AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But, Jesse wasn’t allowed to continue his thought, because Rene’s phone interrupted him. Without a word, she reached inside her purse and extracted her phone. It was Hyde.
“Yes?” she answered, still flushed with this feeling of not knowing exactly what was going on.
“Hey, Rene, just wanted to let you know that I’m at work already and there will be someone else…”
“I know,” she cut him short, “I’m already at your house.”
“Oh, crap…” Hyde puffed on the other end of the line. “I wanted to call you sooner, but I didn’t get around to it until now. Sorry about that. Actually, the plan doesn’t change, well not much anyway. Jesse is there to welcome you, but he’ll be off. Just kick him out of the house when you get bored of him. I should be flying back late in the afternoon, so I was wondering if you could stay a bit later. I’ll pay for it, of course. If you can’t, that’s fine, just tell Jesse when he needs to get back and he’ll look after Parker until I come home.”
“OK, just to ask if…” she started, but he interrupted her.
“Sorry, can’t talk. If you need anything, just talk to Jesse. See you in the evening.”
Before she could say anything else, Hyde hung up the phone, and she was left alone with this man she had never seen before.
“I’m guessing that was Hyde,” Jesse grinned.
“Yeah,” she nodded.
“Explaining what he should have already explained half an hour ago, huh?”
“Sort of.”
“Why don’t you come on in?” he suggested. “I think we got off on the wrong foot here and it’s not really our fault.”
He moved to the side, to let her in. He was smiling, with that mischievous smile, as his dark green eyes followed her every move. She walked into the house as if it was her first time there. She figured that Parker was still asleep, as he usually had been lately when she would come around 7 am, and he’d sleep until around 8. She wondered if this man would stay until Parker got up.
She looked at him again. He was really handsome. But, the worst part was that he knew how handsome he was and he played that card a little too zealously. Then, she scolded herself. She promised Alice she’d give people the benefit of the doubt, allowing them to change her mind about this initial, first impression, which Alice once thought was permanent. Now, she actually wanted him to convince her she was wrong. The thought of talking to him suddenly intrigued her.
He was obviously someone close to Hyde. A brother? A cousin? Best friend, maybe? She didn’t know. Hyde never mentioned him before, and neither did Parker. After all, why would they? She rarely chatted to Hyde about things which were unrelated to Parker or her job there. She felt like that would be crossing the line and treading into dangerous territory. Even when Hyde asked her something that bordered on casual chit chat, she immediately shut it down by replying abruptly and then switching the topic to something neutral. She wasn’t sure how she would do that with this man, whoever he was.
She followed him inside and then to the kitchen. She passed by the door to Parker’s room and realized that it was closely shut, which meant he was still asleep. The man walked into the kitchen, then gestured at her to sit down. She did as she was instructed, not taking her eyes off of him for a single second.
“Coffee?” he asked her, opening a cupboard just above him, and getting out two cups, before even hearing her response.
“Um, sure,” she replied.
“So, how are you liking it here?” he asked again, as he continued to make coffee.
Every once in a while, he’d turn around to look at her and that smile never left his face. There was the look of anticipation in his gleaming eyes, as if he had been waiting for this moment for such a long time and now that it was finally here, he was unable to stop smiling. It was weird. And, yet, she didn’t feel anxious or afraid - only curious.
“It’s nice,” she replied politely, trying not to show him that she was eager to talk to him as well.
“And Hyde?” he asked, placing the cup before her.
“What about him?” she wondered.
“Is he being nice?” he grinned at his own question.
“Yes, very.”
If he wanted to get a rise out of her, he failed to do so. She kept smiling a cold but still polite smile, one that locked her jaw in a clenching state. She caught herself wishing for Parker to wake up, so she could focus on him. Right now, the focus seemed to be on her and she didn’t like it. She felt like this guy was a dog, sniffing around her, trying to find out what her skeletons were. Rene had some, like everyone else. Also, like everyone else, she wanted to keep them safely locked inside the closet.
“He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve met,” she continued, trying to keep the conversation polite and superficial, her curiosity about this guy plummeting. “Parker is also a great kid, it’s so easy to work with both of them. I can barely call it work, honestly.”
“That good, huh?” he sneered, as if he found it a little difficult to believe.
“Are you Hyde’s brother?” she asked, trying to switch the topic of the conversation to him.
