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Chapter Nineteen
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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Callum is the man I was with.” Bryan folded a leg underneath and rested an arm on the head of the couch they shared. He adjusted a push pillow behind her, saying with his eyes, he wanted her to relax. She did. Tried to at least.
She blew out a breath and looked up at him.
“ Are you done talking about Rhoda?” he searched his mind.
“ she came to your shop.” he said, not a question. But a statement, so cool. It made her worry about telling him that tidbit. Because he was sure she was the one, and so was she. Surprisingly, so was she.
“ Twice, and Kenell nearly attacked. Kenell attacks nothing but squirrels and his own tail.” She was doing her best to lighten the gravity of the situation. Bryan caught it, smiled, but she could see it in eyes, the seriousness, the weight.
“ What could she want?” he asked quietly, and ran his
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“I think there comes a time, you start to make decisions that will affect your life for good time to come. When you have to say goodbye to the old and hello to the new, even when letting go is hard. But youhave to, because sometimes, the unfamiliar is just what you’re needing. I think it isn’t easy, but sometimes the hard is what fighting for too. The hard is necessary. All things considered, moving on is the only way you can be introduced to a brand new you, a better you. Hopefully a happier you” She put down her pen, by the journal and stroked a hand down kenell’s head. He’d fallen asleep, head in her lap and she had welcomed him, welcomed the beauty of his rain soaked head. He had no qualms like that, placing his wet body against her like he owned her. And maybe he did, maybe he owned her more than she owned him. She wondered at him, kenell knew his place beside her, was so sure of it and never had to doubt it. She wondered at that kind of trust, that kind of knowi
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Aine wasn’t an exceptionally early riser, that worked fine and well for him. He walked into her kitchen with his pyjamas trousers and a white t-shirt that was snug against his torso. He put water in the kettle and placed it on the burner. The woman he knew wasn’t a coffee person, so he settled for tea. She had packs and packs of tea. Chamomile, vanilla, even peppermint. They actually smelled nice and he thought he understood her attraction to them, hopefully they tasted even better. He selected the chamomile for her, and when placed two bags in a dainty teapot, that made him smile. The little teapot all but said “ Aine.” He poured some hot water into the pot and let the bags sit. He went into her fridge and scanned it: yoghurt, eggs, milk, cheese, sausages, vegetables. Fruit, some Jams, he knew, she made herself. He brought out some eggs and bacon and got started on breakfast. It was just her and the dog. there were hardly any signs of take out, so he knew sh
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Mmh 22She wound her way back to the house and was greeted by the scent of eggs and bacon and burn.She walked to him first and wrapped him in a hug. It was nice, having him there. Real and solid and all hers for the keeping. It was nice and it gave her so much joy.Kenell strode past them and unto a bunch of pillows in the living room that he knew to be his.“ What did you burn?”“ aside from my pride? The bacon.” she laughed and let him go,“ the weird part is that it still all smells good. If you ignore the burn, that is.”He made a face and went to get plates, “ are you going to eat or are you going to stand there judging my cooking skills?”“Actually–“ she walked toward him, stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek,“ I need to take a shower, then I’ll eat,” he bent to kiss her forehead before she could evade him. He would have grabbed her and made the whole thing last longer, but his ha
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Mmh 23“I take kenell with me to work now. She's going to not want to stop by. Kenell can probably sniff her out a mile away.”Bryan cocked his head in kenell’s direction, his ears had perked up at the sound of his name.“That offers a bit of comfort,” he said and she leaned her head against his shoulder.“And so does Cedric. If it means anything, I’m sure he is there right now. And here am I, getting settled for a cuddle.” he chuckled and rubbed his nose against her cheek.“I honestly wish you didn't have to go. But I know you do. Which is why I’ll be taking you and bringing you back.”She turned to him, “Like the toddler, I've become,” she said and shook her head. He placed two fingers on her chin,“It’ll give me peace.” she bit her lower lip and stared into his eyes, before finally relenting.“ I know this, Bryan. I’m sorry. It’s just, that I hate she makes us feel like we are being predated. I hate that she’s here and we don’t know what to do about her.” She finished and he felt
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“She feels entitled to you,” Aine said, smiling up at him, even though she wanted to scream and shout. She all but wanted to rave at the maddened woman for stalking them the way she did. But instead, she put on the best show of life, running her hand through his hair the way she always did, proving to the woman that she was not afraid of her. She was the one who was being stalked, she was the victim and she was not going to back down. “ let me call the police,” Bryan said, truly agitated, reaching for his phone, but Aine shook her head.“We don’t have anything to pin her with.”“But she’s stalking you,” Bryan said, barely controlling his temper.“ she’s stalking us. But that’s not enough reason to get her arrested. We can’t prove she’s stalking us. But I will speak to a friend of mine, actually a friend of Cedric’s. He’s a policeman. He’ll make this a personal case. But let me speak to him first.”She knew he struggled with what she was asking from him. She knew it took so much from
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Meh 25A million emotions warred against each other within her, and all the while her mind screamed, “it can’t be, it just can’t be.”“I got a restraining order.”Cedric came to her and wrapped his arms around her, “ I know baby.”“But, he moved away. I heard… his parents..”“He did move away… but for some reason, he’s come back.”“He couldn’t be back! He just couldn’t !” She wanted to scream, instead, she held on to his sweater and breathed in his soothing scent of pine and oddly? Chamomile. Cedric had a thing for chamomile.“Is Winslow the officer friend?” It was Bryan who asked. He watched them and his heart broke as he saw his girl try to hold, not to fall apart.Hold on, my little warrior. He thought.“Yeah,” Cedric said, fatigue written all over his face. He was just as shaken when Winslow had told him the news, just as distraught, just as destabilized. Aine had been through a lot because of that man and the very last thing they all needed was for that man to come back and give
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“What are you doing?” Callum asked her as he watched her fold up clothes and dropped them in her suitcase.“I know it’s very obvious. “ she replied, without glancing at him. She had managed to get him to let her stay with him while she carried out her plans to get Bryan back. And when that plan became futile, she stayed with him while she plotted against Aine and Bryan. And if he was ready to admit it, he was sure she plotted against him as well. He saw the bean grande in her eyes every time he didn’t give into her whims and wiles.Nevertheless. It made no sense to him why she all of a sudden wanted to move away. However, he was sure of one thing. If he wanted her to talk and be reasonable, he was going to have to be diplomatic rather than emotional. Not that he much of the latter anyway,He walked to the dresser table and sat down and watched her for a few seconds before he finally spoke up,“Alright, tell me, what’s all this about?” She turned to him just once and gave him the stink
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Bryan registered the look on Aine’s face and promised himself that if he ever came across the Callum bloke he was going to give him a good pounding.“Do you... do you want to open it?” She asked Bryan, looking at the letter as though it was a key to unlock all sorts of vile evil things.“I should be asking you, Aine.” He said and place a hand on her cheek. She was pale and clammy and although he touched her gently, he was brimming with absolute anger.“I don’t, not really. But if it’s connected to Rhoda in any way. Connected to everything that is happening, then I suppose I need to. I don’t want to, but I might need to.”“Inside. We will take this inside.” He opened il the door and took her hand in his, leading her into the house,“Lord, why won’t these people leave us alone.” She groaned out as she sat on the couch, burying her face into her hands.“Hey, hey.” He sat beside her, and place a hand over her shoulders, gently dropping her hands and lifting her head by her chin. “It’s oka
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“I get really worried when you get quiet this way,” Callum said as he stood watching Rhoda while she brooded at the dining table in the home they shared.“What do you care?” She said, without looking up at him. “I’m sure you can’t wait for the day this is all over so you can be rid of me.”True, he thought. But said nothing. Sometimes he asked himself why he even said yes to her in the first place.“Here we go.” He said, and sat on ie of the chairs, “alright, tell me. What’s got your buns in a twist?”“That’s highly unlikely. C’mon, tell me about it.”“As you’re aware, the officer is on to me.”“So you see, that I was right and that we need to leave .”She turned to face him and shot him daggers through her eyes,“Leave? Leaveeee? I’m not going anywhere! Well, of course, I need to hasten up now. But I’m not going anywhere until I’m done.”He shook his head.“Your desire for revenge is going to send you to jail.”“My desire? This was our desire, Callum. Remember? Me and you? It was what
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Bryan drove back to Aine’s shop with a lot of questions. He might have asked Winslow about them, but the thing was, he wasn’t sure even Winslow had the answers he was looking for, not when the questions sounded like,‘Why? Why did it all have to be happening? In what way could he have stopped it?’Those questions played over and over in his mind, and sadly, they remained rhetorical .Endlessly Rhetorical, even to the point of unease.He did not step out of the car the moment he got to Aine’s shop, instead he looked around him to spot the discreet way Winslow’s team was parked far behind him. If he wasn’t aware of the plan , there was no way he might have known about them. And of course, that was the point. At least, where Aine was involved.He spotted her through the glass doors, speaking to a customer and just watched her. The lady she spoke to was pointing at a vase and he seemed to him that Aine was answering some questions, soon after , Aine walked to vase , picked up and carried
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She cursed them as she watched them walk into Aine’s shop. No disguise, she was too angry to care about a disguise. But she kept her distance and did so in a newly rented car.She had thought to wait for it all out a bit. Watch, plan and make sure that the injury she inflicted was lasting. One that they both would feel for a very long time.And then there was Callum. Some days, some days she felt like sparing him. Felt as though she could simply inflict her revenge on Aine and Bryan and move on, starting afresh. Maybe even start afresh with Callum himself. But then she would bring up the idea of all the hurtful things she would like to do to Aine and he would bulk, he would try to play her down and it made her so angry, and so hungry to hurt her even more and hurt him too, because he was choosing Aine over her.“Aine, always Aine.” She said and nearly spat. Nearly.Then there was the officer. The Officer had threatened her with the idea of jail so that she no longer thought about prec
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“You’re not going to tell me then,” Aine said to Bryan, sometime in the evening when they both had gotten home. He had brought her back from work and although he didn’t think she knew, she was well aware that he had gone to see Winslow if Winslow’s card she had seen on his dashboard that morning was any indication. She had reached for it and when she asked why he had it, he just shrugged and said Winslow had given it to him in case.But she knew him well enough to know that there was more. And as the overthinker that she was, it was all she could think about during work that day. And making up her mind that it was only hurting her unnecessarily to constantly think about it that way. She decided it would be best to ask him. Only in a much more sly way.“ Tell you what Aine?” He replied, his back toward her as he searched the fridge for cheese. He had the mind to make her a hamburger. He knew she had a tenderness for it.“Tell me what you discussed with Winslow?” She noticed his pause,
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Meet me Halfway(chapter 30)“What do you mean leave?” Rhoda asked Callum in disbelief and he turned toward her in frustration,“You want to go to jail?” He asked bordering close to hysterics. He was so close to jail once, and there he was, teetering close to that point once again and it was not sitting well with him.“No one’s going to Jail, Callum. I’ll go see the sheriff as he requested, and that will be the end of it. You worry for too much, Callum puff.” She walked to where he sat on the bed, and sat beside him, linking their fingers.“You’ve never been close to losing your freedom, have you?”“And you have?”He turned to look at her at that moment, looked into her eyes. There was nothing in there, no feeling, no emotion, but a cynical glint that bordered on scary.What had he gotten himself into? And where was his way out?For if there was one thing that he was sure of, it was the fact that Rhoda would not leave well alone. She was going to push and push until she got what she wa
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He knew from his trusted source where it was that Callum resided since he came back into town. Had even driven by that neighborhood a few times just to check it out. That was how he knew of the relationship between Callum and Rhoda. He knew a time would come when he would have to pay him a visit. He just never had a good reason to do so. Well, now he did, and he intended to milk it for all it was worth. And if he managed to threaten the bloke out of town, then praise Jesus. But he was going to do his best to make sure his friend slept well at night.He parked outside the house Callum lived with Rhoda, and for a minute did nothing but sit in the car going over all the things he would rather do that follow the law where Callum was considered. But he was a sheriff, he was the implementer of the law and he needed to control all of the anger that was growing in him because Callum was back, at the thought of being face to face with him again.It was night time and there wasn’t much activi
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Bryan arrived right as Winslow was on his way and although Winslow didn’t feel right about keeping secrets from Aine, he knew it had to be done if he was going to keep her safe.“Bryan!” Aine called out as he got out of his car, and Winslow looked down to look at his friend.He makes her happy. He thought to himself and nearly sighed when Bryan all but lit up. He didn’t know the man personally, but the hopeless romantic in him could see love when it was right in front of him.He watched as Bryan’s eyes move away from Aine and rest knowledgeably on him. He was still in his uniform.With a smile, Aine took Bryan’s hand,“Bryan, this is Officer Winslow. Winslow, This is Bryan Maher.”With his Freehand, Bryan shook Winslow. And just that act of not letting go of Aine’s hand told him that in some ways the man was just what Aine was needing in her life. He was a cop after all.“Nice to meet you Maherson.” Bryan smiled at the name. When he had first arrived he had heard a couple of women cal
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“What are you doing?” Callum asked her as he watched her fold up clothes and dropped them in her suitcase.“I know it’s very obvious. “ she replied, without glancing at him. She had managed to get him to let her stay with him while she carried out her plans to get Bryan back. And when that plan became futile, she stayed with him while she plotted against Aine and Bryan. And if he was ready to admit it, he was sure she plotted against him as well. He saw the bean grande in her eyes every time he didn’t give into her whims and wiles.Nevertheless. It made no sense to him why she all of a sudden wanted to move away. However, he was sure of one thing. If he wanted her to talk and be reasonable, he was going to have to be diplomatic rather than emotional. Not that he much of the latter anyway,He walked to the dresser table and sat down and watched her for a few seconds before he finally spoke up,“Alright, tell me, what’s all this about?” She turned to him just once and gave him the stink
