Page 46 of The Lottery Win
‘Krystle, you’re not stupid at all. Why do you keep sayingthat? These people are experts at what they do. They find a vulnerable personand they play on it to their advantage, and when you’re feeling low, it’s veryeasy to be taken off guard.’ He takes the mug I hand to him and smilesencouragingly. ‘I could stay over a couple of nights. If that would make you feelbetter.’
‘What?’ My heart leaps at his offer.
He shrugs. ‘After last night’s shock, I don’t blame you forbeing freaked out. Some company might make you feel safer? And I’d feel bettermyself, knowing I was here to help if April pitched up at your door again.’
My heart is beating faster at the thought. I’d resignedmyself to giving up the tenancy and finding somewhere else to live, because Icouldn’t face another night like last night, with April at my door. But if Adamwas here, sleeping in the room next to mine, I’d feel so much safer and Iwouldn’t have to make a decision about the cottage straight away.
And quite apart from all that, why the hell should I bedriven out of my lovely home by a nasty piece of work like April!
I swallow. ‘But... what about your work,Adam?’
‘I can bring it over here... work in yourgarage. There’s plenty of space.’
I smile sheepishly at him, feeling so ashamed of myself forgetting into this position, where Adam feels he needs to be my bodyguard. ‘Ihave to say, I’d feel a whole lot better if you were here,’ I murmur.
‘That’s settled, then.’ He takes a swallow of coffee andmakes a disgusted face. ‘Are you economising on sugar or something?’
‘I thought you took one sugar in coffee.’ I push the sugarbowl over to him with a spoon.
‘That’s tea. Three teaspoons in coffee.’
‘Ugh! Adam, that’s really bad for you.’
He grins. ‘You’re going to find out aboutallmydisgusting habits when I move in with you.’
‘I really can’t wait,’ I reply, tongue firmly in cheek,although underneath it all, I’m so relieved to think that Adam will be stayinghere.
He finishes his coffee and leaps off his stool. ‘Right, I’llgo and organise my stuff. Back in a couple of hours.’
After waving him off, I wander into the kitchen. My heartfeels lighter as I stack the mugs and spoons in the dishwasher. Life seemedreally bleak last night. But with Adam on my side, the sun is never very faraway...
CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO
Living with Adam turns out to be easier than I’dimagined.
At first, it was a bit odd. We were stepping around eachother, being strangely polite: You take the first shower. No,yougo infirst. That kind of thing. And for the first few days, we took it in turns tocook dinner in the evening, which was quite challenging for me because Adamenjoys big, hearty meals like roast dinners and steak pies, while I’d got usedto grazing instead of sitting down to a proper meal. Living on my own, it neverseemed worth cooking a meal for one.
But regardless, on the third night, I went all out andattempted a beef wellington, knowing it was Adam’s favourite. I spent allafternoon preparing it and his face lit up when he came in from working in thegarage and I told him what was on the menu.
He went off to have a shower, but when I took my masterpieceout of the oven, I instantly wished I’d stuck some ready meals in thereinstead, because then I could have blamed the soggy, inedible result on asupermarket instead of feeling bad for ruining Adam’s dinner all by myself!
He came down from the shower all eager for a feast, took onelook at my sad effort and said, ‘Looks lovely, Krystle.’
I snorted. ‘Liar.’
‘I’m not lying.’ He looked offended that I should think so.‘It looks... great. And so does the mash.’
‘Cut the crap, Adam. I’m terrible at cooking meat.’ Taking aknife, I sliced into the beef wellington and a pool of suspiciously red juicesswam all over the plate. ‘See? Not cooked. The pastry might be okay, though.’
Adam came over and peered down at it. Then he tried to breaksome off but the pastry, apparently hard as a rock, refused to crumble.
His mouth twitched. ‘I’ll get the saw, shall I?’
I looked at him and started to laugh. Then I got the full-ongiggles and couldn’t stop, and that’s the point at which the ice was broken andwe stopped being polite and got back to being who we were: best friendstemporarily sharing a space.
I took pizzas out of the freezer and we opened some wine,and we ended up having a really lovely night.
There was a point in the evening, after I’d cut slices of rockyroad cheesecake for pudding, when I put his plate down and knocked his emptywine glass over by accident. I bent to retrieve it and he jumped up to catch itat the same time and we sort of collided. I started to laugh and he grabbed mearound the waist, and I shrieked and turned round to remonstrate with him – andI don’t know how it happened, but suddenly his mouth was right there and heleaned forward and brushed my lips with his.
