| |
The fire had gutted the inside of Kirsty’s shop. The smoke had damaged her home upstairs. What didn’t suffer flame or smoke damage was ruined by water. Now the interior of her building was a black, burnt-out mess. Kirsty stood in the front window of Lake’s shop, surrounded by her family and friends, watching the clean-up. Lake held her tight against him.
“Looks like we won the war,” Betty said. “Kirsty’s business is dead.” Everyone scowled at her. “What?” she demanded. “I’m not talking about anything you can’t see for yourself.”
“Don’t worry,” Kirsty’s mum said. “We’ll help you fix things. I’m sure there’s a lot you can salvage.”
“Aye,” Shona said. “The fire was superficial. The structure is fine.”
There was nothing superficial about it. Anything that was left would land in the rubbish skip.
“You don’t get that smoke smell out,” Jean said. “Nothing removes it.”
Kirsty’s mum glared at Jean.
“I’m sure what we can’t salvage will be replaced by the insurance company,” her mum said with confidence.
Kirsty’s heart sank. Lake squeezed her tighter. With his arm round her shoulder, things were slightly easier to bear. Having him there, knowing he was okay, put all material losses in perspective. She looked at the sodden mess that was her life. It could have been worse. Not much worse, but still. She took a deep breath. There was no avoiding this.
“I don’t have any insurance, Mum,” she said.
She felt Lake stiffen beside her.
“You don’t have any insurance?” Her mum’s voice was a high-pitched squeak.
Kirsty shook her head sadly.
“I got rid of it to free up money for advertising.”
Her mum’s mouth fluttered open.
“Well, that was bloody stupid,” Betty said loudly.
Kirsty couldn’t disagree, so she kept her mouth shut.
“We’ll figure something out,” Lake told her as he kissed the top of her head. “We’ll all pitch in. It’ll be fine.”
He sounded so sure of himself that Kirsty found herself believing him, even though logic told her that it really wouldn’t be fine.
“What about the war?” Betty demanded. “What about not helping the enemy? What about winning?”
“The war’s over,” Lake said evenly.
The look he gave Betty made her clamp her lips shut and fume. Kirsty squeezed him in thanks and heard him grunt. She’d forgotten about the ribs, and even though they were both bandaged and strapped, they were still fragile. She patted the cable knit jumper he wore instead, looking at him instead of the shop, because she honestly didn’t know how she was going to get up in the morning and find the energy to deal with this. She sighed heavily. She would deal with it the way she’d dealt with everything else—one thing at a time. That was all she could ever do. Lake kissed the top of her head and her heart warmed. At least this time she wasn’t alone. This time she had her mum, the women of Invertary and Lake. Already things were looking up.
As Lake watched the smouldering mess that was Kirsty’s shop, he badly wanted to beat Brandon all over again. Unfortunately he was locked up in Invertary’s only jail cell and Officer Donaldson had been clear about Lake not being on the visitors’ list. He shook his head grimly. It was going to be one helluva clean-up and he had no idea how they would rebuild without insurance money. He flicked through a list of guys he could call for help. People owed him favours. That would make a big dent in the refurbishment, at least.
The door to the shop crashed open and Alastair rushed in, out of breath and frantic.
“What is it?” Lake called to him.
He knew this wasn’t going to be good. Kirsty shifted in his arms to see who he was talking to.
“Have you seen Rainne?” Alastair said.
The women turned. As soon as they set eyes on Alastair their smiles turned to frowns of worry.
“No, I haven’t,” Lake said. “I thought she was with you.”
“She was.” The boy spat out the words.
He stalked across the shop floor and thrust a piece of paper at Lake. As Lake read it his anger grew. Kirsty stilled beside him as she realised what the note meant.
“She’s run away,” Lake said.
The women gasped.
“Oh my goodness!” Kirsty’s mum said.
Alastair threw up his hands in despair.
“How could she do this?” he wailed. “I told her to stay here. I told her that I would look after her, that we could have a fine life together. Why would she do this? Why would she sneak away in the night as though she’s ashamed?”
He stood with his hands on his hips, glaring at Lake, expecting an answer.
“She might have left with her mum and dad?” Kirsty said.
The boy shook his head vehemently.
“They’re at the campsite on the edge of town. I already went there. They were waiting for her to turn up and leave with them. She didn’t.”
Kirsty’s jaw dropped. Lake clenched his. It wasn’t anything he didn’t already know about them.
“Maybe they didn’t know you were hurt?” Kirsty said hopefully.
He loved her for thinking that, but he knew different.
“They knew everything,” he said. “It’s the only story in town. They thought the fire would send Rainne running to them. They were waiting for her.”
Kirsty and her mother exchanged a look. Lake could see that they didn’t understand. He knew for a fact that Kirsty’s mother would have clawed through the burning rubble to get to her.
“They are shameful people,” Betty said with a disgusted shake of her head.
“Where is she?” Alastair wailed. “Why would she run away like this?” He rounded on Lake. “This is your fault,” he said as he pointed at him. “She said that you and her parents were fighting over her. What did you do?”
Lake looked down at Kirsty. This wasn’t the time to talk about that. He needed to think things through before he talked to Kirsty. His plans had changed. He had changed.
“It doesn’t matter now,” he said at last.
“It matters to me,” Alastair shouted. “Tell me. Tell me what you said that made her run away from me.”
Lake closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them the women of Invertary were glaring at him. They already knew that they weren’t going to like his answer. Betty pursed her lips.
“It’s between me and Rainne,” he told the boy tightly.
“No, it’s not. It has to do with all of us,” Betty said.
“Betty,” Lake warned.
“Lake here,” Betty said, ignoring him, “told Rainne that he plans to put the shop on the market come Monday.”
Lake shook his head as shock rippled around the room. Although Kirsty still held him, he could already feel her put distance between them. Under his breath, he cursed Betty.
“It’s not settled,” he said.
The truth was that he didn’t know what he was going to do yet. All he knew was that his plans to leave Invertary weren’t as pleasant as they’d been months earlier.
“He’s leaving us,” Betty told everyone. “He’s leaving all of us.”
Kirsty dropped her hand from his waist.
––––––––
Kirsty took a step back from Lake. He was leaving? He’d been planning to leave and he hadn’t told her. She looked at her mother. There were tears in her eyes.
Alastair’s eyes flashed and his fists clenched. It looked like he wanted to hit Lake. Kirsty looked up into Lake’s concerned eyes.
“You’re selling the shop?” Kirsty said. “But it’s a success. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
He shook his head softly.
“I never meant to keep it,” Lake told her. “I was going to tell you, but then things changed.”
“When were you going to tell me?” she said. “When you were packed and ready to go?”
Lake started to speak, but Alastair strode forward and poked him in the chest. It took serious courage on the boy’s part. Lake raised an eyebrow at him.
“Why are you selling Rainne’s shop?” he demanded.
“One, it’s not Rainne’s shop. And two, I wasn’t helping her,” Lake said. “I was only doing what our parents did. She needs to learn to stand on her own two feet. And I need to get on with my life too.”
“Selfish bastard,” Alastair said.
Lake nodded - that was probably true.
“You mind your language,” Betty told Alastair. “Lake here has bent over backwards to help Rainne and all he’s gotten for his trouble are complaints and problems. You’re just angry because the lass didn’t want to stay with you.”
The fight went out of Alastair. He snatched the note from Lake. He read it again, with obvious hope that the words would change, that there would be a hint in the note as to why she ran out on him.
“I love her,” he said softly.
Kirsty’s mum patted him on the back and cooed soothingly.
“It’s always hard,” she said, but her eyes were on her daughter.
Kirsty couldn’t look Lake in the eye anymore. He took a step towards her.
“We need to talk about this,” he said. “Alone.”
She shook her head.
“What will you do?” she asked him.
“I was planning on taking a partnership in a security firm—high-end bodyguard work, stuff like that.”
“So you’re leaving?” she said softly.
There was silence. Everyone except Alastair watched the interaction as though they were watching a train crash in slow motion.
“Let’s go somewhere and talk. Nothing is set in stone. We can work something out.”
“Like what?” Kirsty looked up at his beautiful blue eyes. “My life is here.” She scoffed. “What I have left of it.”
“There are other options,” he said stiffly.
Kirsty walked over to stand with her mother. This was more than she could bear. She was losing it all. Everything. Her life. Her income. Now she was losing Lake too. Well, she wasn’t going to sob. And she wasn’t going to fall apart. Not this time.
“Of course,” Kirsty said. “It makes perfect sense to leave. Why would you stay here and run a lingerie shop?” She looked up at Lake. “Good for you. That’s great. It’s the right decision. A security business, that’s perfect.”
She stepped back towards the door.
“It’s absolutely perfect.”
Lake reached for her.
“We need to talk about this,” he told her again.
She stared at him. What could there possibly be left to say?
“Honey?” her mother said. Her voice shook.
“It’s okay,” Kirsty said. She felt a smile appear on her face. “Lake’s doing the right thing. I just wish I’d known.”
Lake folded his arms. His jaw set. Waiting. It took her a minute, but she got there. Kirsty’s shoulders slumped.
“It was the lingerie war, right?” she said. Stupid. Of course it was. “You knew I wouldn’t fight back if I thought you were leaving anyway, and you wanted the publicity. You wanted to raise the profits and profile of the shop. It was a great idea. You did a great job. The shop must be worth selling now. Well done.” Her voice trailed off. “Great.”
Lake took a step towards her.
“I don’t want to do this here, with an audience. Let’s go upstairs.”
“You don’t need to explain,” Kirsty told him. “I understand. Lovers by night. Enemies by day. Right? Well, the night part is over and”—she signalled to the smouldering heap across the road—”Betty’s right, you won the war, so there’s no point in the day part. I understand. Our time is over. It’s fine.”
“It’s not fine. You need to trust me. I’ll come up with a solution.”
“You do that,” she said as she turned away from him. “Okay,” she told her mum in a voice full of false cheer. “We best get going.” She glanced back at Lake. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess,” she said. “I’m glad you’re okay. Thanks for coming to the rescue. Time to go home.” She stumbled over the word. “It’s been a long night. Lots of emotion. Right? Time for us all to calm down and get back to normal.”
Kirsty smiled over-brightly as she pushed the shop door open.
She held her mother’s arm tightly as they walked past the mess that used to be her life. Beside her, her mother worked hard to hide her sobs. Kirsty kept her eyes on the black void where the loch should be. Together, they walked towards it.
“What about Rainne?” Alastair demanded as the rest of the women filed out after Kirsty.
They all had the same disgusted look on their faces. Lake had gone from town hero to town villain in five seconds flat.
“What are you going to do about Rainne?” Alastair said.
Lake had to stop from taking his rage out on the boy. This wasn’t his fault. It was all Lake’s doing. He’d screwed it up and now he had to fix it. He wanted to run after Kirsty, but he knew she wouldn’t listen to him now. She was exhausted and in shock from the evening. She needed time to rest. Then he would explain. Then he would fix everything.
“We need to find Rainbow,” Alastair said.
“Be here at oh eight hundred hours,” Lake ordered. “We’ll find her.”
Alastair nodded eagerly.
Lake wanted to throttle his sister. The last thing he needed was to chase after her when there were other things he had to deal with. Urgent things. Unfortunately, she didn’t have the sense to survive on her own. He couldn’t just let her go. He had to make sure she was okay.
“Tomorrow,” Alastair said, a broken man.
Alastair looked at Betty, his soul laid bare in his eyes, then nodded at Lake and left the shop. He broke out into a run as soon as he was out of the door.
“Poor boy,” Betty said as she watched him go. “First love is always a bitch.”
“I’m really cheesed off with you,” Lake told her tightly. “You should have kept your mouth shut.”
“Why?” Betty demanded. She put her hands on her hips and glared up at him. “So that you could skulk out of here on Monday without even saying goodbye?”
“No,” Lake said tensely. “Because my plans have changed and now you’ve screwed things up.”
Her mouth fell open. She looked confused.
“You’re staying?”
“I was going to work that out with Kirsty—until you shoved your big foot in your mouth.”
They stood in silence as they watched the last embers from the fire die in a new flurry of snow.
“It’s not too late,” Betty said.
The wind went out of him when he looked down at her. Her face was shining with joy. Against his better judgment, he threw an arm around her shoulder.
“It’s too late for a pleasant conversation, that’s for sure,” Lake said. “She won’t believe I mean what I’m saying. No. It’s going to take something more to convince her that I intend to stay.”
Betty sniffed.
“You’re really staying?” she said. “For good?”
“Well, I don’t know if it’s good, but yes.”
Betty grinned over towards the burnt-out building.
“First, I have to go after Rainne,” Lake said.
“Make sure you smack her on the backside when you find her.”
There was a minute’s silence.
As Lake watched the fire, all he could see was the look on Kirsty’s face when she’d fled.
“Do you have Caroline’s phone number?” he asked Betty.
She stared up at him.
“Did you get a knock on the head?” she asked. “You do know the woman you love is called Kirsty, right?”
Lake grinned. The woman he loved. Damn right she was the woman he loved.
“Yeah, I know her name,” he told his pet Hobbit. “But I still need Caroline’s number. I need her to organise something for me.”
“What do you need her highness for? Why can’t I do it?”
Lake threw back his head and laughed. Yeah, like he’d trust Betty to sort out his life.
Grumbling under her breath, Betty went to fetch the number.