not say? We’ll have to save that one for the next party.”

  “I can’t wait.” Ray grinned. “What’s everyone doing tomorrow?”

  “Er ... it’s Christmas day. You know: turkey, sprouts, mince pies with brandy cream and wall-to-wall family.” Liv rolled her eyes.

  “No, that’s today. I mean Boxing day.”

  “Not sure. It’s usually visiting family.” Her comment prompted a bunch of affirmative nods.

  Ray was nothing if not keen. “Ok, I’m just being greedy. Listen, let’s stay in touch and find out when we can all get together. I’ll appoint Liv keeper of the communal diary; everyone has to call her and say when they’re booked.”

  “A group chat might be better. I’ll set one up.”

  “Right. See you guys.” Luke grabbed Jude’s hand. “Merry Christmas. I’d like to say a proper goodnight to my girl.”

  They all had pretty much the same idea and after some hasty goodbyes and Merry Christmases, the three couples disappeared in different directions.

  11 A Brit-com Christmas

  Jude’s Christmas Day went pretty much as she foretold, but with an added layer of tension between her parents which had her desperately wishing Liv would call and suggest the run they’d joked about. Boxing Day ran a little more smoothly as they were forced to make an effort while visiting various family members, ending in another massive meal round at her gran’s.

  She arrived half an hour early the next day so she could blast around the rink and burn off some calories. When the others turned up, Liv suggested a quick meeting; she’d drawn up a list of their obligations for the dead week between Christmas and New Year. Before she could share her findings, Ray pitched his plan.

  “Any chance of a New Year party at yours, Luke? We could maybe have a go at those games we didn’t get round to.”

  “Nice idea, but Dad’s got a long haul down to Portugal on the thirty-first, so he won’t be back.”

  “Even better. No one to interrupt.” Ray swapped a mucky wink with Liam.

  Liv’s eyes narrowed. “You mean he’s leaving you in charge?”

  “As if.” Luke’s expression said not. “Pete and I have to stay round at Sheila’s. He doesn’t trust me that far, yet.”

  “But you’d have a key, right? You could always say you’re at a party with us. Your aunt wouldn’t need to know where it was at.”

  “Ray Donnelly, I’m shocked you could suggest something so dishonest. That’s appalling.” Liv’s outrage kept her face completely deadpan for a couple of beats. “I love it.”

  The relief in Ray’s grin said he’d been taken in by Liv’s tease, but Kat put a hex on the whole thing because she and Liam would be in Ireland for New Year.

  “Bugger.” Ray’s frown suggested his plans were going up in smoke.

  “When are you going?” Jude remembered her mentioning it.

  “Tomorrow.”

  “Which means we’ve only got today all together.” Liv worked it out.

  “Yeah, I’m sorry. But, for the rest of the holiday, you’ll no doubt be stuck in your books for the January modular exams. And Jude will be practising like crazy for the competition so we wouldn’t be together too much this week anyway.”

  Kat paused while both girls gave token protests, but they knew she was right, so she carried on with her plan. “I know it’s cheeky and you’re probably not interested, but when I found out, I surfed the net …”

  “Feel free to get to the point any time soon.” Ray’s wink was obviously intended to soften the snark, but Jude couldn’t help but think he and Liv were well matched.

  “I was just about to when you so rudely interrupted.” Kat described the triple bill playing at the Odeon: the Best of Brit-Com Christmas. “It’s Love Actually,” big groan from the guys, “The Holiday,” even bigger groan, “and World’s End. Although it’s not exactly Christmassy.”

  “Now you’re talking. Anything from the Pegg and Frost stable is worth watching.” Praise indeed from Luke.

  “But first we have to sit through two chick flicks.” Ray frowned.

  “They’re not really chick flicks. Just well-scripted, well-acted comedies. Bill Nighy is great as the potty-mouthed rock star.” Liv had her salesman hat on. “And anything with Jack Black is cool.”

  “True.” Ray put his arm around her shoulders. “And even if you’re not too keen on the plot, there’s always the fact you’re sat in a dark room with your latest squeeze and ninety minutes to kill.”

  “Seriously, three movies? That’s …” Jude paused, calculating.

  “Over five hours with all the adverts and stuff.” Ray got there first.

  “Numb bum time.” Jude wriggled her body in anticipation.

  “You know Dr Harper’s remedy for that.” Luke grinned. “This has actually got possibilities.”

  “Great.” With a barely suppressed eye-roll, Kat nicked Liv’s social secretary role as she quizzed Ray. “What about you? You don’t seem convinced.”

  “Five hours of chick flicks? Sounds like some form of Chinese torture to me. Ow.” He flinched as Liv pretended to batter him with her bag. “Only kidding. It’ll be great.”

  “Cool. Shall I book it?” Kat fired up the app.

  “Don’t I get a say in this?”

  “What exactly is it you want to say, Liam O’Grady? You seemed to think it good enough last night.” Kat’s accent was pure Dublin and he did a credible impression of a hen-pecked husband which had them all chuckling as they sorted out where to eat first.

  Jude was grateful for the little oasis of fun in the increasingly fraught Christmas break. The following day, her parents were at each other’s throats at lunch. She finally found out why a little later when she overheard her mum talking on the phone to her sister.

  “No, of course he’s not taking it well. This is the third round of redundancies in three years.”

  Jude stopped dead, wondering what to do; her mother had her back to the door and hadn’t seen it open. The shock of the revelation immobilised her, but she couldn’t help but overhear the next words.

  “There’s every chance he’ll go this time. We should just be grateful they’re leaving it ’til after Christmas. Last year was so awful with all the notices going out on Christmas Eve.”

  Jude held her breath, remembering how cut up her dad had been the previous year, even though he’d kept his job.

  “No, don’t worry. We fully intend to honour our obligations. But, a pizza and a couple of bottles would be most welcome. We don’t want to overspend for obvious reasons.”

  Hearing the sound of her mum getting up, Jude shot upstairs. It certainly explained a thing or two,
but she felt confident her mum worried unnecessarily. He’d come through two redundancies already and, from what little he said, he was good at what he did.

  On the night of the New Year’s party, however, Jude wished they’d let someone else do it. All the other adults turned up with so much booze the fridge refused to close, and the kitchen overflowed with enough food to feed the five thousand. Her dad should have been happy at the support, but she overheard him having a go at her mum, saying they weren’t paupers and she didn’t need to beg.

  The gathering was on a much smaller scale than at Kat’s house, and Jude hoped no one would notice the atmosphere between her parents.

  But she’d reckoned without Liv’s ability to tune into atmospheres at fifty paces.

  Liv cornered Jude upstairs after the meal. “What’s up with your folks? Not quite the happy hippies we know and love.”

  “I might have guessed you’d pick up on it.” Jude tried a stab at a smile and failed. “This is pretty mild compared to the last couple of weeks. Dad’s under threat of redundancy again, but they’re not announcing until the end of January.”

  “Surely he’s not worried about losing his job? He’s been there forever. Isn’t he one of the big bosses?”

  “A middle-sized boss, he reckons. Which is why he’s worried. Mum said something about too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Whatever that means.”

  “It means they need more people doing the actual work and fewer people doing nothing but watching and telling them how to do it. My mum’s always on about stuff like that.”

  “My dad works far too hard; how dare you say he’s lazy?” Something snapped inside Jude as her addled brain decided that not only her mother but Liv, was dissing her dad. She pushed past, her anger needing an outlet, and she took it out on the stairs, stomping down like they were to blame. She stayed well away from her for the rest of the evening, trying to ignore the alternating apologetic and hurt expressions. It didn’t help when she heard Liv’s dad repeating the chiefs and Indians comment in the kitchen.

  Jude could tell Luke had spotted the rift by his frequent glances between the two of them, but he limited his concern to an oblique reference about how Liv seemed a little subdued. It put a strain on all of them, especially when it came to the hugs and kisses before the Auld Lang Syne, and Jude was glad when they all went home.

  She was expecting an avalanche of “What’s up” texts from Liv, but she just got one saying her family were spending New Year’s day visiting relatives. The next day, they were back at school, and Jude resolved to put it all behind her. Not easy with everything going on in her life, but she’d become a master at ignoring conflict, from plenty of experience negotiating a hostile, discordant environment since her dad’s job security first came into question.

  12 Back to the Grind

  Luke was in a lose-lose place, right now. Although his home life had settled into a much happier place with a mutual understanding between him and his dad, he sensed an undercurrent between his dad and his younger brother, Pete. Nothing he could put his finger on, just occasional sniping and a general lack of harmony. He wondered if something had happened at the party, but neither of them were forthcoming and he didn’t want to stir it up by asking questions. With everything else on his plate, he relegated it to the bottom of his priority list, resolving to keep an eye on the situation and mediate whenever he could.

  Compared to Jude’s parents, everything at home was hunky-dory. They had a real marriage-crisis thing going on, and Jude seemed to be bearing the brunt of it. From her description of last year’s redundancy trauma, this was not an isolated incident. What other reason could there be for her being so uppity with Liv at the New Year party? A rock and a hard place sprang to mind as he watched the evening’s low-level griping build to an all-out-of-proportion flare-up. He heard the raised voices from the hallway, but Jude didn’t spot him as she flew downstairs. When he asked Liv about it, she played the loyalty card, saying Jude was only defending her dad.

  It worried him, particularly because of the promise he’d made to protect Liv from Jimmy. Many of their strategies involved Jude, but she was unlikely to cooperate until they'd finished with the handbags-at-dawn routine. Which would leave Liv vulnerable – back to the hard-rock scenario.

  He badly needed to talk to someone about this dilemma, but he figured no one else knew what he did about the way Jude’s dad had been so distant and unsupportive for her entire skating career. He was sure the little she’d told him barely scratched the surface, and it had all been said in strictest confidence – she’d just needed to let off some steam.

  Kat would be the closest person, but it wouldn’t be fair to unload his problems on her. If she’d noticed any problem, she hadn’t said, and he didn’t want to put her in the position of taking sides. Not that he’d taken sides; his first loyalty always lay with Jude. Friend or girlfriend? Duh! But he’d seen too many hints of friction between his girl and everyone in her immediate vicinity not to be worried about the runaway train wreck of her life. It all came to a head during the second week back.

  “Hey, Jude.” Normally, when he quoted the song title she loved to hate, it brought an involuntary grin, no matter how angry or preoccupied she was.

  “Sorry, Luke. Can’t stop.” She shook her sports bag at him.

  “You’re training? What about the maths revision class? They’re not voluntary, you know.”

  “Seriously? Luke’s joined the geek squad?” She shot him “the look.” The do-me-a-favour one.

  He shrugged.

  “Surely you can understand. Some things are more important.” She blew him a cheeky kiss, and ran off.

  As the gang turned up, Kat squinted into the distance. “Was that Jude? She is so gonna cop for it. That’s the second after-school class she’s missed.”

  “Third. She missed the biology one, as well.” Luke prepared for the fallout. True to form, Liv was first up to bat.

  “I can’t believe she missed another one. The girl needs to get her priorities sorted.” Liv’s priorities always centred on academic achievements.

  He tried to keep it low-key, with a wry grin. “I rather think she has. Just because there’s nothing quite like a nice meaty simultaneous equation to get your juices flowing, doesn’t mean it works for everyone.”

  “Sorry, that doesn’t make sense. One simultaneous equation is an oxymoron; you need a pair of them to work.”

  Liv’s smartass remark was lost on Luke, and he had to ask. “What’s an oxymoron?”

  “A contradiction in terms, like an intelligent chav.” Ray loved to show off.

  “You’re missing the point. This is the data handling module; there are no equations, simultaneous or otherwise.” Liv tried bursting his bubble.

  Ray was irrepressible. “Not even the line of best fit? You may get asked to work out its equation.”

  Kat reached her nerdy-babble limit. “If you geeks will focus past the A-star maths for a nanosecond, the real point is that Jude hasn’t been herself since we got back. I’m worried about her.”

  “I thought it was just me. She got a bit funny at the party because of her dad and the redundancy thing.” Liv’s face wobbled. “I kind of put my foot in it.”

  “That’s not like you.” Ray grinned at her.

  “I can’t say I’ve noticed anything unusual.” Luke tried to deflect. “She’s not always the easiest of girlfriends.” He shrugged. “Looking for an excuse to pick a fight; usually over some other girl I happened to talk to – or look at.” He stopped, realising it sounded disloyal, but it was a truth he’d never admitted out loud before.

  Kat bailed him out with a wink. “Because she still can’t believe she landed such a catch over all the competition throwing themselves at your feet.”

  “What, you mean Dirty Diana? I can’t think of any others who go for the dumb-jock type.” Liv had to put him in his place.

  He knew it was nothing less than her duty, and with a wink at Ray, he picked up the
bait. “Hey, I ain’t dumb.”

  Ray couldn’t miss the opportunity for a double act. “Luke, dumb? He never shuts up.” He covered his mouth with his hand and pointed to Luke.

  “Maybe you’re going deaf?” With perfect comic timing and an exaggerated wink, Luke covered his ears.

  “Oh, no. The Bad-Dads are in the house.” As the guys high fived, Liv covered her eyes, completing the wise monkey triple of speaking, hearing and seeing no evil.

  “Only you think so, Livvy. Everyone else loves our humour.” Ray gave her arm a squeeze, then wheeled into his drive leaving the others to walk Liv to the bus stop.

  Luke worried about Jude’s behaviour all the way home, and Kat listened patiently before dispensing her wisdom.

  “Maybe you could try backing off a little with the worrying. Jude needs to feel she has one person on her side.”

  “I am on her side, believe me.” His tone sounded defensive, even to himself, and he brought it down a couple of notches. “But she’s kinda pushing me away, too.”

  “She’s stubborn as anything about the skating; you of all people should know that.”

  “Trust me, I do. You’ve no idea how much I’ve had to bite my tongue and try to forgive when she has a go, or dumps me without notice.”

  Kat squeezed his arm. “I can imagine. Sorry, mate, but it’ll all be over soon. All you can really do is grin and bear it. Say nothing, and be there to pick up the pieces if it all goes pear-shaped.”

  Sound advice, but way easier said than done.

  No one was more shocked than Luke when Jude didn’t turn up for the biology exam on Thursday, but when they found out where she’d been, it felt like a real slap in the face. How could she have kept something like that secret? The rest of the gang were equally shocked, although Ray had to put a twist on it.

  “Respect. Only Jude could put her skating ahead of her day job. She does realise it was an actual GCSE exam, not just a mock?”

  Luke frowned. “She won’t need biology to be an Olympic skater.”