Exhausted after a day of music mixed with too much introspection, Giselle stretched her arms toward the ceiling. Her muscles ached, especially after playing one of the more passionate and up-tempo pieces. A hot shower had helped some, but sitting at her vanity, treating her face and décolleté with her Exquisite moisturizer, Giselle examined her face closely. What did Tierney see when she looked at her? Granted, the light makeup she wore every day out of habit helped her look more awake. Younger, in a sense. Not that it mattered. It never had. Perhaps she should be grateful she had been involved with a few people before the agoraphobia and anxiety disorder had placed her in a lifelong harness that pulled her away from…from civilization, to be blunt.
She wasn’t being overly dramatic, even if a few people had suggested that. They weren’t in her life anymore, as their negativity and general shaming weren’t doing her any good. Instead, looking back at the girls she’d flirted with and come close to having a physical relationship with, Giselle found it bittersweet as well as fortunate to have lived through that period of her life at all, while she still had the chance.
Now, at thirty-eight, some days she felt much older. Compared to Tierney, who was, what—in her mid or late twenties—she felt ancient. As exuberant as Tierney was on the surface, she had an old-soul darkness sometimes. She wanted to ask Tierney what her past had been like. It surprised Giselle how much she wanted to know every little detail about Tierney. What had happened to her when she was very young to have her end up in the system? No matter what it was, it hadn’t seemed to snuff out her spark. Not the spark that looked fake and too glittery, but that fire in Tierney that allowed her to train Charley—and yes, reach Giselle when anyone else would’ve been hard-pressed to do so. It was as mindboggling as it was puzzling.
Giselle wasn’t so naive that she thought another person could ever cure her of her deep-rooted anxiety, but she had to concede that Tierney got under her skin like nobody else had ever done. Yes, her friends, whom she mostly knew through her line of work, had proved to be very understanding and accommodating. Tierney, though, had a way of gently coaxing her, and God knew this woman was persuasive.
Pulling off her robe, Giselle reached for a new nightgown, a cobalt-blue satin slip that reached her mid-thigh. After brushing her hair, she rubbed lotion on her hands, extending the fingers and balling them into fists repeatedly. Her first piano teacher had instilled this habit in her from an early age. Always tend to your hands, as they are your prize possession. It was true, but at age six, she’d found the advice hilarious.
She was about to slip into bed when she stopped, trying to remember if she’d made sure Tierney set the alarm before she returned to the guesthouse. Padding out into the hallway on bare feet, Giselle read the setting on the console next to the front door. Locked and alarm set. Of course. Tierney was conscientious and careful.
A knock on the door made her jump. She pressed a button on the alarm console, and a video feed of the person outside her door came into view on the small screen. Tierney. Giselle opened the door, glaring at her late visitor.
“What on earth are you doing here at this hour?” She put her left hand on her hip.
“I’m so sorry for disturbing you, but it’s an emergency. I need to borrow your phone charger. Mine just won’t work. It must be broken. I was in the middle of a call and—”
“And this call can’t wait until tomorrow?” Giselle asked, knowing full well she sounded disdainful.
“No. No, it can’t. If it could, I would never disturb you at this hour. Please, Giselle. I think I saw you have an iPhone. My other cord doesn’t fit.” Looking panicky now, Tierney shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
“All right.” Giselle motioned for Tierney to step inside. Like herself, Tierney was dressed in sleepwear, in Tierney’s case a tank top and boxers. Tierney stared at Giselle as if she’d turned blue all over—wait, blue. Realizing she was wearing only her satin nightgown, Giselle hurried to the bathroom and grabbed her robe, pulling it on. Grabbing her phone charger, she went back to Tierney and handed her the cord, which attached to a plug. “Here you go. You can give it back to me in the morning.”
“There isn’t time.” Tierney sobbed and pushed the cord into the bottom of her phone and the plug into the closest socket. She sank down, her back against the wall. “Please, hurry.” She closed her eyes, her face pale and her lips tense.
Uncertain what to do, let alone say, Giselle followed her intuition and sat down in one of the small armchairs next to Tierney. Tierney flinched and punched in a number with trembling fingers. “Pick up, kiddo. Please.”
Kiddo? Giselle wanted to know whom Tierney was calling so frenziedly. Feeling she wasn’t meant to overhear any of what was going on, Giselle rose from her chair.
“No. Please. Stay here?” Tierney looked up, panic still in her eyes.
Giselle wanted to ask why, but instead she made a detour to her bedroom and put on her slippers. Her feet were already ice-cold, and she could only imagine how Tierney had to be freezing sitting on the floor in barely more than underwear. Tugging her dusty-pink throw with her, she reentered the foyer. She walked over to Tierney and wrapped the blanket around her narrow shoulders.
“Thank you,” Tierney whispered.
Giselle retook her seat in the chair and watched Tierney rap her fingertips against the floor. The signals she was sending the person at the other end went unanswered for a while, but Tierney kept dialing. Eventually, someone answered, and Tierney nearly toppled over. She ended up with her head against Giselle’s thigh, her free hand grasping for the bottom hem of the robe.
“Hey, Stephanie. It’s me again. My phone lost power. I had to ask my…my friend for a charger.”
Giselle heard a mumbling sound when this Stephanie answered.
“No, you can’t. I know it’s bad, but doing something like that is worse. Listen. I can come get you. If that’s what it takes, I’ll come, and tomorrow we’ll call your social worker and tell him what’s been going on.”
A new murmur. This time more intense.
“Stephanie, please.” Tears ran down Tierney’s cheeks. “Please listen to me. If you stand up for yourself and tell them what he’s done, then they’ll move you. I’ll testify, if need be. Remember, I stayed in that home when I was your age. Clearly nothing has changed.” Wiping at her cheeks, Tierney pressed her face against Giselle. “He was younger then, but still a creep. I suppose they stopped adopting kids about then.”
The woman, or girl, wailed now, loudly enough for Giselle to hear. Tierney trembled and pushed closer to Giselle, who, not knowing she intended to, ran her fingers through Tierney’s hair. Over and over, she combed through the silky tresses.
“Wait a second, Stephanie. Stay on the line.” Glancing up, Tierney pressed the mute symbol on her phone and looked pleadingly at Giselle. “Please. May I borrow the Jeep and go get Stephanie? It’s not far from here. Two hours at the most, one way. She can’t stay in that house with that man after her. She doesn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“How do you know this Stephanie?” Giselle asked, not knowing what to think. “And why does she need rescuing this late in the evening?”
“She’s fourteen and at a place where I stayed when I was her age. The foster parents had seven other foster kids when I was there, and they ended up adopting three of them. One of the kids acted strange already then, but now, he’s a grown man…he still lives there and has set his sights on Stephanie. I’ve never met her.” Wiping at her eyes again, Tierney pleaded her case. “We connected through the Facebook page for foster kids we both belong to. When I understood where she was living, I reached out to her.”
“And you want to bring this child here?” Giselle wanted to pull back, but the tears streaming down Tierney’s pale cheeks made it impossible.
“Yes. It’s late. I can bring her here to the guesthouse and then call her social worker tomorrow morning and drive her back. You can take the money for the gas out of my salary.”
Giselle thought fast. The idea of Tierney going straight into a potentially volatile situation and assuming responsibility for a child didn’t sit well with her. It was dark outside, and Giselle normally did better outside then. Not being able to see the vastness around her wrapped her in a protective cocoon.
“One condition,” Giselle said slowly. “We’ll both go. I’m not letting you put yourself in danger, and I think Stephanie would be the first to think so too—if she truly is your friend.”
“She is, and I can take care of myself, of both of us.” Tierney stopped talking, tipping her head back to study Giselle. “So, you’re prepared to face your demons for a perfect stranger?”
“Yes. And you’ve never been a stranger to me.” She had probably gone too far with that last statement, but she needed to make Tierney see how dangerous it was to go out alone.
“All right. I’ll drive. We need blankets and water. She’s been hiding underneath the back porch for hours. Her phone is about to die as well.” Placing her phone to her ear again, Tierney unmuted it. “Sweetie. Listen to me. I’m coming to get you. A friend of mine will be with me. She’s really great, and she wants to help as well.”
A slightly modified truth. Giselle walked back to her bedroom and dressed in jeans and a plain white shirt. Pulling on a windbreaker, as the nights were sometimes chilly, she walked back to the foyer where Tierney stood, still in her nightwear, looking indecisive.
“You need to put on some clothes. We should get going. The girl can’t stay under the porch indefinitely.” And to be selfish, she couldn’t risk being outside with Tierney and a stranger after it was light. The mere idea of facing rush-hour traffic in the morning, no matter how safe she felt in the car, was enough to make her question her decision.
“Two minutes.” It was as if Tierney had awoken from some sort of sedation. She rushed out the door and ran toward the guesthouse.
Giselle fetched the car keys, closed the front door, and set the alarm. While walking out into the garage, she decided to drive the Jeep out to the driveway. As she sat waiting for Tierney, she wondered where her determination came from. Why would she risk a severe anxiety attack to go pick up a total stranger?
The answer presented itself as she moved to the passenger seat. Tierney came running down the path toward her, flinging herself in behind the wheel. It wasn’t for a stranger, no matter how heart-wrenching the girl’s situation was. She was doing this for Tierney.