The Damaged Hearts Bargain (Tetherington Hearts #2)

Chapter Five

C al slicked back her short, dark hair in the mirror and buttoned the last button on her shirt. She’d do. It was too hot to pull on her normal leather jacket, besides, she supposed the bike was as safe as it was going to get in the pub car park.

Her stomach growled with hunger as she went downstairs. The pub did offer breakfast, but as she looked around she saw no one in the bar area. And it felt a bit Billy-no-mates to sit and wait all alone by herself.

Not that she should care about what other people thought of her. Not that she did care. Except… except being back in town was making her feel things she thought she couldn’t feel anymore.

Which was a shame, since she’d spent quite a long time burying things that she didn’t want to think about.

She let herself out into the bright sunshine and walked away from the pub toward the high street. If it was still there, there should be a small cafe overlooking the seafront, she could get food there. And then, well, then she’d better do what she’d come here to do, she supposed.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want all of this to be over with. She very much did. The thought of opening that front door though. The thought of the familiar smell wafting out, the stairs hulking up in the darkness, the scratches on the kitchen table. They all made her feel a bit… woozy, she supposed.

Not a feeling she was used to.

There, the cafe was still there. She marched up to the door not hesitating for a second before pushing it open. But the moment she did, she felt the silence fall like a broken tree, complete and sudden, shocking her so that she froze in the doorway.

There were about a dozen or so people inside, all seated at tables, and every single eye was on her.

She forced herself to take a step, and then another, and then one more until she was next to an empty table. Then she slid into the booth and everyone was still watching her. She picked up a menu, reading until slowly, slowly, the other customers turned back to their own conversations.

Cal’s ears burned hot.

She should have known better than to come here. Especially at this time. Who had time to linger over breakfast in a cafe on a weekday other than the chronically unemployable and the retired? People who were definitely old enough to not only think they knew what had happened, but old enough to know her mother.

“What’ll it be, love?”

Cal looked up to see a waitress, chewing gum, pad in her hand, barely old enough to drive, let alone know who she was. Thank all the gods for the young, she thought. She’d have to try and surround herself with people fifteen years younger than herself.

Mind you, that’d send the wrong impression, wouldn’t it? The last thing she needed was to be branded a pervert as well as…. Well, as well as what people were already saying.

“You want something or not?” the waitress asked impatiently.

Cal frowned at the menu. “Bacon sandwich?” she offered.

“Better make sure she pays first,” said a voice from the booth behind her.

“Or better yet, make sure she eats elsewhere,” said another voice.

Cal felt her stomach clench, felt the waitress’s gaze become more interested. Suddenly, it was hotter than it had a right to be and Cal felt like she was sweating through her shirt.

“Bacon sandwich,” said the waitress, carefully watching Cal like she was about to pull out a knife or strip all her clothes off or do something else equally shocking and inappropriate.

Cal cleared her throat. “Actually, uh, actually maybe…”

“We do to-go orders,” said the waitress and her face was friendly now, softer in a way that made Cal know she was taking pity on her.

“Actually, I don’t think I’m hungry,” she said loudly and clearly, standing up. “Something about the company here has put me right off my food.”

She strode out without looking back, heart hammering in her chest so fast that it left her short of breath.

Fantastic. Fucking fantastic.

This was just what she needed.

She shouldn’t have come back here and she knew that. But it wasn’t like she had an awful lot of options here. The house needed to be cleared out before it was sold. She certainly couldn’t afford someone to do it for her.

The only thing she could do was assure herself that she’d get out of town just as soon as she could.

She turned the corner, stomach still grumbling, and caught sight of the newsagents. She’d grab a packet of crisps to keep her going and make sure that she took the bike a couple of towns over to get food. She could have sandwiches in her room.

She could cook in her mother’s kitchen. In her own kitchen, she reminded herself. It belonged to her now.

A few days, that was all she needed. Though a friendly face wouldn’t hurt at all.

She took a full deep breath before she walked into the newsagent. But rather than the familiar face of one of the Guptas, she saw instead a tall woman with long, dark hair that got in the way of merry blue eyes.

“Morning,” Cal said without thinking.

The woman looked up from her phone. “Morning,” she said, with a brief smile that showed straight white teeth. Cal felt the hairs on her arms rise at that smile. A sure sign that she was attracted to someone.

Not that she’d do anything about it. Making connections in Tetherington was not at all why she was here. She’d waited too long to say anything else, anyway. The woman had gone back to her phone. Cal turned toward the crisp selection.

???

Lucy flicked through the options on her phone.

The problem was, how did you choose?

It wasn’t that there was a lack of choice. There was a surprising plethora of choices, actually. Who’d have known that there were so many sapphic women in such a small area? Well, it probably helped that she’d set the app boundaries to women within a hundred miles, but still.

She slid through the pictures of one of her matches. A woman with long, blonde hair, a chipped front tooth, and a smile that lit up her face.

Too pretty, she decided. She’d get all intimidated and that would never work out.

In the beginning, she’d been surprised to open the app to see that she’d already got messages. She’d kidded herself that this was going to be easier than she’d thought.

But then two of the messages had turned out to be from men, despite her profile clearly saying she was only interested in women. The third had been from a woman, but she was looking for someone to surprise her boyfriend with. And Lucy remembered why she didn’t really use dating apps.

Still though, she had to put some effort in. No pain, no gain, as they said.

She looked up as someone came into the shop and greeted her, barely noticing their face, she said her good mornings and went back to her phone. Sliding over yet another potential match.

This one had a picture with a joyful looking labrador. Lucy loved dogs. All animals, in fact. So she starred the profile to come back to later. She definitely needed more time before she was ready to start messaging women. Maybe Pen could help her craft the right thing to say.

Or perhaps she should ask George. He was the manager of a romance bookshop, after all.

There was a rustling as the curtain behind the counter stirred and Lucy stuck her phone in the pocket of her jeans. Mr Gupta was a good boss, but he didn’t like to see her on her phone when there was a customer in.

For a second, he just stood behind the counter, then he leaned closer to Lucy, close enough that she could smell his aftershave. “Watch out for the shoplifter,” he said, so quietly she could barely hear him. Then he disappeared into the back again, presumably to call the police.

Lucy scowled at the figure by the crisps. Then, to her horror, the figure turned, held up a packet of Skips, banged the appropriate change onto the counter, and turned to leave.

Fuck. What was she supposed to do now?

She’d been too busy studying the bulk of the shirt to look at the shoplifter’s face, she’d be a terrible witness. She wasn’t even sure what the man looked like, other than a vague idea of dark hair.

She glanced back to the curtain, Mr Gupta was nowhere to be seen. She couldn’t let him down though.

Which could mean only one thing.

She ducked under the counter, and then ran without thinking to the door.

There, right there, dark jeans and a blue shirt vanishing toward the church.

Lucy gritted her teeth. She wasn’t going to let this happen, not on her watch.

“Sir! Sir.” He didn’t even turn.

She took off, pounding down the pavement, feet finding their rhythm and then putting on an extra burst of speed as the figure began to turn .

It didn’t occur to her until far too late that she had no plan at all.

“Sir!”

The figure loomed closer and Lucy gave every last ounce she had to catch up and then, lacking any further ideas, she launched herself hard at the blue shirted back, colliding with full force into the man so that they both fell to the ground.

“Jesus,” the man said. Except that his voice sounded strange.

“Christ,” said Lucy, who hadn’t been expecting her morning to turn quite so violent.

“Get off me!”

“No way. We’re waiting for the police.”

The man struggled and Lucy let up her weight just a little so that he could turn and breathe properly, she didn’t want any mistakes here.

And then she was staring straight into the face of someone who was very much not a sir at all. Someone who was glaring right back at her with eyes as blue as her own and a very, very cross look on her face.