Branded (The Branded Series) (7 page)

“Jake, come
join us,” Dad called as he waved me over. “Your mother could use a little
help.”

I assessed the
chessboard and saw that Dad had Mom in about three moves or less. “Just quit
now, Mom. He has you.”

“Oh,
sweetheart, you know a quitter never wins,” Mom teased as she pretended to have
a well-thought-out strategy in mind.

“Yeah, yeah,
and a winner never quits—but you’re not a winner, Mom.” I patted the top of her
head and whispered, “I think you should knock his king over. That might be your
best bet.”

She laughed as
she contemplated it. Mom hated to lose. She was quite competitive. So was Dad though,
so I never really understood why they played chess together every weekend when
he was home. Mom told me it strengthened their marriage since Dad travelled so
much for work. It forced them to think like each other and get back on the same
wavelength. Weird stuff.

Mom stroked
her chin thoughtfully, then she quickly swiped the board with her hand and
muttered, “Cheater.”

“Maybe next
time, love,” Dad mused as he passed Mom her glass.

Mom took the
wine, scowled at him, and then curled up beside me on the couch. “So, Jake, big
trip this weekend. Looking forward to it?” she asked.

“Yeah, should
be a lot of fun. Thanks again for letting me go.”

“Well, you can
thank that new principal of yours,” Dad pointed out. “She was very encouraging.”

I grinned as I
remembered my alibi.

“Oh, I almost
forgot. Anna called for you while I was on the other line earlier.” Mom liked
Anna. You could always tell when she liked or disliked one of my friends. If I
got their phone messages, then she liked them. She would often open my bedroom
door late at night to yell at me to get off the phone, but when she heard I was
talking to Anna, she’d smile and say, “Five more minutes, okay, sweetheart? Say
hi to Anna for me.”

I couldn’t
wipe the smile off of my face as I hopped off the couch and into the kitchen,
glancing around the room for the cordless.

“She’s such a
sweet girl, Jake. Are you guys . . . an item yet?” Mom said hopefully.

“Mom! We’re
just friends . . . for now.”

“Will she be
going with you guys this weekend?” Dad asked.

“I think so.
How about I call her back and find out?” I laughed as I found the phone and
waved goodbye with it.

I took the
stairs up to my room two at a time and nearly ran over Abby when I reached the
top.

“Geez! Sorry,
Abby!” I remembered the time and took a closer look at my sister who was
standing with her arms straight by her sides and her eyes barely open. She was
sleepwalking again.

“Abby, wake
up.” I lightly shook her, but she just swatted my hands away. “Mom, Abby’s
sleepwalking!”

Mom and Dad hurried
to the bottom of the stairs. “Just leave her, Jake,” Mom said. “I want to see
where she goes when she sleepwalks.”

It was because
of Abby’s nightly episodes that we had a state-of-the-art alarm system
installed in the house. Mom was a deep sleeper, and with Dad away all the time,
they were worried Abby would get out of the house in the middle of the night
and no one would ever know what happened to her.

Abby continued
down the stairs and into the living room. She knelt down beside the coffee
table and started picking up the chess pieces and putting them back in the box.
Then she picked up the art supplies on the floor and put them away, tidied up
the blankets on the back of the couch, brought the wine glasses into the
kitchen and started running the water to do the dishes.

Dad started to
wake her up, but Mom quickly stopped him. Obviously she wanted to see how much
housework she could get out of Abby while she was asleep.

“Just leave
her, David. I want to see how she’ll wake herself up.” They both watched Abby
with amused expressions and I could see that they wouldn’t notice if I slipped
back upstairs.

“Good night,”
I mumbled as I headed back up to my room.

I quickly dialed
Anna’s
number. It was getting late, but I had to talk to her.

“Hello?” her
perfect voice answered in a slight whisper.

“Hi Anna.
Sorry it’s late. Mom just told me that you called. Is everything okay?” I
kicked off my slippers and stretched out on my bed.

“Yeah,
everything’s fine. What happened to you today?” she asked, sounding concerned.

“In-house
detention,” I lied. It felt awful to lie to her, but I remembered my vow to
keep the secret.

“That stinks.
How’d it go?”

“Fine,” I said
quickly, hoping to get her off the subject. “Are you all ready for tomorrow?”

“Yes, and I
heard you’re able to come after all,” she said, sounding pleased.

“Wouldn’t miss
it. Are you travelling with us? Noah’s driving.”

“Yeah, he
called and asked if I wanted to drive with you guys . . . and I think Rachel is
coming too?” I could swear I heard a hint of jealousy in her voice. It was
cute.

“Oh, is she? I
didn’t know. Maybe she’ll sit up front with Noah.”

“That would be
nice.”

There were a
few seconds of awkward silence.

I cleared my
throat and said, “So, I was wondering. You were trying to tell me something
earlier, but Mr. Meade interrupted us?”

“Oh, yeah.
Ummm . . . maybe we could talk about it tomorrow? At Wentworth?”

I didn’t want
to wait, but whatever Anna wanted, I would give her. “Sounds good,” I lied.

“Well, I’ll
see you in the morning. Good night, Jake.”

“Good night,”
I said softly as I hung up the phone and sat staring at it while a swarm of
butterflies played tag in my stomach.

I began
recalling memories of Anna and me playing together—in her backyard building
forts, in my basement playing pool, in her garage rebuilding our bikes. I
started to doze off as I remembered one particular memory of the two of us
paddling her canoe out to a private island and exchanging our first “real kiss”
under the big oak tree. It ended up being our
only
kiss for years . . .
but maybe that was about to change.

I was waiting
at the end of
the driveway when Noah pulled up in his Jeep shortly after eight o’clock. Rachel
was sitting in the front seat flipping through Noah’s playlist. The back seat
was empty. I threw my duffle bag into the trunk and attached my skis onto the
ski rack next to Noah’s.

“Mornin’,” I
said as I slid into the back seat.

“Good
morning,” Rachel answered cheerfully. Much too perky for this hour. Noah’s silence
was typical for this time of day.

“Anna next?” I
tried to maintain a tone of indifference.

“Yes, Jake, we
won’t forget your girlfriend,” Rachel answered playfully.

“She’s not my
girlfriend,” I said, not even convincing myself.

“Well, maybe
not right now, but she will
be.” Rachel peered at me over the top of her
sunglasses and winked.

What did she
mean by that? Did she know something that I didn’t? Wait a second—she had that
weird gift of being able to see into the future. I steadied my heart rate and
forced myself to relax. “Oh, right. I forgot about your
gift
. Well,
thanks for the heads up, but you can feel free to stay out of my business,” I said
feigning annoyance, although I was more than ecstatic over this possibility.

“Well,
regardless of what
might
happen in the future, just remember to keep
your lips sealed about our little secret. Got it?” Rachel said with a little
too much supremacy.

“Yeah, yeah.
Turn around and find us some tunes, would ya?”

Rachel rolled
her eyes. “And that right there is why it won’t last.”

“What do you
mean?” I asked, suddenly interested in something Rachel had to say.

“Oh, sorry,
lips are sealed.” Rachel pouted. “Staying out of your business like I was
told.”

“Settle down,
children,” Noah laughed as he pulled into Anna’s driveway.

I clenched my
teeth and told myself she was just trying to get under my skin. She didn’t know
what she was talking about.

Anna was waiting
on her front steps. She was wearing black yoga pants and a white ski jacket.
Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a few small pieces that hung by her
face. I met her at the bottom of her walkway and helped her with her backpack
and skis.

“Good morning,
beautiful,” I blurted with a surge of self-confidence, and immediately felt
flush when her reaction was delayed.

“Well, good
morning to you, handsome.” She smiled crookedly, making it hard to look away. I
held the door open for her as she climbed into the Jeep.

“Hi, Anna!”
Rachel said excitedly. “Oh! This is going to be so much fun! Are you excited? I
love your lipstick colour, by the way. What shade is it?”

Anna laughed
as she touched her lips. “I don’t know what it’s called, actually. Some shade of
pink, I guess.”

I leaned
toward Anna and whispered, “Since when do you wear lipstick?” My lips brushed
her ear and her face turned a pretty pink, matching her lips.

“I figure
since I’m a single girl, I should look good in case there are some single guys
at the resort,” she flirted back.

Rachel turned
up the music and started bopping and singing along. I rolled my eyes and
continued with Anna. “Single girl, huh? Well, maybe I don’t like the idea of
you looking for single guys, Anna Taylor.”

She raised her
eyebrows to suggest I had no control over that part of her life.

“Guys are
jerks,” I continued. “You have to be careful.” I put on my best “big brother”
voice.

“Oh, please!
And what are you going to do about it?”

What
was
I
going to do about it? I didn’t know. Maybe it was time to show her how I really
felt. All the tension and chemistry between us had to be for something.
Suddenly, it didn’t matter if I screwed things up. If I
didn’t
try, I
was screwing things up.

I followed her
eyes to the seat between us and watched as her fingers twitched, then moved an
inch closer to mine. This was my chance—I reached out my fingers and gently
stroked hers. She turned her hand over and held my fingers softly.

What an
amazing feeling—holding the hand of an angel. My eyes wandered to her face and
I noticed that hers were closed and her breath was silent. How I could have
been so blind all these years? Anna was perfect for me.

Anna opened
her eyes and caught me staring. We both quickly looked away and she slid her
hand out from mine.

“Rachel, how
are you enjoying Halifax so far?” Anna asked, almost awkwardly.

“I love it.
I’m having a blast at Bedford High, and Jake has been keeping me great company.”
She looked back and winked at me.

What on Earth
was she trying to do? Anna caught the exchange and her eyebrows lowered in
confusion. I shook my head and shrugged, but I knew by the expression on Anna’s
face that she wasn’t buying what I was selling.

Regrettably,
Rachel continued, “We spent a lot of time together yesterday. We have a lot in
common, actually.”

I was frozen
with anger and panic.

“Well, you
seem to be fitting in well,” Anna said coldly as she turned to look out the
window.

I reached over
and touched Anna’s knee in an attempt to reassure her that I was not interested
in Rachel, but she moved further from my reach. She was hurt. I hated that.
Rachel would pay.

The rest of
the drive was quiet other than Rachel’s periodic squeal of delight over the
discovery of a particular song. An hour and a half later, when we finally
pulled into the parking lot of the lodge, the excitement started to build.

“There’s Tyler
and Monica over there,” Noah said as he got out of the Jeep and stretched.

Tyler was
Eric’s best friend. I knew he’d be here because he and Eric never did anything
without each other. Monica and Tyler had been together since the start of grade
eleven, and although she wasn’t very outgoing, she always tagged along on any
of our group events and wasn’t that bad once you got her talking.

“I saw Eric’s
truck when we pulled in, and I think he took Lexie with him.” I grabbed my bag
and slung it across my chest. Then I reached in to pull out Anna’s backpack.

“I can take that.”
Anna politely took her bag.

“I’ll get your
skis,” I offered.

“I got them.”
She took her skis and continued walking toward the lodge.

“What’s with
her?” Noah asked as he pulled his duffle bag from the trunk.

“Rachel!” I
turned and walked briskly over to Rachel who was looking innocent as she took
in her new surroundings. “What the
hell
are you doing? Are you
trying
to ruin my weekend?”