‘Hel , yeah. This is serious.’ He squeezed my fingers, taking a better grip. ‘So she doesn’t run for the hil s.’
‘Meaning?’
He lifted one of my hands and tucked it into his jacket pocket. He kept his fingers stil locked around mine as he leant beside me, looking out on the same view.
‘I thought you might be a bit wary of me at first, until you got used to me. The nice me, not the jerk me.’
‘Wary?’
‘Wolfman, remember? You’ve got me down on the dark side; I saw that in your thoughts.’
He knew about Wolfman? Kil me now, why don’t you?
‘No way, it’s cute.’
I gave a strangled groan of humiliation.
He
chuckled.
He
was
enjoying
my
embarrassment, the rat. ‘I know I can be a bit hard to talk to sometimes—like when we met at the ghost town. I’m going through … ’ he shook his head, ‘it’s tough right now. And sometimes, I just get, overwhelmed. Too much weighing on me.’
OK, I wasn’t buying the soulfinder stuff, but I couldn’t ignore that he had an uncanny ability to pluck thoughts from my head. ‘You’re not making this up? You do something, don’t you?’ I was thinking of the way he seemed to know what I was going to say before I said it.
‘I do a lot of things.’ The sun slid behind the horizon, the honeyed light fading to old gold. ‘I’d like to do some things with you, Sky, if you want to. I was wrong to rush in claiming you as my soulfinder—you need to arrive at the same place with me. After al , we’ve the rest of our lives to get this right.’
I swal owed. Tina had warned me about this. What could be more al uring than a boy tel ing you that you were more or less made for him? That’s what the evil guys always did to lure in those poor saps in the stories, wasn’t it? But right now I couldn’t think of that; al I could think about was Zed, standing there looking so … wel … hopeful. ‘What kind of things?’
He gently ran his free hand down my arm, linking fingers on my other side.
‘Go for a ride.’
I smiled shyly. ‘We’ve just been doing that.’
‘Then we’ve ticked the first box already. Next we might go out to the movies in Aspen, or risk the diner in Wrickenridge and have everyone stare at us al evening.’
‘The movies sound nice.’
‘With me?’
I looked down. ‘I might risk it. Once. But I stil don’t like you much.’
‘Understood.’ He nodded solemnly but his eyes were smiling.
‘And this soulfinder stuff—I don’t believe it. It leaves no room for choice, like some cosmic arranged marriage.’
He grimaced. ‘We’l leave that aside for the moment then. One step. Go out with me?’
What should I say? I liked this Zed, the one that brought flowers and kicked easy penalties to stop a newcomer being humiliated, but I hadn’t forgotten the angry, dangerous Wolfman. ‘OK, I’l give you a chance.’
He lifted my fingers to his mouth, gave them a playful nip, then let go. ‘Then it’s a date.’
I spent the next few days agonizing over my decision. Part of me was thril ed that I’d been asked on a date by Zed. I’d been manoeuvred into agreeing, that was true, but I wouldn’t be human if I hadn’t felt flattered. As Zoe had once told me, any female with a pulse would want to be asked out by a Benedict. Stil , I didn’t want to spil it even to my closest girlfriends, mainly because I daren’t think it true. I had the crazy notion that saying it out loud might make it disappear like Cinderel a’s coach at midnight. I was also worried what Tina would say.
Something on the lines of ‘have you lost your mind?’.
I feared if I talked to her, she’d persuade me that he was manipulating me, that he’d love me and leave me in the classic pattern of the bad boy. I wanted to believe in the new Zed: that I’d got him wrong, that he could be gentle, that we had common ground and could find more given time. But there was so much to take on board—the savant stuff (was that even real?), the soulfinder thing he was fixated on. My deepest fear was that he was just pretending to like me because he needed me in some way I couldn’t yet fathom.
My mum noticed my distraction but she did not guess the cause.
‘Sky, are you listening to me?’
‘Um … yes?’ I hazarded.
‘You were not.’
‘OK, I wasn’t. What did you say?’
‘I said we should buy you something special for the opening.’ Sal y eyed the limited contents of my wardrobe with her usual good taste. ‘You’ve been worrying about it, haven’t you? That’s what’s got into you.’
‘Um …’
‘I agree: you don’t have anything here that wil do.
We’l have to get you a new outfit.’
The Arts Centre was marking the occasion of its formal opening with a black tie reception. Everyone in Wrickenridge was expected to turn out—after al , there wasn’t much competition for entertainment until the ski season arrived. And if Sal y thought I didn’t have a suitable outfit I was in trouble: Zed was bound to be there.
‘I’d like that but where can we go to shop? I can’t face going al the way into Denver.’
‘Mrs Hoffman—’
I groaned.
‘ Said there was a very nice boutique in Aspen, just forty-five minutes away on the interstate.’
In the end, Simon came too, saying we’d not spent enough time together as a family since arriving. He treated us to lunch in an Italian place, then made himself scarce while Sal y and I hit the boutique.
‘I might just get myself something new as wel ,’
said Sal y, fingering the rows of dresses with longing.
‘Oh, now the hidden agenda is revealed!’ I teased her, pul ing out a long red number. ‘This isn’t about me—it’s al about you. Try this on.’
After thirty minutes of indecision, we settled on two dresses with prices that Sal y tried to ignore. Aspen catered to the exclusive skiers, the Hol ywood A list, so had tags to match.
‘They are investments,’ she said, pul ing out her credit card. ‘Yours wil do for the bal in the summer.’
‘Prom,’ I corrected her. ‘And I think parents are supposed to cough up for a new dress for that too.
It’s tradition.’
‘Then I’l just have to sel a few more paintings.’
She closed her eyes and signed the bil .
We were giggling like mad conspirators as we got ready that evening.
‘Don’t tel Simon about the shoes,’ Sal y warned.
‘He doesn’t understand about the need for coordination.’ She bit her lip. ‘They were horribly expensive, weren’t they?’
‘Where are my girls?’ Simon shouted from downstairs. ‘We’l be late!’
Sal y went first down the stairs, posing for effect in her red sheath dress.
Simon gaped.
‘I look good?’ she asked, a smal frown forming.
‘I’ve changed my mind. Let’s stay home.’ He grinned, running his hand down her satin-clad back.
‘I hope Sky is wearing something a little less revealing. I’l be chasing off the boys if she looks anything like you.’
I presented myself for his inspection. I had chosen a forget-me-not blue strapless dress that stopped short just above my knee. I’d let my hair loose, leaving it curling down my back, held at the front by two jewel ed combs.
Simon shook his head. ‘I don’t think I can cope.
Back to your rooms, girls.’
We laughed and seized him by the arms, towing him out to the car.
‘But look at you, al dashing in your James Bond outfit!’ I told him, straightening his bow tie. He made it a point of honour to use a real one, then always had to get us to tie it for him. ‘Sal y and I wil be fighting the girls off with canapés and cocktail sticks.’
‘I look to you both to defend me,’ he said, winking at me in the rear-view mirror.