“Nah. No big deal. Who was that guy who was here this morning?”
Cecilia swallowed. “Um…guy?” she parroted, stalling for a moment.
“Yeah. I heard a car door and I looked out my window and I saw him drive away in that totally sweet car. It wasn’t your brother, was it? He didn’t get a new car?”
“No,” Cecilia admitted. “He’s a man I know through my work.”
It was true enough, and all she intended to say to a curious sixteen-year-old. “I haven’t seen you around much during the past few weeks. Busy summer?”
“Yeah, kind of. What with my job at South Junction Burgers and my boyfriend and all.”
Ah, yes. The boyfriend. Cecilia had seen him a time or two with Brandy, and she hadn’t been particularly impressed by the swaggering, wannabe tough guy. From a few brief conversations, she knew Brandy’s grandmother worried about the intensity of the relationship, but Maxine Campbell was still being rather hesitant in setting boundaries for the girl.
Another example of a child whose father hadn’t bothered to hang around, Brandy had moved in with her grandparents a year ago when her mother’s substance abuse had become a problem that could no longer be ignored. Cecilia had befriended the girl then, and she genuinely liked Brandy, but she knew there had been some adolescent problems in the Campbell household.
“I haven’t seen your friend Lizzie all summer,” she commented, thinking of the chubby, giggly blonde who had been Brandy’s shadow for months. “Is she out of town?”
Brandy shrugged again. “Nah. She’s kind of pi—er, mad at me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“She’s all, like, jealous or something because I’ve been too busy to spend much time with her lately. Jeez, I don’t know how she thinks I got enough hours to work almost every evening and spend time with Marlin and hang out with her, too. I told her maybe we could go shop or something when Marlin plays basketball at the Y on Monday nights, but she’s all, like, that’s not enough. Just as well, I guess. Marlin don’t really like her, anyway. He says she’s too all about herself—and obviously he’s right.”
Although Cecilia knew how intense teenage romances could be, it still concerned her that Brandy seemed to be obsessed with Marlin to the point of dropping her friends. She would hate to see the girl make the same mistake she had—rushing into an ill-fated teenage marriage, ending up a disillusioned young divorcée.
“You know, boyfriends come and go while you’re young, but your friendships can last a lifetime,” she said, almost cringing at the triteness of the remark. “Maybe you should…”
“Now you sound like Grandma,” Brandy cut in irritably. “She’s always trying to tell me I spend too much time with Marlin. Well, I don’t care. Me and Marlin are going to get married as soon as I graduate. There won’t be any more boyfriends for me.”
“Oh, Brandy, I’m sure you think that now, but you’re still too young to know what will happen in the next two or three years. Don’t try to grow up too fast.”
“I’m old enough to know what I want,” Brandy insisted, sounding as though this was a familiar, and increasingly frustrating, argument for her. “No offense, Cecilia, but I don’t want to end up like you, living alone and working all the time. It’s okay for you, but I want a man and a family of my own. And I’m not going to let anyone come between me and Marlin, because he’s the only one who really understands me.”
Flinching at the words that cut much too close to her own vulnerabilities, Cecilia tried to concentrate on the danger signs hidden in Brandy’s words. Something was worrying her about Brandy, and even though the girl was openly defiant of anyone who tried to give her advice, Cecilia couldn’t help feeling as if she needed to say more.
But before she could think of the words, Brandy looked beyond her. “Looks like your boyfriend’s back,” she murmured.
It took Cecilia a moment to figure out what the girl had just said. And then, with her heart in her throat, she looked quickly around to find Geoff Bingham standing on the stone pathway that led around the side of the house, gazing at her over the chain-link fence.
Chapter Five
“Hi,” Geoff said, his eyes locked with Cecilia’s, his expression hard for her to interpret.
Hoping he hadn’t overheard Brandy’s comments, Cecilia set her lemonade glass on the table. “Um…hi, yourself.”
“I thought I heard voices back here. Is this a bad time?”
“No. I was just having a visit with my neighbor. Brandy Campbell, this is my, er, friend, Geoff Bingham.”
“Nice to meet you, Brandy.”
Brandy jumped to her feet, automatically hitching at the low-riding denim shorts that hung precariously on her bony hips. “I gotta go, anyway. Marlin will be here pretty soon. We’re going to the arcade so I can watch him play video games.”
Which didn’t sound particularly entertaining to Cecilia, but she was too busy wondering why Geoff had come back to spend much time contemplating Brandy’s choice of entertainment. “Um, yeah. See you later.”
“’Kay.” Brandy checked Geoff out quite thoroughly as she sauntered past him. “’Bye.”
“’Bye, yourself.” He watched her head for the house next door, then turned back to Cecilia. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything important.”