Page 19 of Electric Kiss

She shuddered slightly, and Nate felt the urge to wrap his arms around her to offer comfort.

“I’ve told no one about this,” she continued. “But I’m pretty sure that whatever happened there when I was young is why I can’t stand being near Turner Hall now.”

Nate nodded in understanding before reaching out and taking her hand in his own. They walked the rest of the way up the road in silence until they reached the entrance gates of Turner Hall. Daisy stopped and stared for a moment before turning away with tears in her eyes.

Nate gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as he silently vowed to protect her from whatever haunted her memories of the place.

“I’m okay from here.”

He didn’t doubt it, but he still wanted to walk her to her door.

Instead, he said, “Okay.” Then watched her walk into the darkness of Turner Hall shadows.

Chapter Seven

Daisy

The following morning at six, Daisy was waiting outside his workshop for him to arrive. She didn’t know what the morning’s work was. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have hung around and would’ve got to work. He had taken her at her word and taken the forklift’s keys with him. Added to that, she didn’t know where the crates were or the boat she needed to get them to.

“Wow, you turned up,” Nate said, but she couldn’t see him along the quayside.

“Up here,” he said.

Daisy looked up and to the left of the workshop, and she saw Nate bare-chested with his wrist in a makeshift sling.

“You said six sharp, and here I am. What’s the job?”

“There’s a boat coming in at six-twenty where you dropped off the crates last night. It will probably take four runs, but the boat will have boxes for your sister-in-law’s warehouse. Donations apparently she gets once a month.”

“Right. Where are the keys?”

“Can you catch?”

Daisy rolled her eyes and stood from the large black mooring bollard on the side of the quay. The smooth curve was perfect for her perch until he woke up.

She sauntered over to where he was leaning out of the window and lifted her skirts out to act as a canopy to catch the keys.

“That’s cheating,” he said and tossed them down.

“I think the word you’re looking for is practical. Do try to remember I worked on the rigs for years.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She took the keys, hurried off to do his job and then by the time she returned, the workshop was open, and she could put the keys on the side table. She didn’t hang around because she needed to get back up to Edward Hall.

On the fifth evening, she had left the office, jogged to her cottage, taken a quick shower, and spent too long deciding what to wear before she took the buggy down to the quayside to Hill’s Workshop. Nate had badly sprained his wrist, and she felt awful as he couldn’t work on any boats one-handed. At least it wasn’t broken.

Thankfully the last of the forklift work was that evening, and then she was off the hook.

Daisy pulled up at the side of the workshop and switched off the engine. It was too dark to check her reflection, so she had to hope the breeze on the way down hadn’t destroyed her carefully styled hair.

She picked up the carry bag of food Jason had given her and wandered around to the front of the workshop. Nate was trying to get his t-shirt off one-handed in the middle of the empty space.

“What are you doing?” she clipped out, striding towards him.

“Trying to get this shirt off. I stink and haven’t showered in days since they have put this tight as fuck bandage on.”

“How have you washed?”

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