No Place to Hide (46 page)

Kay stopped unzipping her lime-green raincoat, her sharp eyes shooting to Jenna’s. “You’ve been talking to your sister. You know her trouble? She doesn’t get a joke when she hears one.”

Jenna’s eyebrows rose. “Maybe it’s the way you tell them.”

Kay regarded her carefully.

“So, would you like a cup of tea?” Jenna asked, going back to the kitchen. “We’ve still got some of the fairy cakes the Brownies brought round on Friday if you want one.”

“I believe they were very good,” Kay called after her, “but I’ll have one of my own, thank you. Where is everyone?”

“Josh and the twins are with friends; Jack and Paige are out making films. Actually, that sounds like them now. Would you mind going up to run a bath for Paige? But don’t put any bubbles in—she likes to choose her own.”

“Am I allowed into her bedroom? I can’t get to her bathroom otherwise.”

“On this occasion I’m sure she won’t mind.”

“You were always a secretive one too,” Kay commented as she started up the stairs. “You made your father put a padlock on your door once.”

“I can hear you,” Jenna called after her.

“You’re supposed to.”

“And it was to keep Hanna out, not you. She was always stealing my stuff.”

“Actually, it was me,” Kay informed her. “We were the same size. Hanna’s bigger.”

Suspecting this was more of her mother’s peculiar humor, Jenna pulled open the utility room door and quickly leapt back as a dog she barely recognized as Waffle, their daft yellow Lab, skidded past to his drink bowl.

“Hey, Mum,” Paige cried, bursting in after him. “It is totally crap out there. We’re drenched right through. Is Grandma here?”

“Upstairs running you a bath. You need to get out of those wet clothes.”

“I know, I know.” Tugging down her hood to shake out her damp, wavy, dark hair, she clicked on her mobile to read an incoming text.

“Where’s Dad?” Jenna asked, grabbing the dog before he could spread the mud from his paws all over the kitchen floor.

“Still in the car, on the phone,” Paige answered. “Please tell me you haven’t eaten all the Brownies’ cakes. I’m starving.”

“There are a few left.” Banging on the window to get Jack’s attention, Jenna mouthed, “The dog!”

“Coming,” he mouthed back from the driver’s seat.

“Who’s he talking to?” Jenna demanded.

“No idea. What shall I do with my coat?”

“Hang it next to the radiator, and put your wellies next to mine. With any luck Dad will clean them after he’s finished with the dog. Waffle, will you please sit down?”

With instant obedience Waffle slumped to the floor and rolled onto his back for a belly rub.

“Dream on,” Jenna commented as Paige laughed.

“You are too adorable,” Paige told him. “No,” she cried as he kicked at her legs. “I’m not touching you either. Oh God, look what you’ve done to my jeans.”

“It’s not like they don’t already need a wash,” Jenna pointed out. “Now give him a treat, then make sure he stays in here until Dad sorts him out.”

A few moments later Paige came padding into the kitchen in wet socks, once again engrossed in her mobile phone. Her long, matted hair was hanging on either side of her pixie face, shielding the screen from any POS—parent over shoulder—advances.

“What happened to Owen?” Jenna asked. “Wasn’t he with you?”

“Mm?” Paige responded without looking up. “Oh, Dad just dropped him home. Thanks,” she added as Jenna passed her a cake.

“Do you want a plate, Paige?” Kay asked, coming to join them.

“No, this is cool,” Paige replied, blithely dropping crumbs over her front and the worktop.

“So have you decided what to do about Owen?” Jenna ventured.

Paige frowned in annoyance. “What about him?” she demanded, as if the conversation they’d had only that morning had never happened.

“You mentioned earlier that he was interested in—”

“He’s
gay
, Mum!”

“So you said.”

“And he hasn’t come out yet, OK? I don’t think he’s even admitting it to himself, but no way am I making out like we’re in a relationship just so no one’ll suspect the truth.”

“You’re too young to be in a relationship with anyone,” Kay informed her.

Paige’s eyes darkened. “Grandma! I’m fifteen, for God’s sake.”

Kay nodded. “Yes, you are,” she agreed, as if that were the topic at issue. “You know, your grandfather loved Dylan Thomas.”

Paige looked at her mother.

“Where did that come from?” Jenna asked Kay.

“I saw the book on Paige’s desk,” Kay replied.

“You’ve been in my room?” Paige cried. “What were you doing?”

“You see, I told you I wasn’t allowed,” Kay informed Jenna. “A red circle with a white dash in the middle means no entry.”

“I already told you, she was running you a bath,” Jenna said to Paige. “Now you should go up before it overflows.”

“Can I have another cake?”

“You’ll get fat,” Kay warned.

“Mum, look at her,” Jenna cried. “She’s barely a size six as it is. I don’t want you turning her into an anorexic.”

“Don’t talk about me as if I weren’t here,” Paige retorted, “and FYI, I’m planning on being a size four by the end of this term.”

“I hope you don’t mean that.”

Paige flashed her a smile. Helping herself to another cake, she took a bite, put the rest back on the plate, and made as if to give her grandma a hug, giggling as Kay instinctively drew back. “Oh, scary granddaughter trying to give Granny a kiss,” Paige teased.

“Don’t be unkind,” Jenna chided. Paige knew very well that Kay had a problem with physical contact, and it really wasn’t like Paige to be cruel.

“OK, I know where I’m not wanted,” Paige told them. Grabbing the cake, she took herself off upstairs.

“I know it’s her age,” Jenna said quietly once she’d heard Paige’s door close behind her, “but her attitude sometimes—”

“Is just like yours when you were fifteen,” Kay interrupted. “And Hanna’s, although she was worse.”

“She was so sweet this morning,” Jenna continued with a sigh. “We had a lovely chat while Jack was out getting the papers, and now…” She shrugged helplessly. “I never seem to know where I am with her. I don’t think she’s like that with Jack, or not so much anyway.”

“You were never like it with your father, only me,” Kay informed her.

Jenna avoided her eyes.
Not nearly as difficult as you always were with us,
she managed not to say.

“Ah, that sounds like Jack coming in,” Kay remarked. “I’ll go and give him a hand.”

Watching her bustle off to make herself useful, Jenna found herself feeling suddenly sad. Having Kay as a mother, with all her awkwardness and lack of social skills, had never been easy, but that didn’t mean there was no love between them. She knew, mainly because her father had helped her and Hanna to understand, that in her own special way her mother was every bit as devoted to them as he was. It was simply that Kay had never been able to show her feelings in the way other mothers could—or wives, come to that, although her father had remained silent about that. All she and Hanna knew was that he’d always seemed very happy with their mother, and throughout the thirty years they were married they’d never spent much more than a night apart. And a very real intimacy must have happened at least twice, or she and Hanna wouldn’t be there.

Looking round at the sound of the utility room door opening, she broke into a smile as Jack emerged, dark hair mussed by a vigorous rub with the towel, and cheeks still reddened from the wind. Though it would be hard for most to describe him as TDD, as Paige would put it—totally drop-dead—Jenna had never had a problem with that. As far as she was concerned, he was just perfect, with his wonderfully flamboyant air, constantly merry eyes, and the kind of charm that stole hearts wherever he went.

“So have you seen any of what we shot?” he asked, hauling the dog back as it made a dash for anywhere but the utility. “You have to wait in there till you’re dry,” he instructed Waffle. “We got some really good stuff again, and she’s a natural with the commentary.”

“She’s gone to have a bath,” Jenna told him. “I’ll see it later. Who were you on the phone to?”

“When? Oh, just now.” He came to help himself to a cake and gave her a quick kiss before popping it in his mouth. “I’m thinking of going over to Cardiff again tomorrow,” he said, hovering in the doorway on his way to take a shower. “I need to go to the bank, and while I’m there I thought I’d try to line up a few more advertisers. Anything you need while I’m over that way?”

“You mean apart from a few good ideas? Actually, one would do.”

“You can’t buy ideas,” Kay announced, drying her hands as she came out of the utility.

Treating Jenna to a playful wink, Jack took himself off upstairs, leaving her to watch her mother staring after him. “What?” she prompted as Kay turned back to her.

“He didn’t answer your question,” Kay informed her.

Jenna almost asked,
What question?
But since she knew, and really didn’t want to get into it with her mother, she simply said, “It wasn’t important.”

—

Upstairs in her room with butterfly lights glowing round the bed’s fancy headrail and the Vamps’ “Last Night” pulsing from the iPod speakers, Paige was in front of her computer, wrapped in her dressing gown while FaceTiming Charlotte.

“So did you manage to shoot much?” Charlotte was asking as she rubbed a purplish face mask over her troubled complexion.

“Yeah, loads. Have you finished yours yet?”

“No. I should have come with you, but then we’d have ended up with everything the same. So Owen showed up, you said in your text.”

Jenna sighed. “ ’Fraid so. I mean, I really like him and everything, but he’s so, like…you know. What’s that stuff you’re using?”

Charlotte held up the tube and read from the back. “Apparently it contains antimicrobial willow bark, mango, and blueberry to minimize blemishes and to clear away excess sebum.”

“Excess what?”

“Sebum,” Charlotte giggled. Turning around, she wiggled her bottom in front of the camera.

“I am
soooo
glad you’re wearing knickers,” Paige laughed.

“Be grateful. Oh my God! That reminds me. Have you seen the latest episode of
The Valleys
yet? It is totally insane. That girl—you know, the one who looks like Kelly Durham? I forget her name. Anyway, she only took her knickers off in the middle of a nightclub.”

Paige pulled a gagging face.

“Just what I thought,” Charlotte assured her, “but I can’t stop watching it. So, what are you doing later? Do you want to come over?”

“Would love to, but I’ve still got loads of homework to get through. Have you done the geography stuff about ecosystems yet?”

“Yep. You’ll sail through it, provided you get the answer to question one right, which is seaweed. English is more Dylan Thomas, so no problem for you there. Maths is going to totally fuck with your head, but when does it ever not? And business studies is starting to really piss me off. Let me know how you get on with all the crap about sourcing finance—I could do with some help.”

“Like I’m going to know.”

“Bet you do.”

“Yeah, right. So I’ll see you at the bus stop in the morning?”

“Worse luck. Let me know if you hear from Oliver before that.”

Paige’s insides melted to liquid. “Don’t,” she groaned plaintively. “No way am I going to hear from him. He doesn’t even know I’m alive.”

“Course he does.”

“Course he doesn’t, unless…Oh my God, Charlotte, you haven’t told Cullum? He’s his
brother.
He’ll—”

“Give me a break! Would I do that to you? I’m just saying, I reckon he’s interested.”

“He’s eighteen.”

“And?”

“And he’s going out with Lindsay French.”

“I heard he’s chucked her. I’ll try to find out.”

“No! You can’t ask Cullum!”

“Is that what I said?”

“You don’t know anyone else to ask, and if Oliver finds out we’re, like,
stalking
him…Oh God, I’ll want to kill myself.”

Laughing, Charlotte said, “I’ve got to go and wash this stuff off. I’ll speak to you later.”

As the line cleared, Paige dropped her head in her hands and groaned again.
Oliver. Oliver. Oliver.
She could hardly stop thinking about him. It was like she was becoming obsessed, and she’d never even spoken to him, for God’s sake. Had only really seen him twice. He’d noticed her, though, last Saturday, when a crowd of them had gone to support the Swansea College rugby team against Worcester. He had looked so totally drop-dead in all his gear that she’d nearly fainted.

Maybe she had, because she couldn’t remember anything that happened after he’d caught her eye.

Chances were he’d been looking at someone behind her.

Or maybe he’d spotted her and something had happened for him too. He might, even now, be wondering who she was, trying to think of a way to ask his younger brother about the girl he’d brought to the game….

She had to stop thinking about him, get him out of her mind before she ended up making a total idiot of herself. He was three years older than her, for God’s sake, and was so completely out of her league that it would be like pairing Zayn Malik up with Ugly Betty. Not that she was anything like Ugly Betty, who in real life was a total babe, which
she
definitely was not. Besides, there couldn’t be a girl alive who didn’t have the hots for Oliver Pryce; he could have his pick of anyone, and though it made her want to die just to think of it, she knew in her heart that he’d never choose her.

Remembering her bath, and feeling a dizzying rush of excitement at the thought of Oliver coming to watch her, she was about to get up from the computer when someone instant-messaged her.

Hey. Can you talk?

Frowning, she looked at the name.
Julie Morris.
She couldn’t think of anyone called that.
I’m cool. Do I know you?
she typed back.

Is it true about you and Owen Masters?
the sender asked.

Paige frowned as her pulse started to drop back to normal.
Tell me who you are,
she typed back.