Summer Of My Secret Angel (20 page)

“
Gracias.
” I cast the waiter a proud
grin.

Julian shook his head, chuckled low, and
started eating his chicken in wine sauce. I dug in, too, realizing
I was starving.

“Are you ready for afters?” Marie rubbed the
back of my hand on the table while the waiter came back for our
empty plates.

I patted my bursting stomach. “I can’t eat
another bite.”

“Oh come, you would not say no to ice cream,
would you?”

My mouth watered.

Without waiting for my final answer, Marie
spoke to the waiter, and he gave a nod. “Would you like some
dessert, too?” she asked Julian.

“No more for me, thanks.”

The penguin hurried to bring me and Marie
each a cup the size of my foot, filled to the edge with chocolate
and vanilla ice cream, topped with a mountain of whipped cream and
two wafer rolls. My brain froze with every spoonful I shoved into
my mouth. Three quarters down to the bottom, my stomach resigned,
but I couldn’t stand to waste any of this precious dessert.

“Please,” I begged Julian. “Could you help
me finish this monster sundae?”

Through with her dessert already, Marie
offered him her spoon, and we took turns scooping the cream from
the cup. Julian fished out the cherry that stuck on the bottom of
the glass tub.

I was full to the brim, but this little
cherry must have been the most appetizing thing in the world. Never
having had any, I could only imagine how heavenly it would taste.
My mouth watered anew with the mere sight of it on Julian’s
long-stemmed spoon.

He sneered at me as he lifted the fruit to
his mouth. My heart sank. But then he gave me a wink and brought
the spoon in front of my lips.

Uncertain, I chewed the inside of my
cheek.

“Go on, it’s yours,” he urged.

I opened my mouth and he steered the cherry
to its final destination, his eyes fixed on mine the entire time. I
bit into the fruit. The sour taste was nothing close to what I had
expected. I grimaced, swallowed the bite, but kept the pit in my
mouth. It rolled along my teeth as we left the bistro and headed
back to the car.

We made a stop at the local supermarket
where Marie spent another small fortune on food and drinks, then
she steered the SUV home.

My heart sank with each mile she drove. The
day alone with her and Julian had been too beautiful. And too
short. Already, in a few minutes, the horrible face of my mother
would put a stop to my joy.

1. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SONG
   

ONCE BACK HOME, Julian and I lugged the
heavy bags after Marie into the kitchen to help her put away the
groceries.

As we walked through the door, the warm
scent of chocolate took me on an immediate journey through time. A
sudden impulse to twirl on the spot shot into my legs and, for the
blink of an eye, left me light-footed. Without my knowing, soft
giggles shook me. But catching a glimpse of my mother’s rear when
she was bent over the opened oven made me gain control.

“You came just in time for coffee and cake.
I made your favorite, Jona,” Charlene said as she pulled a steaming
chocolate fudge cake out of the oven.

In spite of the delicious scent that wafted
in my face, anger spiraled up inside me. Not just because of her
talking to me, but most of all because it was a memory belonging to
her and me alone that had made me smile right then. I fought to
stay rooted in the present and leave things in the past alone.

“And just what makes you think you know
anything about my favorites? It’s not as if you’ve been to the
orphanage lately to find out.” My toxic voice earned me a poke from
Julian. I didn’t care. After all it wasn’t half as painful as the
twinge of my heart. With a heavy thump, the bag in my arm landed on
the counter.

The blue cushions on the bench wrapped
around the table flattened when we all took our seats while Marie
brought the coffee pot and poured. Charlene dished out cake.

The devil may get me if I eat anything made
by the dragon.

When she was about to hand me a piece, I
stared straight at her, all memory shoved away. “No, thank you. I
don’t fancy your bloody cake.”

My aunt exchanged an uneasy glance with my
uncle, but neither reprimanded me. In fact, it was Julian’s tender
fingers that suddenly nudged my chin and tipped my head so I would
look at his penetrating eyes.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you’ve the
mouth of a snotty brat?” His thumb smoothed over my cheek, then he
let go of me.

I was still gazing at him when he began
sipping his coffee. The temperature around me dropped to an
uncomfortable level. It was unbelievable, how he made me wish that,
for once, I hadn’t lipped off to my mother, all with this one
reprobative glance of his. It scared the hell out of me to realize
how much this man’s opinion mattered to me. I had never cared what
anyone thought of me, so why now?

I drank my coffee fast to quench the taste
of bad conscience. And while everyone else still shoved bites of
chocolate cake into their mouths, I excused myself from the next
round of refills.

Some alone time was on the agenda. To have
so many people around me all day had exhausted me. It surprised me
when I realized I wanted to roam through the vinery instead of
retreating to my room. Strange, how very much this place had grown
on me in the last three days. Only now did I realize that I
actually missed working out here today.

I paused from pounding the path in front of
me and pinched the bridge of my nose. A glance back at the house
and up to my open door on the balcony confirmed my suspicion.
Damnit to hell—I was falling in love with this house and the
grounds. I dragged two restless hands through my hair, pushing out
a desperate sigh.

What would Quinn have said if he had seen me
now? I missed my friend. I missed his scolding when I was dragged
to the office and he had to take care of me as well as the saucy
chats we’d had when he’d invited me to McDonald’s for a Coke and a
burger before he’d delivered me at the orphanage.

He would want me to be happy.
“
If
you can’t change a situation, make the best of it.
”
His
words surfaced in my mind. Maybe I should listen to him for
once.

Kicking stones out of my way released some
of my frustration, but the doubts and confusion remained. I’d run
from so many places in the past after I nicked a little money or
something shiny. I’d even run from the orphanage. Twice. But I’d
never made it farther than Gatwick or Chelmsford by dodging the
fare of the train before an official caught me and sent me back to
the institution.

In fact, I’d grown tired of running.

Maybe, just for a little while, I could
enjoy the pleasantries of having a nice place to stay put without
worrying about what tomorrow would bring.

Surrounded by all the greenery, I tilted my
head and gazed at the sky. “Damn, what’s your bloody plan?” For a
moment, I studied the clouds drifting by, knowing I wouldn’t get an
answer other than maybe a bird pooping on my face.

With my hands tucked deep into my pockets, I
strolled back to the house. The kitchen was empty, but I heard
people chatting in the front room. Muffled but desperate,
Charlene’s voice caught my attention.

It went against my nature to eavesdrop.
After all, I didn’t give a damn about what the dragon had to say.
But as my foot hovered over the second stair, she mentioned my name
and that was enough to change my mind.

I crept to the front room door and strained
to listen.

“…will get over it eventually. Trust
me.”

I had a strange feeling of foreboding of the
subject Julian was talking about.

Sounding close to tears, my mother replied,
“But what if she just can’t forgive me? It doesn’t seem like she
ever will.”

Yup, my intuition was dead on. What struck
me as weird was that the dragon confided in Julian with her doubts
and sorrow, and not in someone who’d be a little closer to her.
Like family. I’d have expected her to talk to Marie, instead of her
caretaker.

“You have to give her some more time,”
Julian insisted in his familiar soft tone, the same one he used
when he’d dragged me out onto the balcony last night.

“But you of all people know time is the only
thing I don’t have left!”

Hard as it was to admit, her grief sounded
genuine. It gave my heart a twinge. The second within only an
hour.

“Be patient, Charlene. Rest. Conserve your
energy. I’ll take care of everything else.”

The room fell silent. What was going on? I
urged to lean around the corner and peek inside, but I couldn’t
give away my advantage. The wall behind me cooled my back as I
frowned at the ceiling, waiting for them to speak again.

Dissonant notes sounded from the piano, like
someone hit random keys when walking by.

My mother cleared her throat. When she spoke
her voice had dropped a few notches. “I’ve noticed a change about
you.”

A silent second ticked by.

“Have you?” The faintest hint of disapproval
from Julian.

I hadn’t observed anything different about
Julian. But then she probably referred to a longer period than the
few days I’d known him. My curiosity threatened to kill me, so
could this woman be a bit more precise, please?

“I know that look,” she said, and her
off-key tone made the hair at the back of my neck stand up. “But
you should be wise enough to see that there’s no way.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Curt and
precise. He knew what she meant, all right.

But should I know, too? What way did the
dragon mean, and who was she to preach to him?

I silenced my thoughts to hear more, when my
mother’s harsh scolding of Julian drifted to me. “Of course, you
know. Don’t think I’m stupid just because you’re that much
older.”

Oh boy, she must have forgotten to take her
pills. Mental disorder. He could have hardly be older than twenty,
and she must have been way over forty. In teenager reckoning this
was like comparing Apollo to Medusa.

Her sigh dragged through the room. “You can
never give her what she needs. All you will do is hurt her.”

Her
?
A red-hot lance of
jealousy stabbed my heart. Charlene was talking about another
woman. No surprise, her mood had changed to snappy. From the very
beginning, I suspected she wanted this man for her own, even if he
played way beyond her age class.

But he couldn’t be taken. He’d told me
yesterday, and I would swear he hadn’t lied to me. Just…
no
.
I refused to picture him holding another girl like he had held me
last night.

There…I…Oh, shut the hell up, Jona.

“I’m not intending to hurt her—or anyone.
Don’t worry, I do know my place. My first and foremost duty is to
you. Your daughter,” he said, pausing and then speaking with
effort, “comes a close second.”

Your daughter?
That was
me
! I
clapped my hands over my mouth to kill the sound of my happy,
shocked inhale.

Footsteps approached the door. I swallowed
the shock and quickly dashed up the stairs, taking the steps three
at a time. At the top, I spun around and casually walked back down,
pretending I hadn’t heard any of their conversation. But my heart
raced madly inside my chest.

Spotting me on the stairs, my mother paused.
For the blink of an eye, the awkward feeling of being caught
stopped me in my tracks as well. A purple shrug, wrapped around her
skinny shoulders, made her ashen face appear more sallow. Without
saying one word, she hurried on into her room and closed the
door.

Stunned, I remained on the stairs and stared
down the empty hallway, struggling to shake off this unnatural
feeling of guilt. I would have never thought it possible, but her
sorrow left a sore spot in my soul.

Dumping the thought, I spun on my heel,
ready to ascend to my room. But music coming from the parlor froze
me in place.

Julian was playing the piano.

Captivated by the sweet melody, I wondered
if this was what he’d gotten from Paul’s. I sneaked closer and
peeked into the room. He wouldn’t notice me with his back toward
the entrance. Good, because after what I’d heard him say a minute
ago, I didn’t think I could look straight at his face. The feeling
of confusion still wound around my throat, and words would have
evaded me, anyway.

The beautiful chords he played filled both
the room and me with calm. Clutching the doorframe, I pressed my
cheek against the smooth wood, gazing dreamily out the window into
the flaming red sunset.

It escaped me when the first piece of music
ended and he started a new one. But at the familiar chords, I
straightened with a start. He was playing
my
song. The one I
so often hummed to myself, not knowing where I’d first heard it, or
if I’d made it up by myself.

Only he didn’t just play the single notes as
I would have hummed them. His hands caressed the keyboard up and
down as they flew over this little melody of mine. A minute later,
Julian cast a glance at me over his shoulder. His eyes all smiles,
he winked.

Argh, caught.

My heart thudded against my ribcage. If it
had pounded a note louder, it might have served him as a
metronome.

With a slight flick of his head, he invited
me to come over and join him on the piano bench. Ever so slowly, I
walked toward him, worried I had misinterpreted his gesture. But
that doubt vaporized the moment I approached the piano and he slid
over to the end to let me take a seat next to him.

He leaned in, and his familiar smell filled
my head. “Could you turn the page for me?”

On the stand sat a pack of music sheets with
lines and notes, but I couldn’t begin to make sense of it. At this
moment, though, I knew he’d gone to Paul’s only to get this piece
for me. That was the reason he’d come with us to town from the
beginning.