“I’m not sure that’s the right phrase, Jakey.”
“It suits the purpose. Fallen man. You have the same look that Zack and Scott had. Still have.”
“What look’s that?’
“The goofy one. When you’re with her you’re not seeing anyone else.”
“Jesus, Jake, you sound like you’re writing a romance novel.”
“There’s Bertha. Help me get hold of her, she’s feisty. Kind of like the alpaca version of Abby.”
Alex ran after Jake, the alpaca dashing away from them. Jake’s words rang in his head; he’d thought he was pretty much a closed book, unreadable but his cousin had seen something that told how he was feeling about Abby.
Alex didn’t speak much about how he felt, not unless it was absolutely for the best. Maybe he needed to find some words to tell her, without sounding like he was trying to hold her captive or something. He didn’t want to scare her or dump his feelings onto her when she had enough going and he didn’t really know what those feelings were. It was too soon to fall in love, he was pretty sure of that, but telling someone they were important to you sounded like a brush off. Was it too soon to be in love with her? He’d known her for as long as she’d lived in Severton. They’d chatted when she was cleaning up at the end of a shift, they’d sat together when she wasn’t working and had been dragged into some Maynard afternoon out or at one of Severton’s many festivals. He’d always found her attractive. She’d once worn a dress that had made him go home early because he knew he kept staring and he hadn’t had the self-discipline to stop looking and stop imagining what she’d look like underneath him and the dress on his bedroom floor.
Now he knew what that was like and he didn’t want to give it up.
Bertha ended up running towards where Rufus was lingering, seemingly making big eyes at the members of his harem.
Jake turned to Alex after closing the gate. “You look serious. Bertha wouldn’t have hurt you, you know.”
Alex laughed. “Bertha doesn’t worry me.” He paused, looking at his cousin. Jake had been in love with Keren, now Scott’s wife, when they were younger. Other than that, he’d been a playboy and Alex suspected some of that was down to Keren.
“How do you know you love a girl?”
Jake’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“You know. You’ve felt that way.”
“You’re in love with Abby?” Jake had frozen. “You love Abby? I guess it is pretty obvious, I mean, I’ve seen how you were with her at the barbecue…”
“Maybe. I don’t know.”
“If you don’t know, then you’re not.”
Alex shook his head. “I guess I am then. Because I think I do know. Shit, Jake, is that another one of the alpacas?”
He pointed to an open window of Sunlight, through which an alpaca’s head was poking, only this alpaca was on the inside.
“That’s Flo.”
“It’s beyond me how you name them all. Now how are we going to get Flo out of there?”
Another head joined Flo’s through the window, only this one didn’t have fur on it, just a very grumpy expression.
“I’d invite you for dinner tomorrow, Jake. It’s alpaca stew.” Zack’s irritation was illuminated by the spotlight that flickered on.
Alex was sure the alpaca was grinning.
Zack, however, definitely wasn’t.
Sleep had barely beenin control for three hours when Alex’s phone started to ring. It was rare in Severton that he was disturbed when he wasn’t on shift. Nighttime events consisted of the drunk and disorderly or the odd farm break in when someone was trying to rustle sheep. Before the fire at Keren’s old house, you could’ve left your back door open and the only thing that would’ve entered would’ve been a cat after food.
He reached for his phone, Abby asleep half on top of him, not disturbed by the ring. Keeping his voice quiet, he answered, seeing Scott’s name on the screen had woken him properly, but there could be many reasons for Scott calling, not all of them bad.
“What’s up? Are Keren and Eden okay?”
“They’re fine. But there’s been a break in at the bar. Your colleague’s here but I wanted to call you.” Scott sounded calm rather than frantic and Alex took a deep breath and let it go.
