Fallen Crest Alternative Version (11 page)

I frowned at him.

Malinda piped in, “Don’t talk with your mouth full, honey.”

He lifted his fork in an apology.

She went back to her phone call.

“Who is she talking to?”

Mark shrugged.

“Samantha, drink your coffee. Your father told me it’s the only sustenance you get sometimes.”

I bit my lip as I felt a little guilty. I had inhaled the coffee Mousteff handed me. Hers couldn’t compare to his, but he was a chef. I drank hers anyway, and some of the rumbling went away.

“How was the rest of the night?” Adam’s eyes were intense as he studied me.

I looked away. “It was fine.”

Mark’s stopped stuffing his face. His fork went down to the table.

“So they weren’t mad about Cass?”

My cheeks flushed, and I fought the urge to twiddle my thumbs.

“Sam.” Mark was quiet. “What’d they say?”

I swallowed over a knot in my throat and looked up. “No parties with you guys.”

“With us?” Mark waved between him and Adam with his fork. “Or…”

“With anyone who goes to Academy.” It went without saying that I was excluded from that group.

“Are you serious?” Adam’s face fell.

Mark cursed and leaned back. The pancakes had lost their appeal. “Cass is going to be tortured at school. Public parties, man, everyone lives to go to those.”

I twiddled my thumbs now.

Adam asked, quietly, “You can’t talk to Mason?”

I shook my head. “I was attacked. He wasn’t there.”

“You were going to be verbally attacked by his friends before her.” Adam leaned forward.

My shoulder lifted and dropped. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“You slapped Cass. Remember? At the Alumni festival.”

“It’s not the same.”

“Are you kidding me? It’s all girl catfight crap. Of course it’s the same,” Adam cried out as he pushed back his chair. “This blows.”

Mark threw him a crooked grin. “Guess you’re going to have to get laid by the Academy gene pool.”

“Shut up.”

Mark shrugged. His fork reached for some strawberries.

“You haven’t even asked about Becky—”

I frowned. “How is Becky?”

He stopped short. “She’s fine.”

I nodded. “Good.”

Then he bit out, “She was worried about you. We kept hearing about you, how you got hit, how you shouldn’t have, how Cassandra was going to hell. Blah, blah, blah. We heard it all.”

Mark grinned with a mouthful of fruit and nodded his head.

“Okay.” Malinda’s voice was bright and cheery. The phone was put away, and she dropped into a chair beside me. “What have I missed? What happened last night?”

Adam looked at me.

I looked at him.

We both fell silent.

Mark gestured between us with his fork. “Those two are mad at each other, but I don’t know why.” He swallowed his fruit with a gulp and speared an omelet with his fork. “After dinner last night, Sam shoved Cass into our bushes. She got mad. She came to the party we were at and slapped Sam. Then her boyfriend got mad and now all of us can’t go to Public parties.” He gave Malinda a mouthful grin. “And that sucks because those parties are awesome. They talked about Becky. I have no idea why.”

She turned to us. Her eyes were bright.

I sucked in my breath.

Mark mumbled around some French toast, “And I didn’t sleep with Amelia last night, mom. I wanted you to know that.”

She melted. “I know, honey. That means so much.”

I blinked in surprise and blurted out my first thought, “Did my dad sleep here last night?”

She froze and then melted again. She patted her chest with a hand. “Oh, Samantha. I would love it if David would spend the night. The good Lord knows that I’ve been trying, and it’s not in vain of His name. I love David. David should be here. I have made my vows in my heart.”

Adam spit out his food and started choking.

Malinda frowned. “I love David very much, Samantha. Someday I would be delighted if you’d live with us as well.”

Mark choked this time.

I frowned at her. “Have you met Mason? I don’t come alone anymore.”

Her smile slipped a bit. “I’ve met Logan, and I thought he was a delightful young man.”

“He’s an ass if he doesn’t like you,” Mark pointed out.

Adam nodded. A dark look came over him.

Malinda touched my hand and leaned forward. “I’ll admit; I’ve always been a bit intrigued by those two Kade boys. They’re so handsome and athletic. Bit of bad boys, aren’t they?”

Mark groaned. His forehead dropped on the table with a thump. “Mom, could you be more embarrassing right now?”

She straightened. “I could. You really want me to be?” Her voice came out razor sharp, and her son lifted his head, gave her a sheepish look, and reached for a piece of sausage.

He mumbled as he popped it in his mouth, “I love you, mom.”

She melted again and beamed. “Oh, honey. I do love you so much.”

And then there was a knock at the door. Malinda went to answer, but I heard a deep masculine voice as soon as she opened the door. My stomach twisted into knots and my heart picked up its pace.

“You okay?”

I stood from the table and walked to the foyer. There he was. Garrett stood above Malinda and he flashed a charming smile to her. His teeth were white and perfect. He had angular cheekbones with a dash of grey in his dark hair. He had broad shoulders, a slender waist, and I knew his type.

He was the usual dreamboat to mid forty year old women and I saw him working his magic. Malinda touched his arm. I expected to hear a purr, but when I didn’t, I drew up short and blinked back to focus. Her eyes were twinkling, but there was no real flirtation in her voice.

Oh right. Garrett seemed the opposite of David, who was her real dreamboat.

When he saw me, I could tell that he was surprised by how his sex appeal seemed to bounce off of Mark’s mother.

“Sam.” He gestured for me to come closer.

She touched his arm again and glided away. When she passed me by, she murmured as she touched my arm, “I’ll let you two have some privacy.”

As soon as she rounded the corner, Garrett came inside and shut the door behind him. His eyes raked me over before glancing back towards his house. “I saw you come in here. When you didn’t come out after a while, I figured…” His tone was cautious, but I sensed the disapproval from him.

“You’re mad because I didn’t come home last night?”

A deep breath left him in a rush. “I’m mad because when I came home, your room was empty. There was nothing. No note. No phone call. No text message. Nothing. What if something had happened to you?”

A knot tightened in my gut, but another unraveled at the same time. It put me off balance. “I…I’m sorry. I didn’t—I forgot. I didn’t think about you or that… My mom hasn’t really cared and since we moved out, my dad’s been… Well, you know.”

He jerked his head in a nod and cleared his throat. “I know. I do. Helen pointed that out to me—”
My head went down. “You were with Helen?”

He sucked in his breath. “I…was… We had a date night, but… I called her when I saw you hadn’t gone home last night.”

“And she told you to call Analise?”

“No.” His voice was strained. “She was going to call Mason. I told her not to and that’s when I called Analise.”

I nodded. “And James came down to the room.”

“Yeah…” He pulled the collar of his shirt away from his neck and glanced around. Then he cursed under his breath and his shoulders dropped an inch. “Look, Sam, I know your mom wants to have this family meeting, but I have to go back to Boston.”

Something fluttered in my stomach and I glanced up. I asked in a quiet voice, “To see your wife?”

His face twisted. “Uh, yeah. So…”

“I won’t say anything.”

“Really?” He studied me with an intensity that had me frozen in place.

“I won’t. I don’t even want to deal with that.”

“But if you say anything to Mason…” He looked outside, and I felt the regret from him.

“I won’t.” I reached out and touched his arm. It was tense, enough that it sent my hand away as if I’d been scalded.

“Yeah, okay.” He sounded regretful. “I don’t know, Sam. You shouldn’t have to deal with this, with…”

“I won’t say anything.” My voice grew firm.

“Okay.” His shoulders loosened some more before he jerked me against him. He wrapped both his arms around me and lifted me in the air.

“Oomph.”

He squeezed me harder, tucking his head into my shoulder. “You’re a good kid. I’m damned lucky that I knocked up your mom when I was reckless and stupid.” His voice was gruff, but his lip trembled a tiny bit. “I’m damned lucky, that’s all I gotta say. I’ll see you in a few days. You’re staying, right? I don’t want your mom to swoop in and demand you move back to their home.” He patted my shoulders again as he withdrew. “And I’m taking back that bucket of condoms. Your ass was right. I wasn’t being a father when I did that. It was all a joke, but he was right.”

My lip twitched at that. My ass…

“Okay.” He hugged me again and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’ll be back in a few days. Promise. Don’t give your mom too much of a heart attack at that family meeting. I know Mason will, but he’s not my kid. I don’t have much say over what he’s going to do.” He whistled under his breath.  Then he was out the door with a final wave.

He muttered all the way as he crossed the street, but I couldn’t hear him anymore.

And then I turned around.

Malinda had come back around the corner. Her eyes were grave and her mouth was flat. She held out another cup of coffee to me. “It ain’t my business, but—”

Mark yelled out, “Mom, stay out of it!”

Her eyes mirrored her mouth. “—I think you’ve got too many adults who aren’t acting like it in your life.”

My heart dropped.

CHAPTER TEN

The rest of my Saturday was spent at Garrett’s house. Mark and Adam knocked on the door later in the afternoon and walked inside. Mark ordered pizza and I showed them the theater. It was later, around seven, when Adam got a text message. He gave me a sheepish look and said that Becky was on her way over. An hour later the doorbell rang again. This time it was Emily, Mark had told her to come over. Slowly, one by one, the entire Elite group was in my theater room. More pizza was ordered. Someone found the beer and wine coolers. They were passed out, and the number of bottles had tripled by midnight.

Cassandra and Amelia were quiet for the first hour. Their eyes were wide as they saw the rest of the house and their mouths stayed shut. I expected snarky digs, but I got none so I let it go. For now. Once they realized the punishment, I knew they’d be blamed for the ban from the Public parties at school. No one would be happy about that.

After the second hour, they were both giggling on the laps of Peter and Mark.

Emily caught my gaze at one point and snorted. She rolled her eyes but settled back into her recliner with a blanket and a bowl of popcorn.

Miranda was the last to arrive and she was the quietest of them all. She gave me a polite smile at the door but remained in the background for the rest of the evening.

Becky started to ooh and ahh every five minutes after the first movie. When the giggles started and she tried to hide them behind her hands, I knew she’d had too much to drink.

It was after midnight before I realized there’d been no word from Mason or Logan. I wasn’t worried since Mason told me the team was going for dinner.

I sent both of them text messages. An hour later there was no response. An hour after that, still no response.

“What’s wrong?” Adam had been watching me pace for the last twenty minutes. He lounged back on the couch with an arm thrown over the back. A pile of beer cans were on the floor beneath him, along with crumpled napkins and the crusts of his pizza slices on his plate.

“Nothing.” I kept pacing.

He frowned and swung his legs over to sit upright. “Sam.”

His voice quieted the group. The conversations and giggling stopped as they watched me now.

Adam sighed. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head.

Becky’s eyes were wide, but they enlarged twice the size as she watched me. She sat on the opposite end of where Adam sat and huddled back into the corner. She pulled her knees to her chest.

Then Miranda spoke from the back. She was sober. “She’s worried because she hasn’t heard from Mason.” She rose and met my gaze. “Did I get that right?”

I jerked my head in a nod.

A frown flashed over Adam, but it was gone the next instant. He scooted forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “What were they doing tonight?”

My mouth stayed shut, but my pulse raced.

Mark cleared his throat. “They were doing some prank on Roussou tonight, remember?”