Page 22 of The Damaged Hearts Bargain

Cal hung up, sliding her phone back into her pocket. She had no intention of asking for help. No intention of hanging around for longer than it took to take care of the house and put it up for sale. She was far stronger than Syd thought.

But it was, she had to admit, nice to be cared about. Nice to be checked on. Mostly.

She took another look around the living room. She’d made a start. She’d entered the house. But the ornaments on the mantelpiece were staring at her. She’d put them in a box, she thought. Wrap them all up, a token gesture that she was going to do all this.

And then it’d practically be dinner time and she could leave.

Chapter Nine

The weather really was beautiful. If it kept up like this, the tourists would be flocking down to the beaches in a couple of weeks. A good tourist season was important for the town. Lucy hadn’t been around long, but she knew that.

Which was probably why she was practically skipping down the small beach path toward the pub. Yes, definitely the thought of tourist revenue and not at all anything to do with the person she was about to meet.

She bit her lip to stop herself smiling so wide.

Billy had been right. She needed to be more open minded about things. Maybe the reason she hadn’t found her person yet was that she’d been too busy looking for the wrong person. Not that Cal was necessarily going to be the right person.

But she was a person, and a good start, Lucy told herself. And she was nice. And not a shoplifter. All things in her favor.

Okay, so she seemed a wee bit mysterious, but Lucy could work with that. Also, she’d said she was only staying a few days. But she’d grown up here, she must have ties, family even, so maybe she came back regularly, that could work, couldn’t it?

She was so busy getting ahead of herself that she almost tripped over the threshold into the pub. She recovered herself nicely though and was pretty sure no one had noticed until old Doris Renton by the bar lifted her half pint.

“Not born with grace, were ye?” she said.

“Thanks for noticing,” said Lucy.

The pub was busy at this time of the evening, plenty of people chattering and drinking. So seeing a clear corner of the room was so out of place that Lucy almost didn’t notice Cal sitting there quietly surrounded by empty tables.

Frowning, she made her way over.

“Hey, you’ve already got a drink in,” she said. “I was supposed to be buying you one, remember?”

“Thought Rosalee might throw me out if I didn’t order one,” Cal said gruffly. “But feel free to buy me another.”

“What’ll it be then?”

“Just a half,” Cal said.

“Just a half,” repeated Lucy. But she was looking into those china blue eyes again and wondering how on earth she could ever have thought that Cal was a man.

“Bar’s that way.”

“Right.” She collected herself and walked over to the bar.

“You want to be staying away from that young madame,” Doris said, nodding toward Cal. “Nothing but trouble, that one.”

“Trouble?” Lucy asked. “In what way?”

But before Doris could answer, Jim had come around the bar and was taking her order. When Lucy looked back, Doris was gone, her empty glass sitting on the bar.

Weird.

Not quite as weird as Cal sitting in a little bubble of loneliness like she was some kind of plague victim, but still weird. Lucy lifted her glasses and went back to Cal.

“So,” she said, putting the glasses down.

“You don’t have to stay,” Cal said. “I’m sure you’ve heard it all by now and you’re not under any obligation. Feel free to just take your drink and sit elsewhere.”

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