Ashlyn's Radio (10 page)

A
SHLYN STOOD THERE
,
HANDS
on her hips and her mouth agape. She could not believe what she was hearing.

“I don’t care who invited you,” her grandmother continued. “You are not leaving this house. We don’t go out at night in Prescott Junction. We stay at home in our beds.”

“But I’m
seventeen!
”

“And you’re under my care, young lady!”

God, was she
serious
? Ashlyn blew out her breath in an exasperated growl. “What do you expect me to do? Have no social life at all for the next year? Just sit here at night …
knitting
?”

“Oh, you can have as active a social life as you want. Just do it like everyone else in the Junction does — during daylight hours.”

Ashlyn shook her head, at a loss as to what to do, what to say. Exactly how deep in Paranoia Land was her grandmother living?

If this were Toronto, Ashlyn would simply have stormed out. She’d have stomped around the streets a bit until she cooled down. And more often than not, she would realize that her mother maybe had a point. But it wasn’t Toronto and it wasn’t her mother she was dealing with. Her mother had never been this strict, thank God. Never as unreasonable, as unjust as Maudette was being.

Clearly, being honest with her grandmother had been a mistake.

Well, not that she had been totally honest. Maudette would have blown a gasket if she’d told her she was going to the tracks with Caden and Rachel in the hopes of spying the ghost train. So she’d tweaked the truth a teensy bit. She’d told Maudette that she was going to Rachel’s for a movie, popcorn and a dose of girl talk, tossing the explanation over her shoulder as she headed for the door. (That was always the best way, she’d found. Don’t ask. Just do it. Act as though permission was a foregone conclusion.) But it hadn’t worked on Maudette.

Ashlyn knew for a fact that her grandmother liked Rachel. She’d said as much when she’d seen the Riley car pulling out of the driveway. Maudette didn’t hold with the village gossip about Rachel being odd or a witch. Which was understandable. Ashlyn could only imagine the ugly names thrown at Catherine Brennan over the years. But as much as Maudette liked Rachel, she wasn’t budging. Literally. She stood in front of the door, barring it.

“That’s totally unfair!” Ashlyn shouted.

Maudette just stood there, her arms crossed over her ample chest.

“Arghhh!” Ashlyn crossed the floor and thumped her way up the stairs to her room. She slammed the bedroom door. Twice for emphasis.

Dammit, what now?

She paced the room, burning off steam and examining her options.

God, she
had
to get out of this house tonight! She’d go crazy if she didn’t. Especially knowing Caden was waiting for her. She’d thought of him all week, ever since Rachel had proposed this Friday night hook up. And she’d talked to him out at the kennels a few times (not too many times so as to make it really obvious, but enough times so it was … obvious that she liked him).

Caden….

Her resolve hardened. No way in hell was she staying in tonight.

So … what to do?

She could march right down into the kitchen and out through the front door. Or the back door, if Maudette still stood guard at the front. It wasn’t like the old woman would throw a tackle at her, pin her to the floor or anything. But Ashlyn wasn’t sure she wanted to openly defy Maudette. Not anxious to go down that particular one-way road. But she’d be damned if she was going to be a no-show while Rachel and Caden waited down by the river. In the dark. Together.

Flirting. Laughing. Kissing.

Cursing, Ashlyn shook her head to dislodge the unwanted — and unwarranted — image of Rachel and Caden. Rachel wouldn’t do that. She knew Ashlyn was seriously crushing on Caden. She’d respect that.

Wouldn’t she?

Ashlyn groaned. What was it about that boy? She’d had a couple of boyfriends in Toronto over the last few years — both of them pretty damned cool by Jarvis Collegiate standards — but neither of them had made her feel like this. While she’d felt appropriately … proprietary … over those other guys (just ask that total poser who’d try to latch onto her B-boy), she could see now what a pale emotion that was compared to how she felt around Caden. And he wasn’t even her boyfriend.
Yet.
But here she was, ready to go off with him in search of a freakin’ ghost train, for God’s sake!

Yeah, the train. Despite Rachel’s vehemence, Ashlyn still couldn’t wrap her mind around the … um … legend (she refused to think of it as an
urban legend
on principle, since nothing in Podunk Junction deserved that adjective). Come on, a ghost train chugging through the Junction, blowing its whistle and stealing the souls of those who climb aboard?

Yeah, yeah, the radio. Ashlyn was perfectly aware of her own hypocrisy. If the radio could do what it did — playing without power, predicting the future, coming back from destruction and following the Caverhills around — then
anything
was possible. Theoretically. But a ghost train with a soul-stealing conductor? Ashlyn wasn’t sure her mind could stretch that far.

But she was pretty sure her body could make the leap out the window. Well, more of a lean-launch than a leap. Out her bedroom window and into the nearby maple tree. How hard could it be? The wind was blowing just enough to set the limbs in motion. They brushed up against the windowpane as if egging her on.

“Plan B it is.”

Ashlyn opened her bedroom door, stuck her head out and hollered to her grandmother, “Okay, fine! You win! I’m in for the night! But …
just leave me alone!
” Another door slam (she was getting good at this) and she was sure Maudette wouldn’t be climbing the stairs for another confrontation any time soon.

With a smile, Ashlyn stepped on the paths of oval rugs across her room. Not wanting Maudette to hear the scraping on the floor, she lifted the chair from her mother’s old desk rather than dragging it to the closet. Ashlyn climbed up to reach the top shelf at the back of her closet to get what she needed. A minute later, she’d stuffed her sheets into the pair of old flannel long-johns and set the semi-Ashlyn-shaped, headless dummy down on the bed.

Okay, that creeped her out.

She dug out her Toronto Blue Jays tuque from the winter clothes she’d yet to unpack. Balling up a favorite hoodie, she stuffed it into the tuque, filling it out into something vaguely head-shaped. She laid the Ashlyn head on the pillow, covered the whole contrivance with her blankets, then stood back to survey her handiwork.

“Not too bad if I do say so myself.”

It was good enough to fool Maudette at any rate. Not that her grandmother was likely to be popping in to wish her sweet dreams this, or any other, night … but just in case. If she happened to look in, she’d be getting the cold shoulder of silence.

The window slid up soundlessly; the screen lifted out with ease. Admonishing herself not to look down, she leaned out and took the leap. The branch bent under her weight but held.
Good maple. Strong maple.
Clinging tight to the branch, she made her way closer to the tree’s trunk. From there, she was able to climb down a few more branches until she was close enough to jump from the tree. Releasing her grip, she landed on her feet with a knee-buckling thump.

She straightened and started jogging through the back yard. She was just congratulating herself on her cleverness when a dog started barking.

Oh no!

“Lolly-Pup, hush!” Ashlyn hissed the futile command. “Shhhhh!”

Encouraged by the hissing, Hector, Roxy and a couple other dogs followed Lolly-Pup’s tail-wagging lead. A chorus of play-with-me-now woofs filled the air.

“Crap!” A light went on in the darkened house behind her. A downstairs light — Maudette’s room. Apparently her grandmother had decided to call it an early night too after their argument. And Ashlyn didn’t appreciate one damn bit the little pang of guilt she suddenly felt.

“Quiet now, good dogs.”

She turned at the sound of the familiar male voice. It was easy and yet commanding. Deep and gravelly, steadying to the Airedales. Sexy as hell to her. Belonging to Caden Williams. Ashlyn’s heart did a little skippy thing that had nothing to do with the window climb and race across the yard. 

The tail-wagging dogs immediately fell quiet and raced over to press themselves against the fence where Caden stood. He crouched down, pressing his hands to the chain link mesh for each of them to lick, praising them softly.

Good dogs. Good, quiet dogs.

“You’re amazing.” Ashlyn hadn’t meant the compliment to sound so breathless. “With the dogs, I mean,” she added.

Caden smiled up at her and her knees weakened. “I’ve always had a way with them, though I’ve never had one myself.”

“Why not?”

“Dad’s not really a pet person.”

“But he’s letting you keep one of Lolly-Pups pups, isn’t he?”

Caden smiled. “Ah, but a Caverhill Airedale comes with a certain pedigree. You know, bloodline of champions. Dad is into things like that.”

Wow. Caden’s father sounded very status-oriented. That didn’t bode well, given her crazy Caverhill rep—

The door to the house creaked open.

“Crap,” Ashlyn whispered, crouching down beside Caden. “If the dogs start up again and she comes out here, I’m screwed.”

“Quiet now, good dogs,” Caden cooed to them. There wasn’t a single bark. Not so much as a doggie whimper.

Maudette shut the door. A moment later, the lights went out again.

Ashlyn released the breath she’d been holding. “Whew.”

“Had to sneak out, huh?” Caden teased. “Your grandmother not too thrilled about you going out with me tonight?”

Going out with him….
Okay, it wasn’t really a date. Rachel would be there, too. But damn! A little thrill shot through her. So preoccupied was she about those words, she almost forgot the context. Maudette’s objections had nothing to do with Caden. Nor the color of his skin. Time to correct that impression. Once and for all.

“She doesn’t even know I’m going out with you tonight. I didn’t tell her.”

“Ah. You didn’t want her to know you’d be with me.”

“God, no!” she rushed to say. “That’s not it at all. My grandmother just has this thing about me going out at night. Period. It has nothing to do with you, Caden. Maudette likes you. A lot. I like you a lot.”

Whoops. Maybe she should have stopped those last few words….

Caden smiled down at her, took a step closer. “I’m teasing, Ash.”

He gently touched her arm, and her knees went to rubber as his hand skimmed the suddenly sensitized flesh. He leaned in closer, and she let her lids droop, let her body sway toward him. Her heart pounded heavy and hard in her chest. She could feel his breath on her forehead now. Her cheek. Yes!!! He was going to kiss her! Oh, God, he was really going to —

Caden cleared his throat and stepped back. “We’d better get going.”

Ashlyn swallowed and found her voice. “Ah … yeah, we’d better. Rachel’s waiting.”

“Stay quiet now, good dogs,” he said to the Airedales. He turned to Ashlyn. “Short cut through the woods?”

Through the
woods
? Ack! “What? In the dark?”

She’d never felt compelled to set foot in the woods, even in broad daylight. And her idea of a shortcut meant taking the TTC and cutting through the underground mall to get to the Eaton Centre, not traipsing through the woods with … whatever the hell lived in the woods.

Caden saw her hesitation. “Ashlyn, it’s a ten minute walk to the river if we take the woods path. If we go around the tracks, it would take us twenty. By road, it’d be closer to thirty.”

She chewed her lip. “But you’re new here, too. Are you
sure
you know the way?”

“Positive.”

There was something in his voice. Not just the assurance that he knew the way, but that he’d make sure it was perfectly safe. She sighed. “Okay, shortcut wins.”

Ashlyn was surprised by how quickly they reached the dark woods. The yard light of the Caverhill house twinkled out in no time, obscured by the thick growth of trees. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought it would be. Caden really did know the way. And it wasn’t like they were in the jungle or anything. Not like there were any giant anacondas under foot. No saucer-sized spiders waiting to swing down on to her, no jaguars ready to pounce.
But then again,
her imagination whispered,
you wouldn’t see them if there were.

A dried branch snapped beneath Ashlyn’s right foot as she stepped on it. In the still of the night, it sounded like a rifle crack to her heightened senses. She jumped, half screamed and locked a hard hand around Caden’s arm.

“Relax, Ash. It’s not like were going to run into a bear or anything.”

“Oh, God, bears! I didn’t even think of bears.”

He laughed. “Don’t sweat it. Black bears are diurnal, at least in areas that aren’t urbanized. Prescott Junction being what it is, I’m thinking they haven’t had to adapt. Besides which, if you ever ran into one, it’d be more scared of you than you are of it.”

She highly doubted that latter part, but took comfort in the former, picturing all the bears tucked up in bed just as securely as the human residents. “You do this a lot, Caden? Go wandering through the woods at night?” Talk would be good. Distracting and good.

“Nah. I rarely go out at night here.”

“You and everyone else,” she groused. “This one guy at school asked me to the fall formal, and it’s over at 9 o’clock! Can you believe it?”

Caden stiffened beside her.

Oh goooood.

“Not that I accepted his invitation.”

“You don’t like dancing?”

“Depends on the partner.”

Okay, hint laid out there. They walked on in silence, but Ashlyn knew Caden had eased into a smile when she told him she’d declined Brian’s invitation.

“So, are your folks superstitious too? Do you have to contend with that whole stay in bed at night crap in your house?”