Page 19 of Saving Mr. Bell

Now that the moment had come, I was having second and third thoughts about telling him. I shook my head. “You must have Stockholm syndromed me.”

“I think it takes longer than twenty-four hours.”

“Maybe you’re just really great at it.”

“I don’t know whether that’s a compliment or an insult.” Neither did I to be honest, so I settled for a shrug. Arlo returned to the boxes, looking thoughtful as he removed more objects from them. “What if I promise not to tell anyone?”

“You’d better not because if you do, I’ll know where it came from.” I took a deep breath. “Wenceslas. As in the good king.”

Arlo tried to keep a straight face, but it only lasted a couple of seconds before he gave in to his amusement. “Rudolf Wenceslas Bell,” he announced with some gravitas. “Nowthatis a doozy.”

“Isn’t it?”

“You are definitely one of a kind.”

Now I was the one unsure whether I was being complimented or insulted. Arlo picked something out of the box with a frown. “What?” I asked, my curiosity piqued, and keen to talk about something other than my name.

He held it up. “Nothing says Christmas like an elephant.”

I laughed. “The elephant in the room.” I wouldn’t get a better opening for something that had been on my mind ever since we’d arrived at the cabin and I’d realized Arlo’s intention for the two of us to stay here. “Speaking of which… I can’t imagine your husband is too happy about you being here.”

Arlo’s first reaction was surprise, like it was okay for him to know everything about me, but I wasn’t supposed to return the favor, even though he was in the public eye, too. His marriage might have come as a shock to the public, coming out of the blue as it had, but that had only meant more speculation, not less. The media had given a surprising amount of column inches in their gossip columns to theorizing how the two men had met,and how long they’d been seeing each other before they’d tied the knot, probably made worse because neither man had given an interview.

After surprise came a reflex movement of right hand to left, his fingers attempting to toy with a ring that wasn’t there. I’d already clocked its absence but had thought little of it. Some people chose not to wear one. The third reaction of a rigid back and tense shoulders clued me in on that probably not being the case. “It’s a valid question,” I pointed out to lessen the tension. “Most men wouldn’t be keen on their husband holing up in a cabin with another man. No matter how innocent their intentions might be. Don’t tell me you found a rare unicorn of a man who doesn’t get jealous, or I’ll be the one getting jealous. No wonder you married him so quick.”

My comments didn’t make things better. Instead, they made things worse, Arlo standing, like the contents of the boxes no longer held any interest for him and spending an inordinate amount of time dusting off jeans that didn’t need it. “We separated.”

“Oh?” I frowned. “That wasn’t in the newspapers.”

“No.”

I waited for him to elaborate. He didn’t, marching into the bedroom and coming out with a pair of boots that he put on. After the boots came a scarf and then his coat, all donned in silence. I cracked first. “I’m guessing you don’t want to talk about it?”

“Not really.”

“Then we don’t have to.” I might have said the words, but the way he’d clammed up only made me more curious. They’d only gotten married in February, which, given it was early December, meant it hadn’t even lasted a year. A separation didn’t mean it was over, though. They might just be giving each other space. Or something might have happened. Had one of them cheated?I couldn’t picture Arlo as the cheating type, but all I knew of his husband was that he was an actor, the two of them presumably meeting because they moved in similar circles. “You don’t have to leave the cabin to get me to stop talking. I am capable of realizing that I’ve put my foot in it and shutting up.”

Arlo managed a smile. “Good to know.”

“So, where are you going?”

“I thought you might fancy a wolf sandwich later and we’re missing the key ingredient.”

I rolled my eyes. “If you don’t want to answer, just say zip it, Rudolf.”

“Zip it, Rudolf.” He laughed when I narrowed my eyes at him. “We have tree ornaments, but we’re missing a tree.”

“And?”

“And there are loads out there.”

“Christmas trees?”

“Yep.”

Were there? I tried to remember from the previous day, but I hadn’t taken much notice of the trees except to note that there were far too many for my liking, and that they’d made seeing where I was going during my bid for freedom difficult. “And you’re what? Going to chop one down?”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

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