I couldn't believe it. I was the most weak-willed person to ever have walked the Earth. I didn't want to do it, and I knew it was a mistake. One I would regret for quite a while, but standing there looking at Isaac, I didn't have it in my heart to say no. Anyway, it was what a good friend would do, wasn't it? I was nothing if not a good friend. Well, that was what I thought in order to convince myself I had done this for all the right reasons, and not because I couldn't say no.
Lifting the last of Isaac's suitcases onto my spare bed, I stood back and bit my lip.
"How long are you staying for?" I asked.
Isaac turned to look at me. "Just for the night." He sniffed.
"Oh. Okay." Well, that was good news.
I walked back toward the front door, ready to close it, when I saw Brody walking through my front gate. My stomach flipped. I hadn't spoken to him since the day we had broken into his house.
"Brody, hi." I smiled, as my heart did a little trippy thing.
"Hi, Chloe. Looks like Isaac's moving in." He smiled, showing me his crooked, front teeth.
"Yeah. Only for the night though," I added hurriedly.
Brody's smile broadened. He stopped at my door, one hand in his pocket, and looked down at me.
"Would you like to come in?" I asked, hoping he would say no and quickly leave. He stood close enough for me to smell his aftershave, and I really needed him to be at a much safer distance than that—preferably a couple of blocks away where I couldn't see him or smell him.
"Sure." He stepped forward over the threshold and moved past me as I closed the door behind him. "This is for Theo," he said, and held up a stuffed, fluffy bunny that was approximately the same size as my dog. Squeezing its middle, he laughed as it let out a high-pitched squeak.
"Thank you. That's really nice of you," I said, as Theo came bounding down the stairs and jumped up against his leg. All of a sudden my sleepy dog was not quite so sleepy. I watched as Brody leaned down and gave Theo a pat. As he handed Bunny over to its new owner, Theo gently took it in his mouth and ran back upstairs.
"I was hoping to ask you a few questions about the other day, but maybe now's not a good time." Even with Isaac's bedroom door closed we could hear his heartache.
"Isaac and Adam had a fight. He thinks it's over between them." I shrugged. "Take a seat, and I'll see if he's feeling up to it."
Walking back up the hall, I knocked on Isaac's door, tentatively opened it, and looked inside. He was lying on the bed, his pillow covering his face.
"Isaac, Brody wants to talk to us," I said, approaching the bed and pulling back the pillow.
"Do you mind? I was trying to end it all," he cried dramatically.
"With a pillow?"
"Yes. It's supposedly pain free and silent." The silent part I was looking forward to.
"Stop being ridiculous, and get out here to face Brody with me. It was your idea to break into his house after all," I scolded.
"We did not break. We only entered," he huffed, sitting up. "And there is no way I can face Mr. Hottie with my eyes as puffy as this."
"You'll probably get the sympathy vote from him, and he may go a bit easier on us." I could see he was not going to be persuaded quite that easily. I had to rethink this - fast. "What if I run upstairs and get that eye mask you gave me for my birthday, and then after we answer Brody's questions, I'll run you a lovely bubble bath and get you a glass of that wine you like so much."
I could see Isaac consider my offer. He threw the pillow onto the bed and moved to look in the mirror.
"Ahh!" he screamed. "I am not going out there looking like this." He spun around to face me. "No, you'll have to do it without me. But the bubble bath does sound nice, thank you."
"Coward," I muttered, letting out a very big breath and slamming the door on my way out.
Reaching the lounge room, I saw Brody flicking through the book I had left on the chair. I felt embarrassment sweep over me.
"Fifty Shades, hey? I've heard it's pretty erotic." Brody smiled, looking at me through those dark lashes.
"It's actually very romantic. Great story line," I stammered. I ripped the book out of his hands and stuffed it under the nearest cushion, the blood pounding in my ears.
"Ha! You're funny, Chloe McDermott. I like you. In fact, I think I like you a lot." He looked at me quite intently, humor in his eyes. "Where's Theo gone?" he asked.
"Probably taken Bunny and introduced it to my lovely bed. It's been a pretty stressful day." I had no idea how to respond to Brody's initial remark and was grateful to avoid a response to it.
"Does he get along okay with the cat?"
I looked at him with confusion.
"Cat?
"Isaac's cat. I assume it came with him." Shit. I'd forgotten about that.
"Umm, no. He stayed with Adam," I lied.
"What's it name?"
"Name?" My mind had gone completely blank.
"Yeah, the cat's name. What do you call it? I mean, if it comes into my house again, I should at least know what to call it."
"Oh, umm…Kitty. His name is…umm…Kitty."
"Good name for a cat, I suppose. I thought you said it was a girl though." I could see the cogs working in Brody's brain. He was trying to trip up my lie and was doing a particularly good job of it.
"No. He's a boy. Definitely a boy!" I smiled a bit too brightly. Brody smiled back at me, obviously very pleased with himself as he had flustered me yet again.
"Can I offer you anything to drink?" I asked, hoping for a distraction.
"No, thank you. I won't stay long. I can see you're busy with Isaac. I just wanted to ask about the other day. Can you tell me again what happened?"
I ran through the events of that afternoon, editing it where necessary.
"I just want you to be honest with me, Chloe. Did you break into my house?" he asked, looking at me—almost pleading for the truth.
"No. Not really. I mean…we didn't break, we just entered," I said, repeating Isaac's words, hopefully with some conviction.
"I found the back door lock broken, and I know that I didn't leave the chair in that room. If you did it I just want to know." I thought about this for a second. He didn't look angry. In fact, his eyes were full of vulnerability and confusion. A lethal combination to a sucker like me. But did I trust him?
Ahh! It's no use trying to fight it. I never could be convincing in a lie. I had to be completely honest.
"Okay, okay. Just stop looking at me like that! Geez!" I blew out a breath. "You look like my nephew, all big, wide eyes full of innocence." Alright. Maybe he didn't really look like my nephew. Brody was full of sex appeal and masculinity, which was a whole lot different than six-year-old Cooper. But he definitely had the same charm as Cooper. All Cooper had to do was wiggle those cute little fingers of his, and Auntie Chloe gave him whatever it was he wanted.
"I'll tell you the whole truth, but you have to promise not to get angry."
"I promise." I had never met anyone as easygoing as Brody, but I think I was about to test him.
"Isaac thinks you're hot and spends a lot of time looking out of his window at your house, hoping to get a glimpse of you with no shirt on," I said, not feeling at all guilty, as Isaac should be with me facing Brody. I saw the look of shock cross Brody's face. "Anyway," I continued, "Isaac has seen a lot of strange things going on over there when you weren't home and was worried. He said it was the neighborly thing to do to go and check it out." I saw Brody's eyebrows disappear somewhere near his hairline, but thankfully he remained calm. "When we got there we knocked on your door, but no one was home so we went around the back. Isaac decided we should look in your windows." I swallowed trying to get some moisture back in my mouth. "When he leaned on your back door, it swung open. The rest of the story is the complete truth." I watched as Brody sat looking at his hands, his face impassive. After an eternity of silence, he eventually looked up at me. "I'm sorry," I said quietly. "We should never have gone in there. It will never, ever happen again. In fact, you can look through my house right now, if you like. Then we're even."
I saw the corners of Brody's mouth turn up, ever so slightly. Theo chose that moment to reenter the room. We both turned to look at him. I watched as Brody let out a snort of laughter.
"What happened to your hair, little guy?" he asked, reaching down for Theo to approach him. Theo didn't think twice. He was on Brody's knee before I could take a breath, Bunny hanging between his teeth.
"Brody, I was honest with you. Now I want you to be honest with me. What's the story with the woman we found?" I held my breath. I really wanted Brody to be a good guy, and if my dog was any judge, he was, but he needed to explain a few things to me.
"I honestly don't know. I have never had another living soul in that house with me." He sat scratching Theo behind the ears, thinking. "What strange things has Isaac seen at my house?"
"Oh, umm, just shadows moving, lights flickering, that kind of thing."
"I'll give you my phone number. If it happens again, will you call me?"
* * *
Later that night, after I had run Isaac a bath and poured him a glass of wine, I sat at the table and put my head in my hands. It was only six thirty. The happiness I'd felt walking to the park this morning felt like an eternity ago. How could it have only been twelve hours?
I picked up the bottle of wine and poured myself a glass. I wasn't usually a lover of wine, but this was actually pretty damned good. It seemed to evaporate pretty quickly though. My glass had been full a few minutes ago, and now it was nearly empty. Oh well, I'd better give it a quick top up.
As I poured the deep-red liquid, my mind wandered back to Theo's microchip. He seemed happy enough, and the new chip didn't seem to be bothering him at all. He'd made himself particularly comfortable on my knee not long after I'd sat down and was having a nap, his head resting on Bunny. It appeared that wherever Theo went now, Bunny went too.
Reaching down and giving him a pat, I ran my hand over the site of his old microchip. It was strange to think he had a chip in him, and I never even knew. It was a wonder Betty never told me about it. Maybe she'd told the animal shelter when she'd organized to have him handed in. I never did call them and tell them he wasn't turning up. It had never occurred to me that they might have been given some information that was important for his new owner to know.
I picked up Theo and the glass of wine and walked to the lounge, the effects of the alcohol starting to set in. I grabbed my handbag and literally fell onto the couch, Theo not looking particularly happy about his treatment. Reaching for my laptop and pulling the paper the vet had given me from my bag, I opened Google and attempted some research on microchips. Betty was always very protective of Theo, so I was certain there was some database out there with her contact details on it.
My conversation with Mr. Wilks played in my mind as I thought of Betty. She did have a few interesting quirks, but did I think she was hiding something? I tried to remember conversations I'd had with her over the time I had known her, but images were becoming hazy and logical thinking was becoming more and more difficult. Maybe a little lie-down and a nanna nap would be a good idea.
Relaxing my head back on the arm of the couch, it didn't take long for images of Betty to be replaced with images of Brody. He'd looked pretty fine today in his collared shirt, and if I wasn't mistaken, that was the smell of Giorgio Armani's Attitude he wore. I didn't have very many talents, but naming a fragrance was something I was pretty good at. I wasn't sure what good that would ever do me, but there you have it. It was the talent God had given me.
Just as my very relaxed mind was getting to the good part, Isaac raced into the room, wearing nothing but a towel, hands somewhere around his ears, screaming, "Oh my God! Oh my God!"
I sat up and glared at him. "What's wrong with you now?" I asked, my irritation hard to hide.
"I forgot I'm supposed to be in the city for my interview at seven in the morning. I'll never make it in time!"
"Isaac, I may have had just a little too much to drink, but I don't think it takes twelve hours to drive to the city. It's more like half an hour."
"Yes, but I'll have to drive there in rush hour traffic, plus I will need to be in an ironed shirt, my hair will have to be done, and you know how fast stubble grows on me. It will have grown back by the time I get there! What am I going to do?" He was almost hysterical.
"Calm down for a start. You're making my head hurt."
Isaac paced the room like a caged lion.
"I know!" he yelled, causing me to jump. "I'll book a hotel and go tonight." He headed for the hallway, muttering something under his breath.
Who cares what it was, I was getting a night of peace and quiet after all. I took a deep, calming breath and fell back onto the couch.
Thank you, God!