Jamie was in her old room putting her things away when she heard a knock coming from the bedroom across the hall. She went to the door to see what was going on. No one had lived there since hers and Tyler's grandmother when she was a little girl and her grandmother was sick. Jamie's dad, Glenn, had to take care of her until she died when Jamie was four.
The door to the room across the hall was open. There was a teenage boy with long blonde hair down to his extremely broad shoulders. He was wearing a leather bike jacket and gloves and a pair of very nicely fitting jeans with boots. "Pogue Parry," Jamie said with a smile.
Pogue turned around to see a gorgeous girl standing in front of Jamie's room but had no idea who she was. She looked like one of the girls Reid would bring home—pierced and in a pair of jeans and a very small tank top. But how did she know him? Did they go to school together? He tried to picture her in the school uniform but still had no idea who she was.
"Long time no see." Jamie looked into Pogue's gold eyes and realized that he had no idea who she was. "Big Brother said you were staying here these days," she said, giving him the biggest hint she could.
"Jamie? Jamie Sims?" Pogue was completely shocked. There was no way that this girl could be Tyler's sister. Miami had been exceedingly great to her.
"Actually its Jamie Wheeler now," Jamie corrected. It wasn't a big deal that the boys called her Sims—her father's name—but to the rest of the world, she was Jamie Wheeler and was no longer connected to the families of Ipswich that were rumored to have magical powers.
"Okay." Pogue was curious as to why Jamie had changed her name, but decided not to press the matter. "So, what are you doing here?" He moved closer and wrapped his arms around the girl who was now all grown up.
"Have you not talked to Tyler or Caleb yet?" Jamie asked. She figured that they would have told him she was back.
"They aren't here. They left a note saying they were taking the freshmen back to the school for a while," Pogue explained.
"Well, looks like we'll be roommates. I'm moving back home for a while. Isn't that great?" Jamie had a great big smile on her face. She seemed truly excited to be moving home. She seemed to have everyone fooled.
"You're moving back? That's amazing! I have to head back out to pick up my girlfriend, but I'll see you when I get back and we can catch up."
"You and Kate still together?" Jamie loved Pogue's girlfriend Kate. She'd always been there to sort of take Jamie under her wing, so to say. She was one of the only girls Jamie had been friends with before she moved.
Not only was Kate from one of the wealthiest families in Massachusetts, but she was gorgeous and sweet too. Her family had money and power, which tended to equal snobs for children. But it wasn't that way with Kate. Everyone loved her. She had a great sense of humor, a great smile (and she was always smiling), and a big heart. Sure, she had her diva moments, but mostly it was when she and Pogue were fighting.
"Yeah. It'll have been four years next month. It's great to see you." Pogue placed a brotherly kiss on top of Jamie's head before walking away. Jamie watched out the window of her room as Pogue jumped on a nice gray and black bike that looked almost knew.
Pogue sure had changed a lot since Jamie had moved. He used to always be clad in a Caleb-inspired preppy wardrobe with hair longer than Caleb's, but still relatively short. He tried hard to be as much like Caleb as possible. But she'd always had a feeling that Pogue wouldn't be as up-tight as Caleb seemed to be most of the time. Pogue was too much of a free spirit. When they were little Pogue used to love to run anywhere and everywhere. He'd told her once that one day he would just start running and he wasn't going to stop until he had broken free of Ipswich and the hold it seemed to have on their families.
The white-blonde boy standing in Jamie's doorway pulled her away from her thoughts. "I heard a rumor that the prodigal daughter had returned."
Jamie turned around and ran to the boy throwing her arms around him in the biggest hug she could muster. "Reid!" she exclaimed. She didn't ever want to let go of Reid.
"You look amazing Jamikens," Reid said softly as he hugged her. Normally Reid would greet anyone with a sarcastic comment and a high five. But Jamie had never been just anyone to him. It wasn't romantic or anything. It was just that for some reason, Jamie and Reid had never been able to figure out the line between best friends and brother and sister. They weren't either really. Tyler had been Reid's best friend their whole lives. Reid had his own big sister.
But Jamie and Reid had always been close. Even though Jamie had always been the sweet, quiet, and shy kid, she'd always understood Reid—the rogue, the rebel, and the wild card of the group of friends—better than anyone. She didn't talk down to him (even though she was the smartest person any of them had ever met) like most people did when he pulled pranks on his friends and teachers. She accepted him as he was. She even seemed to like the way he was. She found him entertaining. And Reid—who normally didn't open up to anyone—had always been inclined to talk with Jamie. They didn't just chat like he did with most people; they really talked about what was going on.
At the same time, Reid had always been protective of Jamie like she was his own sister. When she was little Reid would stop by the house every morning so he could walk her to school with Tyler. When Jamie was teased at school, Reid, always up for a good fight, was the one who defended her. Tyler had always been right there with him, but had always been there to back Reid up, not start the fight himself. Tyler was still like that. When Jamie was twelve and her parents were in the middle of their divorce Reid was the one to set them straight on the fact that Jamie could hear them fighting down the hall from her bedroom at night. He was also the one she would cry to on the phone for hours at night. She figured Tyler had enough to deal with going through the divorce himself, and Reid was the only other person she was comfortable talking to about the hardship.
"I've missed you so much, Reid." Jamie kissed Reid on the cheek. She'd been right. He had hardly changed at all. If it was possible, his hair was actually lighter. His muscles were certainly more defined, though he'd always be considered on the lanky side. He was no bigger around than Jamie herself was. But he stood a good ten to twelve inches taller than she did. He was almost Caleb's height. But his eyes were exactly the same. Jamie used to get so lost in those eyes. She would just stare at them for hours.
"Are you going to tell me what on Earth you're doing back in Ipswich?" Reid asked. He walked over and sat on the bed by the window. Jamie sat next to him. She should have expected Reid wouldn't return her sentiments. Reid would never admit to missing someone; it would be like admitting that he needed someone other than himself.
"Long story," Jamie told him. She didn't want to go into details, even with Reid. And she knew he was only asking because Tyler must have asked him to. She was able to read people as well as her brother and she knew he could tell there was more to her story than she was sharing.
"I have time," Reid retorted. Tyler had, in fact, called him to let him know that Jamie was there. And, in fact, had mentioned that he thought there was something Jamie was hiding about her return. From what Tyler had told Reid, he was a little worried about Jamie too.
"Reid…I just…not now. Okay?" It was obvious Reid knew there was something she wasn't saying. She wouldn't degrade their friendship by lying to him. She would tell him eventually. But at the moment, she didn't even want to think about it.
"How about dinner then?" Reid suggested. "Tyler and Caleb are still on freshmen duty and Pogue is out with Kate. It's going to be late when they get home. We could go to Nicky's and grab a bite. We can catch up."
Jamie hadn't even thought about Nicky's in so long. Reid used to take her there all the time. They would go and find a table in the back corner where they could talk if one of them had something on their mind or they would play pool just to pass the time when they were bored. Jamie loved to watch Reid play pool. He was really good.
"Sounds great," Jamie said with a smile. She stood up and walked to the closet to grab a sweater and then slipped it over her small tank top. She pulled the ponytail holder from her hair and her curls fell in waves between her shoulder-blades. She put on the same pair of black pumps she'd been wearing when she arrived in town and took the cell phone from the night table and stuck it in her back pocket. "Ready?" she asked.
Reid sat on the bed watching Jamie get ready. There was no denying she had grown even more beautiful than he had thought she was as a young teenager. She had finally started to worry about her appearance it looked like. The make-up, the dark hair, and the expensive clothes were three traits the Jamie he knew would never have had. The biggest difference, though, to Reid was that the new Jamie, the one standing in front of him pulling on a sweater, had more confidence in her little finger than the old Jamie, the girl who Reid was fairly sure he would never be seeing again, had in her entire body. He was happy for her. And the piercing in her nose and eyebrow and the one in her belly button that he'd just seen a glimpse of when she was putting the sweater on made him wonder what other secrets she was hiding on that golden goddess-like body…
Wait! What? What was he thinking? Reid quickly dismissed the thought from his head. It was Jamie. He couldn't think of her like that. He mentally scolded himself for the images he'd just been imagining. Jamie Sims would never be "hot." She would always just be…Jamikens.
Reid immediately stood, following Jamie downstairs. She grabbed her keys from the kitchen counter, remembering that Tyler had mentioned that Reid still had no interest in owning a car for some reason. Reid silently followed her out to her car.