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“Oh, your Christmas village survived the fire,” Sophie exclaimed, giving her a hug. “I’m so glad.”
“Thankfully most of my stuff survived. He didn't use an accelerant, so the fire burned the carpets and floorboards where the rocks landed. One landed on my bed too, and my mannequin was destroyed, but other than that everything else was okay,” she explained.
“I’m just glad you're okay.” Sophie gave her another hug.
“You all finished here?” Brian asked. “Can I pack away the boxes?”
“We’re done except for the fake snow. I usually make some up and then sprinkle it about everywhere.”
“Why don’t you and Sophie go and talk, and I’ll do that.”
“Okay, thanks.” She smiled at him, but he was back to the brisk Brian that had been here last night. The relaxed guy she had been hanging out with for the last several hours had disappeared. Hayley wasn't used to Brian behaving like this, it was disconcerting.
“I brought sandwiches from your favorite café,” Sophie told her as they went and sat on one of the couches. “Too bad I didn't bring a knife.”
“Huh?” she asked as she took one of the sandwiches.
“To cut the tension.”
“What tension?”
“Between you and Brian. Are you blind? Don’t you see it? The way he looks at you, I think he’s way more interested in you than you think he is. And didn't we have a deal? We were both going to try to put our messed-up pasts behind us and move on. Weren't you supposed to talk to Brian, tell him how you felt?”
Deal or no deal she just wasn't sure she could do it. Every time she thought about telling him she backed out. It was like she was physically incapable. The words got stuck in her throat and refused to come out. “I don’t think now is the best time to be getting into that. Brian is my bodyguard, and I'm stuck here until Jay Turner is caught. If I tell him and he turns me down, it’s going to make things pretty awkward.”
“I don’t think stuck is quite the right word to use for you staying at Brian’s house,” Sophie contradicted. “You should use this time to your advantage. It’s just the two of you here, no distractions, nothing to do but hang out together. From the looks of things, he spent all morning helping you set up your village, he wouldn’t have done that if he didn't like you. And there has to be some perks to living here rather than just hanging out. I mean, he might walk around half-naked or something. I saw Brian when we had that pool party at the end of the summer, he works out a lot.”
Immediately, her mind jumped back to this morning when Brian had come downstairs dressed in nothing but the sweatpants he slept in. He had a perfectly toned body, but she wasn't into that kind of thing. Well of course she was a woman, and she appreciated a well-toned, sculpted male specimen, but she didn't care about looks, she wanted someone who made her feel safe, special, and loved.
But she couldn’t deny that Brian’s sexy six-pack and toned arms had stirred up a pit of desire in her belly.
“He has been walking around half-naked, hasn’t he?” Sophie grinned, no doubt noticing her bright pink cheeks. “I told you there were perks to living here.” Then her friend grew serious. “There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of that, Hayley. Not Brian being half-naked, I mean, being here with him. It is the perfect chance for him to realize that you two belong together. Don’t waste it, okay?”
* * * * *
5:26 P.M.
A waste of a day.
Jay hadn't been able to find where Hayley Hood was hiding out, and he couldn’t go back home. As far as he knew his kid was still in a foster home, and he didn't know where his wife was or what she was doing.
At least he had found a place he could hide out for a while.
Tilting his head back he drank half the can of beer in one long gulp then threw it away, letting it join the others on the floor.
Right now, he didn't have a long-term plan.
Kill the social worker was a given. And get his kid back. But he hadn't thought any further ahead than that. He supposed he’d take his wife and daughter and leave town. If he was on the run, he wouldn’t be able to keep collecting welfare, but there were other ways to make money. He could always get his wife to prostitute herself, or there were people out there who would pay good money for a pretty little girl. His kid had betrayed him after all, and he really had no use for a child. At least that way he could make a little cash.
He picked up another can and opened it, downing most of it in one go. He’d been drinking for the last hour now, a dozen empty cans lay scattered on the floor. It probably wasn't the smartest way to spend his time when he had someone he was hunting, but it sure beat just sitting here getting angrier by the second.
He wanted to find Hayley.
He wanted her writhing, screaming body lying beneath him while he made her pay for messing with his life.
How hard could it be to find one woman?
She had to be somewhere, it wasn't like she had just disappeared, she was hiding, but like all hiding animals she would eventually come creeping back into the light. And he had a pretty good idea where she would end up when she did. All he had to do was wait long enough, and he’d get his hands on her.
