Page 51 of The Damaged Hearts Bargain

Short term.

Right.

She could do this. She could walk away any time she wanted.

Just not right now. Not when Lucy’s smile was lighting up the room like a beacon. Not when she could barely breathe. Not when she could think of their bodies sliding against each other in the heat of the night.

Not right now.

Chapter Twenty One

Perhaps, in a way, Cal was right. Perhaps she was broken, or at least not traditionally made. Maybe she didn’t know what love and relationships were supposed to look like. After all, she didn’t exactly have much experience.

Perhaps she could do this. Short-term. Just for fun. Grab life by the horns and take what she wanted.

Lucy sighed and put her breakfast dishes in the sink. The house was quiet. Billy was still doing his rounds and George had disappeared off early, anxious to get started running his little fiefdom on the high street. With Pen and Ash now officially on honeymoon, George was firmly in charge. She’d promised that she’d drop by at some point this morning to check up on him.

By rights she should be happy. No, she was happy. Every time she closed her eyes she could summon up the feeling of Cal next to her, under her, on top of her, and the memories thrilled her to pieces.

Cal might not have been her ideal woman when she was planning her dating profile, but Lucy wasn’t foolish enough to believe that she hadn’t fallen for her and fallen fast.

She was gentle and kind and for the first time in a very, very long time, Lucy felt safe with someone. And Cal needed someone to take care of her.

She’d agreed to all this short term business, but feelings were growing here and she was becoming less sure by the minute that she wanted Cal to walk away. But Cal could never stay, not here.

Not without some drastic changes.

She looked out of the window to the beach where people were walking and dogs were running and came to a decision.

Cal needed help and she was going to give it, in one way or another. She’d clear Cal’s name and then, well, then maybe Cal would see that things were more serious than she’d imagined. Maybe. And if she didn’t, well, at least she might be able to come to town to visit without being lynched.

She tapped her fingers on the kitchen counter, but in the end there was only one person she could think of to talk to about all of this now that Pen was flying away to adopt a baby and surprise them all.

“WE’RE NOT OPEN,” Rosalee said, not even looking up as she arranged glasses behind the bar.

“Door wasn’t locked,” said Lucy.

Rosalee looked up and grinned. “Oh, it’s you. Fancy a coffee?”

“Why not?” Lucy smiled back. She and Rosalee had always gotten along well, despite the slight age difference.

While the machine warmed up, they talked about the wedding, how Mikey Hadley had spewn up all over the car park and Doris Renton had belied her age and danced the night away with the rest of them. Until Rosalee set a cup down in front of Lucy.

“Now, to what do I owe this unexpected visit?” she asked, eyes narrowing as she watched Lucy.

“Cal,” Lucy said honestly.

Rosalee snorted. “I might have thought as much. What about her then?”

Lucy took a deep breath. “Listen, I wasn’t around when… when what happened happened. I just… I don’t have a good feeling about it. It doesn’t seem right to me. You were there, whatdo you think about it all?”

Rosalee leaned on the bar. “At the time I was as gung-ho as everyone else,” she said. She looked down and sniffed. “Still, now that she’s back and having had some time to think about things, I suppose there are some things that don’t quite stand up.”

“Like why, if she’d stolen the money, was she in the process of putting it back?” Lucy said. “I mean, surely you’d flee from the scene of the crime as soon as possible.”

“Maybe she’d had a change of heart,” Rosalee said. “Decided she didn’t want to steal it after all. That’s something in her favor, I suppose.”

“Maybe she didn’t steal it in the first place,” Lucy said, feeling a warmth in her stomach. She knew Cal wasn’t a thief, knew it with a certainty that she shouldn’t have but did.

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