Anywhere But Here (23 page)

Even though the party was in full swing, the kitchen still maintained some sort of order.  The ceramic tiles on the floor had managed to deflect most of the dirt and mud stuck to the bottoms of shoes and the counters weren’t littered with empty cups or snack bags.  Gleaming stainless steel pots and pans hung regally over the island in the middle of the spacious room.  The island was cluttered with trays of meats, cheeses
, and crackers along with cut veggies and dips.  A partygoer opened the huge refrigerator and I caught a glimpse of rows and rows soft drinks on the shelves.

And amidst it all was Damon, sweating despite the cold January air, keeping things tidy and chastising anyone who was careless
with their trash.  Grinning, I tapped his shoulder.

“Hey, you made it,” he said, grinning back.  “Rad.”

“I never imagined you as the domestic type,” I laughed as Damon swept the counter with a damp sponge.

He shrugged as a touch of pink colored his cheeks.  “Yeah, well, Sabrina’s parents warned her to keep it tame, you know.  I don’t want her in trouble or anything.”

“Where is she?” Fin asked as he plucked a chunk of cheese off a tray and popped it in his mouth.  He leaned against the island, shooting me a wink.

“I think she ran upstairs to make sure no one’s up there,” Damon said.  He tossed the sponge in the sink and folded his arms over his chest.  “She told everyone but you know some people are hard headed.”  He nodded at the refrigerator.  “Help yourselves.  It’s only soda – her parents said no alcohol, but I’m sure you could find some somewhere.  A couple people brought their own.”

Fin fetched us both a soda and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.  My heart lifted and I had a sudden urge to get him alone just so I could kiss him.

“I think everyone is behaving for once,” a female said as she wandered into the kitchen.  I turned my head and found a slim, pretty girl with thick, dark hair and warm hazel eyes smiling at Fin and I.  She was nearly as tall as Damon and dressed in clothes I recognized from the magazines Aunt Franki subscribed to – the sort of things I used to wear once upon a time.

“You’ve met Fin before, right?” Damon asked as he grabbed the girl’s hand and tugged her to his chest.

“I think so,” she said with a smile.  She disengaged herself from Damon to extend her hand toward us.  “Nice to meet you again, anyway.  I’m Sabrina.”

Fin shook her hand and nodded at me.  “This is Rena.”

I shook her hand also and found that I didn’t have to force a smile.  She seemed extremely nice and had a friendly, inviting air about her.  “Thanks for having us.  Um, happy birthday, by the way.”

“Oh, thanks,” she said as her brow crunched and her eyes scrutinized me.  “You look familiar.  Have we met before?”

I shook my head slowly, a touch of fear pounding in my heart.  “I don’t think so.  I’m new to this town.”

“She used to live in some Chicago suburb,” Damon added.

Sabrina’s face lit up as her smile widened.  “Oh, really?  Where?”

“Um,” I stammered, afraid that maybe she did know me.  What if she was from the same area?  What if she knew some of my old friends?  What if she’d heard about Camille?  “North of Chicago.  Um, Pine Ridge.”

Her brow furrowed again as her lips puckered in thought.  “I live in
Rosedale.”  A teeny wave of relief swept through me, though I remained on edge.  “I could have sworn I’ve seen you somewhere before.”

I tried to laugh but
it fell from my lips in a hollow tone.  “I didn’t venture much from my neck of the woods unless it was to go downtown occasionally.”

She lifted her shoulders in defeat.  “Oh well.  Maybe you just look like someone I know or remind me of someone.  Who knows?  Maybe it will come to me later.”

“Maybe,” I said, shifting closer to Fin.  His arm slipped off my shoulders and wrapped around my waist as I attempted to meld into him, hoping to disappear. 

But Sabrina soon forgot about me and focused on her other guests, including Reg and Shane who’d suddenly appeared, both flushed with shining eyes.  I cornered Damon later and he informed me that they’d finally stopped trying to ignore the obvious and had gone out on their first date.  My heart cheered at the news as, even though Reg sort of frightened me, I did like her. 

Fin worked his way through the crowd, holding onto me constantly, and I noticed that not a lot of the people attending the party were particularly familiar.  Granted, I hadn’t attended the school for a very long time, still, I thought I’d have recognized a face or two from classes or the cafeteria.

I lingered close to Fin as he fell into a discussion about hockey with a guy wearing a Chicago Blackhawks jersey and noticed Sabrina conversing quietly with another dark-haired girl.  They both kept casting fleeting looks my way and I wondered if maybe the other girl might have a thing for Fin.  I
inched closer to him, resting a hand on the small of his back.  He shot me a smile as he nodded at whatever his new hockey buddy was saying.

Finally he turned to me and cupped my face gently.  He pressed his lips to mine so tenderly, my heart stopped momentarily as my hands flew to his waist.  He rested his forehead on mine and grinned. “Am I neglecting you?”

“No,” I said, rolling to my toes.  I just wanted him to kiss me again regardless of the people milling about us.  “Not now.”

Chuckling, he
fulfilled my wish by kissing me again, this time allowing his lips to linger over mine briefly before brushing them again and again.  Heat surged through my veins as I moved closer, eager to be pressed against him, wanting to disappear somewhere with him where nothing existed but us.

“It’s getting late.  Do you want me to take you home?” he asked, his mouth still on mine.

“No,” I breathed.  “I want you to take me somewhere quiet.”

He grinned, took me by the
hand, and towed me through the crowd to the empty kitchen.  Leaning against a counter, he jerked me into his arms.  “This will have to do for the time being - I can’t exactly take you upstairs.”  His cheeks reddened, making my heart swelled.  I kissed him.

His arms wound around me and eased me closer as he kissed me aga
in.  I sighed quietly, snaking my arms over his shoulders so I could run my fingers through his adorable curls.

“Oh! Sorry!”

Fin and I broke apart, both of us breathing heavily and blushing profusely as we eyed Sabrina.  “No problem,” Fin muttered, pulling me back into his arms.

Sabrina smiled at us for a second then turned toward the refrigerator.  “Um, Fin, do you think you could help Damon bring up a case or two of soda from the basement?”

“Sure,” he said, pecking my cheek before maneuvering around me.

I watched him leave, panic striking my heart.  I nibbled my lip and took Fin’s place against the counter as Sabrina withdrew a soda from the refrigerator. 
Cracking it open, she glanced at the door before smiling again.

“My cousin, Marcy, thinks she recognizes you, too,” Sabrina said in a gentle voice.  “Rena Hamilton, right?”

“Yes,” I said warily.  “That’s right.”

Her
eyes instantly clouded as she set her soda on the island, her head bobbing slowly.  “Your family was in the newspaper last summer.  And they recently ran a small article last weekend after the Frieze girl was found in the woods.”

I bit the inside of my cheek, looking desperately for a way to escape.  My heart thundered in my chest
, my lungs tightening as my pulse pounded in my ears.  “Look, Sabrina,” I said, my voice squeaky.  “Please, don’t say anything, okay?  No one around here knows and I’d like to keep it that way.”

Her eyes grew as she placed a hand to her chest.  “Fin doesn’t even know?”  I shook my head, my eyes shooting to the door.  I didn’t need him and Damon returning while Sabrina discussed this particular topic with me. “I was surprised that no one around here said anything – I mean the gossip in this little town is atrocious.”

“I know,” I muttered in a droll tone.  I cleared my throat.  “Everyone around here gets Detroit or South Bend stations. I live far enough north that my sister’s story didn’t reach the people here – or if it did back when it happened, no one remembers or put two and two together.” My eyes beseeched her. “I don’t need the overbearing sympathy or people being uncomfortable around me or any of that.  Please, don’t say anything to anyone – not even Damon.  I’ll tell them when the time is right.”

Her brows dipped over her uncertain eyes but she eventually nodded and allowed a slow, sympathetic smile to slip across her lips.  “Okay, Rena.  But if there’s anything I can do for you…”

I held up a hand to stop her words – words I’d heard a hundred times before.  “There’s not.  But thanks.”

“Sure,” she said as Damon and Fin, laden down with cases of soda, stormed back into the room.  We both offered them weak smiles and later, when Fin was driving me home, he asked me about it.

“You two seemed to be having some sort of serious conversation,” he said.

I shrugged in the dark as I admired the scenery outside my window.  “We just know a couple of the same people, that’s all.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, his voice dripping with doubt.

“Yep,” I said as he parked in the driveway.  He turned to me and brushed the hair off my shoulders.  “Thanks for tonight.”

He kissed me lightly and pulled back to smile. “I had a good time with you.”  He kissed me again as I clenched the front of his coat in my fist, not wanting to let him loose.  “Do you want to come to the game tomorrow?  It’s not at home but it’s not that far away.”

“Yes,” I hissed, yanking him closer so I could kiss him.

“Good,” he said, ripping his lips from mine.  “I’ll call you tomorrow and give you directions.”  A playful smirk took over his face.  “My parents want to meet you, anyway.”

My eyes grew as horror overshadowed all the warm feelings that had been swirling around my heart. Parents? Already?

“Are you okay with that?” he asked, concerning lurking in his eyes.

“Yeah, sure,” I said.
“I need to get inside.  Talk to you tomorrow.”

I fled the car, peeked inside Aunt Franki’s room to let her know I was home, and dashed down the stairs only to collapse on my bed
. I collected all my thoughts into a neat little pile.  I sorted through them, my heart bouncing up and down in confusion.  Things were gathering and threatening like dark storm clouds and if I wasn’t careful, they would open up and drench me in a torrential rain.  And then, for sure, I’d drown.

“So, you have a week off from counseling, huh?” Aunt Franki asked over the rim of her coffee cup Saturday morning.  She raised a speculative brow as she sipped the hot liquid.

“Yeah, something like that,” I said as I smeared grape jelly on my toast.  I kept my back to her and mentally cursed Roberta even though I’d figured she’d call Aunt Franki sooner or later.  I scraped the excess jelly off the knife and set it in the sink before picking up my toast and taking a huge bite.

“Why?” Aunt Franki asked.

I swallowed, slowly turning to face her.  I wondered if her ignorance was an act or if it was genuine – I would have thought Roberta would have told her everything. I lifted a shoulder and studied my toast.  “We just decided to take a break, that’s all.”

“A break?  After everything that happened last weekend?”  She set her mug on the table, incredulous look shining in her eyes. 

I shrugged again as if the whole idea was lost on me. “So, what happened with your show or whatever it was you were supposed to do last weekend?” I asked, smoothly shifting the conversation.

“Oh, well, nothing,” she said as she blew the steam off her coffee, her cheeks flushed.  “Sean stepped in for me – handled the entire exhibit and relayed my apologies to everyone.  I’m supposed to meet him tonight to discuss how things went.”

The lovely color on her cheeks told me that dinner tonight was more than discussing a show they’d probably already discussed over the phone. I decided to cut her a break and not razz her about her ‘dinner meeting’.

“Well, that’s nice,” I said, restraining a smile.  “I’m going to go to Fin’s hockey game tonight, I guess.”

It was her turn to grin.  “Still say he’s not your boyfriend?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, my entire face flaming. “I’m just going to the game. He’s supposed to call me this morning and give me directions.  It’s an away game, you know, but it’s not that far.” I clamped my lips shut to stop my rambling, but the damage was already done.

A huge smile broke out on her face as she leaned back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest.  “Maybe you could just ride with his parents.”

“Funny,” I grumbled as a quiver started at the bottom of my heart.  I’d nearly forgotten that Fin intended to introduce me to his parents.

My cell phone trilled in my pocket, saving me from further embarrassment. I yanked it out, flipped it open, and walked out of the room.  It was Fin, like I’d figured – except for Jared’s occasional calls, he was the only one who called me.

“Hey,” he greeted, his low voice causing my stomach to wiggle.  “Are you still going tonight?”