Page 46 of One Bed

He’d figured that much out. ‘Iknow.’

‘Have you worked out why you lost your shit?’ Navy asked him. Normally a question like that would make him break out in hives, but it was from Navy, and therefore, tolerable.Just.

And yes, he wasn’t a total imbecilic or wholly unaware. A fraction of his sharp response was due to his normal early-morning surliness, the rest of it was a response to the flowers she’d picked and put into vases, her making breakfast and coffee, doing his laundry,fussing. His mom’d had hovering down to an art form and had been a bossy bee who wouldn’t leave him alone. On the cottage’s deck, he’d become reacquainted with his teenage frustration at being ‘mothered’.

Confusingly, he had also liked it. He’d liked that Bea’d gone to the effort to make him as comfortable as possible. He’d enjoyed her bright smile, hearing her humming, the soft expression on her face – part embarrassment, part attraction. He’d even liked her making him breakfast, something he’d never expected her to do.

The crash of him hating what she did and enjoying it, too, had sent his irritation levels soaring; the combination of annoyance, memories, appreciation and attraction tipping him over the edge into terror. And he’d responded, because he was a man (and an asshole-dick-bastard), by lashing out.

Fuck. Apologising was going tosuck.

‘Gib? You still there?’

Gib touched his right ear pod in surprise. He’d forgotten he was talking to Navy. Reaching a crossroads, he turned around and started jogging back in the same direction he’d come from, breathing hard.

‘This… What did you say her name was again?’ Navy asked.

‘Bea.’

‘Tell me more about her. What does she look like, what does she do?’

These were questions he could answer. ‘Brown hair, eyes that can be either blue or grey, with hints of lavender?—’

Navy’s laughter rolled across the miles and into his ear and Gib stopped speaking. What was so funny?

‘Blue? Grey? Lavender? You’refried, dude.’

Gib chose to ignore his comment and ploughed on. ‘She’s Golly’s assistant.’

‘You’re sleeping with a fifty-year-old single mom?’ Navy demanded, suddenly serious.

What the hell was he going on about? ‘Bea is in her late twenties, maybe early thirties, and she doesn’t have kids.’ He didn’t think.

‘Well, IknowGolly’s assistant. She’s called Merle, she’s super-efficient and practically runs the G&T agency. She’s damn good at her job.’

Gib frowned, confused. ‘That’s what Bea told me. Though I think she might also dabble in writing.’

‘What makes you think that?’

‘Remember I asked you what the acronym meant? GNT?—’

‘GMC, forchrissake.’

Jeez, shoot him for not knowing the right acronym. He bet that if he asked Navy what ROI, CRM and KPI meant, he wouldn’t be able to answer. No, he would. Navy had a photogenic memory.

‘Goal, motivation, conflict,’ Navy corrected him. He really didn’t care.

‘Anyway, I saw that acronym on a page in her notebook.’ Gib went on to explain how she’d knocked over her coffee cup. ‘I also read something about a series arc, rapids, someone falling off, and Pip reacting. I think she saw my kayak and it sparked an idea.’

‘First thought? Maybe you should stop reading her personal shit.’

Fair point.

Navy stayed silent for so long that Gib thought he’d lost him. ‘Are you sure you saw the word “Pip”?’

Her handwriting was crap, but it was only a three-letter word. ‘Pretty sure. And Harriet, Henry, no–– Shit. It was a strange name.’

‘Hettie?’

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