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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.
&
nbsp; “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?”
