There Dr. Martin and Veronica could be seen taking a group of kids out onto the lake in his speed boat. She watched in fascination as the four teens, wearing bright orange life jackets, screamed in excitement when he steered to the middle of the lake and hit the throttle. They quickly became little bouncing balls of orange as they skittered across the lake at breakneck speed.
Briefly, Mina wondered why Nan wasn’t out there enjoying the boat ride, until she remembered her famous company. Nan was hiding out in the kitchen trying to keep Peter all to herself. She knew that once everyone else saw him the party would quickly congregate to wherever he was, which also meant that she was probably going to hide him from most of her guests for as long as possible. She had no idea how Nan was going to accomplish keeping his anonymity; she was just glad that she didn’t have to do it.
Brody followed Mina to the snack table and began to fill up a paper plate with small, rectangular sandwich bites. Mina grabbed a two liter bottle of Coke and began to fill her own blue plastic cup with the bubbly goodness when Nan caught her off guard.
“Mina, have you seen Jared lately? I invited him, but I haven’t seen him at school.” Nan spoke innocently enough, but the question spooked Mina and she lost control of the two liter bottle, dropping it into her cup and flipping both onto the floor. The two liter rolled under the table spilling pop in its wake.
“Stink!” Mina dropped to her knees and raced under the table to upright the bottle. With a pile of napkins, she haphazardly began to mop up the spilled mess. It wasn’t even close to enough napkins.
Brody ducked under the table and handed her another stack of napkins. With his own stack, he began to help clean up the quickly spreading puddle. Her hands shook in embarrassment; she could feel her cheeks and neck burning. She stopped mopping to glance at him. He wore a blue shirt, which complemented his eyes, and in this close of quarters she could smell his cologne. He must have sensed her staring at him because he looked right at her and smiled out of the corner of his mouth.
Mortified at being caught staring, Mina jumped up but bashed her head on the underside of the table making it move three inches to the right.
It didn’t matter how much of a gentleman he was, no one could see that and not laugh.
He chuckled at her clumsiness when she plopped right back down into her soppy napkin and pop mess. “Are you all right?” he asked trying to mask his own laughter.
Mina clutched her head and shot dagger filled looks of hate at the table. “No, I doubt I will ever be classified as all right.”
The table moved above her as Nan and Peter shifted the heavy oak table away. Nan had found a mop, and Peter had retrieved a large roll of paper towels. Between the two of them, they cleaned up Mina’s mess in record time.
There were no words to describe her humiliation at having Brody, and his rock star cousin cleaning up her mess. What was worse was that Mina was now soaked in brown pop. It had spilled all over her shirt and shorts. She was on the verge of crying when Nan came to the rescue again.
“Hey,” she whispered, grabbing Mina’s hand and pulling her to the side. “Go upstairs, and the first door on the right is the guest room. It’s where you will be sleeping tonight. You brought extra clothes right? Then just go change and throw your clothes in the upstairs washer.” She patted Mina encouragingly on the shoulder and nudged her toward the stairs.
Slowly she trudged up the stairs. Her feet felt like lead as her own worries and anxiety weighed her down emotionally. She found the bedroom and opened her backpack to grab the first pair of shorts and shirts she found. Not even caring if they matched, she slowly walked into the bathroom to rinse out her clothes and change. Her movements became sluggish as she tried to delay her return to the kitchen.
In a house filled with people, she felt completely alone. When she had cleaned her clothes as much as possible, Mina wiped her hands on a soft hand towel, gathering the courage to look into the bathroom mirror and inspect her eye makeup. Only it wasn’t her soft brown eyes looking back at her in the mirror. They were someone else’s, and they were angry.
Chapter 17
Mina screamed. She leapt away from the bathroom sink and crashed into the wall, her mouth open wide in terror as she tried to process what she was seeing. She could barely see her reflection in the bathroom mirror because it was faded in comparison to the other reflection coming through the mirror. She recognized those grey eyes. They were Jared’s. Once again, she was seeing his reflection.
He was angry and yelling at her. She couldn’t hear him, but she only needed to read his facial expressions and lips. He ran his hands through his dark hair in frustration, turned and pointed at her again, and continued yelling.