“Hel o?” I heard in my ear.
Oh shit.
Too late.
My eyes flew to Hector. He was standing beside me as I sat in my armchair.
He gave me a nod.
“Um, Ms. Mason?” I said back, dipping my chin to look at my knees and I heard Hector’s boots on the floorboards as he walked away.
“Yes?” she answered.
“This is Stel a. Stel a Gunn. You don’t know me. I’m a friend of your son’s. I’m a friend of, um… Kai’s.” Sheesh but it was weird cal ing Mace “Kai”.
Silence.
Or, I should say, loaded silence.
“Hel o?” I cal ed.
“Kai?” she asked and the way she said his name made it sound beautiful. She had a gorgeous voice, soft, feminine, melodic. I liked her just by the sound of her voice.
But I real y liked her by the way she said her son’s name, like it was magic.
“Yes, Kai,” I told her.
“Is he al right?” I heard a tremor of fear sift through her voice.
“Yes,” I said quickly then I went back on that word. “No. I mean, he’s fine but he’s not fine.”
Effing hel , this was hard.
Get on with it! My brain shouted at me.
I don’t know how! I shouted back.
Well, think of something! My brain wasn’t having any of it.
“I don’t understand,” Lana said in my ear. “You’re the girl in the papers, right?”
Oh hel , she’d seen the papers.
Beautiful.
I wondered what she knew.
“Yes,” I told her. “We’re kind of… erm, special friends.” Special friends?
I was such an idiot!
“I was getting that from the papers,” she said softly then she informed me, “You’re very pretty.”
That was a nice thing to say so I smiled at the phone.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”