be included.
Charley tugged Wyatt’s hand. He and Stuart followed her from room to room. They pointed to art, furniture, the floor and to Cael’s most fond possession-his flat screen. Charley knew Cael would be flattered when she revealed the outcome of their adventure.
They found James, Cael and Lily around the kitchen island, where a sixth stool waited for their unexpected guest.
“So, you guys are seniors at West?” James crunched on a carrot stick from a tray Lily laid before them.
“Yeah. Six weeks left,” Wyatt told him. “And I can’t wait.”
“It’s Stuart, right?” Lily drew herself into the conversation as she, too, munched upon the veggies. “There’s a stool over here if you want to sit.” She patted the seat.
Stuart nodded and slid a leg over the wrought iron while Charley and Wyatt took their places.
“So, Mira,” Stuart said. “Did Wyatt tell ya what Julie said fourth period?” Stuart bit into a carrot stick.
Waves of nerves ebbed through the group, some more evident than others.
Charley caught Wyatt’s disapproval as soon as Stuart began; his eyes reflected a pain he tried to conceal. She squeezed his hand under the cover of the countertop. “No, he didn’t say.” She stole a glance at Cael and James. Given what she’d learned about Julie, it couldn’t be a happy story.
Stuart pointed into the air. “Well, you know she’s about the ditziest blonde in school.” He scrunched up his nose as if in thought. “Through all the years, even, not just our class.”
Wyatt waved him forward.
“So, anyway.” Stuart twirled the slim orange stick between his fingers like a baton. “We’re in class bitchin’ like normal, and she announces to the entire class-” He spread his arms wide as if they could hold the thirty students from the room. “-that you’re livin’ with aliens. Talk about bubble-headed. We laughed it off.” Stuart inclined his head toward Wyatt. “Well, Wyatt didn’t.”
Charley kept Wyatt in her peripheral vision, prepared to turn Stuart’s conversations elsewhere if Wyatt continued to grimace and sigh or Cael and James’s temperatures ratcheted up any higher.
Stuart himself broke the undercurrent of anxiety. “How do you guys like living way up here?”
“It’s very peaceful,” Lily said.
“No neighbors?” Stuart picked up a Brie-encrusted apple slice, studied it a moment and popped it into his mouth.
“Nope. Not this high.” James grabbed a handful for himself. “About a mile down, though.”
The temperature in the room decreased a degree.
“You guys know Wyatt’s been here before? In this house?” Stuart started in again, oblivious to the change in James and Cael’s posture, the way their muscles tensed and the subtle shifts of their faces from interested to concerned.
Charley smiled, amused by Stuart’s verbal garbage dump. “Do tell.”
She leaned into the table, preparing to hear what she already knew. One hand in Wyatt’s, her head rested in the palm of the other, but the sizzle didn’t come from unaddressed sexual desire.
James and Cael shifted in their seats, subtle movements no one but she or Lily would register.
“Apparently, way, way before you guys moved in-” He pointed with the carrot again to Lily, James and Cael. “- his Mom stayed in this house for somethin’ like three or four weeks. She says it was like her most favorite vacation. The people here were uber-rich and gave her everything she needed. Doesn’t she still keep in touch or somethin’, Wyatt?”
Wyatt nodded, but the cringe and slight shift of his head tore at Charley’s heart. Wyatt slumped lower in his chair, but tension emanated in invisible waves from James and Cael.
She let the smile grow inside as memories of that month surfaced. She’d have to keep them tucked away or risk their cover.
“Shall we move to the dining room?” Lily’s chair squealed against the floor as she slid off.
Charley recognized the diversion. While Lily showed Stuart the way, James and Cael followed.
With a quick sideways look from James, Charley leaned into Wyatt’s shoulder and bumped him with her hip. “You okay?”
“I shouldn’t have brought him. He’s on a roll, and there’s no telling what’ll come out next.” He ran a hand through his hair and shook it so it settled back down into place. A few cowlick spikes remained.
“It’s okay, you know.” Charley patted his bicep, firm under her palm, and leaned her body into his. “He’s nervous, is all. We all find ways to deal.” She kept her lips close to Wyatt’s ear. “Seems his power of speech improves.” She giggled.
Wyatt turned toward her so their lips came within a breath. “My Mom really did live here for a bit before she met my Dad-well, the guy I call my Dad.”
Lily poked her head back in the kitchen. “C’mon guys. Dinner’s on.”
The clink from glasses, plates, tableware and chairs as they slid on the hardwoods, along with mixed conversation, reached them. Together they pushed back from the island, shifting off their stools. Before they crossed into the dining room, Wyatt turned Charley to face him.
“Ah, I have a question.” He ran his hands up and back down her arms, sending a tingle of interest elsewhere.
Charley shivered under the touch-more than she’d experienced with him, other than a simple link of fingers. “Go ahead. Ask. Anything.”
He rubbed at the side of his nose. “Uh… well… is Leena hooked up?”
Charley grinned. “You mean in a relationship? I don’t think so.” She knew very well.
“Um…” Wyatt’s gaze redirected to the doorway. “Do you think she’d be willing or interested in going to the dance with Stuart?” Wyatt twisted his mouth in that I-can’t-believe-I-just-asked way and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Charley started to speak but stopped as his gaze returned to hers.
“He doesn’t have a date, and we kinda planned to crash it together, ’til… well… you agreed to go with me.”
“Ah, gotcha.” Hands on his hips, she turned him around to push him forward. Before she could let go, she laid her head against his back, firm and smooth under her cheek. “Let me see what I can do.”
4
The dining room table could hold fifteen with all its leaves. Lily set it for six. A buffet, hutch, sideboard, mirror and wood-back chairs-custom designed and carved by James-lined the outer edges of Venetian plaster walls. Lily called it a room fit for a king. Both Cael’s and Charley’s artwork adorned the space, but Lily’s design, the reds mixed with golds and browns, created the space.
Wyatt stopped a foot from the entry. “Whoa,” he said.
“You like it?” Lily’s grin beamed through the room like sunlight through a window.
Wyatt stood in front of a canvas and traced his finger in the air along the single-line silhouette of a woman’s form. “He’s a good artist.” His hand rested midair at the signature.
Charley stole a glance at James, who smirked back at her.
“She. Charley is a she,” James said.
“That’s cool,” Wyatt said.
James scratched the side of his nose, hiding the smile aimed Charley’s way behid his hand.
Lily stood at the head of the table, drumming fingers along the inlay of her chair. “Shall we eat, then?”
They all nodded.
“Good. I have to explain some things.” She moved to the side, pulling Stuart along with her.
Charley stood with Wyatt to one side, James and Cael at the ends.
Only Lily would create a meal that required direction. She pointed, gestured and maneuvered until even Charley’s head spun with the instruction on sauces, the difference in the reds and greens, and which vegetables worked best with the different flavors. Why Lily opted to make four different pastas in various hues or marry them
