Page 53 of Loving Jemima

Ellie clasped Jem’s hand in her own and they walked together down the street. This was… good. Better than good. It was calming and beautiful and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so at peace. They were just coming in through the front door when Paul came rocketing down the stairs dressed in his green paramedic uniform.

“Late for shift,” he panted, then came to a full stop, eyeing Jem with undisguised curiosity.

Ellie sighed. She didn’t know how Jem managed to keep her life so secret, in Ellie’s case, everyone knew everything. “Paul, this is Jemima Darlington, Jem, this is Paul, my next door neighbor.”

“That’s a grand name,” Paul said, face wrinkling into a smile.

“Darlington?” Jem grinned back. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“Like the bank?”

“It’s a financial services company, not really a bank,” Jem began.

“And not really the time?” Ellie suggested.

“Right, right, gotta run,” Paul said. He grinned at Ellie. “You ladies behave yourselves.”

“He seemed nice,” Jem said as they rode the lift up to Ellie’s floor.

“He is, he’s lovely. He keeps an eye on me.”

Jem side-eyed her.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Jem said. “Just… your life is very safe, isn’t it?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing at all,” Jem said firmly, stepping out of the lift.

“Here we go then,” said Ellie, opening up the door to her flat. Constable appeared immediately, miaowing in complaint. “Oh, don’t give me that, you have plenty of dry food, and I don’t answer to you.”

“Apparently, you do,” Jem said, stepping inside and closing the door as Ellie rushed to the kitchen to open a can for Constable. “Jesus, this place is the size of a crisp packet.”

“You will remember that I told you my entire place could fit in your toilet,” Ellie said, feeding Con.

“I thought you were kidding.”

“No. And beggars can’t be choosers. We’ve only got a couple of hours to sleep, do you want the couch or the bed?”

Jem just stood there looking at her and Ellie knew what the answer was and knew that she wanted it so badly herself. But she wasn’t going to do this. She wasn’t going to be Jem’s secret. She wasn’t going to be anyone’s secret. No matter how much her heart pounded or her body responded.

“Just sleep,” Jem said, voice rough. “Nothing else.”

And Ellie relented even though she wasn’t sure she could sleep tangled up with Jem in the same bed.

“The bathroom’s through there if you want to wash your face.”

Jem went through. “Is that mold on the ceiling?” she asked when she came back, face shiny.

“No,” Ellie said shortly. “The bed’s that way.”

Jem held out her hand and after a hesitation so short it almost didn’t exist, Ellie took it.

Chapter Twenty Two

It took everything Jem had not to pull Ellie toward her, not to put her hands on her waist and start something that she knew she had no right to start.

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