She didn’t look away from the window.“Sure.”
Callum squeezed her shoulder and found knots of tension under his hand.He flexed his fingers into the muscle and wished his will alone could relax her.“You’re safe here.Whether or not we have the drapes open.No one knows where we are.”
“The people you work with do.”
“Well, yeah.But they’re not your problem.”
“This is the first time I’m staying somewhere I didn’t choose.”
“So?”
“Anyone can be bought.Dominic has a way of flipping people to join his team.Threats and money do wonders.”
Grace didn’t trust a soul on earth, and that had included him until recently.If he or Hayden had fixed her problems years ago, she wouldn’t see every new place as a threat.“Not everyone,” he reminded her.“Not me.”
He would keep reminding her until it stuck.
She released an exhausted sigh and turned from staring at the backyard.“I trust you.”
Good.“Are you okay with this room?”It was bigger.The bed had decorative pillows, albeit with stitched scenes of ducks and bears.He dropped their bags on the bed, ensuring she was okay with sharing a room.
“Sure.”
That didn’t sound like the same woman who had admitted wanting him her entire life.“Are you hungry?”
She rested her hand over her stomach as if just remembering she should eat.“I’m starved.”
Nothing good came from a worried woman with a calorie deficit or low blood sugar.“Let’s raid the kitchen.These places come stocked with an all-you-can-eat shelf-stable buffet.”
“Oh, yum.”
“Give me a chance.I’ll surprise you.”
They checked the kitchen cabinets and found more food than they could need.A deep freezer in the attached garage and shelves lined with provisions confirmed they wouldn’t have to leave to eat well.He grabbed a frozen pie crust from the deep freeze and collected cans from the garage, pantry, and kitchen.
She eyed everything on the counter and picked up the pie crust box.“What are you making?”
“Chicken pot pie.It’s not really a summer food, but it is a comfort food, and that seems like a hell of a good idea.”This was step one in reaffirming her trust in the world.Creamy, savory carbohydrates.He opened drawers until he found a can opener among the various self-defense options.A taser.Pepper spray.More knives than would ever be in a typical kitchen.“Can you preheat the oven?”
She checked inside the oven door before turning it on.Maybe she’d noticed the various weapons stashes throughout the house.“What temperature?”
He was winging it and didn’t know.The pie crust box offered recipes for cherry and pumpkin pies.Meat and veggies were the same-ish, he guessed.He washed his hands and dried them on a hand towel with screen-printed fish.“Three-fifty.”
“You know your way around a kitchen.”
“I thought I showed that this morning making bacon.”
“Oh my God, that was this morning.I’m so tired that it feels like decades ago.”
“Go sit down.”
“No, I want to help.”
He assessed whether it was an empty offer, then handed her a colander and opened two cans of vegetables: one of corn and the other of mixed peas and carrots.“Drain these.”
She stared as if he’d sprouted a third eye but did as requested.
Callum set a pot of water on the stove and cranked the dial to high, filled a bowl with ice cubes and water, and set it next to the sink.“We’ll flash-boil them for a minute, drain ’em, throw them into an ice bath, drain ’em again, and voila, the canned taste disappears.”
