Page 31 of To Save Him

 

 

 

Chapter Ten

 

THE CONCERT LASTED for close to three hours and, following our tradition, we all met at the local ice cream shop.  It stayed open extra late on nights when the high school had goings on—a smart business move but also a great way to be part of the community.  The tension between Liam and Brandon seemed subdued, although I saw a sneer cross Liam’s face when he saw the suit.

Had he chosen to say anything, he would have had to deal withme.

But things went well as we ate our dishes of ice cream and let Annabel chatter about behind-the-scenes goings on during the concert.

We got home close to eleven, and I shooed JR off to bed immediately—ortried.  Annabel said she was tired and ambled up the stairs, but JR found one excuse after another to hover, mainly because he was trying to talk to Brandon.  He’d been denied a lot of that tonight, being stuck in a stuffy auditorium all evening.  Finally, Brandon said, “Tell you what.  I’ll tell you a story while you brush your teeth if you promise to go to bed right after.”

“Astory?  What am I?  Five?”

Brandon smirked.  “Not justanystory…a story about me and your brother.”

JR’s eyes softened.  “You’re on.”  He started walking through the kitchen toward the stairs.  “What’re you waiting for?”  Brandon smiled at me—and I could have kissed him right then and there.  Well, he and I were going to have a little reward once JR was in bed.  I opened the pantry door and got on the floor to reach behind the canned goods.  I had a stash of wine.  I supposed three or four bottles of vino might not be considered astash, but that was how I thought of it.  By the time Brandon rejoined me a good ten minutes later, I had already poured two glasses and was sipping on mine.

“You drink wine?”

“On occasion.”

“This is good stuff.”

Instead of talking, we sat in the quiet of the kitchen enjoying each other’s company without saying a word.  As we got to the bottom of our glasses, my head had filled with so many naughty thoughts, it was brimming over.  Brandon was smart, though, removing temptation from me when he said he wanted to turn in for the evening.

Probably a good idea.

He paused before he got to the stairs.  “This suit probably can’t go in the washing machine, can it?”

“You’re right.  We can wash the shirt but not the suit.  But as long as you didn’t sweat in it or spill anything on it, it’ll probably be okay another time or two as long as you hang it and let it air out.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.  And then you’ll want to have it dry cleaned when it gets dirty.”

He nodded.  After a pause that could have felt uncomfortable but didn’t, he said, “Thanks for helping me feel like I’m part of this family.  It feels—”

I could feel a lump in my throat that I figured was as big as the one in his sounded—but I still had to fight it to say what I needed to say.  “Thank you for joining our family.  I think…I think we needed you.”

A small wistful smile turned up his lips.  “Good night, Kimberly.”

“Night, Brandon.”

Before he could make it halfway up the stairs, we heard a noise outside.  It sounded like a brick hitting the wood on the porch or something crashing into the wall, but it happened so quickly, I couldn’t quite tell what the noise was.  I could see the question in Brandon’s eyes which, I was sure, matched mine, and we both paused, holding our breath, listening for something else.  After several long seconds, I was sure it was nothing and got ready to shrug, dismissing it…but that was when we heard something else, this time something that sounded like a scratch on a screen window.

Brandon raised an eyebrow and loosened the tie, pulling it off his neck and over his head in one swift motion, followed by pulling off his already unbuttoned jacket and handing them both to me.  “I’m gonna check it out.  It’s probably nothing.”

He was rolling up his sleeves and I thought some of making what would have been an unhelpful comment about not having any bears around this area, but he had already opened the front door after turning on the porch light and was surveying the landscape.  He peeked his head back in the house.  “Do you have a flashlight?”  When I got ready to answer, he said, “Never mind,” and switched the light off again before stepping onto the porch and pulling the door closed behind him.

What the hell was he doing?

I decided the flashlight was a good idea and raced through the house toward the back porch where I knew there were a couple, provided JR hadn’t walked off with them.  If we had some kind of creep checking out the house, flipping on a lot of lights might be a good idea.  I even considered calling the cops, but I didn’t know what was happening yet.  It might be a false alarm.

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