Ignite (33 page)

             
“You have a lovely house,” remarked Daniel.

             
“Thank you!” replied Lucinda, setting the tongs down as she started on cracking the eggs. “I think it’s too big. If it had been up to me, I would have gotten a little cosy house somewhere quiet.”

             
“Who was it up to?” My heart tightened at his question.

             
“My son, Jaxon. It was his surprise two years ago and, well, since he enjoys swinging by his mom’s place regularly, I’d like to think the space was a good thing after all.” It was a joke that had Daniel chuckling and me quivering.

             
“Talking about me, are we?” said Jaxon as he entered the kitchen.

             
For me, the whole atmosphere was disturbed by his presence. It had been soft and carefree, now it was tense and joyless and filled with Daniel’s sudden curiosity.

             
Jaxon had showered. That was why he’d been missing in action. Where Daniel was all dressy with his tailored outfits, Jaxon was all over the show in comfortable wear, donning a worn out black hoodie over ruffled blue denims. His dirty blonde short do was dripping in water, like he hadn’t even bothered to dry off. I don’t think he’s ever dried off after a shower.

             
“I was,” Lucinda said, wiping her hands with the tea towel nearby. “Daniel, this is my son, Jaxon.”

             
Daniel got up from his stool and extended his hand out. With a surprisingly pleasant demeanour, Jaxon shook it, returning the soft smile Daniel was giving him.

             
“Nice to meet you,” said Daniel.

             
“Nice to meet you too. Come all the way from Winthrop, right?” Jaxon casually asked, making his way to the stool across from Daniel.

             
“Yeah, I did.”

             
“Long drive, huh? Gotta have good company or else it’s boring as hell.”

             
“Do you travel up there often?”

             
“Not anymore. I used to.” Jaxon flashed me a deliberate look as I hesitantly placed an extra plate down in front of him.

             
Daniel was a smart guy, and the look alone from Jaxon to me had impelled even more curiosity. He studied me nonstop. I tried hard to appear as neutral as possible, knowing full well that Jaxon was going to intentionally keep dropping hints. I just hoped he wasn’t cruel enough to hint about last night. At this rate, Jaxon was capable of doing anything.

             
They made small chat about… the weather. Seriously? I set a large plate of bacon down in the centre of the island, and Lucinda walked around, setting eggs onto each of our plates. After pouring everyone a cup of orange juice, I sat down beside Daniel, and Lucinda beside Jaxon, and we all began eating. By all, I mean them and not me. I was too busy worrying over how the hell I was going to tell Daniel what happened.

             
“So what are the plans for today, Sara?” Lucinda asked, no doubt trying to break the awkward silence in the air.

             
“The skip will be at the house, so it’ll be a day of tossing stuff away,” I answered.

             
“I’ll help you out with that,” Daniel told me, setting a soothing hand on my thigh as he watched me kick around a bacon strip with my fork. “I’ll make sure you get it done. No more distractions.”

             
I smiled at him, and then he leaned in and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. This was not Daniel behaviour, but after hearing the boyfriend bit he was definitely playing the part. I had suspicions he was marking his territory in front of Jaxon. Lucinda had similar thoughts, peeking over at Jaxon with a worried look. Jaxon accomplished the neutral look well, but his eyes deceived him. He was observing every bit of our interaction, touch, word and look.

             
“How is work?” I said to him.

             
“Unbearable. The replacement secretary is as useful as bike peddles on a wheelchair.” Lucinda and I burst out laughing. “She can’t even work the fax machine.”

             
“But she works in the other department.”

             
“Yeah, as a secretary’s assistant and she’s only been in that position two weeks so far. I stared at her for a whole ten minutes aligning four pieces of paper to staple through the corner of.”

             
“So you must really miss me.” I bit down on my lip, trying hard not to laugh.

             
“Why do you think I’m here? Gonna kidnap you back to the office.”

             
Lucinda laughed again. “I like him, Sara. He’s determined.”

             
“Determined enough to drive three hours to see the hottest secretary I’ve ever head, yeah,” agreed Daniel.

             
“You should have finished your degree,” Jaxon interjected in seriousness. “I remember how much you immersed yourself in your studies, pushing other…
important
things out of your life to get it done. You shouldn’t have abandoned it.”

             
My smile disappeared and my stomach dropped.

             
“It wasn’t her fault,” Daniel said, a little defensively. “Money problems get in the way more often than you might think.”

             
“Yeah, money.” Jaxon twisted his lips in distaste. “What a damn thing
money
is.”

             
I looked down at the plate, saddened because I knew exactly what he wasn’t saying out loud.

             
“What do you do for yourself, Jaxon?” Daniel asked, inquisitively. There was no fooling him; he could sense when things were amiss.

             
“I own a few businesses,” Jaxon replied. Did he enjoy being all mysterious about it with everyone? Daniel wouldn’t let that answer slide.

             
“In anything in particular?”

             
“Not really.”

             
“All kinds of things,” Lucinda piped in, uncomfortable herself with the questions. “They’re all spread around. A night club and a bar in the centre of town, and a restaurant around here–”

             
“No, that one’s in centre of town, too,” Jaxon interrupted, thoughtfully.

             
“No, no, I’m talking about the Italian place ten minutes from here, near Walter Avenue.”

             
“Oh, right, that one.”

             
Daniel raised a brow. “Just how many businesses do you own?”

             
“Well, after today…” Jaxon leaned back a little in his stool, and his eyes went up to the ceiling as he stopped to think about this. Because really, it takes someone this long to think about how many businesses they own, right? “Hmm… Ten all up.”

             
“Eleven,” Lucinda corrected him with a roll of her eyes.

             
I didn’t know whose jaw fell first, but Daniel and I were both wide eyed and open mouthed in a matter of seconds.

             
“Quite the busy man,” remarked Daniel with lifted brows. He was very impressed.

             
“Well, it started out rough. I didn’t bother after high school, didn’t want to be a loser –” he flashed me a pointed look “ – and I didn’t want to be a disappointment to my mom, so I got my shit together.” He pushed the plate forward, gulped down the last of his orange juice and stood up. “That reminds me, I’ve got some unfinished errands I need to get around to. It was nice meeting you, Daniel. Maybe I’ll see you around again.” He emphasized ‘maybe’ with a smirk, glancing at me and then turned to his mom. “I’m taking the bike. Where’s the helmet?”

             
“It’s still rainy out there,” Lucinda complained.

             
“I’m a big boy.”

             
She sighed. “It’s in my closet behind the pink purse and my stack of wool.”

             
“Unbelievable,” he muttered as he walked out of the kitchen.

             
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “You hide his helmet?”

             
“He wrote off his Ducati last year in a crash, and broke his wrist in the process. It was storming out. Every time I see it rain, I hide his helmet. He keeps his bikes here because his apartment’s car port isn’t big enough apparently.”

             
“He’s got a Ducati?” Daniel perked up.

             
I gave him a smack on the shoulder. “Glad that’s what you heard amid the story of his bike crash.”

             
Lucinda laughed. “Boys and their toys.”

Eighteen

The rest of the breakfast was lighter now that Jaxon was gone. I didn’t have to bite my lip in fear of anything slipping. We made small chat. Lucinda took a good liking to Daniel, shooting me approving eyes every time he cracked a joke or showed me affection.

             
When we finished our breakfast, we helped with the dishes, and then I left Daniel for a few minutes to fetch my purse and charger in case my phone died at my mother’s house. On our way out the door, Lucinda handed me a spare house key in case she wasn’t home when I returned. I liked that she just assumed I’d come back for the night knowing full well that I needed a room again.

             
I climbed into Daniel’s flashy sports car – boys and their toys indeed – and directed him to my mother’s place. He was unusually silent all the way there, heavy in thought. I wondered if he got the vibe that I was withholding something from him. I just couldn’t relax around him, and my fidgeting was noticeable.

             
I was delighted to find that the skip was right on the front lawn as promised. I led Daniel inside and we started the process of gathering useless junk that wasn’t sellable and tossing it in the skip. It was definitely better having someone around. It didn’t leave me time to think about my mother, which I’d been dodging lately. I couldn’t think about her for longer than a minute at a time without feeling a crowd of negative thoughts. I was still in shock about her death. It hadn’t hit me at all. It was made worse in the fact I hadn’t even gone to her damn funeral.

             
In the middle of tossing junk away, Daniel loaded up the clothes and all the small things I’d put aside for charity and, having called up a local charity service, he made a few trips dumping the stuff off. He then returned with two cups of coffee and two sandwiches.

             
“We‘ve been at it for a couple hours,” he said, handing me my sandwich. “Take a breather. I noticed you barely ate this morning.”

             
I took the sandwich and unrolled it, smiling like a kid that he’d picked up my favourite: chicken and avocado with cheddar cheese in a thick bread roll. “Thank you,” I said.

             
I took a seat on the black leather couch and looked around the living room. Everything had been cleared away. All that was left were bare furniture that would be given to the shop owner tomorrow when he swung by… which I hoped he remembered. I nibbled on my sandwich, but my appetite was still gone.

             
Daniel was sitting on an armchair facing me, and his eyes never left me. He studied me too intently than I would have liked, making me extra self-conscious.

             
“So,” he started quietly, taking a bite out of his ham and cheese sandwich, “that Jaxon guy is pretty interesting.”

             
I stopped chewing my tiny bite and shrugged. “I guess.”

             
“You knew him pretty well, didn’t you?”

             
“Yeah.”

             
“You going to keep giving me short answers?”

             
“What is it that you’d like me to say exactly?”

             
“I’m not trying to put you on the spot, babe. It’s just… the way he looked at you, and some of the things he said while we ate, it was fairly obvious there was…” He paused and twisted his lips. “…more than meets the eye.”

             
“I grew up with Jaxon,” I explained. “I’ve known him for as long as I can remember. He saved me from a bully when I was eight and then took me under his wing. We’d been really good friends for a number of years.”

             
Narrowing his eyes, he said, “I know you were with him, Sara. I saw the photos on the wall when you were getting your purse. He took you to prom, didn’t he?”