Page 15 of Lipstick Kiss

“All great questions,” Luke pointed out. “So you’ll help me, right? To find out who they are?”

“Absolutely,” Freya said, getting up and brushing off the dirt from her hands by clapping them together.

“We start Monday,” he said.

“I told you I have to work, Luke, and so do you,” she replied.

Shit, he’d forgotten about that.

“After work. I finish around four. What about you?”

“I have an evening class to teach. So we’ll have to sleuth at the weekends. But not Sunday afternoons because I’m at Heidi’s mum and dad’s place. With Keith coming out of his moody fog and being a part of the family, I don’t want to miss the family Sunday roast.”

“You work every evening?”

“Four weeks of five evenings a week. Mr Morris says that I am the most logical as I’m single. Didn’t I tell you this?”

He ignored her question, honing in on the other bit. “But you’re not single.”

“I meant the non-married teachers,” she said airily, waving her hand.

“Hmm, well, that only leaves Saturday. I’m sure you’ll want to spend it with whatever his name is.”

“Probably,” she agreed with zero conviction.

“Look, Friday evening class finishes early, at six. There will be a couple of hours before it gets dark to wade around Turner land to work out who these two are.”

“All right, but that means we won’t see very much of each other.”

“That’s what being grown up is like, Luke.”

“Sucks.”

“It does.”

Chapter Five

Freya

Two weeks had passed since she stood in front of two blank headstones. Freya had been avoiding Luke because she didn’t have a good enough reason for her fake fiancé to still be away.

Freya stood at the bottom of her staircase, used one hand to hold on to the bannister and let it take the weight as she flexed her knee to slip on her black-heeled shoes. One after the other, she pushed them on. Standing tall, she took a couple of steps to the long oval mirror and swiped on lip gloss.

It was Thursday, and her evening class beckoned. She couldn’t wait to have all of her evenings back. Not that there was a lot to do now her best mate was loved up at the mansion. But still, teaching kids and the odd adult life skills and French wasn’t the best way to spend two hours after a full day of teaching.

Freya put on a short leather jacket with no adornments,not even a zip, her handbag over her shoulder, and she was ready to go. One final look at her hair, and she caught the twinkle of the ring on her finger. For a heavy ring, it never moved even a little bit on her finger. Freya loved it and would keep up the ruse as long as possible because she had beauty on her finger.

Swiping her keys off her hook by the door, she was on her way to the school. With pencil-thin heels, she opted for the road instead of the pavement. Nothing, if she could help it, would ruin her navy suede heels. She hadn’t changed out of her navy pencil skirt but had swapped her cream blouse for a navy fitted t-shirt. The jacket was cream suede.

Freya loved beautiful things. She worked hard to have a wardrobe filled with clothes she loved. She paid a fortune for shipping, but what else would she spend her money on?

Football practice was happening in the gym, so the school was already open when she arrived. The old building was rock solid and freezing cold every day of the year. But it had a charm she loved. As a pupil at the school, she often wore layers under her school uniform with thick tights. While others sat in class wishing, they could put their coats on. Wearing coats in class wasn’t allowed back then and wasn’t allowed now. So when she had to take hers off, she was still toasty.

Now she could hug a thermal mug with its own mat to keep the contents warm and her hands. She wasn’t going to show weakness in front of these kids.

Shouldering the classroom door, she shoved it open and kept her foot at the base to wheel the case in and hold on to her coffee mug.

“All right, settle down. Try to behave. There are adults coming to class this evening, not just you rowdy lot.”

---