Pathway to Tomorrow (11 page)

He tightened his grip.  “Money’s not everything.”

“I know, but it would have been nice for Izzie to have experienced it.  By the time she was old enough to notice, everything had gone.  She’s never known anything but a hand-to-mouth existence.  Most of her school clothes are second-hand and she buys all her fashion stuff from charity shops.”

“If how she looked when she first came to my trailer is any indication of her general style then I don’t think it holds her back,” Marcus teased, his sole aim to bring back Jodie’s smile.

She obliged, and when he saw the dimple at the corner of her mouth he abandoned the idea of coffee altogether and kissed her instead.  He was still kissing her two minutes later when Izzie clattered back into the kitchen.

“Don’t mind me,” she told them as she grabbed the cola Marcus had taken out of the fridge.  Popping the tab she had a long drink.

“That’s better.  I was really thirsty.  I’ll leave you two to get to know one another better shall I, while I go and explore?  Is that okay Marcus?  I want to find the other balcony, the one that overlooks the river.  I can see a corner of it from the kitchen window.”

“Help yourself.” Marcus waved his hand towards the doorway as he grinned at Jodie. “Your sister is too cute for her own good but she does have some good ideas.”

“You mean the ‘getting to know one another better’ idea?”

He nodded, and then he bent his head and reclaimed her lips.

* * *

They were disturbed by a single loud bark.  They stared at one another; their mouths still only a whisper apart.

“Is that Blue?” Jodie asked.

Marcus frowned. “Yes.  So it must be Luke too. Mrs Cotton takes Blue for a walk while he’s
downstairs in the gym with his physiotherapist, and then they come back together.  They’re much earlier than I anticipated though.”

A loud shout interrupted him. It was followed by a
high-pitched scream.

“Oh god…he’s discovered Izzie.  I was going to warn him…give him time to get used to the idea of strangers in the house.  Now anything could happen.”

Jodie grabbed his hand as he made for the door.  “It’ll be okay Marcus.  We’ve both learned how to deal with children who behave like Luke. Izzie will be fine.”

He scowled at her as he tried to shake her off. “Luke isn’t part of your riding program Jodie! It’s going to take more than that to make him behave in a civilized manner.”

He pushed open the door as he finished speaking and hurried through the apartment to a large airy sitting room where floor-to-ceiling windows covered an entire wall. One section was open and Izzie was kneeling on the adjoining balcony making a fuss of Blue.  A slim, dark-haired boy was standing in the centre of the room. His eyes were tightly shut and he had his hands over his ears.

“No! No! No! NO! NO!” Each time he shouted his voice grew louder.

Standing beside him was a middle-aged woman dressed in black.  She was trying to remonstrate with him without success.

Cursing under his breath Marcus hurried forward, his one aim to put a stop to the spectacle in front of them. 

Jodie tightened her grip on his hand and pulled him back. “Give her a chance,” she said. 

As he tried to free himself, Luke paused for breath. Izzie spoke into the silence.

“Hello Luke.  I’m Izzie.  I’m your Dad’s friend.”

Luke started shouting again.  “No! No! NO!”

She carried on making a fuss of Blue while she waited for him to draw breath. When he did, she spoke again.

“I’m Blue’s friend too.  He’s really pleased I’ve come to visit him. Look
. He’s wagging his tail.”

Luke opened his eyes into tiny slits.  Then he snapped them shut again and resumed his shouting.

Unable to restrain himself any longer, Marcus finally pulled free of Jodie and grabbed his son’s arm, indicating with a nod of his head that the older woman should leave it to him. Turning sharply on her heel she marched past Jodie with an angry scowl on her face.

“Hello Marcus,” Izzie acknowledged him without moving her position.  “I’ve just met Luke.  He knows you and Blue are my friends. I want him to be my friend too. He might be once he’s stopped feeling cross. He’s cross because he didn’t know I was going to visit him. ”

Her precise language stopped Marcus in his tracks.  Jodie was right. Her sister really did know what she was doing. She was talking to Luke in exactly the same way he’d learned to do himself, and she was pausing between each sentence to give him time to compute what she was saying as well. Instead of giving in to his first instinct and leading Luke out of the room, he stared at Izzie’s bent head. Then he turned and looked at Jodie. She nodded encouragingly, indicating with a wave of her hand that he should join her sister on the balcony.

Not entirely sure why he was doing it, he let go of his son and stepped outside. Izzie stood up and smiled at him. Behind him, Luke’s shouts grew louder.

“What a fantastic view,” she said.

He nodded.  Then, with another glance at Jodie, he replied.  For the next five minutes they talked about the view, the river, and finally about the birds fluttering amongst the branches of the trees beside the balcony.

“Luke is the one who feeds them,” he said.  “He spends all his time watching them. I swear he knows every single one by sight.”

“Really!  Will he tell me about them once he’s stopped being cross? Oh, he doesn’t need to because I know what that one is. It’s a coal tit.” Izzie pointed to a small brown bird swinging from a feeder attached to the side of the balcony. “And that one over there is a green finch…and look, there’s a robin.”

Behind them they heard the drag of feet on parquet as Luke walked across the room and joined them on the balcony. Ignoring him Izzie continued to point at the birds, naming them at random.

“No! No! No!” But this time Luke’s voice was quiet.  Too intent on correcting her, he forgot she was a stranger and started to tell her the names of each of the birds.

* * *

Hours later, with Luke in bed and Izzie sprawled in front of the television in the next room, Marcus sank into a chair opposite Jodie and sighed.

“I’m sorry I shouted at you,” he said.  “Luke does that to me.  Every time he has a meltdown I tell myself to keep calm, but it never works.  I was ashamed of myself when I saw how easily you and Izzie handled him.  He was only angry with her for a few minutes and he wasn’t fazed at all when he met you.  I can’t remember him ever managing to eat a meal with unfamiliar people before either.

She leaned across and took his hand.  “The birds were the key,” she told him.

He laughed as he pulled her towards him. When she was comfortably established on his lap he nuzzled her neck, reveling in the softness of her skin and the lemony scent of her shampoo.

“Yes, there was a bit of a bird theme at the dining table wasn’t there? But now he’s accepted you he’ll be fine so long as you’re prepared to talk about birds every minute of every day you’re here.  He’s totally obsessed with them. I’m sorry I was angry with you though.”

She twisted her head so she could look at him.  “Angry is allowed,” she said.  “As long as we make up afterwards.”

“You mean like this,” he murmured, skimming his hand down the length of her body. “And like this…and this.”

It wasn’t until they heard movements in the adjoining room that they pulled apart, but by then Jodie’s normally smooth hair was ruffled and her eyes were twin pools of need.  Sliding her off his lap and onto the chair, Marcus stood up and held out his hand.

“I haven’t even shown you your bedroom yet.”

She shook her head.  “I can’t Marcus.  Not here.  Not with Izzie and Luke in the apartment.”

He smiled at her.  “That’s not what I meant.  I just want you to pick a bedroom. Preferably the one furthest from mine if that’s how you feel.”

She slipped her hand into his. “You don’t mind?”

“Of course I mind.  But I’m trying hard to understand.”

* * *

Jodie squeezed the tube of toothpaste with a sigh.  Staying with Marcus was going to be difficult. The memory of his kisses, the way his hands had set her on fire, the words he’d murmured in her ear, all of those things had left her taut with need. It was a need she had resolutely ignored for
years, concentrating instead on Izzie, and on building up business at the riding school. Now, however, it had come back to bite her big time. She wanted Marcus with a ferocity that almost overwhelmed her. Almost, but not quite.  Even while they had been kissing she had been aware of her sister in the next room, and had been ready to break away from him at the slightest sound.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror and saw that her lips were swollen. Red, and slick with the water she had just used to rinse her teeth, they shouted out her desire.  Her eyes were different too.  They were darker and more languorous.  She couldn’t keep her feelings hidden anymore. Marcus had broken down the barrier between her and the outside world, so now her body as well as her emotions was letting her down.

The familiar trill of her cell phone made her jump.  Instantly alert she hurried back to the bedroom and grabbed it from the bedside table. Was something wrong at the riding school?  Was Buckmaster okay?  A hundred things went through her mind until she saw the caller ID. It was Marcus. 

“This is getting to be a bit of a habit,” he said when she answered.

Even his voice turned her on.  She gave a shaky laugh. “As long as it’s a habit you don’t want to break.”

“I don’t, but if someone had told me a few months ago I would get most of my romantic kicks via a cell phone, I’d have laughed at them.”

“I already said I’m sorry.”

“Hey, I’m not calling to make you feel bad.  I’m just calling to say goodnight.”

“You already said it, ten minutes ago.”

“So I did. Well I’m saying it again.  Goodnight Jodie.”

She smiled into the phone.  “Goodnight Marcus.”

* * *

She wasn’t going to sleep.  She knew that. So she rummaged around in her bag for the book she’d thrown in at the last minute, and then climbed into bed. Five minutes later she was still staring at the first page when Izzie came through from the adjoining bedroom.

“I’m sorry Jodie,” she said.

“What for?”

“For being here and spoiling your weekend with Marcus.  I’m the reason you’re not sleeping with him aren’t I?

“This is not a conversation I’m going to have with you,” Jodie gave up all thought of reading and put the book on the bedside table, next to her cell phone.

“Why not? I’m your sister.  That’s the sort of thing sisters talk about isn’t it?  You know…who they fancy…what it’s like to kiss them!”

“Some sisters maybe, but not this one.”

Izzie sighed.  “I wish Mama hadn’t died, so you could be my sister instead of my mother. So you could have a life of your own, without me.”

Jodie put out her hand and pulled her down onto the bed beside her. “I wish she hadn’t died too, but don’t ever say things like that. If you had died in the car crash as well as her then I think my heart really would have broken into tiny pieces.”

A solitary tear trickled down Izzie’s cheek. “Do you honestly mean that?”

“Of course I do.  I wouldn’t say it otherwise. And don’t worry about Marcus and me.  We’ll sort things out in our own way. Now are you going back to your own bed or are you getting into mine?”

“Getting into yours if Marcus isn’t going to,” a second tear followed the first one.

Jodie pushed back the duvet with a shake of her head.  “He’s not. He’s not even going to come into the bedroom, so get in…but stay on your own side of the bed because I need my beauty sleep.”

Climbing in, Izzie kissed Jodie on the cheek, threw the pillow onto the floor and then slithered down the bed until she was lying on her stomach with her head turned away. Jodie ruffled her blonde pixie crop as she leaned across to turn off the bedside light.

“Sleep tight,” she said.  Then she lay on her back and listened to her sister’s breathing. 

She had deliberately chosen adjoining bedrooms with a shared bathroom, knowing it would give Izzie the feeling of security she would need to get to sleep.  She had anticipated she would want to keep the doors open between them too, had even expected her to come into the bedroom in the morning. What she hadn’t anticipated was that she would want to sleep in the same bed. 

She frowned. It had been a long time since Izzie had woken up screaming in the middle of every night with a terror that could only be soothed if Jodie climbed into bed with her. Nowadays, although she still had bad dreams, she mostly managed to get back to sleep alone. Surely these few days away weren’t going to undo everything she’d achieved in recent years.  On the other hand, it was a good test.  If she couldn’t manage to sleep in her own bed this weekend when Jodie was with her, then she couldn’t contemplate going away to university either.  By the time their short break was over at least they would know whether she could cope on her own, or whether she needed to choose a course at a local college so she could carry on living at home.