Page 56 of Christmas off Script
‘Never! We are one mind. Like the Borg, but more festive.’
Ella crossed her arms as if she could hold in her racing heart. ‘Really?’
‘Yup!’ Putting his fingers to his temples, Leo wiggled his eyebrows. ‘I am reading your thoughts right now.’
Oh god. She swallowed. ‘And what am I thinking?’
‘Hang on.’ He frowned. ‘Download in progress…’
Ella tapped her foot and tried to look bored.
‘Leo is the best-looking Foxbrooke,’ he began in a high-pitched voice.
‘I do NOT sound like that!’
‘And probably very hungry after a night fighting dragons,’ he continued in a falsetto. ‘So we should probably head—’
Grabbing his arm, Ella marched him along the corridor.
‘But I haven’t finished reading your mind,’ he protested, his voice still several octaves higher than normal.
She shot him a look. ‘Do you want to sound like that permanently?’
‘No, definitely not,’ he replied in a voice so deep, the vibrations rumbled from his arm up into hers.
Ella snorted with laughter. ‘Glad we’re on the same page.’
Pulling his arm from her grip, Leo interlaced his fingers with hers and squeezed. ‘Always.’
‘You alright?’Leo asked Ella as they left breakfast and strolled through the manor towards the ballroom.
She forced a smile. ‘Fine.’ She’d been trying to act normal, but the image of Leo lying on the bed between her legs kept popping into her mind and demanding she examine it with a forensic level of detail. ‘Why do you ask?’ She held her breath as she waited for his answer.
Leo slowed, his brow creasing with concern. ‘Zach?’
Her breath whooshed out. ‘It’ll be fine. I actually feel really sorry for him. It can’t be nice having your face plastered on the cover of a magazine and everyone knowing why you’ve lost your job.’
Leo huffed. ‘Pretty ironic, considering his stance on drugs before.’
‘He must have been really unhappy for it to have got that bad.’
‘Or too full of himself to notice.’
‘Leo…’
He stopped walking, his body tight with tension. ‘Zach was the one who went to the press after Kurt was stabbed and accused you of selling drugs in school, when he knew it was Kurt who’d been doing it. Zach was the one who threw you under the bus to save his family’s rep. He turned almost everyone against you and nearly got you expelled, for god’s sake.’
‘I know,’ she replied quietly.
‘It was a witch hunt, and he was the fucker with the pitchfork goading all the sheep on. I’ll never forgive him for what he did to you.’
A lump of emotion sat in Ella’s throat, so big she could hardly speak. ‘I know what he did was bad, but a kid had already died of an overdose. Then Kurt was caught in a county lines feud and left for dead. Zach lashed out at the easiest target—’
‘Which makes him a coward as well as an arsehole.’
She shrugged. ‘You said he wanted to apologise. Hopefully, we can all move on, even though Da—Ronnie’s about to get out of jail.’
‘And what ifhehasn’t moved on?’
