Waiting for the Storm (14 page)

The noise came again, startling me further awake. I realized it was the sound of seagulls squawking and screeching. I winced; I hated that sound. Seagulls didn’t usually come this close to the house. I’d seen them occasionally waddling along the beach picking in the sand for some leftover morsel, but most of the time they stayed away from the houses, preferring to fly around the lake in search of their next meal.

I rolled out of bed, groaning when I saw it was only seven o’clock. Ezra had dropped me off just before four, and I’d gone to bed almost immediately. It was hard to believe that just a few weeks ago, seven o’clock in the morning was my normal bedtime.

I stumbled to the window, blinking my gritty, tired eyes. I threw open the curtains and looked outside, my gaze landing immediately on Ella, who was standing under my window throwing pieces of bread into the air.

“What the hell are you doing?” I yelled.

Ella jumped and whirled around, looking up toward my window. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you?” she asked sweetly. She reached into the almost-empty bag of bread she was holding and broke a slice into pieces before tossing it in the air. “They just look so hungry, don’t you think?” She dropped the bag into the sand and brushed her hands off, watching as the gulls converged on the last of the bread.

She angled her head up to look at me again, her eyes flashing with malevolent glee. It was then I realized she was wearing the same clothes I’d seen her in last night at the diner.

“Hope you had fun last night,” she called up to me. “I know I did.” She gave me a little finger wave and sauntered toward the porch, disappearing inside the house.

I sank down onto the window seat, listening to her soft footfalls on the stairs, followed by her bedroom door closing. Was she just getting home now? What had she been doing all night?

I shuddered. I didn’t want to know. It was none of my business. Ella was a big girl and if she wanted to do stupid things with bad people, that was her choice to make. As much as I wanted to save her from herself, she didn’t want my help, and she wasn’t my responsibility. I wanted so badly to talk to Dad about the whole thing, but I was afraid it would be pointless and I’d just end up feeling worse.

It was a no-win situation.

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I wandered into the bathroom to splash water on my face and brush my teeth. With my brain still half asleep, I made my way downstairs and out the back door. The seagulls were gone, their unexpected food source having disappeared, and the beach was quiet and empty.

I stretched out on the swing by the side of my house and rocked lazily, looking up at the clear blue sky. My eyes drifted shut and I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes again, Ezra was standing in front of me.

I flinched. “Jeeze, where’d you come from?”

Ezra laughed quietly. “Morning, sleeping beauty.” His gaze swept over me, and I remembered I was still wearing my pajamas. Ezra was dressed in work clothes—cargo shorts, white t-shirt, and boots—and he was freshly showered and shaved, his damp hair curling slightly around his neck. He had two cups of steaming coffee in his hands, and he held one out to me.

“Thanks,” I murmured, accepting it gratefully and taking a sip. It was French vanilla, my favourite; I tried to remember if I’d told him that at some point. “I didn’t think you usually started work ’til later.”

“I don’t normally, but Lilah has a job for me to do this afternoon, so I’m making up the time here now.” He lifted my feet and sat down beside me, draping my legs over his lap. “Got a couple hours’ sleep, got up, got ready, saw you dozing out here, and decided to bring you coffee.”

“Bless you,” I said with a smile, taking another sip of coffee and trying not to be embarrassed that I’d fallen asleep out here. I filled him in on my rude awakening, and he shook his head, looking equal parts annoyed and amused.

“I hope she’s careful with that jackass,” he said darkly. “I know your sister seems to be looking for trouble, but Chris is a whole different kind of trouble.”

His words made my entire body tense. He must have felt it in my legs because he looked at me and frowned. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to scare you,” he said quickly. “I’m sure he’ll have moved on by Friday and there’ll be nothing for you to worry about.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Hey, listen,” he said, touching my shoulder to get my attention. “Ella’s a big girl, she can take care of herself. And if things look like they’re getting out of hand, I’ll…step in.”

“Step in how?”

Ezra sighed. “You know, it’s times like this I wish I drank.” His words were light, as if he were joking, but his tone was heavy, his expression still dark. “My dad would start drinking the minute he got up in the morning. He’d spike his coffee, then drink from a flask he kept hidden on him. He’d fill a juice glass with what looked like water, but was actually vodka. There were days when he was so saturated in booze I was surprised it didn’t ooze from his pores. The smell sure did.”

He shook his head and looked past me, out to the water. This time of morning, there were no boats out yet, so the water was calm, with barely a ripple on the surface. “Before I started standing up to him, I had this huge chip on my shoulder. I was able to hide it with my close friends and family, but there was this group of kids at school…kids like Chris who were into things they shouldn’t be. Angel Island is a good place—it’s
home
—and I didn’t want a bunch of idiots messing things up, getting kids hooked on drugs, or dealing.

“One day after my dad gave me a particularly rough beating, I went to school with this raging mad inside of me, you know? I’d saved my mom from it, but that wasn’t enough to stop the anger, and it made me brave…or stupid, I don’t know.” He drained his coffee cup and set it in the sand. When he straightened, he met my eyes, appearing determined. “They were having a meeting at the back of the school, and I could see drugs and money passing from hand to hand. I went in looking for a fight, and that’s what I got. Four against one, and somehow they ended up looking worse than I did.”

I couldn’t picture it. I didn’t
want
to picture it. Ezra, with his horrific home life and all this built-up rage inside him looking for an outlet. “What happened?” I whispered.

He drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I got suspended from school for a week. If it had been anywhere else, I would have been kicked out, but since there’s only one school on the island and I didn’t have any previous transgressions, I got off easy. I think the principal had an idea of what was going on at home, and he didn’t want to suspend me at all, but he knew he’d catch hell from the board if he let me off completely. Before I left, I made sure he knew why I got in the fight, and what those kids were up to. They were suspended, but when it was brought up to the board, the school has a zero tolerance policy against drugs, so they were expelled. It was this huge thing on the island. Everyone talked about it for months. The kids’ families had to move, and I never heard about drugs at the school again.”

“And you?” I asked.

“Me? I got extra beatings for a week for getting suspended from school.” he said, his voice flat. “I never got into another fight, but that rep stayed with me. Even summer kids like Chris know about it. I’m not proud of it, and I hoped it would never come up, but I wanted you to know that if I have to deal with Chris, I will.”

I swallowed hard. “Deal with him?”

He let out another long breath and shifted closer to me, taking my hand and resting his other hand on my thigh. “The anger and the violence…that part of my life died when my dad did.” He shook his head. “Well, some of the anger’s still there, but it’s not raw and raging the way it used to be when I had to fight just to stay alive, you know? I don’t want to fight Chris, but if he tried to pull any shit with your sister, I wouldn’t be opposed to reminding him of the reputation I acquired back in high school, even if it was just over one fight. He probably doesn’t know that.”

I didn’t know whether to be upset or grateful. Ezra squeezed my hand and looked at me imploringly. He wanted me to understand, but I wasn’t sure I could.

“Hopefully it won’t come to that,” I said softly, squeezing his hand back. “But…it means a lot to me to know that you’re looking out for my sister.”

“Not just her,” he murmured, leaning in to kiss me gently on the lips. “Now you know two of my secrets. Are you ready to run for the hills yet?”

I smiled weakly, and since I couldn’t quite find the words to respond, I pulled him back to me and kissed him hard, hoping he understood.

“I’ll take that as a no.” He was a little breathless, and it made me grin like an idiot, knowing I had that effect on him.

“Definite no.”

“Good, because I was hoping…” He looked down at our entwined fingers, seeming suddenly anxious. “Well, I was thinking that we should go on a date. A proper date. We’re together a lot and we’ve gone out to eat, but I kinda think we should go on a real date.”

“A real date, huh?” Did my voice sound giddy?

He smiled, and I was shocked to see that he looked almost shy and more than a little nervous. “Yeah. I was thinking we could go to the restaurant near the ferry dock. It’s not fancy, but it’d be different from the diner or the pizza place. Or we could even go over to Kingston if you want.”

“I’d love to go on a date with you. I don’t care where.”

“Good.” He grinned, letting out a relieved sigh. “Is Wednesday okay? I know that’s kind of a random night for a date, but the weekend suddenly seems too far away.”

“Wednesday’s perfect. We haven’t really done the whole ‘normal’ thing, so it seems kind of fitting.”

“Have I told you I like your logic?” He kissed me again and slid out from under my legs. “I need to get to work. I’ll see you later?”

“I’ll be here.” I waved him off, then set the swing rocking again. I knew I still had a silly smile plastered to my face, but it didn’t seem to want to go away. I relaxed in the swing with my arms over my head, thinking about my date with Ezra later in the week.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Over the next couple of days, I spent my mornings at the library shelving books, cataloguing new arrivals, and doing whatever else Shelley needed help with. I rode my bike home for lunch with Ezra, then returned to the library, where I sat in the back with my laptop and worked on blog posts for the library’s website.

I was still familiarizing myself with the site and the other bloggers, so I hadn’t posted anything yet. I tried to convince myself the reason wasn’t because I needed to psyche myself up for it—I just wanted to be prepared.

On Wednesday afternoon, I had Shelley look over what I wanted to be my first post: an introduction, a bit about my reading history, and a few of my favourite books and authors. I had included a couple little anecdotes about Dad’s and my weekly trips to the bookstore, and him taking me to the university library when I was little. They were events that had shaped me as a reader, and I thought—or at least
hoped
—they were worth sharing.

“This is great,” Shelley told me enthusiastically. “You have a really straightforward, open writing style. You’re a natural.”

Bolstered by her comments, I posted the introduction right away before I could lose my nerve. I was now officially a blogger.

I was also a girl who was about to have her first official date with a seriously hot guy. As I said goodbye to Shelley and rode my bike home, I couldn’t fight the nerves that bubbled around in my stomach. It wasn’t my first date
ever
, and I’d spent plenty of time with Ezra over the last few weeks, but this was different. We still hadn’t defined what we were to each other, but a date felt like a big step. We kissed and held hands and hung out, but did a date officially make us a couple?

“I wouldn’t mind calling Ezra my boyfriend,” I said to myself as I pedaled toward home. The sun was hot and I was pedaling fast, but I wasn’t out of breath the way I had been even a week ago. It was amazing how quickly things changed.

I flew into the garage and parked the bike, hastily unhooking the helmet and hanging it on the handlebars. I’d lost track of time at the library, so I only had an hour before Ezra was due to pick me up.

I showered, then stood in front of the mirror trying to decide what to do with my long auburn hair. The sun had lightened the colour slightly over the last few weeks, leaving red and even some blond highlights throughout. I remembered a style my mom had done once, where she’d put my hair in several braids and twined them around my head. I attempted it and was surprised it looked almost as good as when she’d done it. I applied a little bit of makeup before slipping into a sleeveless knee-length sundress the colour of ripe raspberries. I hadn’t worn a dress since Mom’s funeral, and I hoped it wasn’t too much.

Downstairs, I found Dad in the kitchen working at his laptop. He’d been working a lot the past few days, and had been even quieter than usual. Seeing him reminded me I’d barely seen Ella since the morning of the seagull-feeding incident, but I was glad not to have to deal with her pettiness.

“I have my date with Ezra tonight, Dad,” I reminded him. I poured myself a glass of water and took a sip, hoping it would calm my nerves.

Dad was silent for so long I didn’t think he’d heard me, but then he sat up, looking confused. “It’s Wednesday already?”

I stared at him long and hard. He’d lost weight since we’d arrived; his clothes were getting baggy, and they looked in need of a wash. His stubble had turned into scruff, and his hair was getting long. “Yes, Dad. Have you eaten? Do you want me to fix you something before I go?”

“Hmm?” He looked up at me, and his eyes seemed to have trouble focusing. “Oh, no, no. There’s still some of that stew you made night before last, I’ll heat that up later.”

I wanted to press, but I didn’t. I was certain that when I got home the stew would still be in the fridge where I’d left it the other night. I always cooked enough for the three of us, but I ate alone every night and stored the leftovers for Dad and Ella. I knew Ella ate out with friends a lot, but I was also sure she picked at the leftovers when I wasn’t around.

“Okay. I’ll see you later then…” I waited for a response, but he’d returned to his work and had already forgotten I was there.

When I reached the porch, I glanced over at Ezra’s house just as a woman slipped inside the back door. Ezra came out a minute later and stopped at the top of the stairs when he saw me. He was wearing black dress pants and a short-sleeved blue button-down shirt. He’d gotten his hair cut sometime since this morning, morphing him from that slightly unkempt look I’d grown to love into something a little more grown up. It was cropped short around his ears and the back of his head, and kind of tousled and spiked on top. He was still my Ezra, only sexier.

My Ezra.
I swallowed hard at the thought.

A slow smile spread across his face. His eyes were dancing, and I knew
he
knew my mind was racing.

“You look beautiful,” he called as he descended the stairs and crossed the sand toward my porch.

“So do you,” I said. “Handsome, I mean.” No, beautiful seemed like the right word at that moment, but I wasn’t sure he would have appreciated it.

His smile widened as he joined me on the porch. “Looks like we both clean up pretty good.”

I laughed nervously. “I guess so.”

He bent to brush a kiss over my cheek, and I realized he even smelled different. It dawned on me that he was wearing cologne—he never wore cologne. It made me grin to know he was taking this as seriously as I was.

“You ready to go?”

“Let me just grab my purse. Why don’t you come in for a sec.” We stepped inside and I headed across the living room. “Hey, was that Lilah going into your house a few minutes ago?”

“Uhh, yeah,” Ezra said. “She just needed something, so I told her to go ahead and let herself out when she’s finished.”

I nodded, looking around for my purse before remembering I’d left it upstairs. “Be right back.” I ran up to my room and found my bag on the bed. I’d spilled out the contents earlier, trying to decide what to take and what to leave. I shoved everything back inside and grabbed my phone off the charger. The battery had died a few days ago, but because no one ever called me I’d forgotten to charge it. Now that I was out every day, I decided it would be good to have with me, so I’d finally remembered to plug it in.

I was heading out of my room and down the stairs when the phone rang in my hand, startling me. For a second, I thought it was Ezra crank calling me from the living room to see what was taking so long, so I answered without looking at the display.

“Hello?”

“Oh, Charlotte, honey, I’m so glad I was finally able to reach you.”

“Mrs. Lyle?” Mrs. Lyle was my elderly next-door neighbour back home. I couldn’t imagine why she’d be calling me.

“Yes, dear, it’s me,” Mrs. Lyle said in a rush. “I’ve been trying to reach your dad for the last couple of days, and I finally found your mobile phone number and kept trying it. I was beginning to think there was no reception on that island.”

“Sorry Mrs. Lyle, my cell died and I just recharged it.” I didn’t know why Dad hadn’t answered his, though. “Is there something I can do for you?”

In the kitchen, Dad and Ezra were bent over Dad’s laptop looking at something, and the sight made me smile. My mind wandered, and I almost missed what Mrs. Lyle was saying until I caught the words ‘break in’.

“Someone broke into my house?”

Dad’s and Ezra’s heads snapped up, and they looked at me as I slid into a chair at the table.

“Yes, day before last,” Mrs. Lyle told me, her worry projecting across the phone lines. “I saw someone skulking around the back, so I called the police. Whoever it was managed to get into the house, but they were only in there a few minutes before the police arrived. I let myself in with my key—I hope that’s all right—and looked around, and I didn’t see anything big missing, but I thought you’d want to know.”

I thanked Mrs. Lyle for all she’d done, and for calling to tell me, then ended the call and relayed her message to Dad and Ezra.

“We need to go home and make sure they didn’t take anything,” I said.

Dad stood up so abruptly he almost knocked his chair over. He paced in a tight circle around the kitchen, alternately wringing his hands and running them through his hair until it stuck up all over. “I-I can’t, Charlotte. I can’t go home. Not yet. It’s too soon. It’s too soon to be in that house.”

“We wouldn’t be going back permanently yet, Dad,” I said soothingly, jumping up from the table and trying to get him to stop pacing. “Just long enough to check things out and file an insurance claim if anything was taken.”

Dad was shaking his head and muttering under his breath. He looked so desperate it made that old hollow pain in my chest return.

I didn’t know what to do. What if whoever had broken in had been in there long enough to take something of Mom’s? I didn’t care about anything else, but all of Mom’s stuff was still there. We hadn’t even touched it after she died, figuring we’d give ourselves time and space, and deal with it in the fall.

If Dad wouldn’t go, I had no way of getting there. Ella couldn’t drive yet, and she wouldn’t anyway, not for me, and I obviously couldn’t drive.

Ezra stepped forward and gently took my shoulders. “I’ll take you.”

“What?” My mind was spinning. “No, you can’t, you have work.”

“I can take a few days off.” He sounded so calm and reasonable. He looked at me with a steady gaze, and I felt my racing heart slowly return to normal.

“But you have commitments,” I said quietly. “You have Adam and everyone else.”

His eyes darkened slightly, and worry crossed fleetingly over his face, but was gone almost instantly. “They’ll be fine without me,” Ezra assured me. “We won’t be gone long, and I can text Adam right now and tell him to find a back-up for tonight. Let me take you, Charlotte.” He squeezed my shoulders, then caught my dad’s attention. “I’ll take Charlotte, Mr. O’Dell.”

Dad’s relief was instant and so intense it made his entire body sag. It was a pitiful sight, one that made me want to cry. “Thank you.” His words were almost frantic despite his weary body language. “You’ll need money for gas and food.” He rooted around in his pockets until he found his wallet and pulled out almost all the bills inside.

“I couldn’t—” Ezra began, but Dad shoved the money at him, closing his hands firmly around it.

“Thank you,” he said again. “Thank you so much. I know you’ll take good care of Charlotte.” Dad passed me, his eyes overly bright, then turned back and pulled me into a quick hug before disappearing from the kitchen.

I didn’t know what to feel or think. I was so sure Dad had been improving, but this…this behaviour was unlike anything I’d ever seen from him. Panic warring with desperation warring with relief. I was almost afraid to leave him, but I had to know if my house was okay.

Ezra opened his hands and several crumpled bills fell to the floor. “I can’t take this, Charlotte.” He thrust the money at me, then bent to pick up what had fallen. “There’s, like, two hundred dollars here.”

I knew there was no sense arguing with him, so I smoothed out the bills and put them in my purse. “Fine, but I’m paying for gas and food and whatever else we may need, whether you like it or not. It’s only fair.” Fair. Nothing about this was fair. My eyes burned and my chin began to wobble. I turned away from Ezra before he could see.

“Hey,” he said softly. When I didn’t answer, he wrapped his arms around me from behind, pulling me against his chest and resting his chin on my shoulder. “It’s going to be okay.”

I nodded, but didn’t make any move to leave the safe, comforting circle of his arms. While we stood there in the kitchen, I could pretend everything was fine, and we were going to carry on with our fun day. I knew that once we got in the car, I’d be counting down the kilometres until we reached my house, where I’d have to face the facts I’d been trying to avoid for the last few weeks. The house would be empty, Mom would still be gone, and my family would still be in shambles. Not exactly the fun road trip most kids hoped for during summer break.

I slipped from his arms and gave him a small, grateful smile. “Let me just change my clothes and then we can go.”