The Kiera Hudson Prequels 2 (10 page)

“
No, I can pay for myself,” Tom said, reaching into a nearby cookie jar. He pulled out a bunch of notes. “My mother’s emergency stash – pay the window cleaner, that sort of thing.”

“
I’m beginning to suspect this Mr. Splitfoot isn’t the only conman around here,” I said, prodding Tom in the ribs with my finger.

Tom

While I baked the cake, Kiera sat with the textbooks open in her lap and asked me questions about police evidence and procedure. In the background the radio played. When a particular song came on that we both liked, Kiera would put the textbook to one side and we would either sing raucously together or I would chase her about the kitchen table with my flour covered hands. I had never had so much fun studying – if that’s what we were really doing. With James Blunt singing
Heart to Heart
blasting from the radio, I managed to ensnare Kiera in my arms. With her giggling and trying to push me away, I flicked flour from my fingers at her. Kiera yelped with delight as I chased after her again, arms out before me like one of those zombies I enjoyed shooting so much in video games.

Trapped in the corner of the kitchen and her hands to her face, I looked at her, and smiling said, “Come here.”

“
No,” she said, shaking her head of long black hair. “You’ll put flour on me again.”

Reaching for a nearby tea towel, I wiped the flour and cake mix from my fingers. “All gone,” I said, raining my hands in the air.

“
What do you want?” she half-smiled, stepping away from the corner toward me.

When she was within touching distance, I pulled her close. “You’ve got flour on your nose,” I said, brushing it gently away with my thumb.

Giggling at my touch, she looked up into my eyes. “Has it all gone?”

“
Nope,” I said. “There’s a smudge here.” I brushed flour from her cheek.

“
Anywhere else?” she said, no longer laughing but looking at me.

“
Here,” I said, one arm about her waist as I lightly brushed white dust from her chin.

“
Is that the last of it?” Kiera said, her eyes never leaving mine.

“
And here,” I said, daring to brush the tip my thumb over her lower lip.

She didn’t flinch or move away at my touch, and if I were ever to kiss Kiera Hudson, that was the moment. But that moment became two, three, then four. And the longer it lasted, the weaker the spell that had suddenly fallen over us grew, then faded altogether. The music stopped and the silence became deafening.

“
Perhaps I should go and clean up properly,” Kiera whispered, easing herself from my arms and heading for the kitchen door.

“
Okay, sure,” I said, my heart racing. I turned back to the cake I’d been making.

Kiera

With my skin still tingling from where Tom had touched me, I raced across the hall. I climbed the stairs two at a time. I headed down the hall and back to my room. Pushing open the door, I darted inside. With my heart racing, I pressed my back against the door and waited for my breathing to level out. What was happening to me? What was I thinking? I needed to get a grip of myself. I had been a heartbeat away from kissing Tom and making a complete fool of myself. I dropped onto the bed.

I felt my cheeks flush hot at the thought of what might have happened if I had actually lost my mind and kissed him. I would’ve never been able to look him in the eye again out of complete embarrassment. And what would have poor Tom thought? He would have been embarrassed too. I could have ruined everything. I could have ruined our friendship. I sat up on the edge of the bed and felt angry with myself for being so foolish. I usually had more sense. I still had ten weeks or more of training school to get through with Tom. Did I really want to spend those next ten weeks trying to keep out of Tom’s way because I’d embarrassed the both of us? Why risk the amazing friendship I had found with Tom, all for a kiss? I must be losing my mind.

I touched my cheek where Tom had wiped the flour away. I slowly let my hand drop back into my lap. And however much I told myself to not be so stupid and to get my feelings in check, I couldn’t scrub away how good it felt to be held in his arms, to have our faces just inches apart while he looked down into my eyes, his hands soft against my face. I had never been held like that before. I had never felt feelings like that before.

Kiera, stop it!
I told myself, springing up from the edge of the bed. I went to the bathroom where I ran myself a cool shower. Stripping off my clothes I stepped beneath the water. I washed the flour from my hair and the feeling of Tom’s touch against my skin.

Even though I had long since climbed from the shower and put on a clean top and jeans, I stayed in my room. I sat by the window just like I spent so much of my time doing in my rented rooms back in Havensfield. I looked out across the fields. My intention was to stay in my room until the time came for us to leave for the séance. I hoped that by then, Tom would have forgotten all about what had happened in the kitchen. Tom wasn’t stupid and he would’ve known I was hoping that he would have kissed me. If we were ever going to kiss, that would have been the moment. And the fact that Tom didn’t kiss me proved that I was right in my suspicions that he saw me as nothing more than a friend. I know, because I
see
everything!

So I sat in the room at the window until the sky had turned indigo in colour. As I sat and debated whether now was the right time to leave my room, there was a knock at my bedroom door. I got up from my seat. The door swung open and Tom stood in the doorway.

“
Are you hiding from me?” he asked, trying hard to sound carefree.

“
Erm… no… I had a shower then fell asleep on the bed,” I lied. I couldn’t tell him I was too embarrassed to leave my room and face him.

Tom took another step into the room. He wrung his fingers anxiously together. “Look, Kiera I just wanted to say that I’m sorry if I…”

“
You have nothing to say sorry for,” I said, snatching up my coat and heading past him toward the door. “Let’s just forget it.”

“
If you’re sure,” I heard Tom say as I left the room and headed along the landing and toward the stairs.

Tom

How I wanted to dig a big hole and climb inside it. I knew that Kiera had been hiding in her room in fear of me taking her in my arms and contemplating kissing her again. Why had I been so stupid! I had made her feel so uncomfortable that she had shut herself away in her room all afternoon. What sort of a friend would do that? Some friend I was turning out to be. And in my heart I knew that if I didn’t get my feelings under control – and soon – I might scare Kiera away altogether. She had made it perfectly clear to me on more than one occasion that all she wanted from me was friendship and I had to respect that. Jesus, I was behaving like a horny fourteen-year-old.

I followed Kiera from the room and along the landing. She had asked me to forget what had happened in the kitchen, so I would. I didn’t want to cause her any more embarrassment or discomfort. I just wanted to have a fun evening with my
friend
.

Friend! Friend! Friend! Friend! Friend!
May as well drum it into your thick skull, Tom, because that’s all she wants. So get over it, I told myself.

Reaching the hallway, I picked up the cake I had made, which now sat in a plastic container on a nearby chair. I opened the front door and we stepped out into the cold. It had started to rain again. “Shall we go in my car?” I asked her. “There’s no point…”

“
That will be fine,” Kiera cut in, heading quickly through the rain to my car.

I pressed the key fob with my thumb and the locks on the doors opened. Kiera climbed inside. I got in beside her and started the car. We drove in silence down the gravel path and back out onto the narrow road.

“
So you finished the cake?” Kiera asked. I doubted she was really interested in my baking skills. She was just trying to fill the silence.

“
Yep,” was all I could think of to say.

“
It smells good,” she sighed.

“
Let’s hope Mr. Splitfoot’s spirit guide thinks the same, or this is going to be one big waste of time,” I said.

We reached the pub just before seven. It wasn’t a long drive from my parents’ house and eventually the conversation between Kiera and me had become a little less difficult. By the time I’d parked the car in front of the pub, it was like the embarrassing incident in the kitchen had never happened. I felt a massive sense of relief that my schoolboy behaviour hadn’t damaged our friendship.

Together we ran the short distance through the rain and into the pub. The name of the pub was stencilled above the old oak door, but most of the lettering had fallen away. The only visible word remaining was
Steam
. Above this was a painting of a black steam train, thick clouds of smoke spewing from its dark funnel. I pushed the door open. Kiera slipped under my arm and I followed her inside. There was a group of people gathered at one end of the bar. Most of them were elderly and each of them clutched a Tupperware box or cake tin under one arm. Kiera saw them too. Glancing back at me, she smiled.

“
Want a drink?” I asked, taking one of the ten pound notes I had found in the cookie jar from my pocket.

“
Just a Coke,” Kiera said.

The bartender was a bony man with a bald head, and glasses that sat perched on the end of his nose. From over the top of them he eyed the cake box under my arm. “With that lot, are you?” he said, nodding in the direction of those gathered at the other end of the bar.

“
Yes,” I said then ordered our drinks.

“
You don’t look the type,” the bartender said, pushing two Cokes across the bar at me.

“
Type for what?” Kiera asked him.

“
A séance,” the bartender said.

“
It’s just a bit of fun,” I told him.

“
Is it?” the bartender said, cocking an eyebrow at us then turning away.

I handed one of the Cokes to Kiera and picked up the other. I turned away from the bar and stopped. Someone was leaving the pub I thought I recognised.

“
What’s wrong?” Kiera asked me.

“
I thought I just saw someone…”

“
Who?”

I looked a Kiera. “I thought I just saw Constable John Miles leaving the pub.”

“
Sparky?” Kiera frowned. “Are you sure? What would he be doing all the way out here?”

“
More importantly, what if he saw us and tells Sergeant Phillips? We’re not meant to be together,” I reminded her.

With Coke in hand, Kiera went to the door. Pulling it open she peered out into the dark. “I can’t see anyone,” she said. Kiera closed the door and came back, standing at my side. “You could’ve been mistaken. And besides, he might not have seen us. And even if he did, why would he tell Sergeant Phillips? It’s only us who knows that we shouldn’t be together.”

“
You know what training school is like,” I sighed. “If he did see us together all the way out here, then he might think that there is something going on between us and spread gossip. That would soon get back to Phillips.”

“
Well there is nothing going on and it was probably someone who looked like Sparky,” Kiera said, “Let’s try not to worry about it.”

“
I guess,” I said thoughtfully. I did only get a fleeting glimpse of the guy as he left the pub, so perhaps Kiera was right and I was worrying about nothing. I took another sip of my drink.

Kiera