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“Your face is pink, Lyric.”
“I wonder why!”
“We weren’t doing anything…”
The unspoken ‘yet’ hung in the air between us, as loudly as if he’d shouted it.
But I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet.
He held it until the very last second, when we emerged into the light of the morning.
Brain short-circuiting, I followed him through the still lingering parishioners, standing around in groups on the church lawn, chatting and gossiping like this was their favorite Sunday morning activity.
“…I still don’t know how they even got in,” one woman complained. She was maybe early forties and dressed in a very proper knee-length skirt and short-sleeved blouse. She caught sight of Zeph and called him over.
He very briefly touched the small of my back, steering me in her direction, a suddenly warm smile on his face for the older woman.
“Mrs. Lauderton. Good morning.”
The woman glanced at me but quickly refocused on Zeph without saying anything. Couldn’t blame her really. I couldn’t stop staring at him either.
“I was just telling Tracey here about our house break-in.”
Tracey, clearly wanting Zeph’s attention too, butted in, stealing her friend’s story. “All they stole was her jewelry, some cash, and a record player. Now, I can understand the jewelry and cash. But why a record player?”
The memory of Zeph and I slow dancing in my living room while a gifted record player spun was still fresh in my mind. I looked sharply at him.
The movement caught his eye, and he turned in my direction. My eyes had to be huge.
“What?” he asked.
I studied him for a fraction of a second while the other two women watched us with interest. But I pushed the idea from my head. “Nothing,” I assured him. “Sorry. I should get going. See you later when I come in to clean.”
He nodded and went back to the other two women, like nothing was wrong. I shook my head. I’d already convinced myself so many ridiculous things about this man.
He was a priest, not a cat burglar.
But the nagging feeling didn’t go away. Especially not when I glanced back at Zeph and found him watching my every move.
15
LYRIC
Peggy pounced on me the minute I got home. She grabbed my arm and towed me inside my apartment, her smile ear to ear. “I have a surprise for you.”
I followed her—like I had any other choice with the way she was dragging me—but eyed her warily. “I don’t like surprises.”
She waved her hand around like she was brushing off a pesky fly. “Pfft. You’ll like this. Amelia is gone until Tuesday, right?”
I swiped my hand back and used it to yank the tie out of my hair, my scalp tingling in relief. “Yeah. That’s what Lleyton said anyway.”
Peggy clapped her hands together. “I was talking to one of my friends last night who works in a respite facility, and she said they just had a cancellation for Monday night. I took it. For your gran. So you can have a night completely to yourself. You can go stay in that fancy house that you’re babysitting for your ex’s girlfriend, have a bubble bath, order some food in, dance around in your underwear, give yourself an orgasm, whatever you want. No responsibilities for once!”
I pinched the bridge of my nose between two fingers, fighting off the impending headache. “That’s really lovely of you, but I can’t afford it. Those places are so expensive. Gran would hate it—”
Peggy pressed a finger to my lips. “The spot is already paid for. They cancelled too late to get their money back. And Cheryl will love it. She needs to get out a bit, Lyric. She’s stuck inside all the time, and I’m not saying that’s your fault, I know how difficult it is to get her out when you have Amelia too. But she’ll be picked up and dropped off by trained staff, and you don’t need to do anything. I’ll see her off tomorrow after my shift before you even get home from work.” She took me by my shoulders and forced me to face her. “Please let me do this for you. And for her.”
Zeph’s words about there being people in my life who wanted to have my back rang true in my ears. Here was Peggy doing a beautiful thing for me, and I was about to turn her down because I was so stupidly independent and wanted to be everything to everyone.
