“Duty calls,” I say, and slip away. I feel David’s eyes on me as I go. I turn around long enough to see him making his way up the stairs, hopefully to put on some clothes.
Is this how it begins? A toe over the line to test the waters? A tap becomes a touch, which becomes something more. What comes after shirtless? I shudder at the thought, but then I tell myself I’m only here for a short while. I just have to keep my wits about me and avoid being alone with him, which I think I can do.
My roommate, Meredith, would be irate to see me giving David a pass. But I need this job for something far more valuable than money. The truth. And I’m too close to my objective to let some sweat-lathered seal scare me off. I’m here to stay, and Becca wouldgladly second that decision. She bats her imploring, puppy-dog eyes before requesting more chocolate milk.
“Can I have more, too?” asks Brody.
His eyes stay glued to the TV as he extends his cup toward me. He hasn’t even drunk half of what I poured.
“Finish what you have,” I say like a good nanny should, and down it goes in one hearty swallow. He thrusts the cup back at me, a chocolaty residue dripping down the sides.
I’m returning to the kitchen for refills when David reappears from upstairs. He’s changed out of his running clothes into beige shorts and a fresh blue T-shirt (half-naked no more, thank goodness). The shirt has some meaningless logo printed on the front. He tosses a second T-shirt at me with no warning. All I see is bright blue fabric streaking toward my face. I snatch it out of the air with my free hand.
“A gift for you,” he says as I set down the cups and unfurl the shirt. The logo is for a company called NewPulse, which I’ve never heard of.
David looks at me like I should know what this is. “It’s my new company I told you about,” he says. “You mentioned being interested in entrepreneurship in your application and wanting to know more about my work.”
I did? Oh, Meredith. Right.
“Yeah, cool,” I say.
“Do you run? You can come with me next time.”
“The kids,” I say, glad to have an easy out.
“Fiona can watch them,” David says. “Speaking of, where is she? Did she go out somewhere?”
I tell him I don’t think so, that I haven’t seen her. No, there’s no way. I would have heard her leave.
“Strange,” David says, glancing about. “She’s not in the bedroom.”
He goes out back, and I watch him through the glass as he scans the lakeshore. It’s still early morning. A cool mist rises from the water, as if the lake is actually breathing.
David returns, but something has shifted. His eyes are worried. He goes to the front of the house, but he doesn’t need to open the door to see that Fiona’s Porsche is still in the driveway.
He bounds upstairs, calling Fiona’s name, and returns moments later, looking dejected.
“She’s not an early riser,” he assures me, his voice nervous. “But she must have gone for a walk.”
I nod in agreement.
“Yeah, it’s hard to sleep when the sun comes in. I probably missed her leaving when we were cleaning up the glitter.” I don’t believe it myself, and David doesn’t seem to believe me, either.
Chapter 11
Julia
Morning coffee should set everything right,or so Julia told herself as she poured a cup in Erika’s kitchen. She drank her coffee with cream and sugar, which always meant starting her day with a stab of guilt, but some things in life were non-negotiable.
On this fine morning, the sun’s ascent brought a kiss of perfection to the new day. The leaves shimmered under a coating of fresh dew. Bright flowers spread their petals wide to catch sips of sunshine while the birds flittered about. Everything about the moment was idyllic, from the soothing sound of lapping water to the graceful butterflies riding atop the aromatic breeze.
Taylor was out walking Nutmeg. Christian and Rick had taken the canoe on the lake for a morning fishing excursion. Lucas played guitar upstairs, sounding quite good. Evidently he’d been practicing. All felt right in Julia’s world.
But it was also a veneer, she knew. Nature’s beauty was a mask covering harsher realities: Taylor and her distance, Christian and their money woes (not to mention his possible lies), and David and Fiona’s distressing fight.
Right now, what was most troubling Julia was what wasnotbothering Erika.
Here she was, standing in her friend’s kitchen, sipping the coffee that was always made to perfection, and not seeing (at least not in an unobstructed way) the damn lake. If she looked through threesets of windows, two of which belonged to David, she could just make out the water dappled with golden sunbeams.
