Adam's Thorn (12 page)

Refusing to think about anything
spooky, she got up and strode to the front door, flicking on the outside light.

Another thud, the sound of…no, it
had to be leaves on the veranda.

There’s no such things as
ghosts.  No such thing as ghosts
. 
Geez, Barb, it’s probably some animal
trying to shelter on the veranda.  Just open the door and you’ll see, there’s
nothing there.  Nothing.

Besides, the security screen was
locked.

Taking a deep breath, she swung
open the wooden door and stared out at the well-lit veranda and the night
beyond.

Wind whipped in the trees, rain
poured.  Nothing.  There was nothing on the veranda.

A crash sounded form upstairs, and
hand to heart, she swung around to stare upwards. 
Oh God, oh God.
  Fear
gripped her, squeezing at her bravado, but she refused to give in to it.

Fred stood in the lounge room
doorway, looking at her.  His back wasn’t hunched, he wasn’t snarling, he
simply glanced at the roof and then back down at her before he got up and
ambled over to the staircase.

If he was game to go upstairs then
there was nothing ghostly up there, she assured herself.  And she wasn’t going
to let him go up by himself anyway.  “Fred!”

A thought struck her.  She’d
opened windows, had she actually closed them again?  What if the rain was
pelting through?  That had to be it.

Passing the storeroom as she
approached the stairs, regardless of her raggedly held bravado, she picked up
the broom on her way. 
There’s no such things as ghosts.

God, she was a grown woman in an
old, empty house.  She had to get a grip.

Holding tightly to the broom, she
started up the stairs.  Yeah, she could ring the cops, but what if they came
and found just what she suspected?  An open window and something knocked over
by the wind?  How stupid would she look?

Fred ambling up by her side gave
her renewed courage.  Before she could take the coward’s way out and run for the
phone to call for help like a pathetic, scaredy--pants woman, she strode up the
stairs, refusing to think, clenching her jaw, flicking on light switches as she
progressed.  It’s what a man would do, and damned if she was going to do less. 
She was a woman alone, and that meant pulling up her big girl panties -
literally - and investigating.

Even if she was almost crapping
herself.

The doors to the rooms were all
shut, so she threw them open one by one, holding the broom ready in case she
had to brain a - what?  Ghost?  Scoffing at herself, she nevertheless kept the
broom ready.  There was no one to see her acting like a nut except Fred, who
couldn’t speak English.

The window in every room was shut,
except for the library.  As soon as she opened the door she saw the curtain
billowing at the window, the vase lying broken on the floor.

Shoulders slumping in relief, she
crossed to the window and shut it, refusing to look out into the yard. 
Cowardly
custard.

Fred sat at the door, watching.

Retrieving the dust pan and broom from
the storeroom, she quickly cleaned up the broken porcelain and went back
downstairs, tipping it into the rubbish bin.

Returning to the lounge room, she
flopped back down onto the sofa, Fred and Barney curling up one each side of
her.  Turning up the TV sound, she immersed herself in the movie.

It was only later in bed on the
edge of sleep, that she remembered that the window hadn’t even been open, she
had seen the rain pouring down the glass.

Hadn’t she?

Comfortably snuggled under the
doona with Fred purring against her stomach under the doona, and Barney curled
behind her knees on top of the doona, she drifted off into a troubled sleep.

~*~

“I can’t believe the footy game
got called off,” Ghost grouched.

“Suck it up, princess,” Matt
said.  “The footy field is a sea of mud.”

“Bunch of wimps.  Real men get out
there and play in the mud.”

“Real men are wise enough not to
drown in the swamp.”  Adam locked his four wheel drive.  “There was more water
on the grass than in the river.”

“Real men can handle a bit of wet
weather.”

Matt shook his head.  “Give up,
Adam, the princess here is upset.  Nothing is going to make him happy now.”

Stepping up onto the veranda, Adam
sniffed the air.  “Oohh, someone’s baking cakes.”

Ghost’s face brightened.  “The
girls are baking goodies. Let’s go taste.”

“Suddenly he’s all better.” 
Grinning, Matt opened the security screen.

“And for once he’s got a great
idea.”  Adam was practically salivating.  “I’m starved.”

Before entering the house, they
kicked off their muddy boots and left them beside the front door.  In socks,
they entered Lori’s house which was now Matt’s as well.  Ali had moved in with
Ghost, who lived next door, which meant that the sisters saw each other on an
almost daily basis, which suited them.

Voices from the kitchen greeted
them, Matt crossing the room to kiss Lori on the cheek, Ghost going around the
kitchen bench to smack Ali's bottom while reaching for a freshly baked biscuit.

She smacked him sharply on the
back of the knuckles with a spoon.  “Hey!”

“Oh, honey.”  He grinned at her,
almost spraying her with biscuit crumbs from his mouthful.  “I need TLC.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be at the
footy?”

“It was cancelled.”  He cast her a
mournful expression.  “I’m so sad.”

“Oh, diddums.”  Giggling, she
brushed a crumb form the corner of his mouth.

“Yeah, I need lots of TLC.”

“We’re in company.”

“So?”

“Perv.”

“Yeah, but you like it.”

Adam heard what they were saying,
but his attention was on the blonde woman standing near the sink, a bowl of
something cradled in her arm, her hand stirring the spoon vigorously.  Or she
had been stirring until she saw him, then she slowed down.

“Barbie.”  Adam nodded to her.

She looked cute, a little smudge
of flour on her cheek, a frilly apron covering her thin jumper.  The apron ties
were around a waist that wasn’t tiny, admittedly, but it indented
mouth-wateringly to show off a generous bosom above and rounded hips below. 
He’d always been partial to the fuller figure, and Barbie had one that ticked
all his approval boxes.

“Adam.”  She smiled tightly, her
gaze running over him slowly.

Unconsciously, he straightened his
shoulders.  “The house a little brighter now?” 
Jesus, what a dumb question.

“Great, thanks.”  Pushing away form
the sink, she set the bowl down and crossed the room to the pantry, reaching up
to the top shelf for a cake tin.  Unable to reach it, she went up on tippy-toe,
arm straining upward.

Striding across the room, Adam
stood behind her, reaching over her head to easily snag the bowl.

Probably wasn’t his best move. 
Now he could feel the softness of her curves against the front of his body,
smell her light, sweet scent intermingled with chocolate.  For a split second
he didn’t know whether to sniff her or lick her.

What!?

Startled at his own thoughts, he
looked down at her, only to find her looking up at him in turn, her head tilted
back, the glossy, blonde strands of her ponytail clinging to his jumper.

The top of her head only came
level with his shoulders.  It gave him a heady feeling, a protective instinct
crawling through him.  He’d always had it when it came to women, children, the
elderly, animals, basically anyone smaller than him and helpless.  So why did
the protectiveness feel so different this time?  So…personal?

Unable to make sense of his
thoughts or feelings, a little angry at himself for the confusion he was
feeling, Adam stepped back, saying gruffly as he handed her the bowl, “Here.”

“Thanks.”  She turned away, her
head tipping forward to hide her expression from him.

Moving to the table, he cast a
glance at his friends, wondering if they’d noticed the brief interlude,
prepared for their teasing, but they were still busy with their wives.  Ghost
had his finger in a bowl of cake batter which Ali was trying to grab off him,
while Matt was describing how bad the footy pitch was to Lori while having a
sly grope of her bottom.

Shaking his head, Adam dropped
down into a chair.

His gaze wandered back to Barbie,
watching as she poured the batter into the cake tin he’d retrieved for her. 
She expertly scraped around the sides with a flat spatula or whatever they
called it, before pushing the cake tin towards Lori.  Washing the bowl she’d
just emptied, she dried it and started for the pantry.  Once there, she looked
up to where he’d gotten the other bowl, hesitated, and placed it instead on the
next shelf down.

Interesting.  Had she been as
affected as he from that little encounter?

And what?  Affected?
 Cripes,
hanging around the two lovebird couples that were his friends was doing his head
in slowly but surely.

Still, he couldn’t help but arch a
brow at Barbie when she turned back, smiling a little to himself when a blush
bloomed in her cheeks.

Ghost diverted his attention by
dropping down in a chair and announcing loudly, “Wenches, get your men a
drink!”

“Maybe you need to train him
better,” Lori told Ali, as Matt plugged the kettle into the wall socket.

“He likes to think he’s in
charge,” Ali replied.  “I indulge him.”

“I am in charge,” Ghost stated.

“Did you put the bin out for the
garbos tomorrow morning?”

“No.”  Eyes twinkling, he folded
his arms across his chest.  “I’m the man, I choose when I do it.”

“I’m the woman.  I have control of
who sleeps in my bed.”

“I’ll put it out first thing when
we get home.”

“Good boy.”

“Do I get a reward?”

She winked at him, and moaning, he
slid down in his chair.  “Oh, boy.”

Matt looked up from where he was
getting cups from the cupboard.  “Anyone for hot tea?  Coffee?  Milo?”

“Tea for me, please,” Ali replied.

“I’ve already got Milo.”  Lori
pointed to her cup.

“My tea is still cooling,” Barbie
said quietly, “but thanks for the offer.”

“I’ll have a hot, strong coffee.” 
Ghost leered.  “Like my woman.”

Ali blew him a kiss.

“Black tea for me, please,” Adam
said.

Barbie hovered near the kitchen
bench while Lori placed the cake tin in the oven.  It was more than obvious
that she wasn’t sure which way to go.  Adam had an inkling that it’d be right
out the back door if she had her way.

“Take a seat at the table,” Lori instructed
without looking up.  “We’ll be right there.  Oh, and you’ve got flour on your
face.”

Wiping the flour off her cheek,
Barbie dusted her hand on the apron before untying it and hooking it over the pantry
doorhandle.  Picking up her mug of tea, she approached the six seater table. 
To anyone else she might have looked poised, but Adam could see the tension in
her gaze as she glanced around at the chairs.

He couldn’t help it, some devilish
streak in him having him tug out the chair right beside him for her.  He met
her startled eyes with a bland face, biting back a grin when her lips tightened
just a little as she rounded the table to take the chair beside him.

Good manners dictated that she
accepted, and he was starting to realise that Barbie had developed good manners
in spades.  Quite different to the young teenager he’d known and…  Jaw
tightening, he averted his gaze to find Matt watching him with a slightly
raised brow from where he stood at the counter spooning coffee into a mug.

Chapter 4

“So how long before the footy
pitch is ready for playing on again?” Lori queried.

“As soon as it’s dried out,” Matt
replied.  “Unfortunately, diddums over there is in a funk about it.”

“I’m tormented,” Ghost told Ali
dolefully.  “I may need cake.”

“Cake’s just gone into the oven,
but this might lift your spirits.” She lifted a cover off a tray to reveal
still-warm scones.

His eyes lit up.  “Oh, honey, you
do love me!”

“Aren’t you lucky?”

Just then a big black and white
cat wandered through the door, eyeing everyone off before trotting over to Adam
and pawing at his leg.

“Wow.” Barbie whistled.  “He’s
huge.”

“That’s Dougie.” Lori smiled. 
“Maine Coone.”

“Makes my Barney and Fred look
like kittens.”

“Barney and Fred?” Lori laughed. 
“Flintstones fan?”

“How can you tell?”  She grinned.

Picking Dougie up, Adam cradled
him on his lap and stroked down his back, rubbing the big cat behind his ears. 
The rusty purr that broke out had them all laughing.

“Needs oiling,” Ghost stated.

“Leave him alone,” Lori retorted. 
“He’s my baby.”

“Damn big baby.”

“Says the man who lives with five
cats.”

“My five make his one.”

“Don’t be mean.”  Crossing to the
table, Lori cooed over Dougie, who closed his eyes in bliss.

Grinning, Adam tickled him under
the chin, enjoying the purring.  Maybe he should get a cat, he’d been thinking
about it for awhile now.  Being around Matt and Ghost’s cats made him realise
just how empty his house was when he got home after work.  A cat was easy to
care for, able to be on its own while he worked.

Yeah, he’d think seriously about
it, maybe go visit the local vet and see if she had a stray that needed a
home.  To give a stray cat a loving home appealed to him.  He had enough room.

Glancing up, he caught Barbie
watching him.  As soon as their gazes collided, she looked away.

Ali placed the tray of fresh
scones on the table, along with small plates and knives, a container of cream
and a jar of strawberry jam.  Matt called Dougie over to the other side of the
bench and gave him a bowl of tuna before taking his mug of hot drink and
sitting down at the table.