Breathless (42 page)

I didn’t feel safe.

Call me. This is your last warning, sister. If you don’t answer...

I stared at it for a long time, trying to understand why he was like he was. I came up with nothing except that we’d both been raised by Mother.

“Nora?” Sebastian asked, sitting down beside me. “What’s wrong?”

“Read a text from Finn,” I said, gesturing at my phone. “Stupid. I shouldn’t have.”

“He’s not going to bother you here,” he said, resting his hand on my back.

I shook my head, thinking how naïve he was. “Haven’t you ever watched a horror movie? The bad guy
always
comes back for the girl. And he pops out of nowhere just when you least expect it.”

“But the good guys win in the end.”

I chewed on my lip uncertainly. “His messages are coming more often. I think he’s finally lost it. I mean, he’s moving back home. He hated it there as much as I did. Mother was horrible to us both.”

“Damn it, Nora, tell Leo. He’ll put a stop to it, trust me.”

“No,” I said, turning back to the computer.

Sebastian grunted angrily, but I ignored him.

As we worked, Tiffani buzzed and Sebastian let her in. She breezed through the door, dressed in another designer workout outfit. Her top was bright pink and cropped, showing off her spray tan and slim waist. The matching pants were glued to her short legs.

She stopped at the desk and stood there, moving from one foot to the next. I sat there pretending to type life-threatening membership information in the computer.

“How was BA today?” she asked, her eyes darting between Sebastian and myself.

“It was great, thanks for asking,” Sebastian replied. “Are you here to work out?” he asked, glancing at her clothes. “Most of the machines are up and ready if you are.”

“Oh, that’s okay. I just finished a run at the park. I must look a mess,” she said with a tinkling laugh, smoothing down her perfect hair. Of course, she didn’t have a drop of sweat on her, and this was September in Texas.

“I just dropped by to see Leo. Is he around?” she asked Sebastian, flicking her eyes at me and smirking.

Sebastian said Leo was checking on the tennis court construction, so he’d text him. In a few minutes, Sebastian got a text back. “Uh, Tiffani, Leo says he’s in the middle of something right now, but he’ll meet you here in the lobby in half an hour.”

“Sure, tell him I’ll wait as long as he needs. It’s my day off. Um, Nora, I’d like to talk to you. Can we chat somewhere privately?” she asked sweetly, blinking her false eyelashes at me.

I fidgeted. “Sure,” I said, getting up out of my chair and leading the way to the band room.

I held the door open for her as she walked in, and as soon as the door shut, she said, “Stop whatever game you’re playing because Leo is mine.”

“I’m not playing a game,” I said. Did everyone know how I felt about Leo?

She went on. “I got news for you. I called your mother up last week and asked her to lunch, and when she heard I knew you, she couldn’t
wait
to meet me and fill me in.”

I let out a deep breath. Mother. When would I be free of her?

“Yeah, I thought that would get your attention,” she said, crossing her arms. “You know, I knew you were a snobby bitch who thought she was better than everyone else, but I never dreamed you’d be enough of a slut to screw your own brother.”

Deep shame rushed over me, and I wanted to run from the room and hide. She knew the truth; she knew how disgusting I was. But had Mother told her? I couldn’t believe she’d spill our dirty secrets, but how else would Tiffani know? I couldn’t see Finn admitting his crimes to some girl he’d never met, so it
had
to be true.

And if Mother told her it probably meant she was paving the way for Finn’s defense in case I went to the police. Was she spreading rumors about me to everyone I knew? Who was next?

I sat down.

“I’m going to tell Leo
everything
about you. About the drugs, about your brother.”

I stared out the window, imagining Leo’s face if he saw the pictures Finn had taken. Would he blame me for it all? Would the man I loved do that? My heart told me no, that he would never think badly of me because of what had happened. But my head wasn’t sure.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Tiffani said with a sneer.

I arched a brow at her. “You think you know the truth, but you don’t.”

She glared at me. “You’ll never get Leo. He may put on a big act about how tough he is,” she said, “but he loves me. He said so.”

Her words made me want to scream. She had to be lying.

I jumped up and paced around the room, feeling feral, like I wanted lash out and claw her pretty face. I calmed myself by taking deep breaths and running a list of new words through my head. Words that described her, such as:
bird-brain
,
hobbit-chick
, and
slut
.

If Leo loved this vile creature then let him have her.

I opened the door for her.

She gave me a haughty look as she moved to the entrance. “Tell you what. As long as you stay away from him, I’ll keep my mouth shut about your sex life.”

“If he really loves you, Tiffani, then
he
will stay away from me. And he’s paying me to work not chat, so if you’ll excuse me,” I said politely, using the skills Mother had drilled into me. I straightened my shoulders and went back to the front desk.

After a few minutes, Leo came striding down the hall with his eyes locked on mine the entire way. I deliberately scowled at him and then pointedly looked at Tiffani. He did not have the right to pull his eye whammy on me when she was right here. No way.

Tiffani squealed when she spotted Leo and ran up to meet him. She threw her T-Rex arms around him and squeaked out, “Leo! I’ve missed you, darling!”

He disentangled himself. “What’s up? Everything okay with the food order?” he asked her. I wanted to think he seemed annoyed at her, but that was debunked when she asked him if they could go upstairs and be alone, and he agreed.

Ten minutes later, she came back down without Leo. She stopped in front of us, opened her purse, and took out a compact and a tube of lipstick. Sebastian and I watched as she carefully applied it and then puckered her lips at herself, wiping the excess away with her fingers. She snapped it shut, dropped it back into her purse, and looked over at us slyly. “I don’t know why I even bother wearing makeup around Leo.” She shrugged and walked out the door.

We watched her the entire way, both of us deep in thought.

“She’s smarter than I thought,” I said.

Sebastian nodded. “Yep, that whole scene was orchestrated for your benefit. She thinks you’re a threat, always has.”

“Not anymore.”

“She’s a naturally territorial person,” he mused.

“Yeah, she reminds me those meerkats you see at the zoo. You know, they’re kinda small, excitable, and self-absorbed in hierarchy. That’s her, an evil little meerkat.”

Sebastian exploded in laughter. “Nora, you’re a nut.”

I agreed.

“What animal am I?” he asked, wrapping his arm around me as we headed to band practice.

“Still working on it, my friend. Keeps me up at night thinking about it.”

“I’m not that hard. Hell, I’m a guy. Aren’t we all open-books?”

I stopped and pointed my finger at him. “Sebastian Tyler Tate, you are not fooling me one minute with your happy-go-lucky, couldn’t-give-a-shit-about-anything attitude.” I poked him in the chest. “You got some deep stuff in there and one day somebody’s gonna come along and
wham!
steal your heart.”

“I seem to remember saying almost the same thing to you at Emma’s party,” he chuckled.

“And that’s why I love you. You’re always looking out for me,” I teased.

He wiggled his brows at me. “Wanna go get in the cleaning closet?”

I punched him in the arm, and he laughed, following me into the music room.

Later, when Leo came down to join us, he looked disheveled and preoccupied, and I tormented myself by wondering if they’d ended up in his bedroom again. I did my best to ignore him. He did the same.

After talking a little about the upcoming gym opening, he handed me some sheet music he’d picked out for the band to play. It was songs he and Sebastian already knew, so most of our practice would be for Teddy and Vixen. We separated so Sebastian and Leo could work through the music with Vixen while I played the pieces for Teddy.

The first song was ColdPlay’s hit “Clocks,” and I played it for Teddy while he hummed along. The second song was Five for Fighting’s haunting piano tune “100 Years,” and Teddy watched me steadily, his eyes on my fingers, his head cocked in a pronounced way. After a few times of playing them both, he said he was ready, so I listened as he played them back. Not perfect, yet it was beautiful.

“Can I hug you, Teddy?” I was feeling needy.

He flapped his arms a little. “I like to be touched by people I know.”

I leaned over and hugged him tightly.

When I pulled away, he said, “Are you happy?”

I thought about it, and discovered that, yeah, maybe I would be soon. “Some. Why?”

He stared at nothing over my shoulder. “The first time I saw you, you looked sad. Did I make you sad?”

I reached out and took his hand and squeezed. “No, Teddy, you did
not
, but I was unhappy that day. You know, I didn’t have many friends when I met you, so meeting you was special.”

“I’m your friend,” he said, in his sing-song way.

I smiled. “Yeah, and I’m glad you are.”

He nodded. “Okay, let’s play more music.”

The rambunctious “Great Balls of Fire” was our last song to practice, and when Teddy heard what it was, he became the most animated I’d ever seen. I played it while he paced around the piano, staring at the keys the entire time. When I got to the chorus, he suddenly belted out singing, and I grinned widely. I felt eyes on me and glanced over at Leo. He’d stopped playing his guitar and was sitting there, watching us with a small smile on his lips. I continued playing, beating on the keys with a passion that was born from the ache in my heart, knowing Leo would never belong to me.

When the song was over, Teddy wanted to tell me the details he found fascinating, and because I could appreciate his fixation, I listened.

He said, “It was first recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee in 1957,” he informed me. “And in 1986 it was used in the movie
Top Gun
when Anthony Edwards played it on piano and then he and Tom Cruise sang together. Anthony Edwards dies in that movie. I like Tom Cruise.”

I smiled and agreed. Then, I sat and watched him play it back for me.

By six o’clock we had finished, and all of us complained of being hungry. Since it was Friday night, Sebastian and I made plans to hang out at Gilligan’s, a nightspot that played live music, sometimes good and sometimes bad, but always served a mean hamburger.

Leo listened to us as he straightened up the music room.

Sebastian asked him, “Where are you and Tiffani going tonight?”

“I’m going to a sushi place downtown,” he told us, fiddling with his guitar.
Did his comment mean they weren’t together anymore?

None of us spoke, and the silence grew longer and longer as the three of us stood there uncomfortably. My thoughts were centered on Leo and his sushi plans and maybe-date with Tiffani; Sebastian was probably worried about my reaction to Leo, and who the hell knew what Leo was thinking.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. “I gotta go change. Can you pick me up in an hour?” I asked Sebastian.

He gave me a thumbs up. “Gotcha.”

“Great,” I said, gathering up my purse and sheet music.

“Have fun,” Leo said with a tight face as I walked by.

“Ditch your sushi plans and come with us,” I said stopping in front of him, biting my cheek at the words I hadn’t meant to say.

He stiffened, his eyes bouncing from me to Sebastian. “No can do. Already made plans.”

I nodded in a jerky motion and stared, his rebuff stinging. Bless Sebastian, he took my arm and walked me to the door, rescuing me before I said something I’d regret.

“Don’t let him bring you down, okay?” He opened the door, his face apologetic. “Let’s go have fun. Leo’s stubborn and…” his voice stopped as he seemed to taste his words carefully, “afraid,” he finished on a sigh. Perhaps there was more he wanted to say, but he didn’t.

Chapter 22

Nora

“Most days, I don’t feel brilliant at all.” –
Nora Blakely

There was a crowd already at the door of Gilligan’s, so we had to stand in line to go inside. Apparently, every high school kid and college student had had the same idea we did.

“There’s Emma,” Sebastian said, surreptitiously pointing at a group a few feet in front of us. She was wearing stilettos, a purple mini skirt, and a sequined pink shirt. She and her crew were flirting with one of the bouncers who walked down the line checking IDs, and as we watched, Emma let out a girlish squeal at something one of them said.

“She’s kinda hot in a sleazy way,” Sebastian said with a shrug as his gaze ran over her.
What the hell?
I arched my brows and flicked a glance at Mila to see if she’d heard his betrayal. She was glaring at him like she wanted to smack him.

“Please, her life’s ambition is to star in a future 50 Cent video. And years from now, when I’m a doctor and rich, and she’s got herpes . . . maybe I’ll help her,” Mila said with a snort.

“Mila, if we were bros, I’d totally fistbump you right now,” I said, laughing. Mean Mila was funny.

“Do you think it keeps her up at night, thinking about her boyfriend screwing her best friend?” Sebastian asked.

“If it does, she doesn’t want anyone to know. She’s too proud,” I said, watching Emma. “She’s got secrets, too, just like everyone else.”

“Secrets or not, she looks like a normal bitch to me,” Mila piped in. “I got no sympathy for her. She’s been cruel and hateful to us both for years. Cry me a river.”

I snorted at the word
normal
. If you looked it up in the Webster’s Dictionary, you’d find twenty-two different meanings and two parts of speech. Hey, there’s even a town in the Midwest called Normal, Illinois, population approximately 52,772.