Page 31 of The Damaged Hearts Bargain

The bike ticked with heat.

Cal’s heart beat in time with it.

Then she took a deep breath, revved the engine again and made her turn.

THERE WAS THE sound of ringing and then a click as the call connected. “Lucy?”

“Cal? Is that you? You sound like you’re in the middle of a hurricane.”

Cal laughed. “Yeah, I could do with a helmet upgrade probably, get better Bluetooth and all that jazz.”

“You’re calling from your bike?”

“You know about my bike?”

There was a second of silence. “Um, Rosalee might have mentioned it. Not that we were talking about you or gossiping or anything. It just, um, sort of came up in conversation.”

Cal considered this and then let it go. Gossip was one of the things she liked least about Tetherington. Which made her think that it was faintly possible that there was another reason she was avoiding getting anywhere close to Lucy. If she got close then at some point she’d be required to divulge the truth of what had happened more than a decade ago, or someone else would. She’d never talked about it before and really didn’t want to.

“Okay,” she said. “Um, you said you were going to come and help this afternoon.”

“Shit, I’m not late am I?” Lucy broke in. “I just finished.”

“No, no, that’s not the problem at all. I just wondered if, well, I’m out on my bike and I could pick you up, that’s all. I mean, ifyou need it. Not a requirement or anything.”

It had seemed a good idea at the time. Not that Cal always used her bike as a way to pick up women. Not that she was attempting to pick up Lucy. Well, not other than in a very literal way. Unless she was, and her hormones very much really wanted her to.

Both adults, both able to make decisions, she told herself. She wasn’t going to start anything, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a friend, did it? Just one nice person in her day. It might not be enough to dilute the fact that she got death stares continually around town, but having someone there for her was important.

Syd was right about that.

And Lucy was helpful. They’d already cleared the living room. At this rate, Cal might get out of town faster than planned, so that was a good thing.

“Are you kidding?” Lucy was saying now.

“Um, I don’t know. Is that kidding in a good way or a bad way?”

“I mean, I’d love to have a ride on your bike,” Lucy laughed.

The laugh rang through Cal’s helmet and made her stomach twist in somersaults. “Great. I’ll pick you up then. At the newsagents?”

“Um, I’m at the bakery actually. Just a few doors down, you can’t miss it. I’m with Pen.”

Cal’s heart dropped. She could hardly back out now, could she? But the last thing she wanted was to have to meet yet more people. People who hated her and would almost certainly tell Lucy what she was all about and then…

The thought of Lucy thinking badly about her stuck in Cal like a knife. She didn’t usually care what people thought of her. But Lucy was different.

“Hey,” Lucy said, voice lowering until it sent tickles through Cal’s ear. “These people are my friends, it’ll be fine, I promise.”

CAL TOOK OFF her helmet and placed it on the saddle of the bike. The bakery itself was new to her, it hadn’t been aroundwhen she’d lived in town. The bookshop right next door wasn’t new. She’d always scampered past it as a kid, slightly weirded out by the fact that it was a romance bookshop.

Now she wondered if she could disappear into its shelves for a few hours and avoid the next few minutes. Because Lucy was sure to want to introduce her to her friends. And those friends were sure to recognize her and once they did…

Fuck it. Cal Roberts did not walk away from difficult things, whatever Syd might think.

Mostly.

Not since she was seventeen anyway.

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