Page 43 of Paper Roses

“See?” Tyler says excitedly, shoving past Artie to get into the room.

“Watch my husband, please,” I say sharply.

“It’s like amagicroom,” Tyler continues in an awed voice.

I inhale sharply as it dawns on me what’s actually happened here.

“Is it another of them bloody squatters, Jed?” Tyler asks.

“Not exactly,” I say, rubbing my nose and wincing.

“What is it?” Artie asks, stepping in front of us. “Oh, itisa secret room.”

He gasps in realisation at the same moment a querulous voice asks, “What the hell is going on in my bloody house?”

I clap Tyler on the shoulders. “Not exactly a secret room, mate. You’ve knocked through to the house next door.” I wink at Artie. “I’ll leave you to introduce yourself to the neighbours, seeing as you like doing these things yourself.”

Whistling, I head off downstairs.

Half an hour later, Artie finds me sitting in the front garden on an overturned wheelbarrow smoking a cigarette and surveying the potholed drive. I flick my ash away and grin at him. “Everything okay?”

I already know the answer, because I secretly hovered at the bottom of the stairs, ready to come to his rescue. He didn’t need me, as he was being his usual charming self.

He lowers himself cautiously and then relaxes when the wheelbarrow bears our weight. “It’s fine,” he says, slumping into me. “Gosh, what a way to introduce yourself to the neighbours.”

“Only way that would have been worse is if you were Haigh, the acid-bath murderer and buying a new tub from them.”

He brightens. “I watched a documentary on him the other night.Fascinating. Did you know that a victim’s dentures survived the acid bath and played a crucial role in his trial?”

It never fails to stun me that such a sweet man has such a grisly fascination with murders. I’ve learnt more about serial killers over the last couple of weeks than an intensive course with the FBI would have ever taught me.

“I did not know that, but thank you very much for telling me.”

He nudges me and I nearly fall off the wheelbarrow. “That’s for leaving me with that absolutely super situation.”

“You’re welcome,” I say in a sunny voice, stubbing out my cigarette. “You told me to stop interfering and let you be a grown man.”

“I didnotsay it in that voice, and I didn’t mean for you to obey me at exactly that moment.”

That startles a laugh out of me, and I pull him close. He nestles into my side, and I try to ignore the sense of well-being that flows over me. It’s always a struggle coming to terms with the equally soothing and exciting effect he has on me.

He rests his head on my shoulder, and I absently drop a kiss into his sweet-smelling hair. It’s only when he stiffens that I realise what I’ve done.

“Sorry,” I mutter.

He pulls back and stares at me. This close I can see navy striations in his pale blue eyes. “I liked it,” he says softly.

“Pardon?”

“You heard me. I liked it. Jed, I want?—”

“Ah, there you are.” Eric’s voice startles both of us.

Artie nearly falls off the wheelbarrow, and I growl at the interruption, hauling him back until he’s nearly sitting in my lap. “You were saying, Artie?”

He shakes his head. “Not now.”

“Later?”

---