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Author's Chapter Notes:
see an UPDATE..sorry its taken so long but i have been editing my book

Dark sail has been published....
Joyce looked at her daughter and smiled; Buffy looked so unbelievably young, sitting at the breakfast bar chewing the end of a pen and doing her assignment. The new neighbours had obviously made a good impression on her only child from the smile that had graced her face for the last two weeks.

Joyce watched her for a while before speaking. ‘Buffy, why don’t you invite your new friends over for dinner on Saturday? I’ll cook and we could really get to know them a little better.’

Buffy glanced up from her psychology paper and took a good look at her mother. ‘Are you sure, Mom? You’re normally tired and I didn’t want to impose or anything, but it would be fun to celebrate.’ Buffy had been worried that her mother was doing too much, she’d looked a little pale recently and had tried to help as much as she could, but between school, working at the Magic Box and helping with the cheerleading squad she was kept very busy herself.

‘You invite them dear and we could make it a sort of birthday party for me,’ Joyce told her with a smile. Joyce knew she’d been lucky in her daughter and it would be nice to have guests round for a change. It wasn’t something she’d done since Hank had lived with them.

‘Thanks Mom, you’re the best!’ Buffy raced off to ask William while Joyce looked on.

I wish I was the best Buffy, Joyce thought as her daughter made a mad dash out of the house. If I had been, your father would never have got near your college fund and you could have gone to any school in the country with your SAT’s. Instead you’re stuck here, still living at home because I can’t even afford a dorm room for you. Still at least there was food on the table and a roof over our heads. Joyce turned with a degree of sadness back to the house and her work



William was underneath his new baby when Buffy came across the road. Her blond hair was bouncing like some TV commercial for shampoo; he could see her crossing the roadway and as she got closer all he could see were her long, tanned legs ending in a skimpy pair of cut off shorts. William banged his head as he pushed himself from underneath the car.

‘How’s she coming?’ Buffy asked, smiling to herself at the oil and dirt smeared over William’s face, he looked like a little boy playing with his toys.

‘She’s more solid than I first thought, and she’s a beauty,’ he said as he stood up. William went to give her a kiss on the cheek but Buffy backed off very quickly.

‘You are not touching me with those hands William, I don’t need oily handprints on me showing everyone where you have been,’ she smiled to take the sting out of her words. ‘I came over to invite you and Giles to dinner on Saturday, mom says we can make it a bit of a party, it being her birthday and all.’ She thought he looked cute standing there in his dirty, oily jeans and his white tee shirt ripped where he’d caught it on a sharp piece of metal. The gap gave her a tantalizing glimpse of his toned abs and she lost her concentration for a few minutes. When she finally regained her senses he was talking about the weekend.

‘I’ll have to check with Dad but I’m sure it would be fine, pet: we’d love to,’ he was telling her. William knew she was so much younger than he was but Buffy had come to mean so much to him in the last couple of weeks since they’d met. He smiled as he watched her bounce back across the road before heading into the house to get a cold drink. The sun in California was definitely hotter than it had been in London. And the scenery was better as well.

Giles was on the computer when William finally found him, having spent some time cleaning up most of the oil from his hands and changing his jeans and top. His dad wouldn’t like that mess dragged through the house.

‘Darla has sent another email for you, William,’ Giles said to his son as the man joined him. William handed his father a cold can of soda before flopping into a chair. He looked at Giles with an unreadable expression.

‘And what does she want?’ William growled out. Even the name brought back bad memories.

‘You to start work again. She is asking if you’ve…’ he didn’t even get the chance to finish the sentence before William interrupted him.

‘Well I’m not going to, it nearly killed me Dad, and I can’t go through all that again; it did kill mum and it was my fault.’ William tried to keep his emotions in check but it wasn’t working, he could feel his voice cracking and he didn’t need to hear it. William tried to keep the tears from falling from his eyes. Shit, he really thought he was over all this crap.

‘No William it wasn’t, what happened WAS NOT YOUR FAULT in any shape or form. You were good at your job, you enjoyed it, and that’s all that matters; however,’ he held up his hand to stop William interrupting, ‘however I really do understand and totally support your decision - but you asked what she was after.’

William nodded and noticed his hand was shaking and stuck it under his leg; even the thought of going back to work had left him rattled.

Giles could see even the mention of Darla had left William upset and he felt like kicking himself. He really should have known better than to mention anything to do with London. He would have to try and do better.

‘Thanks for the drink William, I needed it.’ Giles deliberately ignored his son’s reaction to his news. William was glad of the change of subject and was grateful to his father. ‘We’ve been invited to dinner on Saturday: Buffy’s mum’s birthday and she’s asked us to join them…’ His voice trailed off as though he couldn’t concentrate properly.

‘Would you like to go?’ Giles asked his son, not wanting to make any assumptions about William’s choices.

‘Yeah, yeah I would,’ William told him, ‘yeah I would, she’s a wonderful girl, Buffy, and from what I’ve heard her mum’s nice as well, so it could be fun.’

‘Then tell the ladies we’d love to join them.’ Giles was pleased that William was trying to build a social life and he wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardise it.

‘She’s into the same music you are,’ William told him, watching his father from over the rim of the can.

‘Who, Buffy? That’s unusual,’ Giles smiled at William’s expression.

‘No, Joyce: she likes Janus.’ William told him, continuing to watch his father out of the corner of his eye. If Giles had been concentrating on his son he would have known that the younger man was planning something: his tongue was curled around his teeth.
William had timed his comment perfectly. Giles had a mouthful of coke and sprayed it everywhere.

‘I’ll go now, my work here is done,’ he smirked as he made his way out of the room.

Giles was glad he’d managed to make William smile and turned his attention back to the computer and the never ending pile of emails waiting for him; wiping down the keyboard and table he started to answer them all. Dinner on Saturday and on Monday he started at the local high school as the new librarian: his diary was getting full.

Both men were ready early on the Saturday night, and armed with flowers and a good bottle of wine they headed across the road. Surprisingly or maybe not, Giles was nervous and so was his son. William had felt his heart opening to the young woman
he had met but he had always been love’s bitch before and it had cost him dearly. He took a deep breath and tried to put the memories of his mother’s murder firmly out of his mind. Giles looked at the expression on his son’s face and knew what he was thinking.

‘It wasn’t your fault son, you couldn’t have known how obsessed that stupid bitch would become: there was nothing you could have done. Now don’t let it spoil your future. Let the demon go, William. Now do you want to go to dinner or should we go home?’ he asked gently.

‘Dinner: can’t let two beautiful women down, now can we, dad?’ William said as he headed across the empty road and knocked on the door of Buffy’s house.





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