Chapter 4
Call it shame mixed with guilt mixed with hurt. Call it cowardice. But I did not return to my parents’ beach house that day or night. Aria lived next door, and I knew she’d be waiting for me.
Instead, I turned to Sloane.
Sloane Ironside, despite the incredible wealth she’d inherited from her father, lived in a humble bungalow in a quiet residential area of the village. It was her husband Walker Ironside’s home, and when they got together, Sloane and her daughter Callie were only too happy to move in with him. Sloane used her inheritance to set up a bakery in Ardnoch. A very successful bakery that only opened a few days a week, much to the dismay of the locals.
Sloane (also born in Los Angeles) and I met when I was off the rails and dating her skeezy and dangerous ex-boyfriend Nathan Andros. Sloane had gotten pregnant by Nathan when she was sixteen years old. He was a thug, working his way up the hierarchy of a gang that traded in drugs and chopped cars. After a few years of his abuse, Sloane took Callie and got out from under him. Kind of.
Then at seventeen, I was unwittingly swept up in his world, seeking a wildness to distract me from my despair, taken in by his good looks, thrilled by the danger. Until one night he locked me in a room with two men, intending to share me with them, when Sloane turned up. I later learned she was desperate for money for her and Callie, and she’d come to Nathan for help. Instead, she ended up saving me. My personal avenging angel.
I was stupid and combative, and Nathan started whaling on me. Sloane jumped in to help and I managed to grapple Nathan’s gun off him, but I accidentally shot Sloane in the arm.
Nathan lost it. He beat the living daylights out of me and he would have killed me.
But Sloane shot him and got me out of there.
Somehow we ran through the neighborhoods with me fighting unconsciousness the whole time. Before the lights went out, I told her who to call. My dad. He took care of everything. Nathan went to jail. I wouldn’t tell my family what drove me to drugs, drinking, and the thug, but I was scared shitless enough to go to rehab and tell a therapist.
In thanks to Sloane for saving my life at great risk to hers and Callie’s, Aria, who had just accepted a job at Ardnoch Estate, offered Sloane a job there. She moved to Scotland with Callie to work as a housekeeper. It was there she fell in love with Walker Ironside, a security officer on the estate. He’d once been a bodyguard to the stars, and when Nathan got out of prison and started making trouble for Sloane again, Walker stepped in to protect her. It turned out Sloane’s stepmother had put Nathan up to the business of killing Sloane for her inheritance. Really. You can’t make this shit up.
Anyway, both Sloane’s stepmother and Nathan will rot in prison. Nathan will never breathe free air again.
Through it all, Walker and Sloane fell in love, got married, Walker adopted Callie as his own, and nearly four years ago, Sloane gave birth to their little boy Harry.
It was a full house but, despite the friends I’d made in Ardnoch, Sloane was the person I felt closest to after Aria. We’d been born into the same world and we’d experienced the same feelings of neglect from our parents, and we’d both been driven off the rails of a privileged life. She got me in a way most people, including my sister, didn’t.
I felt safe to run to her, and she never turned me away whenever I did.
“You’re sure I’m not putting you out?” I asked quietly that night as Sloane led me into Callie’s bedroom.
She shook her head, handing me a pair of clean pajamas. “Callie is sleeping over at a friend’s house.” She smirked, although there was worry in her eyes. “Or that’s what she tells me.”
I frowned because Callie and Sloane had the kind of mother-daughter friendship dreams were made of. Callie even spent a lot of her free time at the bakery, learning from her mom, and had plans to work alongside her once she graduated. “Callie wouldn’t lie to you.”
Sloane glanced over her shoulder as if to make sure Walker wasn’t in hearing distance. When she turned back to me, she whispered, “Callie Ironside would lie to the angels if it meant getting to spend time with Lewis Adair.”
My lips twitched. Ah, young love. I wondered what that was like. “You think she’s with Lewis?”
Her brown eyes filled with worry. “I hope not. I love my girl, but I do not want her to follow in her momma’s footsteps. If she comes home pregnant at sixteen, Walker will kill Lewis. And though I do not want a pregnant teenage daughter, I love Lewis. I’m grateful my kid fell in love with a boy like him, and I really don’t want Walker to end him.”
I nodded. They’d moved to Ardnoch when Callie was ten years old. She was almost seventeen now. Lewis Adair, Lachlan’s brother Thane’s son, had been in Callie’s class and they’d become fast friends. Over the years, that friendship had blossomed into more. Since she was thirteen years old, Callie had told me openly and often that she wanted Lewis to be her boyfriend. Lewis had taken a little longer to catch up. When Callie went on a date with another boy, he’d finally cottoned on. They’d been seeing each other for over a year, the epitome of teen love.
“They’ll be smart,” I whispered, trying to assuage her concerns. Even though the thought of little Callie Ironside having sex made me feel old at twenty-five.
Sloane had not appeared entirely convinced as she bid me good night. “And text your sister back or I will,” she warned before she closed the door.
She referred to the fact that I had a bunch of missed calls and texts from Aria. Not wanting my sister to worry, I did in fact text back.
I’m OK. I’m safe. I’m really sorry for what I said. But I don’t want to talk yet. xx
I sent the text, feeling like shit all over again. Aria deserved better than me, that was for sure. For some reason, however, that feeling of not being wanted—a feeling I was familiar with regarding my parents—was excruciating when it came to Aria.
Later, after tossing and turning as I went over and over the plan plotting in my mind, I must have finally fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion.
I didn’t know how many hours of sleep I got, but I was awoken by arms snaking around me. At first I thought I was dreaming and then when it started to register that I wasn’t, my eyes flew open. I blinked against the soft light pouring through the curtains as I tried to orient myself.
“I didn’t mean to wake you, Aunt Ally,” a familiar voice whispered.
Callie.
Tension melted from my body as I turned around to find a pretty young thing lying next to me. She grimaced comically, her blond hair splayed across the pillow. A soft laugh of relief escaped me. “I’m in your bed,” I whispered back, “so it’s kind of okay.”
Even in the dimness of the room, her eyes were a striking light blue. “What are you doing here? Are you okay?”
Callie had a Scottish accent. The American accent she’d been born with disappeared over the years. Sloane told me she’d read that kids learned their accents from their peers at school, not their parents. Even so, now and then I’d hear just a touch of an American twang from the sixteen-year-old.
“I’m okay,” I promised. “I’ll tell you about it later. What are you doing home so early? Your mom said you were at a sleepover.”
Callie blanched as she snuggled closer to me. “Can you keep a secret?”
Oh boy. “Is it going to be one I’ll regret keeping?”
“Only if you’re happy for my dad to kill Lewis,” she replied wryly.
“You were with Lewis,” I surmised. Her mom had guessed correctly.
She bit her lip against a dopey smile. “We spent the night in his parents’ annex, but we thought I better leave early because Mr. Adair gets up at the crack arse of dawn. Lewis and I rode back here on our bikes. He rode all the way here with me to make sure I got home okay.”
Though it wasn’t my place to be imparting advice on how to behave as a teenager, I had to ask, “Were you safe?”
“We didn’t have sex,” she promised hurriedly. “I mean … we did stuff?—”
“Don’t need to know the details,” I interrupted.
She giggled quietly.
“You will be safe, though, right? When the time comes.”
Callie nodded, expression serious. “We love each other, but we’re not stupid.”
“And Lewis isn’t putting pressure on you?”
“No way.” Callie squeezed my arm in reassurance. “Aunt Ally, it’s Lewis. If anyone’s making the moves here, it’s me.”
I chuckled, shaking my head. “Please stop talking.”
She laughed again, her expression filled with such joy I felt a pang of envy. Callie Ironside wasn’t even seventeen years old and she was in love in a way I had never experienced. It was written all over her. She exuded happiness. Feeling a well of affection push out the envy, I pulled her close, tucking her into my side. She wound her slim arms around me and I felt her relax, readying for sleep.
But before she drifted off, I warned, “Your mom already guessed you were with Lewis last night.”
Callie tensed. “She did?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“She didn’t tell Dad, did she?”
I snorted. “No. She doesn’t want Lewis to die an untimely death either.”
Her giggle vibrated against me and I squeezed her closer. I wanted to protect her happiness. I wanted to make Lewis Adair promise me that he’d never break her heart. Because I didn’t want Callie to ever feel like I felt right now. Desperate and lonely, and ready to do absolutely anything to stay with the only people who brought me contentment.