A heartbeat later and my phone rings in my palm and I jump and laugh, biting down on my lip as I answer.
‘I’m coming over,’ says Flick. ‘And you are telling me everything.’
*
My doorbell rings and I frown. Nobody ever comes here. I don’t have nosy neighbours or even nice ones. They keep themselves to themselves and that suits me just fine. I’m not sociable, I don’t have friends, at least not anymore. The house meets all the criteria of the HOA, so it won’t be the chairman complaining about the state of my lawn. Willow and Harpy are too young to have friends over and Thea hates most of the other children in her class bar one or two.
I sit up, my eyes narrowing.
That leaves Mackenzie.
I hear her door open upstairs and my chest tightens, and for a moment I feel something I haven’t felt in a decade course through my veins.
Jealousy.
Mackenzie has a visitor, and if it’s that boy she mentioned the other night, then he is in mortal danger.
She skips down the stairs on light feet as she bounces toward the door but before she can reach it I hold up my hand.
‘You have a visitor?’
She stops dead and looks toward me, licking her lips with guilt and confusion. Then she nods, blushing.
‘Who?’ I ask.
‘A friend,’ she says, her natural sarcastic tone pushing my buttons.
‘Name,’ I growl.
‘Flick.’
‘That’s not a name.’
She huffs. ‘She’s called Felicity.’
I breathe out. A girlfriend. Okay.
‘My rules were clear,’ I say. ‘I vet all visitors into my house. You were just going to let her in?’
‘She’s my best friend,’ she says, pouting. ‘I figured she’d get a free pass.’
‘A free pass?’ I say, my blood simmering as my eyes widen. ‘No one gets a free pass in my house.’
‘It’s the weekend,’ she says as if that excuses it.
‘I don’t give a damn,’ I rumble.
‘I’m sorry, Mr Ledger,’ she says quietly, her hands tucked between her thighs as she swings her bellflower dress.
‘We’ll talk about this later,’ I say. ‘Let her in.’
Mackenzie takes a second before resuming her walk toward the doorway, now somewhat slower than before, her blush having spread down her neck and chest. She pauses and bites down on her lip before looking back at me with a flushed gaze that makes me tremble. Then she unbolts the latch and swings the door wide, and for a brief moment, I think I’m seeing double.
‘Hey beautiful,’ says the brightly smiling mirror image of Mackenzie, standing on the far side of the frame.
‘Flick,’ she says as she steps closer and leans in for a tight embrace.
My heart is in shreds, my jaw has dropped open. I must be seeing things.