The Sound of Shooting Stars (29 page)

I downloaded some songs for you to listen to today. Have a wonderful day.

I miss you already!

Love Jamie

I pick up the IPOD and play the first song and it’s the song he sang to me on the way to the planetarium entitled, Hey, Princess. This causes me to laugh out loud even though I’m the only one in the room. I climb into his bed and take in the smell left on the pillows and blankets that is unique to Jamie. Maybe I’ll just stay here all day. The next song that plays is Reckless by San Cisco. He knows me so well.

***

At the end of the day Jamie walks through the house to find me in the pool.

“Hey, how’ s our resident fugitive?”

“Not bad. How was your day?’

He hesitates a minute and turns, “I’m going to go and get my suit. Is the water nice?”

“Jamie, you’re avoiding my question. How did it go?”

“It was fine Beckett, I’ll be right back.”

I lower myself underwater as he heads back into the house. I can only imagine what he must have gone through today. Only one more day and I get to go back. Oh joy.

A few minutes later Jamie runs to the edge and leaps landing in a cannonball. The pool sloshes over the edges onto the deck. I laugh until he swims up behind me and wraps me in his arms. He whispers into my ear, “I missed you today.”

I turn in his grasp and kiss him lightly, “I missed you too.”

I squirm out of his grasp and claim, “I won’t let you kiss me again until you tell me about your day.”

He swims at me, a sneaky smile across his lips, “Is that so?”

“Yep,”

I swim to the other end but he’s faster. Before I can climb out he grabs my waist and pulls me back under with him. When I surface again I turn in his arms and reason, “Seriously, tell me. How was Sam? How was Dani? Did she do anything evil today?”

He shakes his head releasing me and looking like he’s suddenly deep in thought.

“I have to go and talk to Sam’s mom. I think there is more to her reasons than we know and maybe if I can talk to her…”

“No Jamie, that is a terrible idea.”

“I’m sorry but I have to.”

I swim to the other side of the pool hoping to distract him. But he climbs out onto the deck. When I turn around he looks like he’s given up.

“Jamie, please don’t go. What if this backfires and gets you sent away? David said don’t go near them.”

“I have to try. Sam came over here last night so maybe it’ll be alright.”

“What if she came over to get you to do something like this? What if they are just waiting for you to go near Sam and then you’ll have to go away.”

He skirts around the pool and leans down to me. He kisses my forehead and tells me, “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere except to fix all of this. Can I take your car?”

I nod and watch him walk into the house and a bad feeling settles in my middle. I really think this is a bad idea.

Dinner comes and goes. My parents ask where Jamie is and I give them some lame excuse about him going to the beach to look at the stars. They believe me, who knows why but time sneaks by so slowly as I sit on the lounge chair on the balcony waiting for him. I’ve listened to the playlist he made for me at least ten times today.

Chapter Forty-One

Jamie Grey

Norma – the Level

Two faint stars resembling the line of sight a draughtsman may use.

~*~

Beckett practically begged me not to go to Sam’s house but I’m tired of all of these games. This is my life everyone is playing with. If I’m meant to stay here then it will happen but I can’t take this back and forth shit anymore. School today was tough. I didn’t tell Beckett because I didn’t want to upset her but Dani was downright cruel. She was on a gossip rampage most of which involved Beckett. I think her intention is to make it very difficult for Beckett to come back. Most of the day I was ignored except for the usual attempt from Trina.

When I pull up to the large white two story home I hesitate, getting out of the car but they’ve probably already seen me. It’s D time. I ring the bell and wait. A slight woman with a bun on top of her head answers the door.

“I um came… can I see Elizabeth?”

“Sure, please come in.”

She leads me to a lone table in a room attached to the kitchen. It’s sparsely decorated and the walls are painted a light baby blue. The woman leaves telling me Mrs. Rivers will be with me shortly. This is a huge change from when I lived with them. We lived in a three bedroom house in a middle class neighborhood. Both Steve and Elizabeth worked full time but they seemed happy. The two times I’ve seen Sam’s mom, I’ve gotten the impression that she is unhappy, not like she was back then.

A few minutes pass before she walks around the corner. A surprised expression crosses her features before she regains her calm and professional demeanor. She doesn’t sit; instead she stands behind one of the high backed chairs.

“Jamie, I’m surprised to see you. Do the Chases know you are here?”

I shake my head still not sure how to start this conversation.

“Well I’m not sure it’s a good idea for you to be here. They did inform you of what is going on, didn’t they?”

My anger at her rises in this instant. It’s all true I realize. She is trying to get me thrown back into the system. Maybe I just needed to hear it for myself.

“Elizabeth, do you realize what you are doing? Do you realize that all those years ago when you sent me back that I never had a real home again?”

I can tell my words affect her. Just slightly that strong set of her jaw falters. So I continue with the knowledge that my words do have an effect, “I was never placed for more than a year after your home. Now, when I’m about to turn eighteen in less than a year and I have the opportunity to have a home for those short months, you want to take that away. I don’t understand.”

She pulls the chair out. I can tell the wall she’s so carefully put up is starting to crack.

She sits quietly placing her hands one on top of one another on the table, her shoulders squared and her mouth moving but no words coming out.

Finally she tells me, “You remind me of him, you know. No you aren’t blood and you don’t look like him but your mannerisms  mirror some of his. Jamie, I was hurt and heartbroken. I couldn’t have you around, there were too many reminders of him and he left me.”

I’m shocked at her words and stricken by the reality of what she is saying.

My voice comes out in barely a whisper, “But I was only a child.”

Her eyes fill with emotion and she nods, “I know and that is what makes it so much worse. Over the years I thought about trying to get you back but the more time that passed, the angrier I thought you’d be and I just, I imagined you had found a family that would love you and raise you better than I ever could have.”

She continues, “I don’t know what Sam told you, but I was in a very bad place for two years after he died. If Jared wouldn’t have found me, I don’t know where we’d be right now.”

I slink back into the chair. Hearing all of this brings it all back to me as if it just happened yesterday. I’m completely at a loss for words. I thought she really didn’t want me because I wasn’t good. She didn’t want me because I’m like Steve. I want to leave so badly but I force the words out, “But why are you fighting it now? I have a real chance at stability, possibly college, and you want to take all of that away again.”

She frowns and looks away. When she looks back at me again, she has regained some sense of composure.

“I think the Chase house isn’t the best place for you. Beckett is nothing but trouble. She has done nothing but hurt Sam over the years and I don’t want that for you Jamie, not when you are this close to being on your own.”

I quickly stand because my blood is pumping so hard.

“What gives you that right now? You lost the right to care years ago when you gave me back. If you wanted to have a say in my life, you should have thought about that a long time ago.”

Her hands clench and her eyes squint at my words.

I collapse back into the chair. The threat of tears I haven’t cried brimming. She looks away, I’m not sure whether she doesn’t want to embarrass me or to avoid anything I just said.

She quickly rises and says looking down at the table, “You are right, I gave up all of my rights to your life, a long time ago.” She looks into my eyes, “But I do care. If you want to remain at the Chase house, I will back out of it. But Jamie, please be aware that Beckett is trouble. She leaves nothing but pain in her wake.”

I rise out of the chair and wipe my eyes of the tears that are threatening to spill.

My voice cracks out a whisper, “Thank you Elizabeth.”

I turn to walk out but she calls out behind me, “Jamie be careful. Sam has told me what’s going on and it won’t end well.”

I continue to walk out the door. My heart is heavy and I’m not sure how I feel about everything that was said but there is one person I am truly sure of and that is Beckett. They are all wrong about her.

When I pull into the drive Beckett stands from the steps. She pulls on the ear buds attached to my IPOD and hurries to the car. When I open the door she rushes out, “How did it go?”

I smirk at her nervous energy and pull her into my arms holding her as tightly as I can. She relaxes into me not uttering another word. Right now I just need her closeness. After a while, my grip loosens and she pulls back asking, “That bad, huh?”

I shake my head, “Nope, she’s going to back off.”

Beckett eyes me curiously, “She’s not going to fight it any longer?”

“No, she said she wouldn’t.”

She steps back further excitement in her eyes, “You get to stay?”

“It looks that way.”

She tackles me and devours my lips knocking me back against the car. My hands move down her hips to her back and up under her shirt to rest against her warm smooth skin. My heart starts beating faster and my breathing becomes erratic. After a minute I put my hands on her cheeks and pull from her lips.

“Beckett, it’s probably not a good idea out here. If your parents come out and see us…”

She moves away and straightens her t-shirt. I notice for the first time that it has the first line from the nursery rhyme, Twinkle twinkle little star. My lip quirks at this girl. Everyone is very wrong about her. I wish they could all see what I see in her.

She grabs my hand and pulls me into the house yelling , “Mom, Dad, come out here. You have to hear this.”

Panic starts in my middle and I tell her quietly, “We should wait, just in case Elizabeth goes back on her word. I don’t want to get their hopes up and them to be angry that I went over there if she doesn’t follow through.”

Her face falls but she agrees, “You’re right, I’ll make something else up.”

Marla and David both hurry into the entry way with concerned expressions.

Beckett announces, “Never mind, false alarm. I thought I saw a rat in the house.”

Marla looks around suddenly scared, “A rat? What? Are you sure Beckett?”

“No Mom, It wasn’t a rat, I think it was just a shadow. I’m sorry for calling you both in here.”

Her parents walk to the back of the house as we climb the stairs to our respective rooms. I linger in her doorway kissing her for way too long but I can’t seem to get enough of this girl.

Chapter Forty-Two

Beckett Chase

Pavo – the Peacock

The peacock was Hera’s sacred bird. The goddess drove through the air in a chariot drawn by peacocks. The eyes on the tail were placed there to honor Argus’ memory.

~*~

After Jamie left me at the entrance to my room I had tons of nervous energy. I’m elated that he gets to stay and Sam’s mom is backing out but he didn’t want to tell me the details. I figured it was hard for him and he will share it eventually. But lying here in my bed staring up at my stars, all I can do is think about him and the way his hands felt on my bare skin earlier tonight.