The Damaged Hearts Bargain (Tetherington Hearts #2)

Chapter Thirteen

L ucy eyed the bike doubtfully. Now she was here it looked a lot scarier than she’d imagined. It was big. So big she wasn’t sure she could get on the thing.

“It’s easy,” Cal said, swinging her leg over and passing Lucy a helmet. “It’ll be fine, I promise.”

“Uh-huh,” Lucy said, still eyeing the bike.

“Just swing your leg over, pretend you’re restraining a shoplifter.”

“Ha ha, very bloody funny.”

Cal turned to her. “You don’t have to do this. I can leave the bike here and we can walk to the house.”

Just for a second, Lucy considered taking the easy option. But then there was the thought of wrapping her arms around Cal. She swallowed and swung her leg up and over the bike.

“See?” Cal said. “I told you it’d be fine.”

“Huh, we learning lessons about mutual trust here?” Lucy said sourly.

Cal eyed her. “Do we need to? I mean, we barely know each other.”

“And yet here I am with my legs wrapped around you for the second time in three days.”

For a sparkling moment Lucy watched Cal’s profile. “Put your helmet on,” Cal said finally.

The engine started, the bike roared, Lucy clung on to Cal’s back, the vehicle vibrating between her legs in a way that would have been exciting if she hadn’t been just a wee bit terrified. Cal tapped her leg and Lucy didn’t know if it was to soothe her or tell her that they were off, but it was nice anyway.

Cal started slowly and Lucy steadied herself, then the bike took over and they were flying through the streets and Lucy was clinging on for dear life. She closed her eyes tight and buried her helmeted head into Cal’s back. Her arms felt the muscles in Cal’s stomach, felt the comforting bulk of her, and what, with the vibrations of the bike and all, her breath started to come faster.

Cal pulled the bike up in front of the house, pulling off her helmet and tapping on Lucy’s. With shaking arms, Lucy took off her own helmet. She was practically panting and could feel the heat in her face.

“Enjoyed that, did you?” Cal said, an amused look on her face.

“I…” Lucy coughed, then tried again. “I most certainly did. Or did not. Not entirely sure.”

“It’s an experience,” said Cal. “You get used to it. Fancy standing up and going inside?”

“Don’t know if my legs are going to work.”

“Sitting out here in the heat all afternoon seems like a good way to get sunstroke.” Cal got off the bike and held out her hand like Lucy was some kind of princess or something.

Lucy grinned and took it. “So, let me guess, you invite all the girls to ride your motorcycle and then they all fall at your feet?”

“Are you thinking about falling at my feet?” Cal said, letting go of her hand as Lucy climbed off and turning toward the front door.

“Wouldn’t think of it,” Lucy said with a secret smile.

“Good to know,” Cal said, but there was a laugh in her voice.

Lucy noticed that Cal still hesitated a moment before she opened the door, even if she did welcome her in cheerfully once the door was open.

“Tea?” Lucy asked when she was in the hall. She could use a sweet cup of tea.

“Ah, there’s no milk,” Cal said. “There’s a shop on the corner though, I could…”

And Lucy knew why she was trailing off. Knew that she really didn’t want to have to deal with the death glares and attitudes today. So she shook her head. “Nah, we’ve got too much to do to go shopping.”

“There’s probably some herbal stuff in there?”

“Yeah, alright. I’ll make some of that. Where we starting today?”

Cal took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling. “The bedroom.”

“Really? You sure you’re ready for that?”

Cal shrugged. “This is always going to feel like my mum’s house. But maybe with the bedroom empty it’ll feel a bit less like she still lives here.”

“Alrighty then, whatever you like. Want to go up and get started and I’ll bring some tea up?”

“Yeah, alright then.”

She left and Lucy could hear her climbing the stairs as she pottered around the little kitchen looking for tea bags.

There was too much that she didn’t know. There were certain things that she could guess, of course. Mikey had called Cal a thief, so presumably the town thought she’d stolen something. Or many somethings. Though Cal denied that.

The way they treated her though, the way they avoided her like in the pub, you’d have thought that she’d stolen the crown jewels, or at the very least one crown jewel.

In all seriousness, Lucy couldn’t think of anything that Cal could even have been accused of stealing that would make the people here hate her as much as they obviously did.

Come to that, she couldn’t think of anything she could do at all that would make people behave this way. The people here had always been warm and welcoming to her, even when she’d been a homeless stray wandering around the streets.

People here went to church on Sundays and joined the birdwatching club and made casseroles when someone was sick and looked after each others’ kids when they were playing in the streets and all the things that she’d always imagined good people did.

Or maybe she was living in a little bubble. Maybe she’d lucked out and the small section of the town that she was close to just happened to be the good ones. Ones like Pen who helped her out, like George who teased her, like Ash who quietly observed and helped only when asked.

The kettle started to boil.

It took balls to walk into a situation like Cal’s, she decided. Big balls. The kind of balls that could ride that big motorbike all day. She shivered a little at the thought of it and allowed herself a second of imagining her legs around Cal’s body again.

For fuck’s sake. She snatched her hand away from the mug, pulled out a tea towel and mopped up the boiling water.

The woman really had an effect on her. Was it fair though? Sure, Lucy might be wanting something, might be in a place where she was ready for a relationship. But Cal had just lost her mother, Cal was dealing with all this and hadn’t even cried yet.

Was there an inkling of taking advantage in that situation? Lucy wasn’t sure. Cal seemed to know her own mind, seemed to be okay, but that didn’t mean much, did it?

She lifted up two mugs and then took them up the stairs, carefully carrying them and trying to figure out which of the three doors Cal was behind. She stopped and listened but couldn’t hear a sound, so in the end she went with the middle one and was greeted by the sight of Cal sitting on the edge of a double bed, the wardrobe open in front of her.

“It’s green tea, I think,” Lucy said, putting the mugs down on the dresser. “Well, if it’s not then it’s moldy tea and I’m not sure that’s a thing.”

Cal gave a cracked laugh and Lucy frowned, moving in closer. Close enough to see that tears were streaking down Cal’s face and her eyes were red and her shoulders were shaking.

“What?” Lucy asked.

But she knew as soon as she got close enough. The open wardrobe let out a smell of slightly musty clothes overlaid by perfume, a perfume that must be as familiar to Cal as her own scent. The way her mother had smelled. And finally, Cal had cracked.

Now, Lucy perched on the edge of the bed and leaned in, taking Cal in her arms, holding her as Cal’s tears soaked through her t-shirt, stroking her head and feeling the bristly stubble of her hair. They sat that way for a long time. Until Cal sniffed and choked back a final sob.

“Jesus.”

“Hey, don’t complain, at least you’ve got my arms wrapped around you for once, rather than my legs,” Lucy said.

Cal pulled away slightly, but Lucy’s hands stayed on her shoulders. “Sorry,” she said. “Sorry for losing it like that. I really thought that I couldn’t… that I wasn’t going to.”

“It’s good for you. Cathartic,” said Lucy, who was beginning to see the sparkle return to Cal’s blue eyes, who was seeing the faint down on her cheeks, the way her skin stretched over the bridge of her nose.

“Yeah, maybe,” said Cal, looking down so that tears sparkled on her eyelashes. “Thanks though.”

“What on earth for?”

“Being here, I suppose.”

Cal’s lips were red and swollen and she looked like a bereft child and Lucy’s heart was full of things that she couldn’t describe. She wanted to kiss her, of course. But she wanted to comfort her too, wanted to make her feel something that wasn’t sadness. And in the end, she just did it, just leaned in and brushed her lips against Cal’s and then pushed in closer until their mouths were meeting.

Cal tasted like tears and salt and slight sweetness. Lucy moved her hand up so that it was on the back of Cal’s head, pulling her in even further, and wondering why she didn’t care that she couldn’t breathe, why she didn’t care if this kiss never ended at all, why she’d never known that it could be like this.

Then Cal was pulling away and Lucy was opening her eyes and she was seeing that Cal was confused, that maybe this shouldn’t have happened. And maybe she had taken advantage. “Sorry, sorry,” she said, getting up.

“Lucy,” said Cal.

“No, I’m sorry. That was out of order. I’m sorry. I’ll… I’ll go.”

“Lucy, you don’t have to go,” Cal said.

But Lucy was already half-way down the stairs and then out in the sun and then on the street and wishing that she had better control of herself, wishing that she hadn’t pushed things. Cal didn’t even like it here, Cal didn’t want to stay. This couldn’t work.