The West Wind (8 page)

“Mmm. . .” Hero said again. “You may kiss me now.” Xander was
tempted to say something playful for a moment, but thought better of it. He
kissed her and somehow another ten minutes wandered off.

Xander stripped down to his black boxer-briefs when he made it up
to the garden and hung his soaking wet clothes over the bench to dry. He walked
around the house to the main entrance and pushed the heavy front door open,
then stopped, startled. His dad shouted from another part of the house.

“Xander, is that you? You have a visitor.”

“Yeah, thanks, I see her,” he called back.

Jessica stood in the foyer, starting at Xander with wide,
appreciative eyes. He felt awkward for a moment, then weighed the choices of
feeling embarrassed versus acting like nothing was out of normal. He chose
nonchalance.

“Hey, Jess,” he said though he were not nearly naked. “What’s up?”

“Hold on,” she breathed, her voice husky. “I’m enjoying the view.”

It was not a response Xander found particularly attractive. He
wasn’t a piece of meat anymore than she was.

“Did you want something? Otherwise, I’m going to go get dressed.”

“Don’t do that, you look fine just the way you are.” Her tone was
suggestive.

“I’m not all that concerned with how I look, thanks though. Nice
to see you,” he said a little coolly, heading for the hallway.

She grabbed his hand to stop him. “Wait, I wanted to talk to you.”

He took his hand back, probably a little more forcefully than
necessary. “Really? That’s not the impression I was getting.”

Jessica paused. “Ok. That too. Really though, I just came to talk.
You weren’t supposed to show up naked.”

“I’m listening,” he said, ignoring the last part. He leaned
against the wall and crossed his arms.

“Are you sleeping with Hero?” she blurted out.

His eyebrows raised. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no.
What gave you that impression?”

Her chest rose and fell with a breath of relief. “You both
disappeared last night and never came back. . .”

“We hung out, yes.”

“I saw you drop her off.”

“She fell asleep here, nothing happened,” he said in a
matter-of-fact, emotionless tone.

“You like her, don’t you?” Jessica asked.

“Very much.”

The redhead’s face fell. “But you quoted poetry to me. . .” she
said softly.

Xander was confused for a moment before he remembered what he had
said the day they met. “I’m sorry, Jess, but that was about Hero. It’s from
Marlowe’s Hero and. . .”

“You asshole!” she shouted, cutting him off.

She caught him off guard. “Excuse me?” he asked, offended.

“You’re a fucking jerk. I hope she gives you a venereal disease.”
In spite of her vehemence, Jessica made no move to leave.

Xander stood up off the wall. “Jess. . .” he warned, irritation
beginning to creep into his voice.

“What?” she demanded, livid. “You take me out, you let me think
you like me, and you’re what? I knew you were too fucking good to be true.”

His brow narrowed in confusion. “I didn’t do any of that. We were
just hanging out.”

“Oh, yeah, hanging out. Just like you were ‘hanging out’ with
Hero.” She made air quotes with her fingers.

He took a deep breath and let it calm him. “Look, Jess, you’re a
great person, but,”

“Don’t,” she hissed. “Don’t you dare. Fuck you. Go away.”

“Jess,” he began.

“What?” she snapped.

“You’re in my house,” Xander pointed out. She slapped him. Then
she turned and stormed out. He stood still for a moment, uncertain what had
just happened. His cheek hurt, and he was not very excited about the penchant
women in this town had for slapping people. It was starting to seem like a hobby.
He wondered if they got together and practiced on dummies on weekends.

Xander was still standing in the foyer when his dad walked in from
the hallway. He raised his eyebrows but otherwise seemed oblivious to his son’s
state of undress.

“Well, that was interesting,” Zach said to his son.

“I’m not entirely certain what just happened.”

“Woman scorned,” Zach said, as if it explained everything.

“Not intentionally,” Xander replied.

“The road to hell. . .” Zach suggested with a shrug.

“Needs to be repaved,” Xander stated, both amused and frustrated.

Zach noticed his son’s hair was wet and looked around to see if he
needed a mop. There was no puddle, so it hadn’t been a result of the argument.

“Go swimming?” he asked, wondering how his son had found the time to
make it to the beach and back. He hadn’t been gone that long.

“Yeah. We have a dock, by the way.”

“We do?”

“What’s left of one. Hero showed me.” Xander’s mouth turned up in
a ridiculous grin.

Zach looked suspicious. “The pretty young firecracker who just
left
was
Jessica, right?”

“Yeah, Hero brought her boat over to the dock and climbed up the
cliff.”

“Climbed the cliff?” His dad sounded surprised.

“There’s a staircase carved into the side.”

“Huh. I guess you learn something new every day. How’s Hero doing?”
Zach asked. From the look on his son’s face, he gathered she was doing well.

“So far, so good. Really good.” Xander grinned like an idiot.

“Kiss her?”

“Yep.”

“Ah. Any good?”
“Heinleinian.”

“Must have been, if you’re coining words.” Zach changed the subject.
“Are you going to apologize to Jess?”

Xander’s head pulled back and his expression changed to disbelief.
“For what? I didn’t do anything.”

“She thinks you did.”

“And for that I should apologize?”

“She obviously likes you, or you’d never have had the privilege of
withstanding her fire. I’d say she feels like you lead her on. Your life will
be a lot easier if you say you’re sorry.”

“I don’t feel the same way about her and never suggested I did.”

“Pride or peace. Your choice.” Zach shrugged. “You apologized to
Hero when she was angry with you, didn’t you?”

“That was different.” Xander started pacing. “She thought I called
her something I hadn’t.”

“So, you apologized to someone for a misunderstanding on her part
that you were actually innocent of.” Zach pointed out.

Xander stopped pacing. “Umm. Yeah.”

“So are you going to apologize to Jess?”

Xander gave in. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good. Now go put on some clothes and help me do what we actually
planned to do today.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“Xander?”

“Yeah, Dad?”

“I love you, Son.”

“Love you too, Dad.”

The Coven sat in Ambrosia, drinking coffee and talking about
nothing in particular. Hero was daydreaming, reliving her first kiss with
Xander. She swore the taste of salt lingered on her lips and her body seemed to
float as though still buoyed by the water. Jaimie and Evan were bickering about
who should or should not have been kicked off Dancing With the Stars,
occasionally interrupted by stupid comments from Jeremy. Leana was smiling at
him non-stop and he kept giving her suspicious looks, as if he were afraid she
was going to eat him. Brian sat back, drinking his coffee and pretending to eat
popcorn as he watched them all.

“Have a good morning?” he asked Hero, breaking her reverie.

“Huh?” she responded. She blinked as she brought her attention
back to her surroundings.

“You had a good morning, didn’t you?” Brian repeated.

“Uh, yeah, it was fine. Why?” she asked.

“You’re somewhere very, very far from here. And if I were smiling
as much as you are, I think my face would break.” He grinned, teasing her.

“I smile all the time, Brian. Maybe you just need more practice.”

“Not like that, you don’t. I don’t think I’ve seen you smile like
that since John Dinkerman asked you to Homecoming freshman year.” John Dinkerman
had been team captain for the Vista Bay High School junior varsity football
team at the time. Looking back and comparing him to Xander, Hero didn’t think
he was very interesting.

“What about John Dinkerman?” Jaimie butted in, abandoning her
argument.

“Nothing,” Hero said too quickly.

“I think she’s found a new Dinkerman,” Brian teased.

“Traitor,” Hero accused.

Brian shrugged and smiled. Everyone’s attention turned to Hero.

“Are you and Adonis, er, Xander dating?” Leana bubbled.

“No, not exactly. Can we not talk about this?” Hero asked
helplessly.

“Ahem.” Jaimie cleared her throat loud enough that customers at
neighboring tables looked her way, which seemed a little melodramatic to Hero,
but that was Jaimie. “I’m sorry. Not exactly?”

“We kissed, ok? End of story.”

“Oh god, could this get more boring?” Jeremy said. “I thought you
were going to say you had sex with him or something.”

Leana kissed her index finger, then placed it on Jeremy’s lips.
“Shh. . .” she said.

He obeyed, eyes a little wild.

Before Hero was forced to say more, Brian interrupted. “Speaking
of Dinkerman. . .”

Jessica stalked past the Coven, hissing at Hero as she went by,
“Slut.”

“You DID slee. . .” Jeremy began.

Leana put her finger back. “Shh.”

Jaimie stood quickly and started after Jessica, but Hero and Evan
grabbed her.

“Let her be, Jaimie,” they said together.

“No one calls my friend a slut,” she protested, struggling a
little. “Let me go!” she demanded.

When they wouldn’t release her, she yelled after Jessica. “Takes
one to know one!”

Jessica wheeled on her, striding back across the room.

“I’m not the one who steals other people’s boyfriends, unlike your
friend here.”

“Xander is not your boyfriend,” Hero stated with a little
uncertainty.

“He could have been, if you hadn’t gotten your nasty posh-zombie
claws into him. How long did you wait before you dropped your panties from
under that precious vintage dress you were wearing? If you were wearing any at
all,” the angry redhead said nastily.

“I haven’t slept with anyone, Jessica.”

“Yeah, like you didn’t sleep with John.”

“I didn’t sleep with John. I didn’t sleep with Xander either.”

“I
saw
Xander drop you off at Jaimie’s this morning, you
lying bitch.”

Hero was standing with her back to the door and didn’t see it open
to admit a high-society woman in a belted dress with a wide-brimmed hat. The
woman listened with interest as Hero’s temper exploded.

“Fine! I slept with him. But that’s all we did! Sleep! He didn’t
even kiss me until this afternoon. Even then,
I
kissed
him
!”

Everyone in the coffee shop, including the barista and customers
in the back, stared at her.

“Slept with whom, Hero?” her mother said from behind her.

Hero clapped her hand over her mouth and turned around slowly. She
met her mother’s cold, angry eyes and swallowed.

“Why don’t we go home, dear,” her mother suggested in a steel
voice with a saccharine coating. It was not a suggestion. Anna DiBenedetto
opened the door and gestured for her daughter to go through. Hero nodded and
walked through the door in shock. Ambrosia remained silent but for the whir of
the air conditioning, locked in the awkward scene. The Coven looked at each
other with concern. Even Jessica looked uncomfortable.

Hero and Anna walked to the boat in silence. Hero had never felt
so small or embarrassed in her life. Bad enough that the whole café had heard
her, but to have her mother walk in at precisely the wrong moment was
impossibly horrible. She couldn’t believe Jessica had gone off like that, and
worse, couldn’t believe she had lost her temper and given herself away in
public. She wanted to die.

When they reached the boat, Anna stopped and with inhumanely rigid
posture, nodded for Hero to get in. The sun beat down, warm on Hero’s face, and
the skies were impossibly blue. It reminded her of Xander’s eyes. It seemed
impossible that one day could be so good and so bad at the same time. She
dreaded what her mother would say when she finally spoke. The silence was
making it worse, and Hero knew her mother well. It wasn’t going to get any
better until they made it home.

Hero sat down in the back of the boat and pulled out her phone as
Anna maneuvered the boat out into the bay. She typed a quick text to Xander.

Hero: Mom found out about last night. I am so dead.
She hit
send.

She looked up to see her mother holding out her hand for the
phone. Hero handed it over.

“Xander,” Anna read. “Is that him?”

Hero nodded. Her mother threw the phone overboard.

“Mom!” Hero protested angrily.

“We’ll get you a new one,” her mother said matter-of-factly, as if
it made no difference. Hero curled up in a ball in her seat and muttered
darkly. Anna ignored her.

Her father, Jared DiBenedetto, was sitting in the living room when
they got home. He stood, obviously pleased to see his wife and daughter. He had
just returned from a business trip to Europe. His excitement faded quickly when
he took in Anna’s serious expression and Hero’s fierce glare. Normally Hero
would cry out, “Daddy!” and fling herself into his arms for a hug. Today it
came out as a question that sounded as though by allowing him to be present the
universe had somehow betrayed her.

“Daddy?” she asked the world at large in disbelief. Her whole body
tensed and she stood still in shock for a moment before fleeing up the stairs
to her room without another word. The door slamming behind her could be felt
throughout the house. Jared moved quickly to his wife.

Half an hour later, Jared knocked on the door to Hero’s bedroom.
He was upset, though not nearly as upset as his wife, who was not only angry at
their daughter’s behavior, but that she had made such an embarrassing admission
in ‘public, of all places.’ Anna, Jared thought, was always a little too
concerned with reputation. Hero didn’t answer, so he knocked again. This time
some kind of unintelligible reply came from within. He opened the door,
pretending it was an invitation.

“Honey?” The room was dark and the curtains drawn. He flipped the
lights on as Hero glared up at him from her perch on the end of her bed.

“What do you want?” Hero demanded, her tone defensive.

“Do you want to tell me what happened?” Jared asked, trying not to
be annoyed with her attitude.

“Oh, so now you want to hear my side?”

“Well, since I just found out what happened, I thought that might
be nice,” Jared said, a little taken aback by his daughter’s vehemence.

“I’m sorry, It’s not you. I just. . . She had no right! I hate
her! Nothing happened. I was at Xander’s and I fell asleep. That’s it! Nothing
else.”

“You’re sure that’s all?” her father asked, suspicious. He
wouldn’t have shown as much self-restraint when he was a young man.

“Yes, that’s all,” his daughter parroted back bitterly.

“According to your mother, you kissed this boy? What was his name
again?”

“Xander. And I did kiss him. This afternoon, on my way
back
into town.” She stressed the word back.

“Ah, I see.” Jared paused. ‘I suppose it could have been worse,
then.”
Hero stared at him expectantly, waiting for whatever he had to say next. After
a few uncomfortable moments of silence, her father sighed.

“You’re grounded,” he informed her.

“What?!?” she exclaimed, standing up. “I’m almost 18!” Her voice
climbed a decibel. “Why are you treating me like a child?”

Jared tried to be reasonable. “It’s only for a little while, Hero.
It could have been longer. If it were up to your mother, you’d be grounded for
life.”

“So you admit you’re treating me like a child!” she pounced.

“Well, you’re acting like one, and you’re grounded until you are
no longer legally considered one.” Her father’s voice quivered, betraying the
fact that he was beginning to lose his grip on the patience he had been holding
onto with white-knuckled fortitude.

“You’re grounding me until my birthday?” Hero asked, sifting the
subtler meaning from his words as if panning for gold.

“Yes, your birthday,” came Jared’s clipped response.

“That’s a month and a half away!”

“It’s better than 30, which is where your mother started the
bidding.”

Hero nodded, biting her lip. Making a snide comment about her
mother now would just make things worse.

“So, you like this Xander?” he asked to change the subject.

She nodded again.

“Who is he?”

“He’s new in town,” she answered. “He and his dad are the people
who bought the Brighton House.”

“Oh?” her father said, his voice brighter. He laughed a small
laugh. “Well, that should smooth your mother’s ruffled feathers a little. Any
scandal connected to money is better than one that isn’t.” He winked at his
daughter.

“It’s not like that,” Hero protested.

Jared soothed his daughter. “I know, I know. But you know your
mother. She’s a good woman, she just has a few idiosyncracies. She and her
friends care about some odd things, but they make her happy and don’t harm
anyone else. You definitely didn’t inherit them, however.”

“Money’s just a tool that lets you do the things that make you
happy,” Hero quoted.

“Who said that? Must be pretty weird,” Jared said with a jovial
grin.

She pushed him. “I can’t imagine,” she said facetiously.

Jared let his daughter go and moved to the windows. “Why don’t we
let some light in? There’s no point sitting in the dark. If he’s worth it and
you really like him, you still will when your birthday comes around.”

Hero took a deep breath to let go of some of the tension she had
built up and nodded her assent. He pulled the curtains open and leaned closer,
blinking at the brighter light.

“What’s that?” he asked, peering out the window.

“What’s what?” Hero joined him. About 200 feet from the end of the
family dock, a small row boat made its way for a landing. A tall, well-formed
young man sat in the boat, craning his neck as he rowed.

“Xander!” she exclaimed, then ran out of the room.

“Hero!” Jared called after her, then followed. He and his wife
caught up to her at the top of the stairs leading down to the dock. Anna caught
her daughter’s wrist and kept her from charging down to meet the boy who rowed
ever closer. Her husband looked pointedly at each of them in turn.

“Stay here, both of you. I’ll go talk to him,” Jared insisted. His
family nodded, for different reasons. Hero because she was relieved that her
mother wouldn’t have a chance to tell Xander off, and Anna certain her husband
would do just that. Not for the first time Hero thought that if Jaimie had been
her sister, Jaimie would have been Anna’s favorite and Hero her father’s.

Xander reached the dock almost the same time as a man in his early
to mid-forties. The stranger, who he guessed was Hero’s father, beckoned for
the rope Xander had coiled in the bottom of the row boat. The young man tossed
it to him. It was wet. he climbed out onto the dock as Jared tied off the boat.
Jared noticed two bouquets of flowers lying in the boat as he did, one bouquet
a sunset of a dozen red and yellow roses, and the second of irises and tiger
lilies, his wife’s favorite flowers. The boy had come prepared.