Shadow Keeper (23 page)

“Quiet.” Carson held a finger against his lips. “We don’t want Mom coming out here.”

To prevent any additional swinging, I carefully slipped my arm under Lisa’s neck and shoulders. “This is nice.”

“But I’m squished.” She squirmed around, pulling her arm out from under me. “You’re practically on top of me.”

I couldn’t suppress my smile as I glanced into her eyes. “That’s what makes it so nice.”

“Brendon.” She smacked at my chest. “My mom won’t think it’s so nice if she walks out here and sees us.”

“X–man, let’s not press our luck. Hop out of this thing before it rips.”

Pressing my luck was exactly what I was doing. I’d already dodged the bullet with Monica not seeing Lisa and me kissing on the Ferris wheel. I didn’t want her walking out here and catching us all wrapped up in a jumble of body parts.

I rolled to the edge and got one foot on solid ground. My other hung up in the tangle of legs. I grabbed for the lawn chair, but the thrust of my weight made the chair tip over backwards. I lost my balance and fell on my butt on the cement.

Carson broke into his donkey laugh. “Smooth move, X–man.”

Laughing also, Lisa scooted to the edge and tried to crawl out. The hammock pitched and she almost landed on her head. She thrust out her hand to break her fall. I scrambled to my feet and made a dash for her, but one foot stepped through the metal frame of the upturned chair. Carson threw his weight to the other side of the hammock. Lisa flopped back in the air. With all the shifting of their different weights, the hammock almost dumped them on the grassy side. The girls squealed. Carson grunted half a swearword. The hammock swung back the other way. Lisa stretched out her arm.

“Brendon, help,” she cried out, although a smile played at her lips.

I reached for her hand. Our fingertips brushed against each other, but she was just beyond my grasp. With my foot caught in the chair, I couldn’t get to her. The hammock continued to swing in a wild arc. The edge rose and their bodies disappeared from view—all except for Lisa’s eyes.

A
déjà vu
moment flashed in my skull. My nightmares became real. Lisa was being dragged away and swallowed up by the darkness. I kicked my leg free and dove for the hammock. My fingers clutched at the edge and I yanked it back down. I fastened one arm around her waist and jerked her free from the force threatening to devour her.

Both my arms wrapped around her as I held her against my body. Her face nuzzled into the crook of my neck. My lips brushed across her ear as I whispered my greatest fear. “I thought I was going to lose you.”

“Are you okay, man?”

My eyes opened. Carson stood on the patio with his arm around Sherry. His forehead crunched in deep furls as he stared at me.

“Yeah, Lisa is safe.”

Sherry took a step closer. Her face carried the same worry as Carson’s. “But are
you
all right?”

My tight embrace of Lisa eased. I took a deep breath and let it out with a ragged sound. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

“What happened, X–man? I’ve never seen you lose it like that.”

“I don’t know.” I rubbed my hand across my face to wipe away the cold sweat. “Something about the whole thing just freaked me out. It played like a scene straight out of one of my nightmares.”

“Are you still having those scary dreams?” he asked.

“What?” Lisa glanced at my face. “You’re having nightmares? What are they about?”

“Nothing.”

“About me?”

I forced a grin. “Dreams about you could never be nightmares.”

The sliding of the patio door alerted me to her mom’s presence. I turned my body to conceal Lisa wrapped in my arms.

“I’m probably going to bed in another hour,” Monica said. “So if you kids want to watch TV for a while, then you may come in.”

No one waited for a second invitation. We all piled into the house and bolted for the kitchen. Lisa pulled out an air popper and poured in the kernels. I was put in charge of melting the butter. Sherry preheated the oven and unwrapped a couple frozen pizzas. Monica resumed her seat at the kitchen table.

Carson grabbed some bowls from the cabinet and ice cream from the freezer. “You want some of this to go with your soup?”

“Good god. Are you kids that hungry?” She dropped the soup spoon in the empty bowl. “I’m not going to have any food left.”

“We’ll share.”

“You certainly will. Ice cream might settle my stomach.” She slid the bowl toward him. “Put this in the sink and get me a clean one.”

Like an obedient child, Carson complied. He filled three clean bowls with marble fudge ice cream and carried them into the living room. Sherry and Monica followed.

“We’ll be right there when the popcorn is done, Mom.” Hot air blew the popped kernels into a large, blue bowl. Lisa picked up the stray pieces from the countertop and plopped them in her mouth.

I slipped my arms around her waist and pulled her to me. My mouth pressed next to her ear. “I had fun being with you tonight,” I whispered.

She glanced in the direction of the living room before dragging me deeper into the kitchen. “I had fun too.”

The voices of Monica and Carson arguing over the remote carried into the kitchen. They were occupied for a few minutes, so I took a chance. I slid my hand around her neck and threaded my fingers through her hair. “I liked being on the Ferris wheel with you.”

“I liked it too. But...” She caught her lower lip between her teeth.

I leaned closer. “I liked the kissing the best.”

“Brendon.” She turned her face. “We can’t do that again.”

“Are you afraid your mom will see?” I nuzzled my face into the crook of her neck and inhaled her scent.

“No, but I’m afraid we went too far.”

“What?” I pressed my thumb under her chin and made her look at me. “We just kissed.”

“That was more than kissing. It was…”

“Was what?” I prodded when she hesitated.

“Intense. We agreed to move slow. Tonight, we jumped ahead real fast.”

“We only jumped to the kissing part.”

“No, Brendon. We went beyond that.”

Memories of the Ferris wheel flashed in my skull. I’d kept my arms around her shoulders. My hands never strayed and my fingers didn’t wander. “There was nothing wrong with what we did.”

“Then it must not have affected you the same way.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. She had no idea how greatly her kisses affected me, but I figured it wasn’t a good idea to describe it. “How did it affect you?”

“You only kissed me on the lips, but I felt it all the way to my toes.”

My mouth stretched into a wide grin. “So, you thought it was hot.”

“Brendon.” Her voice was a sharp whisper. “That’s exactly what I’m trying to explain. You’re looking forward to our relationship getting more intense, so if we get into a situation where it does, I don’t expect you to be the one to say
Whoa
.”

“You’re right.” I tried to hold down my laughter. “I don’t think I’d ever say that word.”

“Don’t make fun. You know I don’t always say things the right way.”

“I’m not. I like the cute way you blurt out the wrong words. That makes you unique. And I also like when you tell me I’m hot and sexy, and my kisses make you tingle all over.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“No, but you’re thinking it, right?”

“Brendon, be serious.”

“I am. I’m very serious.” My gaze brushed over her face, memorizing her every detail. I didn’t want this moment to end, but she was only sixteen and had another year of high school, then college. Right now, I had her in my arms, but somewhere along the way, she might slip away and I’d lose her. “Lisa, no other girl has ever affected me the way you do. I like being with you. Just holding your hand makes me happy. I’m not going to push you into anything you don’t want to do.”

“But that’s what I’m trying to explain. You’re leaving it all up to me. With the way you kiss, I’m afraid I might forget to tell you to stop.”

“I get what you’re trying to say. You want me to stay in control too so we don’t jump into anything too quick.”

“Right.” Her head nodded for emphasis. “I want for us to take our time getting there.”

“There?” My head cocked to one side. “I know I’m your first boyfriend, but have you thought about where you want this to go?”

She nibbled at her lower lip. “I have a pretty good idea where I want this to eventually end up. But if you ever kiss me like that again, we’re liable to get there a whole lot sooner than I planned.”

Chapter Twenty–Nine

Our football team played well tonight. I only wished Lisa could have been here to see it, but the game was scheduled at the opponent’s school, and we had to travel out of town. That meant no dance either. As I left the locker room and headed to the bus for the ride back to Esparto, I spotted Paul leaning against the outside of the building.

“Alexander.” His tone was hushed, as if he didn’t want to draw attention. He motioned with a nod of his head for me to join him. “We haven’t had a chance to talk lately.”

I walked closer. “We talk all the time.”

“I know, but I wanted to speak with you in private.”

He probably wanted to know the status on Carson and Sherry, but since I really didn’t know, I wouldn’t be giving anything away. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Your girlfriend.”

“Lisa?” That threw me back a step. “What about her?”

“Do you know who her dad is?”

I didn’t know where he was going with this, so I tried to keep it light with a joke. “I’m going to take a wild guess and say her dad is Mr. Stratton.”

He didn’t even crack a smile. “Her dad is that professor who got lost in the Capay Hills this last summer and had half the county searching for him.”

“You mean the guy they found wandering around near Big Rock?”

“That’s him. They’ve got him locked up in 3B North at the Woodland hospital.”

“The psych ward? I heard the rumors about some guy going berserk when the rescuers found him, but I thought that was just a rumor.”

“No, it’s true. Her father is crazy. Sherry’s mom works at UCD and knows all about it. I heard her talking about it before—before Sherry and I broke up.”

I tried to recall Lisa’s explanation of her father’s illness. “She told me her dad had a nervous breakdown.”

“I guess crazy covers that.” Paul grabbed the sleeve of my sweatshirt and yanked me closer. “But that’s not the worst of it. Lisa’s mother claimed the husband was possessed by an evil spirit. She brought in an exorcist.”

I wasn’t going to mention it, but Lisa had already told me as much. I tried to act like it was no big deal. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, maybe, but not the way she did it. She tried to take him out of the hospital to do the exorcism, but the doctors said he was too dangerous and wouldn’t release him to her, only to another doctor’s care. So she brought a priest into the hospital to do the ritual there, but it backfired. The whole thing got out of control. Her husband flipped out. He attacked her and the priest, and beat up a couple of the staff workers.”

“Then the exorcist couldn’t cure him?”

“No, but it gets worse.” He stepped closer and lowered his voice even more. “The cops were called in. The whole thing ended up in court. The judge took away custody of her husband and appointed a public guardian for him. There’s supposed to be some sort of a hearing later. That’s why Lisa and her mom moved up here, so they could visit him. Right now, Mrs. Stratton has no say in her husband’s health treatment. She can’t even get him transferred to another hospital.”

Paul had to be telling the truth. The facts would be too easy to verify. I took a minute to absorb all the information. “Whatever’s wrong with Lisa’s dad has nothing to do with her.”

“But, dude, they’re all crazy. Well, maybe not Lisa, but both her parents are.”

Monica might be uptight and overly controlling, and she could definitely be a pain in the butt, but crazy seemed a stretch. I rubbed my hand over my forehead to clear my thoughts. “You could be right, but I’m not going to stop seeing Lisa just because of her parents.”

“That’s your choice, dude. Just watch your back.”

Chapter Thirty

“Another Saturday night,” Carson said. “And we’re going to be with our ladies.”

“I can’t wait to see Lisa.” I let out a hard breath. “Too bad Monica insisted in going along on our date.”

“It’s not a date, man.” Carson turned down the volume in the King Cab. “It’s just friends grabbing something to eat and catching a movie.”

“Yeah, right. Maybe Monica believes that, but I don’t. And what about Sherry? Doesn’t she think this is a date?”

“We haven’t talked about it yet. I think I’m going to wait until our last game on Friday. Football season ends, and Paul will go out for basketball. Me and you will start wrestling practice, and I won’t have to be around him as much. Maybe it won’t feel so weird.”