Dr. Summers tapped his fingers on the door frame, impatiently waiting for me to respond.
"Yes, sir." I found myself stammering.
I was saved from further conversation with him as Lana entered. She looked like an angel - dressed in a white summer dress which stopped at her knees, her red hair flowing in curls down her back and her face done up with just a hint of makeup. She was utterly breathtaking.
"Good evening, Rhett." She beamed.
I hugged her briefly, aware that her father's eyes were fixed on me. After passing her the flowers, I indicated that we should get going.
"Don't be late," Her father instructed, "and if you need me to fetch you, just call
LanaRhett really had outdone himself. I could see he was very proud of his decor, fairy lights hanging randomly from the pagoda's posts. The food was amazing though, and I knew Mrs Porter had been the one to prepare it. The best part of the evening had to be snuggling up to Rhett, hearing his heart beat steadily as we watched my favourite movie.I knew the moment his thoughts turned from the movie and onto more sensual things, his heartbeat speeding up slightly.Instead of waiting for him to initiate the kiss, I reached up and pressed my lips to his. Immediately, he took over, rolling me onto my back and deepening the kiss. His tongue rubbed forcefully against mine and his hand rested on my ribs, his thumb rubbing unconsciously against the underside of my breast.
The next morning, I woke up to Willow rifling through my cupboard and choosing the clothing I would wear to our visit to the orphanage."Good morning, sunshine." She greeted me brightly, flinging a boldly printed floral dress onto the bed - proof that my mother had been shopping for me while I was asleep again. "Dan said he would drive us there, and it might be a good idea having Mr. Lawyer with us in case we need to sniff out potential bullshit."I groaned, pulling the duvet over my head as I realised that I hadn't told Willow that I'd invited Rhett along. Feeling the covers yanked off me unceremoniously, I filled Willow in on the relevant details, keeping it PG13."Well, this is going to be fun." She rolled her eyes and waved the dress in my face until I took it.
RhettDan drove the pace of a snail down the driveway, away from the orphanage and the woman who had lied blatantly to our faces. I could almost see the cogs in his brain turn."What are you thinking?" I finally asked, the silence getting to me.He looked back at Lana, the frustration on her face evident."I'm wondering if you're any good at breaking and entering." He finally said, picking up speed as we pulled into the main road.Realisation dawned on me and I grinned like a village idiot. The idea was actually a decent one. My delinquent early-teenage years did teach me a few tricks, although I'm not proud of them.
RhettAt 9:45pm, we dress in our ninja outfits. I pulled on my favourite leather jacket so that I wouldn't feel so weird. Matching Dan made me feel like I was a part of a cheesy boy band, which made me think of Terry, which then made me think of my mom and how Angela hadn't bothered to call me for over a week now. World class mother- son relationship there!"You guys decent?" Willow called through a slit in the door before pushing it open before waiting for a response."You ok to do this?" I asked a pale faced Lana, noting her hands gripping together.She nodded without saying a word and I pulled her into my arms for a reassuring hug, not caring about our audience."Let's go, kids."
LanaThe drive home was long and silent. Dan had been on edge since we had got back to the motel and had kept Rhett up with his pacing back and forth across the room they shared. Something was bothering him, he just didn't want to say what it was yet.When we got back to the motel, Rhett and I showed Dan and Willow the photos we had taken of the files, even pulling up my own file for them to read."I wonder who tore out all those pages from Wynter's file." Willow said aloud, running her hand through her hair. "If I'm right about my suspicions, he is possibly the guy I saw over the Christmas holidays at the ice rink."I'm not sure if anyone actually paid her much attention. We were quite thoroughly exhausted so I dra
RhettClearly, my bonding experience with Dan had extended me a level of civility from all of the Summers brothers as I quickly found myself invited to theirfamily game night scheduled for the next evening."We usually start off with a murder mystery dinner and then go hard-core into monopoly." Dan informed me, the twins eyeing me with caution but not preventing my invitation."It's mafia themed this time so dress accordingly." Mike stated before he walked off without a backwards glance.Clearly I was invited but not exactly welcomed by the twins. I could certainly deal with that.Accepting the invitation
LanaEveryone has their own guilty pleasure in life. For some, it's food, wine, cigarettes, travel, thrilling adventures, or even just curling up on the couch to read a book. For all three of my brothers, it's the thrill and competition of game nights.The competitive natures of the three have resulted in our mother and father restricting game nights to once a month when I'm awake - for their safety, of course.They always start the same way: Mom and Dad chickening out and opting for a dinner date somewhere in town, which would leave us kids to either order in pizza or make burgers. Moments before dinner, game master Matt would hand out envelopes with character profiles inside and we'd have a few moments to scrutinise them before we are launched into an
Daniel guided Rhett back to his chair and almost forced him to sit down before he claimed his own and began the story, Willow and I butting in whenever a piece was left out. I felt Rhett take my hand in his and interlaced our fingers, his eyes not leaving my face as Dan finished the tale."Any questions?" Willow asked my rather dumbstruck twin idiots.There was silence for a moment, the cogs in their brains obviously working overtime. I could almost see the smoke billowing out of their ears."So, when are we confronting mom and dad?" Matt asked, running his hand through his hair.A few hours later (and after a much more sedate ending to the game night than usual), I sat with Rhett at the pool. None
RhettLana tapped her fingers against the dashboard of our car, the steady beat slowly becoming a form of torture that could possibly but dripping water to shame."Will you please relax," I moaned, resting my head back against the driver's seat in frustration."They're late," she responded with obvious impatience, her fingers stilling for a brief moment before they resumed their beat.I sighed loudly, closing my eyes. The past year had given a whole new dimension to our relationship and we were practically the married couple our new IDs claimed we were."They'll be here. There was probably just traffic or something."
LanaI woke up in a strange bed, Rhett's arms around me as his chest rose and fell with his steady breathing. I stared at his sleeping face for a moment before I pulled myself away and went to the dingy bathroom that was attached to the rather disgusting motel room. I was secretly glad we'd fallen asleep on top of the covers as I'm pretty sure the bed was covered in other people's DNA samples - if you get my meaning.Looking in the mirror, I barely recognized the girl staring back at me. My hair was matted and smelled of smoke, my eyes puffy and red-rimmedfrom crying the whole night and my skin paler than it usually was.After trying to tame my hair with my hairbrush and only succeeding on getting the implement stuck in my
RhettOne moment she was yelling at our attackers to let us go and that they were making a mistake, the next she was screaming as her body turned into flames which seared the flesh of those who tried to detain her. The fire within her grew and grew, swallowing the whole area in its furnace. Our attackers screamed in agony, their skin blistering and peeling off of their bones as they died a gruesome death.I looked down at my own hands, only a slight warmth tingling my skin. My clothes were completely burned off, but my skin was untouched for some inexplicable reason. The flames which engulfed Lana were spreading as she seemed to channel more energy unwittingly into the flames, her vision consumed with her dead brother.Dan's voice broke through my stupor as he pleaded with L
RhettMy dad had practically locked himself in his office since the moment he'd returned from confronting Lana's folks. I get it - he was beyond upset. Mrs. P had recently told me that Dr. and Mrs Summers were the ones who kept my dad sane after my mom bailed with me. They'd practically kept him from drowning his sorrows in a pool of strong spirits and his own blood - if you get what I mean.So the fact that he'd allowed them to see him so vulnerable without them affording him the same consideration sucked the big one.It would take time for him to pull his pride from his pocket and get over it, but eventually he'd see that Lana's secret was massive in comparison to my mom's affairs.Don't get me wrong, I felt
LanaHave you ever had the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop? That's what it had been like since Cole's dad had left the area.Christmas had been festive, my mom making sure it was just like I had seen in movies with the most delicious food ever. And just when I thought that I couldn't fit another morsel into my stomach, out came dessert. The only thing that put a damper on the festivities was this feeling that wouldn't go away. It didn't help that Willow had been having dreams again - and not good ones."It was just like before, you were running away from men chasing you and you burst into flames," Willow's voice was cracking over the phone, the poor signal at her grandparents cabin to blame."What do y
RhettIt was still dark when Dan's convertible crept out of the driveway, he and the twins on a mission to get a message to Cole. I had barely managed to sleep, nervous tension clawing at my stomach throughout the three days the General had decided to "be a guest" in our home.I knew that once the military man vacated the premises, my father would immediately have me in his office explaining every little detail to him. Lana said it didn't matter to her if he knew, but I don't think her folks would be of the same opinion so I had to weigh the pros and cons very carefully. I mean, how would you feel if you discovered your best friend of more than twenty years had kept a secret and had lied consistently to you?Fortunately - or rather, unfortunately - it didn't seem as if the G
LanaIt was official. I loved Christmas time! Everything about it drew me in; the lights, the food, the general merriment of the people I met. It was just incredible!Rhett's dad had arrived back home, so he'd been quite quiet, in fact I'd heard absolutely nothing from him. My texts had gone unanswered, and it was starting to freak me out a little bit. Dan had said to give him some space, he was probably just catching up with Bill so I busied myself with other things. Christmas shopping and baking quickly shot up to my favourite things to do.Eventually, I broke and decided to take Bill and Rhett some sugar cookies. A two in one gesture, if you could put it that way. It wasn't that I didn't trust Rhett, it was just that something felt off.
RhettAfter the discovery of Terry's body, we weren't exactly sure how it was all going to go down, but we all knew it wasn't going to be good.The cops had called my dad, asking questions about his whereabouts after they had discovered that Terry was dating my mom. They had some theory about a jealous ex or some such bullshit, and the fact that they'd picked up a car registered to my dad on a traffic camera close to the scene didn't help. They soon discovered that I had been driving the car, not my dad.Thank goodness for Cole's decision for us to eat at McDonald's - although in retrospect I think he made us go there on purpose. I'm not sure what Cole had done but the cops determined Terry's time of death was smack bang the same time as when we were chilling in McD's.
LanaIt was a surreal experience knowing that Cole was one of the kids I had a vague memory of, their small bodies lying sleeping in the clinically white bedroom at the orphanage. He seemed a lot older than me, not just the two years which I knew he was.We quickly established that I needed to be careful. If the military tracking system was still working, then they would know that my tattoo had appeared. He seemed to believe that finding your soul mate made the marker appear, but there was a chance that he was just being romantic.Willow also wanted clarity on her dreams, but Cole just shrugged his shoulders."I guess you're like our mothers. You have an unexplainable gift," was all he could say.