Deception (21 page)

“Good shower?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said, rubbing his hair dry with the towel. He wore only a pair of shorts and nothing else. If we hadn’t been in my mother’s house with her teenage whatever sleeping next door, then I would’ve completely taken advantage of the situation to get out of the conversation I knew we needed to have.

“You all right?” Aiden said, catching me staring absently at his abs.

I shook away my thoughts. “Um, sorry. I was just thinking.”

He threw his towel over the edge of the closet door. “What about?”

I scratched the back of my head as I tried to think of how to start.

“That bad, hey?” he said with a smile as he lay down next to me. He propped his head against his hand and waited for me to say something.

I didn’t know where to start, so I just started talking and hoped it wouldn’t sound completely stupid. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I haven’t had any visions since the ones I had when Chelsea went missing. I may have had some about my mum when we were in Thailand, but they always happened when I was sleeping, so they could’ve just been dreams.”

“Yeah, I had noticed.”

I continued to stare up at the ceiling. “I had one today.”

He didn’t say anything, but I felt his eyes drilling into me. I turned to face him.

“Why didn’t you tell me about it when it happened?”

I watched his confused expression turn into complete surprise when I said, “I think it was about you.” I didn’t know what had come over me. A moment before, I’d convinced myself the vision couldn’t have been about him.

The corner of his lips turned up. “Was it a good one?”

He had absolutely no idea. I could’ve lied to him then and there and in a round-about way. But I wasn’t a liar, especially when it came to Aiden. “I saw myself curled up on a bed, crying.”

He thought about it for a moment. “Did you actually hear yourself say my name?”

“Well, no, but—”

“Then how can you be sure it was about me?”

“I said, ‘I thought he loved me.’ And the only
he
I think loves me, is you.” Saying those words out loud brought tears to my eyes.

“Come here,” Aiden said, wrapping me up in his arms. “Your vision couldn’t possibly be about me, because there is no way I would ever do anything to hurt you.”

“But… but…” I couldn’t finish my sentence out loud, so I continued silently, where I wouldn’t have to worry about my throat closing up on me.
“There is no other guy that loves me. I have no relatives I know of. My father sure wouldn’t get that reaction from me, and quite frankly, I don’t think I would be that upset if it was any other male I know.”

“You know, you don’t know how far in the future your visions go. For all you know, you are yet to meet the guy who does this to you. And if that’s the case, I think I should be the one who is worried as to why my girlfriend will be completely heartbroken over another guy.”

I gave a choked-up laugh. Only he could make all the fear I had drain away with his words alone.

Chapter 20

My ringing phone woke me from my desperately needed sleep. I felt as if I’d only closed my eyes ten minutes before, and already, I was being woken.

I reached over to the bedside table and picked up my phone. Through sleepy eyes, I saw that Anna was the caller, and she was calling at 11:00 a.m. My eyes shot open. I wondered how I could possibly have slept that late. Then I remembered my phone was set to UK time, and we were in the US.

I quickly swiped the screen and put the phone to my ear. “Hey, Anna.” My voice sounded sleepy even though I was fully awake.

“Sorry. I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“Yeah, you did, but don’t worry about it.”

“Who is it?” Aiden said, with his eyes still closed. He must have been pretty out of it if he wasn’t able to hear his mother’s voice on the phone.

I moved the phone away from my mouth. “It’s your mum.”

“I can call back later?” Anna asked.

“No, it’s fine, really.”

“Well I, I mean, we were thinking it might be a good idea if our side of the world met up with your mother’s side of the world and, you know, talk about what we’re going to do about your father.” She really must have been feeling guilty about waking me. I didn’t think I’d ever heard Anna speak with so much uncertainty. Or she could have been nervous about meeting others like herself.

“When were you thinking?”

Aiden rolled over to face me, but his eyes were still closed. “What does she want?”

I moved the phone away from my mouth again. “She wants to meet everyone over here.”

“Can’t she call back later?” he groaned. He must’ve been in desperate need of sleep, too.

“Ssshhh. Just go back to sleep.” I put the phone back to my mouth. “Don’t worry about him,” I said, knowing Anna had heard everything he’d said.

“Okay, well, I won’t keep you. But when you all wake up over there, can you ask your mum for me? We were thinking it might be better to do it over a meal.”

“Okay. I’ll ask her and let you know.”

“Thanks,” she said. “I’ll speak to you soon. And I’m sorry again for waking you.” She hung up the phone. I couldn’t have been mad at her for waking me up before daylight after all the times I’d done the exact same thing to her. And at least she didn’t have any bad news to tell like I always had.

Aiden stretched out his arm and pulled me back down. He snuggled up to my side as I slipped back to sleep unnaturally fast.

The next time I opened my eyes, the sun was shining through the window, casting a warm glow against the walls. “Afternoon, sleepy head,” Aiden said from behind me. I quickly grabbed my phone to check the time—3:00 p.m. There was no way it was afternoon if Anna had called me at 11:00 a.m. UK time and it was still dark in the US.

I rolled over and saw the smirk across his gorgeous face. “Had you there for a second, didn’t I?” Aiden said. He was sitting up in bed, with the pillows plumped up behind him.

“Small things amuse small minds,” I said, sitting up.

“Ouch,” he said, pretending to be hurt by my completely unrealistic comment.

I got up and went to the loo. “Is anyone up yet?” I asked, coming back into the room.

“Chelsea’s still out to it, but everyone else is up.”

“Gemma, too?” I didn’t want to have to deal with her crushing on Aiden so soon after waking up.

“Already gone to school.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, and Aiden laughed. “She’s just so… annoyingly energetic all the time.”

Aiden raised an eyebrow. “And it has nothing to do with her knowing everything about your life and you knowing nothing about her?”

Maybe he had a point, but I wasn’t about to admit that one. “Want a coffee?” I asked instead.

A smile played at the edge of his lips. He obviously knew he’d nailed it with his theory on why Gemma was
really
getting on my nerves. “Sure, why not.” He got up and walked over to me. “It will get better.” He kissed the top of my head, then opened the bedroom door.

We found Mum sitting at the dining table. She’d been doing a crossword and put down her pen when we came into the room. “How did you both sleep?” She was still dressed in her pyjamas, so I guessed she hadn’t been up for long. But who was I to guess. It’s not as if I really knew my mother at all. I mentally slapped myself across my forehead. I really needed to get over what my mother had done if I wanted any chance of having a relationship with her.

“Yeah, it was great,” I said with a smile on my face. “Don’t suppose you have coffee?”

Mum cocked her head towards the kitchen. “The machine’s in there.”

“Oh, thank God,” I said. Aiden sat down on one of the chairs while I went into the kitchen, where I found the machine was already on. “Want one, Mum?”

“No thanks. I’ve already had my morning coffee.”

I picked up two cups off the top of the machine and placed one under the spout.

“Anna called this morning,” Aiden said casually. “She wanted to know if everyone here would be okay with meeting up with everyone from the UK.”

“Oh,” she said in surprise.

“Yeah,” Aiden continued. “They were thinking it might be a good idea if we all get together and see if we can work on finding Jade’s father. You know, if we’re able to band together and use everyone’s expertise, we might just find a way to stop him.”

Mum nodded. “I’ll speak with Jack and Harry and work out a time.”

“Anna was thinking about having lunch, or it’d be dinner for them,” I called out from the kitchen. I picked up the coffee mugs and walked back to the dining table. I put Aiden’s down in front of him, then sat down beside him.

“Sounds good. I think it’s about time we all met up, too,” she said.

“Is Harry here yet?” I asked, thinking back to the night before.

“Not yet,” Mum replied, folding up her crossword. “He was up most of the night in the room, so I think he’ll be out of it for a while yet.”

I nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“Right, then,” Mum said, standing up. “I’m going to go have a shower. Make yourselves at home. The fridge is full of food, so don’t be shy.”

“Pfff. Like that could ever happen,” I said, looking at Aiden.

“What?” he asked innocently.

“You know what.” Aiden was a lot of things, but when it came to food, shy definitely wasn’t one of them.

She turned to leave, then turned back. “You might want to get another one of those ready,” she said, looking at my coffee. “Chelsea’s just waking up.”

My mouth slightly dropped open in surprise. I was not used to having a mother who knew things she shouldn’t.

Chapter 21

“Is Lucas going to be there, too?” Chelsea asked with a gleam in her eye. We were back in the UK, getting ready to go out to lunch in the US with all the UK clan.

“Yes, Chels. I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to see you again.”

Her eyes widened as she sucked in a sharp breath. “Do you really think?”

I laughed. “God, I don’t know.”

Hope disappeared from her face.

“You really like him, don’t you?” I asked.

She looked at the ground. “I know I shouldn’t, especially after only just losing… But I can’t help myself. He’s… Well, he turns my stomach into moosh every time he looks at me. Actually, it’s every time I think about him.”

I wanted to laugh, but I kept hearing her guilt over her feelings for Lucas so soon after Ben’s death. “You know, you shouldn’t beat yourself up about it. What Aiden did to you in taking away the pain after… Well, it kind of makes the healing process go faster than what it normally would. It’s like it has been months, instead.” I almost said instead of the weeks it really had been, but I didn’t think it was necessary to remind her how little time had actually passed.

“But what will everyone think of me?”

“Who cares what everyone thinks.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. There’s no way he would be interested in a normal human.”

I put my arm around her shoulder. “What’s not to love about you?”

She huffed. “You would say that.”

“Only because it’s true.”

Aiden popped his head into the closet. “Are you two ready yet? Everyone’s about ready to leave.”

“Yep,” I said. “We’ll be downstairs in five.”

Chelsea and I put on some boots to go with our jeans, and I handed her a jacket. I grabbed one off the hanger for myself because I still wasn’t comfortable in giving up my extra layers when it looked cold outside.

The three of us went downstairs, where everyone was waiting for us—even Georgia. Great. Everything would be just peachy if Gemma was there to join us, too.

“Do you know where we’re meeting them?” Nathan asked.

“We’re having dinner at their house. They figured it would be best to avoid any potential audiences when discussing Adam,” I explained. “Mum’s gonna text me when they’re ready.” As if on cue, my phone beeped with a message from my mother. “Okay, everyone ready?”

Yeses and yeps echoed around the room.

“Let’s go, then.” I closed my eyes and concentrated on taking each and every one of them with me. A moment later, my feet landed on the porcelain tiles.

“Wow,” Mum exclaimed. “That’s a sizeable amount of people you can bring with you, isn’t it?”

“Hi, Mum.”

Everyone had just started to introduce themselves when Nathan’s phone rang. He looked around as if he were looking for someone. “Where’s Georgia?” he asked, holding up his phone for me to see. Georgia was calling him.

“Oops,” I said as Lucas, Aiden, and Kai cracked up laughing.

“Aww, man. That’s priceless,” Lucas said in between fits of laughter.

“Who’s Georgia?” Mum asked.

“She’s Lucas’s twin sister,” Nathan said with a smirk that he was trying to control.

“But I think Jade forgetting to bring her with us has more to do with her being Aiden’s ex rather than Lucas’s sister,” Kai added.

Mum raised her eyebrows as she looked at me.

“I didn’t mean to leave her,” I said in my defence.

“You just keep telling yourself that,” Kai said.

“Well, it doesn’t matter how or why, can you just bring her here now before she gets too pissed off?” Nathan asked.

“Fine.” I thought of the skanky bitch and brought her to us.

The moment she phased in, she threw a bunch of dagger looks my way, then looked at each and every one of the UK clan, daring them to laugh at her. By the time she made it back to my mother, her face looked the sweetest I’d ever seen it. “Hi, you must be Nikki.”

“And you must be Georgia.” Mum extended her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said when Georgia shook her hand.

“Likewise,” Georgia said with the biggest fake smile I’d ever seen. She was probably hoping there would be some US man-candy there for her to eat up and thought she should get in good with her only contact for the group. Pity for her that was never going to happen.

“Right, let’s go have some lunch.” We followed Mum out onto their back patio overlooking the pool and the ocean beyond. Jack and the delightful Gemma were already seated at one end of the table.

“Now, Jade, why didn’t you tell me you had such lovely friends,” Gemma said with a smirk as she lowered her sunglasses and checked out the guys. Her eyes lingered on Lucas, which sent Chelsea’s mind into overdrive, wondering what hope she had when there were other next gens out there who were only too willing to warm his bed at night. I guessed Gemma wasn’t able to hear people’s thoughts; otherwise, things would’ve been a lot messier.