Page 4 of Falling Madly
Planning that trip with Richard had been fun. We’d talked about March or April. Had he already been seeing Carolyn behind my back? If I hadn’t stumbled on them, would he have told me? Or would he have booked tickets to Bali and a third one for Carolyn so he could see her in the neighboring hut behind my back? There were too many questions. Nausea swelled in my stomach, momentarily overtaking hunger.
I took a breath, hiding my face from Trevor. “Why are you here?” I asked again, narrowing my eyes. “This isn’t on the way to Cozy Creek.”
“I came to pick ye up.”
I frowned, suspicious. “You think I want to come with you to see some stupid office?”
His smile was infuriatingly casual. “Call it a courtesy kidnapping.”
He raised the collar of his winter coat against the cold. His beard looked tidier than I remembered, and his skin had a healthy pinkish tint. It must have been the cold teasing hiscapillaries. The Trevor I knew had more of an ashy complexion and a revolting smoker’s cough. But he was handsome, I had to admit. Built like a tree, with wildly curling dark hair and smoky teal eyes. A man I could easily imagine with an axe, even if I’d only ever seen him with a laptop.
“I can’t go for a joyride in the middle of a workday. It’s hours away!”
“Hundred and fifty kilometers.” He loved annoying me with the metric system.
My breath was shaky and my hands trembled, but despite myself, I laughed. “Fuck you all the way back to Scotland!”
I shouldn’t have raised my voice. As if in slow motion, Richard turned to look out the window, and his gaze landed on me. I’d never seen a deer in headlights, but I finally understood the reference. Even through the glass, I could tell his face went white as his mouth dropped open. We stared at each other. I wasn’t sure how much time passed. It might have been a nanosecond, or ten minutes. But eventually, I felt Trevor’s hand on my shoulder, guiding me away from the window.
Before I turned around, I saw Richard getting up. Was he coming outside? Bile crept to my throat. I didn’t want to talk to him. I couldn’t stomach the excuses or explanations.
I launched towards Trevor’s car, stumbling over a pile of dirty snow. I heard the double beep of the central lock, and I scrambled inside. Trevor slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine, steering us away from the restaurant. Away from Richard and that woman.
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I can’t handle talking to him. Do you think I should?”
“No,” he grunted with an air of finality.
He changed lanes, and my gaze fell on the highway signs. “Wait! Where are you going?”
“Cozy Creek. I told ye.”
Chapter Two
Teresa
Why the hell had I gotten into his car?
“I’m not going to Cozy Creek,” I snarled. “I only wanted to get away from him!”
“It’s not a taxi.”
I grabbed the door handle. “Fine. Pull over. I’ll find an actualtaxi.” I mimicked his accent, out of spite.
“No.” He sounded annoyingly unbothered.
“What do you mean, no?”
“Ye can have yer wee hissy fit in the car while I drive. By the time we get to Cozy Creek, ye’ll be done. Saves time, aye?” He flashed me an infuriating smile. “Also, ye should put on yer seatbelt before the car starts beeping.”
As if on cue, the seatbelt alarm went off. Huffing my disagreement, I buckled up to make it stop. “I’m not throwing a fit. I told you I have no interest in any office space up there and I have work I need to finish.”
“Sure. But ye also need a break. We’ve been working nonstop for weeks. Might be a good idea to put some distance between you and Dick.” He threw me a searching look. “And I know you’ll want to have a say about the new office. D’ ye want Charlie and Bess only hearing my take on it because ye never saw it? I can be convincing, and they’re already big fans of that town.”
Trevor was right. What if Charlie and Bess got onboard? They were currently out of town on a short holiday. She was pregnant and they were both so in love their brains were probably mush right now, marinating in a cocktail of hormones that made kittens, ice cream parlors and small mountain towns irresistible.
I had to resist. I couldn’t move to Cozy Creek. I’d have to resign, which would leave me struggling with my mortgage.
Even if I amped up my job search, it would take a while. It was so much easier to look for a new job when you still had one, without the smell of desperation.
