Page 43 of The Twelve Days of Christian
“It’s fine, Christian. Loreena asked him to. She was hoping to get word to you. Let you know Tommy’s been working on the legal side.” I’m relieved at Haley’s assurance there was nothing sinister in his presence. It’s been worrying me for days.
We talk for an hour, the only interruptions me feeding lumps of wood to keep the fire crackling and Haley topping up coffee. I’m reassured Loreena is fine. She’s not the tough bitch the world would choose to see, but she does have a strong core, the heart of a fighter, and she’s drawing on it now. Meanwhile, Tommy has thrown weight and money at legal opinions and things are moving.
Tomorrow morning, Haley and Rachel will meet with Tommy and the Bunt’s lawyer. They’ll plot strategy and then set up a meeting with the production company. Knowing I’ll be sitting here, powerless, unable to be part of it, frustrates me. But I need to keep my eye on the prize and hand over my future to others. And when one of those others is Haley Templeton, there’s a strange sense of calm.
“Thank you,” I say, rising to toss more wood on the hungry fire. The moment I’m on my feet, I’m also aware of the gnawing in my gut. “I’m starving.” I barely ate today, stressing about Haley. But, now I know she’s safe, my neglected stomach screams for attention. “How about you? There’s leftover veggie bake from Wednesday night. I can heat some up,” I offer. If I was any sort of friend, I would have got my arse into the kitchen earlier and made something decent for her to come home to. Although that bake was pretty good. Serving it up for a second night isn’t a bad alternative.
“I’m fine,” she says. “The Bunts fed me continuously from the time I arrived. Tommy’s a good cook.”
I nod. “Yeah, I hear that. Loreena swears she’d have married him for his cooking alone.”
“I’d marry a man for the brownie he served up. Damn, it was good,” she sighs, eyes dreamy at the memory. I’m thinking it mightbe time to expand my own repertoire to baked goods. “But you go ahead.”
Without hesitation, I head for the kitchen, grab the dish from the refrigerator, and sling it into the microwave. Haley follows, perching at the countertop on a high stool. Two minutes and it’s done. I don’t bother to plate it, simply place the hot dish on a trivet and dig straight in. I’m shovelling greedy forkfuls into my mouth when Haley slides open the cutlery drawer and grabs her own fork. She aims enthusiastic jabs at one side of the dish.
“Hey,” I say, fending off her fork with a thrust of my own. She giggles and parries. “I thought you weren’t hungry.”
“I wasn’t, but it smells so good. Please, just this little corner here,” she begs.
“OK,” I say, feigning a frown, as I carve a boundary line into the eggy yellow surface. “That and no more.”
She chips away within her own territory, smiles, and scoops a piece into her mouth. I watch it slide between her lips and she smacks them together with a lazy “Mmm.”
It’s so fucking sensual. God, I can’t help but stiffen as I think of parting those lips with my tongue, tasting her. Sharing a house with Haley is both bliss and the most exquisite torture. I dive back into the safety of conversation, asking her about the book she gave me. Even that doesn’t completely dim down my arousal as, with a sly grin, she asks what chapter I’m at. I’m forced to reveal, yes, I have indeed got to the steamy stuff.
She helps me with the dishes, filling me in on more of the details of Rachel’s plan. The two of them meet with Tommy and his lawyer at ten am. After that, they’ll reach out to the production company and try to scare them into a meeting over the weekend. By thetime Monday comes around, if all goes well, we’ll have some sort of agreement.
“Thank you,” I sigh, heading for the lounge, after dinner coffees in my hands, while she follows, balancing a little stack of Christmas cookies on a plate. “I’m sorry you got dragged into this whole mess.”
“It’s OK.” She tips her head. “It’s not as if I haven’t got a vested interest in this. I mean, the whole snare issue is important. But there’s still a chance the dog rescue might get something out of it. And Loreena’s charity, as well. Even if it’s only publicity. Animals get caught up in family violence too.” She frowns. “Did you know lots of women won’t leave an abusive situation because they fear leaving their pets behind?”
I shake my head. I didn’t know, but I believe it. I’m not the only one who would take a risk to save my animals. But that’s next level, risking your body, your life even, to protect your pets from harm.
“That’s terrible. What a choice to have to make.”
“Loreena and I have some ideas about that. Ways we could support women to get away and take their animals with them. When all this is over, we’ll talk some more.”
“You two covered a lot of ground.”
“Yeah,” she says, eyes falling away from mine as her small hand twists at the fabric of her top, twining and untwining the stretchy band at her waist. “We did.”
“It’s no surprise,” I say, softly. “Same big hearts.”
She grabs at the snow globe on the table, and leans forward, elbows on knees, rolling it in her hands like one of those stress balls. A flurry of white fills the glass. In the silence, from her lips drawn tight, and her eyes fixated on the dancing flames in the hearth, Isense there’s a storm inside her too. I wait, and eventually her words come.
“There’s something else we talked about.”
Chapter 21
Day Seven
Like a country sunrise,a slow blush of pink rises on Haley’s skin. I want so badly to press my lips to one of those cheeks, and drink in the warmth.
“I may just have told them…I was your girlfriend—so the security would let me in—and Loreena was…kind of pleased. Well, maybe very pleased.”
“Oh…” I stutter out.
“Because there were some things you’d shared with her,” she says. Her green eyes lift and meet mine, pupils large and dark with something indefinable.
