Page 40 of The Payback Plan
And he looked as if a load had been taken off his shoulders and that hit her straight in the solar plexus. She was here in this house to mess with his life a little. To throw a spanner in whatever works she could and this was the very opposite of that. She wasn’t supposed to be helping him. But to see him like this – so… lit up, so engaged. It filled her in a way that nothing else had since she’d had to walk away from her law degree.
The success of her business had been fulfilling and a way to show the world that she’d moved on. But this? It filled an entirely different cavity inside her, one that yearned for an emotional connection she’d denied herself for so very long.
And that was as alarming as it was tantalising.
‘So…’ She wiggled her eyebrows to lighten the moment. ‘I was right?’
He gave a half laugh. ‘Yes.’
Pressing her lips together, Paige cupped a hand around her ear. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t think I heard you properly?’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Yes, Paige Barker. You were right.’
‘You do know I’m going to be unbearably conceited now, right?’
‘I would expect nothing less.’
They smiled at each other then, for a stupidly long amount of time. Clearly weirded out by the prolonged interval of silence, Casper gave a little yippy bark which thankfully shattered the strange moment.
‘Were you serious about helping me? With the transcribing.’
Paige blinked, getting her head back in the game. ‘Sure. Absolutely.’ She could still do that and screw with him in other ways, right?
‘It’s a bit all over the place, just stories I remember from when I was a kid.’
‘That’s fine. Why don’t you download what you have into a Word doc or message it to me, whatever works and I can go from there. I can do a clean version and also start to sort things into some kind of chronological order so it’ll help structure wise later.’
He nodded. ‘I’m not sure of the quality, the wind blew up towards the end and probably interfered with the audio.’
‘It’s fine. If there’s anything I can’t figure out, I’ll flag it. Have you thought about using an app like Dragon or something similar that actually learns your voice and the transcribing is much cleaner?’
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘But I’ll look into it. Right after I get this one’ – he glanced down at the wet dog – ‘cleaned up.’
The one in question wagged his tail and stared adoringly at Oliver, clearly knowing he was in no danger of being disciplined over his bedraggled state.
Oliver ruffled the dog’s head. ‘You are an utter disgrace.’
But it was said with complete affection and Paige found herself, once again, all warm and fuzzy on the inside.Gah!It was starting to become a pattern. If she wasn’t careful, it could become a habit. Helping Oliver with his father’s biography was one thing. Getting the warm and fuzzies every time he looked at the dog was another.
She had to remember why she was here – he’d jilted Bella on the morning of their wedding. The affection of a stray dog didn’t expunge that.
As if to remind her of her mission, her phone chimed a notification from the Just Desserts WhatsApp group. She knew it was them because she’d chosen a popping champagne cork as the sound.
Perfect timing.
Grateful for the interruption, she turned to pick up the device, her fingers stalling as Oliver said, ‘You have two phones?’
A spike of adrenaline flushed into her system.Fuuck. The hamster phone – not quite as sexy as the bat phone but appropriate – was sitting out next to her actual phone, plain as day.Careless.
‘You some kind of Jason Bourne?’
He laughed, clearly thinking the preposterous idea amusing. Except shewascarrying out secret nefarious stuff so his joke was a little too close for comfort. She’d been having great fun making up shit about hamsters but she really needed to be more careful with this double life she was living. She might not be selling state secrets but what she was doing here was a secret from him.
‘Oh yeah…’ Paige forced both her voice and her actions to be casual as she picked up her phone. ‘One personal, one for work. I like to keep my worlds separate.’
‘Kinda like a… spy?’
She glanced at him and he was smiling again and the warmth was back despite the situation. ‘Well, I could tell you the truth but then I’d have to kill you.’
