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it?”
    “Mmm…yes…I guess so,” Izzie wriggled around in her chair. Then she pulled up her feet, wrapped her arms around her concertinaed legs and pressed her forehead into her knees.
    Jodie’s heart sank.  This was Izzie’s I know I’m in trouble pose.  It was something she’d done often when she was younger, a sort of ‘head in the sand’ action so she didn’t have to look at Jodie.  It was also something she hadn’t done for a very long time. Jodie pulled out the chair opposite and lowered herself into it.
    “I’m not going to like this am I?”
    “Probably not,” her reply was muffled.  Then, while Jodie’s mind was still flashing through a whole litany of negative scenarios, she lifted her head, squared her shoulders, and looked her in the eye.
    “Marcus Lewis is going to give me music lessons,” she said.
    She may as well have said she was flying to the moon as far as Jodie was concerned.
    “What do you mean, he’s giving you music lessons?  You haven’t even met him.”
    “I have.  I visited him this afternoon.  I climbed the gate, just like you did,” she added defiantly.
    Noticing the smudges of mascara and the remnants of lipstick on her tearstained face, Jodie jerked forward and pulled down the neck of her sister’s sweater.  Beneath it she was wearing a sequined halter-top that showed more than it covered. It had been a bone of contention between them ever since she had found it in a charity shop and paired it with an equally miniscule skirt that showed off her long legs to perfection and left little else to the imagination.
    “What exactly have you been up to?” she demanded.
    The eager expression on Izzie’s face changed to a sullen frown. “I knew you’d be like this.”
    Jodie sat back with a sigh. “What did you expect? That I’d be delighted to learn you’ve visited a man old enough to be your father, in his trailer? Whatever were you thinking of? He might have taken advantage of you. Celebrities like him are used to fans throwing themselves at them.”
    “He didn’t though,” Izzie’s voice was small as she fingered the sweater. “He said I had to put this on and then he made me sit on the trailer steps with the door wide open. He said he wanted anyone passing by to be able to see me while we talked.  He said he didn’t want people thinking he let young girls visit his trailer on their own.”
    Then she grinned.  “Only thing was, he forgot about the gate and the trespass sign.  There weren’t any passersby. There never will be any passersby.”
    Jodie stared at her. Then she smiled as relief washed over her. That it was about more than her sister’s safety was something she didn’t want to think about.
    Izzie gave her a pleading look. “I can go can’t I? Only he said he wouldn’t give me lessons unless you said he could.  He said to tell you to visit him and talk about it.”
    “Oh, he did, did he?” Jodie was surprised by the curl of warmth that coursed through her at the thought of meeting him again.  “Well I suppose talking about it can’t do any harm, so yes, I’ll go and talk to him, even if it’s just to apologize for the fact you turned up dressed to impress!”
    Like a ray of sunshine coming out, Izzie’s face lit up. Her tear-washed eyes sparkled as she tumbled out of her chair and threw herself at Jodie in a tangle of arms and legs. Hugging her tightly she could feel the sharp bones of her ribs through the thick sweater. Her sister might be almost a head taller than her now. She might be difficult sometimes. But she was still the person she loved best in the world.
    It was a thought that sometimes made her heart ache in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep. If it was this painful bringing up a sister, trying to get her safely through childhood and into adulthood, then she didn’t think her batte red heart would ever be able to cope with caring for children of her own.
     
     
     
     
     

 
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