After a horrendous rainy jog to work on Friday, Tim said I was performing at an ‘almost below average’ level on some of the workouts. Yay! I was improving.
For martial arts, Tim took me to a group class. I enjoyed that a lot more than the one-on-one sessions. It had music and it was fun. Plus, there were other people who couldn’t kick as well as me, which made me feel better. Well, there was one guy. Admittedly he did have a leg in a cast, but let’s not get pernickety.
Grabbing a breakfast smoothie, I sat with Tim to discuss the case.
“Anything new come up?”
“No. I’ve tried everything but it’s not getting me anywhere. I don’t suppose you’ve found out anything?”
I shook my head. “Afraid not.” Apart from the fact that my arse was fine, thank you very much Tim, and I might have some feelings for McKenzie that I needed to bash down with a hammer. But that didn’t relate to the case at all so I kept it to myself.
“Well,” he said, “I’m afraid we’re not having much luck digging your boyfriend out of trouble, honey.”
What? He thought I liked McKenzie as well?
I narrowed my eyes. “He is not my boyfriend.”
He smiled. “Sure.”
Fucking vampire cowboy.
There wasn’t too much work for me today. A few folders to put away and three things to research for Adam, plus an envelope with my name on it, containing my pay slip. I checked my bank account and found that the money had already gone in. I was officially the richest I’d ever been in my life.
Four figures? Who could possibly need that much? Probably people who didn’t live with their parents.
After lunch, I had no work left. There was nothing for me to do except answer the telephone occasionally and wish I’d brought my book, even if taking it out of the house in this weather risked water damage. By the time five o’clock arrived, I was more than ready to leave. I gathered my stuff and headed out.
It was pouring. And because I’d jogged here this morning, I had to walk home. As I stood on the pavement, a black Italian sports car pulled up in front of me. Hmm. Wonder who this could be?
The door opened and James leant across to speak to me.
“Need a lift?”
I sighed. My glasses were wet and foggy. I was sore and grumpy and tired. Now I was being offered a lift home by a guy who was potentially a murderer and whom everyone apparently thought I was in love with.
“Thanks,” I said flatly, sliding in next to him. I pulled the door shut and grabbed the seatbelt. “I hope you don’t mind getting your seats wet.”
“Might be the grossest pick-up line I’ve ever heard.”
I let go of the seatbelt and reached for the door handle to get out. Only trouble was, I couldn’t find it. Argh! Stupid super-car. I was trying to exit in anger but I was trapped.
James laughed. “Charlie, I’m sorry. I was just joking.”
“I’m leaving.”
“You don’t even know how to get the door open. I’m sorry I teased you. I’d consider it an honour if you said something that crude to me intentionally.”
“Don’t lie to me. You’re not sorry and you would hate it. You probably hate my arse and don’t even think I could sell an anal salve.”
He stared at me for a moment. “What?”
“Never mind,” I muttered.
“Are you… OK?”
“Yes, I’m fine, although I can see why that may have been confusing. I don’t need any anal cream.”
Yeah. Once it came out of my mouth I heard it too.
James wrinkled his nose. “I’m going to leave that one alone.”
“Definitely for the best.”
“You should stay. You don’t want to walk home in the rain.”
He was right. I didn’t. I pulled the seatbelt over me again and tried to find where to plug it in. James reached across and did it up for me.
“Thanks,” I mumbled.
“So,” he said when we started driving. “Did you set Larry’s office on fire?”
I snorted. “No.”
“I’m not going to get annoyed at you for it,” he said quickly. “That probably saved me from going to jail.”
“I really didn’t. I just set the fire alarm off. Larry must have torched his own office while everyone was distracted.”
“Makes sense.”
“You know what doesn’t make sense?”
“What?”
“You offering to drive me home out of the goodness of your heart. What prompted this uncharacteristic act of kindness towards me?”
He looked wounded. “I couldn’t just drive past you. You bring out the worst in me, but even my worst isn’t that bad. Besides, I wanted an update on how you’re going.”
“With the case?”
“Yeah. I thought maybe you’d have something that Sharps doesn’t.”
I raised my eyebrows, genuinely surprised. “You have that much confidence in me?”
He smiled. “I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.”
“Well, I don’t really have anything at the moment. Isn’t Sarah Hollis supposed to be getting back to Gerongate soon?”
James nodded. “Sunday.”
“We’ll see what happens then.” I realised there was something I hadn’t asked McKenzie that I’d been meaning to. “James, how did you even meet your uncle? He’s about the only relative of yours I’ve never met, and since he had nothing to do with your parents while you were growing up it seems a bit weird.”
He smiled slightly as he told me the story. “We were fundraising for a school football trip or something. I don’t really remember. Your brother dared me to hit Frank up for some money so I did. He liked my sales pitch, thought it was funny, so we talked for a while. We just got along, you know?” He was silent for a moment. “I didn’t kill him, Charlie.”
“I know.”
We didn’t speak again until we were three blocks from my parents’ place.
“Do you want me to drop you off at your house or somewhere people won’t see?”
I laughed. “At the house.”
James idled out the front. It was still pouring outside and I wondered how wet I’d get dashing from the car to the door. Then I looked down at myself and sighed. It didn’t matter. I was saturated anyway.
“I hate rain,” I said.
James laughed. “Is there anything you don’t hate?”
You? suggested my mind.
“Chocolate?” was the response that rolled off my tongue, however, and for once I was glad that my mouth was working independently to my brain. My initial answer was troubling.
My response (the verbal one, not the mental one) drew another smile from James. He was obviously unaware of the acute internal embarrassment I was suffering. Oh my god. Maybe Tim and Will were right and I had developed a thing for James.
Gross.
“Bye,” I said, keen to get the hell out of there. I didn’t have time to be doubting my eternal hatred of McKenzie. I had shit to do.
“See you.”
I turned for the door and stopped. Huh. I’d never actually figured out where the handle was. “Um, how do I get out?”
James reached over and did it for me, trying to hide his smile. As soon as he got it open, I leapt out of the car.
“Thanks! Bye!”
I hit the ground running.
Then I tripped and hit the ground for real.
Splat.
Sigh.
Had I really expected anything less?
The engine fell silent and I heard footsteps splashing towards me over the rain-soaked lawn as James approached. He helped me to my feet.
“You OK?”
“Please. It takes a lot more than that to bring me down.”
He frowned. “It literally did bring you down.”
I thought for a moment. “Alright, I guess, but it didn’t keep me down. Nothing’s even broken. Total victory.”
“Whatever you say, sweetie.”
My legs were a little sore from my morning workout, so I decided to exploit James’s desire to be seen as good-natured and threw my arm over his shoulders, leaning my weight on him as he assisted me in my limp to the front door. When I reached the house, I tried to let go of him and support myself – and immediately stumbled.
“Fuck,” I said, not bothering to try and correct myself, knowing that there was no way my balance skills would save me. Once I was off-kilter, I was going to hit the floor. That was just the way of things.
James reached out and grabbed my waist, steadying me. I blinked as we made eye contact, both of us staring without saying anything.
Our gazes lingered for longer than they should have, as did McKenzie’s hands. Warmth radiated through my body at his touch, neither of us moving. I don’t think we were even breathing.
What the hell was going on? Were we having a moment? Why? What kind of moment? I wasn’t used to this sort of thing happening, and I definitely wasn’t used to it happening with James McKenzie. What was I meant to do now? Should I punch him to restore the natural balance of things?
But I didn’t have the chance to do that, because we were interrupted.
My mum opened the door with a cheese knife in hand, eyes widening when she saw me and James standing face to face, his hands on my waist like something romantic and cinematic was in the process of happening, as if we were making out on the doorstep in the rain, rather than the something muddy and clumsy that had actually happened.
(‘Muddy and clumsy’ was kind of a good description of most of my romantic entanglements, but let’s not get into that now.)
Uh oh.
She was going to kill him. With a cheese knife.