“This discussion is over. Your room.” He jerked his thumb toward the staircase.
Hot tears brimmed in Holly’s eyes and she wanted to explode. He’d made her feel like a scolded puppy, yet she knew from past experience that the conversation was indeed over. She scrambled up the stairs, almost knocking Hunter over at the top.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, grabbing her arm.
“Dad won’t let me go!” she cried. “And why weren’t you ready ten minutes ago? It’s all your fault.” She ran to her room and slammed the door.
From the foyer, her father shouted, “There go your TV privileges! You don’t act that way in this house, you hear me?”
Holly jerked all the linen off her bed, wadded it and tossed it on the floor. Then she threw herself onto the bed, kicked her feet and wept. She heard voices below, and minutes later Hunter knocked on her door. “Go away!”
He came in uninvited and eased onto her bed. “Hey, don’t cry. It’s not worth it. I argued your case. I told him I’d keep a close watch on you, but he wouldn’t change his mind.”
“I really want to go,” she said between sobs. “I hate him.”
“Come on, you don’t mean that.”
She sat up and turned on Hunter. “He’s a bully and sometimes I really do hate him. He makes me feel like I can’t be trusted about anything.”
“Look, he rode me hard too when I was twelve and thirteen.”
“But I’m fifteen.”
“Barely fifteen,” Hunter corrected.
Her birthday had come in mid-May. Holly had skipped third grade and was always the youngest of her friends. And at home, she was the baby. “When’s he ever going to let up on me? I’ll never be old enough to do anything if he had his way.”
Hunter punched her shoulder playfully. “I’ll bring you some birthday cake.”
“I don’t want any stupid cake. I want to go. These are kids from Bryce! It’s the coolest school in the city.”
“I’ve heard they’re a bunch of snobs. I’m only going because Raina’s making me. And she’s only going because Kathleen’s making her. We probably won’t even stay that long.”
Holly sniffed, staring down at her hands. “Go,” she said. “Tell Raina and Kathleen to call me first thing in the morning.” He squeezed her shoulder and stood. “First thing,” she repeated. “Before we have to go to church.”
He snapped his heels together and saluted. “Will do.”
When he was gone, she cried some more.
* * *
Holly moped around her room until her mother, Evelyn, knocked on the door and came inside. She’d been out walking the dog when the explosion between Holly and her father had occurred. “What happened to your bed?”
“I decided to change my linen.” Holly stepped around the balled-up sheets and crossed over to her closet.
Behind her, she heard her mother sigh. “It isn’t very mature to wreck your room.”
“But I didn’t make any noise. I wanted to throw books at the wall.”
“Wise decision not to,” her mother said.
Holly whirled. “Why does he treat me like a baby?” She didn’t really want an answer, because she knew her mother would side with her father. She always did.
“And why do you provoke him? What did you expect him to say when you went downstairs dressed that way? And the bikini…when did you buy it? I would have never approved that sale.”
“It’s just a bathing suit, and I spent my babysitting money.”
“No, it isn’t just a bathing suit. It’s indecent exposure. Use your head, Holly. Think before you act.”
“The two of you smother me,” Holly said in exasperation. “How can I ever grow up if you won’t let me do anything, go anywhere? Hunter gets to do whatever he wants!”
“He’ll be seventeen in September, and a senior.”
“And he’s your and Dad’s favorite.”
Evelyn blew air through her lips. “We love you both just the same. Sometimes I wonder how two such different children could have come out of the same union.” She gestured to the mess on Holly’s floor. “Clean this up now.” At the door, she said, “You know, you’re lucky to have a father who cares about you. Look at poor Kathleen and Raina. I’ll bet they’d love to have fathers.”
To Holly’s way of thinking, both her friends got along fine without a father to bark orders at them. She bit her tongue to keep from saying so while she waited patiently for her mother’s lecture to end.
Her mother opened the door, but before leaving she said, “And as a reminder, tomorrow’s Father’s Day. Surely you spent some of your babysitting money on a card, didn’t you?”
She left, and Holly stared at the closed door in silence. Of course, she’d forgotten. Now, on top of being furious with her dad, she had to make him a card claiming how much she cared about him. She sagged onto the bed. “I was probably switched at birth in the hospital nursery,” she said miserably. One of God’s little jokes.
five
“GEEZ, LOOK AT all the cars.” Kathleen chewed her lower lip nervously. She was sitting in the backseat of Hunter’s car gaping at the expansive lawn and driveway of the Davis Island address Carson had given her. The huge Mediterranean-style house rose three stories and was lit up like a Christmas tree. Cars were strewn up and down the street, parked haphazardly on the grassy lawn and packed bumper to bumper on the brick driveway. “Maybe we should just forget about it. It’s already nine-fifteen,” she said, looking at the dashboard clock.
“Why?” Raina asked from the front seat. “Okay, so I wasn’t crazy about coming, but now that we’re here, we might as well go in.”
“Why not?” Hunter asked. “I smell grilled burgers.”
Kathleen couldn’t begin to tell her friends how scared she was about attending this party. Especially now that Holly wasn’t with them. Raina and Hunter had each other, and Kathleen had nobody to hang with now that Holly had blown her chance to come. “Can we leave whenever if I say so?”
“Your call,” Hunter said.
All Kathleen wanted to do at the moment was split, despite her making a case to her mother about coming. Mary Ellen had been anxious about Kathleen going out. And whenever Mary Ellen became anxious, she became clingy. “Who are these kids? Why do you have to go? You’ve been gone a lot this week.”
“It’s just a party, Mom. I won’t stay late.”
Kathleen had tried to anticipate her mother’s every need before leaving. She’d made dinner and cleaned up, rented two movies for her mother to watch, prepared popcorn and made certain that the bed was turned down and ready.
“What if I get sick?” Mary Ellen had asked just as Hunter and Raina pulled into the driveway.
“My cell phone’s on and fully charged. I left you a dish of Jell-o in the fridge—lime, your favorite. Now, enjoy those movies and I’ll be home before you know it.” She hustled out the door before her mother could think of another excuse to make her stay.
Hunter wedged his car against the back bumper of the last one parked in the driveway so that it straddled the sidewalk, barely off the street. He opened the car door for Raina and held the seat forward so that Kathleen could climb out of the back. “Come on. Let’s go check out this party.”
Kathleen followed Hunter and Raina along the driveway, where small, hand-lettered signs reading PARTY CENTRAL had been poked into the ground to point the way around the side of the house and to a tall privacy fence with a gate. Loud music, the babble of many voices and the sounds of splashing water filled the night. Hunter opened the gate and stepped aside. Kathleen saw a spacious yard and patio surrounding an Olympic-size pool sparkling with underwater lights. Large crowds of kids swarmed in and around the pool, their bodies wet and sleek. Kathleen and her friends’ entrance was hardly noticed.
Kathleen immediately looked for Carson.
“Food alert,” Hunter said, starting toward an expansive brick patio and the largest outdoor grill Kathleen had ever seen. Teak furnitu
re littered with plastic plates and soda cans sat under an awning. A keg of beer stood atop one table along with a stack of plastic drinking cups.
“Let’s grab a burger,” Hunter said. “I’m starved.” He’d had to work late and had missed supper.
“You’re always starved,” Raina said.
They wove their way to the grill, receiving a few curious glances along the way but no greetings from the kids of Bryce Academy. Kathleen wondered again why she’d come when she didn’t know anyone except Carson. Unlike Holly, she wasn’t interested in expanding her circle of friends, especially ones from Bryce, the snob school.
At the grill, Hunter grabbed a plate from a nearby table and started fixing two hamburger buns for himself. “Food looks good. Don’t you want something?”
“Not now.” Kathleen was afraid she’d gag if she ate.
Raina picked up a plate and a handful of chips.
“Well, look who’s here!” Carson’s voice cut through the noise level, and before Kathleen knew it, he was standing in front of her. He wore black swim trunks and a bright yellow tank shirt that showed off tanned, well-muscled arms. “I figured you’d gotten a better offer and decided not to show.”
She ignored his dig and introduced her friends. Carson barely glanced at Hunter and Raina. He tossed his arm casually over Kathleen’s shoulder and leaned forward. She smelled beer on his breath and stiffened.
“Whoops,” he said, rocking back on his heels. “Where are my manners…Does the lady need a beer?”
“Just a soda,” she said.
“I take it your parents aren’t here,” Hunter said, munching on chips from Raina’s plate.
“Got called out on a hospital emergency,” Carson said with a grin. “But if you’re worried about no adult supervision, the caterers are in the kitchen.”
“Will they supervise any food fights?” Kathleen asked.
Carson clucked. “You disapprove. Lighten up, it’s my birthday.”
“Happy birthday,” she said.
“How about a birthday kiss? Your gift to me.”
His eyes looked glassy. She ducked out from under his arm. “You said no presents, remember?”
“She always this way?” Carson asked Hunter and Raina.
“She knows when she’s being respected or not,” Raina said coolly.
He bowed slightly and said, “I didn’t mean to disrespect you, Kathleen.” She had no comeback, so she said nothing. In the next breath, he asked, “Where’s your suit? Aren’t you going swimming?”
“No,” she said.
“But it’s a pool party.”
She glanced toward the pool, where swimmers swarmed like ants. In the shallow end, girls dressed in colorful bikinis sat on boys’ shoulders and tried to swat one another off with large inflated tubes. Their squeals almost drowned out the blare of music from poolside speakers. Kathleen wondered if every girl at Bryce was thin and pretty, or if Carson only surrounded himself with the attractive ones. “Do you know all these people?” she asked.
“About half. It’s a party and word gets around.”
“What’s this, Carson?”
The girl’s question made Kathleen turn back toward Carson. She found herself facing the most stunningly beautiful female she’d ever seen off a movie screen.
Carson shot the girl an unreadable look. “Not a ‘what,’ Steffie. A ‘who.’ A person. This is my friend Kathleen from the hospital. Kathleen, meet Stephanie Marlow, an old friend.”
Stephanie handed Carson a cup of beer, then draped herself around his shoulders. She was quite tall and her black hair was pulled back from her exquisite, fine-boned face graced with high cheekbones and set off by eyes the color of turquoise. Her bronze skin glowed in the light cast from scattered tiki lamps and candles. She wore a coral-colored bikini that showed off a flawless body. A diamond twinkled from her navel.
“Nice to meet you, Kathleen.” Stephanie offered a smile that never reached her eyes. “But Carson has so many friends. It’s hard to keep track of them all.”
“Be nice, Steffie,” Carson said, taking a gulp of beer.
“Aren’t I always nice?” she said suggestively.
Kathleen had always considered Raina pretty, but beside Stephanie, Raina looked pale and colorless. And beside Kathleen, Stephanie Marlow was a goddess. Kathleen thought about saying, “Nice to meet you too,” but why lie? She also knew when a girl was staking out her territory.
“So you’re stranded in that volunteer program like Carson? Were you naughty too? That’s how Carson got stuck there, while I’m stuck with a long, boring summer without his company.” Her perfect lips formed a pout.
“Not stranded,” Kathleen said, hating Stephanie’s condescending tone. “I like helping out. It makes me feel useful.” And in that moment, she knew it was true. She became fiercely loyal to the entire program and every teen involved in it. And grateful to Raina for getting her involved, because she speculated that Stephanie had never gone out of her way to help anybody except herself.
Stephanie’s frosty gaze raked over Kathleen. “Who does your hair? And your freckles…are they real?”
Kathleen’s cheeks blazed. With uncanny accuracy, Stephanie had zeroed in on the part of herself that Kathleen felt most self-conscious about—her looks.
Carson untangled himself from Stephanie’s embrace. “Are her freckles real? What kind of a dumb-ass question is that?”
“Some girls paint them on,” Stephanie replied innocently. Turning toward Kathleen, she explained, “I model, so I’ve seen it done a hundred times. Some girls think it makes them look cute and wholesome.”
“I like her freckles,” Carson said, weaving slightly. “Sure you don’t want a beer?”
Raina intervened. “We were just leaving.”
“So soon?” Stephanie asked without an ounce of regret in her voice.
“My boyfriend’s on early shift tomorrow.” Raina looked at Hunter for confirmation.
He had just stuffed the last of a burger in his mouth, but he nodded vigorously.
“Too bad,” Stephanie said. “I was looking forward to making some new friends. Sometimes the crowd at Bryce bores me.”
“Why don’t you go inside and check on my birthday cake before Kathleen walks,” Carson said, shoving his empty beer cup into Stephanie’s hand.
Stephanie arched one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows at him, then called over her shoulder, “Hey, Denny, Steve, Russ…Carson’s suit is bone-dry. You going to let him get away with that?”
Like overeager lapdogs, three large boys rushed over from the side of the pool. “Steffie’s right!” one of them shouted. “Let’s fix it.”
They grabbed Carson. He fought. “Cut it out! Lay off!” It only made them more determined. Carson was overpowered, taken to the side of the pool and heaved into the water like a sack of potatoes. He came up sputtering and cursing while everyone laughed and hooted.
“Come on. This could get ugly,” Hunter said, grabbing Raina and Kathleen.
With the sounds of shrieks and splashes rising from the backyard, they hustled to the gate and across the lawn and piled into the car. Hunter backed out of the driveway and took off down the street. He slowed once he’d made the corner. Glancing in the rearview mirror at Kathleen, he said, “I had a feeling we’d all be in that pool, like it or not. Hope you didn’t mind the quick exit.”
Kathleen’s heart was pounding and her hands were shaking from an adrenaline surge. Images of Stephanie and Carson bombarded her. There had been an electricity between them. Like a crackling fallen live wire, the current had run unchecked and dangerous. “I didn’t mind.”
“I’ll bet the cops will show up too,” Hunter added. “Parties like that are cop magnets.”
Raina let out a screech of frustration. “They were a bunch of morons! Oh, and that Steffie. What a piece of work!”
“She was beautiful,” Kathleen said quietly.
“She was a total b—” Eyeing Hunter, Raina stopped herself.
“A witch,” she amended.
He glanced at her and winked.
“Did you think she was pretty?” Raina asked.
“Is this one of those minefield questions like, ‘Hunter, does this outfit make me look fat?’ I refuse to answer.”
“Coward,” Raina growled, swatting his shoulder. She turned to look at Kathleen in the backseat, her expression growing serious. “Are you really interested in this guy, girlfriend? Because if you are …”
“Absolutely not!” Kathleen snapped. “He’s self-centered, conceited and completely unreliable. He’s a total jerk. I hope I never see him again.”
“What about the volunteer program? You’ll be running into him, won’t you?”
“He won’t last two more weeks,” Kathleen predicted.
“Maybe,” Raina said. “But for what it’s worth, he does seem fixated on you.”
Back at her house, Kathleen slipped quietly inside. All she wanted to do was go up to her room, but when she heard the TV in the den, she knew she’d have to speak to her mother. “Hey, Mom,” she said, entering the room. “How are the flicks?”
Mary Ellen hit the remote’s Pause button and glanced at the mantel clock. “You didn’t stay at your party very long.”
“It was dull as dirt.” Kathleen flopped on the chair beside the sofa, where her mother was stretched out.
Her mother smiled. “I’m not sorry you’re home early. Even though I know you need to be with your friends sometimes, I was missing your company. I’ve only just started this movie, so we can watch it together.”
“Works for me.” Kathleen reached for the bowl of popcorn, now grown cold, on the coffee table.
“Tomorrow’s Father’s Day,” her mother said absently. “They’ve been advertising it on TV. I wish Jim could still be with us.”
“Me too, Mom.” Kathleen felt a lump lodge in her throat. Not just for her dead father, but also for her mother, for herself and for all the things she wanted for her life but could never have.