Mmh 22
She wound her way back to the house and was greeted by the scent of eggs and bacon and burn.She walked to him first and wrapped him in a hug. It was nice, having him there. Real and solid and all hers for the keeping. It was nice and it gave her so much joy.Kenell strode past them and unto a bunch of pillows in the living room that he knew to be his.“ What did you burn?”“ aside from my pride? The bacon.” she laughed and let him go,“ the weird part is that it still all smells good. If you ignore the burn, that is.”He made a face and went to get plates,“ are you going to eat or are you going to stand there judging my cooking skills?”“Actually–“ she walked toward him, stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek,“ I need to take a shower, then I’ll eat,” he bent to kiss her forehead before she could evade him. He would have grabbed her and made the whole thing last longer, but his haMmh 23“I take kenell with me to work now. She's going to not want to stop by. Kenell can probably sniff her out a mile away.”Bryan cocked his head in kenell’s direction, his ears had perked up at the sound of his name.“That offers a bit of comfort,” he said and she leaned her head against his shoulder.“And so does Cedric. If it means anything, I’m sure he is there right now. And here am I, getting settled for a cuddle.” he chuckled and rubbed his nose against her cheek.“I honestly wish you didn't have to go. But I know you do. Which is why I’ll be taking you and bringing you back.”She turned to him, “Like the toddler, I've become,” she said and shook her head. He placed two fingers on her chin,“It’ll give me peace.” she bit her lower lip and stared into his eyes, before finally relenting.“ I know this, Bryan. I’m sorry. It’s just, that I hate she makes us feel like we are being predated. I hate that she’s here and we don’t know what to do about her.” She finished and he felt
“She feels entitled to you,” Aine said, smiling up at him, even though she wanted to scream and shout. She all but wanted to rave at the maddened woman for stalking them the way she did. But instead, she put on the best show of life, running her hand through his hair the way she always did, proving to the woman that she was not afraid of her. She was the one who was being stalked, she was the victim and she was not going to back down. “ let me call the police,” Bryan said, truly agitated, reaching for his phone, but Aine shook her head.“We don’t have anything to pin her with.”“But she’s stalking you,” Bryan said, barely controlling his temper.“ she’s stalking us. But that’s not enough reason to get her arrested. We can’t prove she’s stalking us. But I will speak to a friend of mine, actually a friend of Cedric’s. He’s a policeman. He’ll make this a personal case. But let me speak to him first.”She knew he struggled with what she was asking from him. She knew it took so much from
Meh 25A million emotions warred against each other within her, and all the while her mind screamed, “it can’t be, it just can’t be.”“I got a restraining order.”Cedric came to her and wrapped his arms around her, “ I know baby.”“But, he moved away. I heard… his parents..”“He did move away… but for some reason, he’s come back.”“He couldn’t be back! He just couldn’t !” She wanted to scream, instead, she held on to his sweater and breathed in his soothing scent of pine and oddly? Chamomile. Cedric had a thing for chamomile.“Is Winslow the officer friend?” It was Bryan who asked. He watched them and his heart broke as he saw his girl try to hold, not to fall apart.Hold on, my little warrior. He thought.“Yeah,” Cedric said, fatigue written all over his face. He was just as shaken when Winslow had told him the news, just as distraught, just as destabilized. Aine had been through a lot because of that man and the very last thing they all needed was for that man to come back and give
Bran stayed the night but left early in the morning to get ready for her shift and since Aine was already awake and couldn’t fall back asleep, she decided to get an early start on her day. Kenell was awake as well, so she decided to take him for a walk while the day was still yet to brighten. In any case, it gave her time to think about her next line of action and what she wanted to do or had to do.Both Aine and Bran had decided that it would be wise to communicate with Winslow. If he gave the information about Callum’s return, then he probably knew what was best for them to do. As for Aine… she honestly felt lost.She sat on a bench by a creek and held onto kenell’s leash. The last thing her mental health needed was her having to go about looking for her dog. It was even beginning to take so much from her to do something as little as getting out of bed. Her anxiety over all that was happening, as well as deep growing sadness, was seeping from her strength. And she didn’t know where
“What are you doing?” Callum asked her as he watched her fold up clothes and dropped them in her suitcase.“I know it’s very obvious. “ she replied, without glancing at him. She had managed to get him to let her stay with him while she carried out her plans to get Bryan back. And when that plan became futile, she stayed with him while she plotted against Aine and Bryan. And if he was ready to admit it, he was sure she plotted against him as well. He saw the bean grande in her eyes every time he didn’t give into her whims and wiles.Nevertheless. It made no sense to him why she all of a sudden wanted to move away. However, he was sure of one thing. If he wanted her to talk and be reasonable, he was going to have to be diplomatic rather than emotional. Not that he much of the latter anyway,He walked to the dresser table and sat down and watched her for a few seconds before he finally spoke up,“Alright, tell me, what’s all this about?” She turned to him just once and gave him the stink
Bryan arrived right as Winslow was on his way and although Winslow didn’t feel right about keeping secrets from Aine, he knew it had to be done if he was going to keep her safe.“Bryan!” Aine called out as he got out of his car, and Winslow looked down to look at his friend.He makes her happy. He thought to himself and nearly sighed when Bryan all but lit up. He didn’t know the man personally, but the hopeless romantic in him could see love when it was right in front of him.He watched as Bryan’s eyes move away from Aine and rest knowledgeably on him. He was still in his uniform.With a smile, Aine took Bryan’s hand,“Bryan, this is Officer Winslow. Winslow, This is Bryan Maher.”With his Freehand, Bryan shook Winslow. And just that act of not letting go of Aine’s hand told him that in some ways the man was just what Aine was needing in her life. He was a cop after all.“Nice to meet you Maherson.” Bryan smiled at the name. When he had first arrived he had heard a couple of women cal
He knew from his trusted source where it was that Callum resided since he came back into town. Had even driven by that neighborhood a few times just to check it out. That was how he knew of the relationship between Callum and Rhoda. He knew a time would come when he would have to pay him a visit. He just never had a good reason to do so. Well, now he did, and he intended to milk it for all it was worth. And if he managed to threaten the bloke out of town, then praise Jesus. But he was going to do his best to make sure his friend slept well at night.He parked outside the house Callum lived with Rhoda, and for a minute did nothing but sit in the car going over all the things he would rather do that follow the law where Callum was considered. But he was a sheriff, he was the implementer of the law and he needed to control all of the anger that was growing in him because Callum was back, at the thought of being face to face with him again.It was night time and there wasn’t much activi
Meet me Halfway(chapter 30)“What do you mean leave?” Rhoda asked Callum in disbelief and he turned toward her in frustration,“You want to go to jail?” He asked bordering close to hysterics. He was so close to jail once, and there he was, teetering close to that point once again and it was not sitting well with him.“No one’s going to Jail, Callum. I’ll go see the sheriff as he requested, and that will be the end of it. You worry for too much, Callum puff.” She walked to where he sat on the bed, and sat beside him, linking their fingers.“You’ve never been close to losing your freedom, have you?”“And you have?”He turned to look at her at that moment, looked into her eyes. There was nothing in there, no feeling, no emotion, but a cynical glint that bordered on scary.What had he gotten himself into? And where was his way out?For if there was one thing that he was sure of, it was the fact that Rhoda would not leave well alone. She was going to push and push until she got what she wa