Unhinge Me (14 page)

Alex heard a noise from behind her and it snapped her back to reality. She turned to see Caleb stumbling into the apartment with his arms full of something large and heavy.
Is that firewood?

“What on earth are you doing?” she exclaimed, jumping up.

“Surprising you,” he strained, out of breath, and unceremoniously dropped the pile of logs on the floor near the fireplace. “The bloke at the store said these would work well,” he told her. “I’m going to build you a fire!” His grin was so innocent and childlike. “I did hear what you said earlier, sorry about that. I didn’t want to bother you when you were reading. Looked like a good book.”

“It is!” she plopped it closed. “It’s about a hot, sexy Englishman and the regular ole American girl who doesn’t see why he likes her. I can’t imagine what I see in the story,” she said sarcastically. He glared at her to remind her that he found her insecurities unfounded and ridiculous.

Alex rolled her eyes but smiled and dropped down to the floor to help him load the wood into the fireplace.

“No, no!” Caleb said, waving her away. “Let the man do it!” he said in an exaggerated deep voice. As if his voice wasn’t deep enough already. Alex laughed… and swooned a bit.

Relenting, she moved to the side to sit in the chair and watch him tackle the fire. Watching him made her think about lumberjacks. That thought led her to think of a cabin in the woods and all the things they could do together in one. She shook her head to clear it. If she didn’t stop thinking like that she was going to have to change her panties.

“So why haven’t you used it yet, anyway?” she asked in an attempt to distract her thoughts.

“I just never felt the need,” he answered from inside the fireplace, his voice echoing. Sticking his head out, he winked at her. “Plus, I never had anyone to share it with until now.”

Alex blushed as thoughts about bear skin rugs and sex in front of the fire leapt into her mind. Man, she was definitely going to need new panties.

Caleb threw a huge load of scrunched up paper on the pile of wood, covering it almost completely.

“Alright! I think I’m ready!” He stood up, brushed off his jeans, and got a match out of the box. Alex stood up beside him to watch him throw it in. He tossed the match on the pile and then put his arm around her as the two watched the papers and sticks light up.

It didn’t take long for them to realize there was something off. Instead of the beautiful glow they were expecting, all they got was black billowing smoke. Eyes wide, they looked at each other in panic.

“Bloody hell! It’s plugged!” Caleb shouted and ran over to put the fire out. Smoke was filling up the room quickly so Alex ran to open all the windows. Then the smoke detector started going off so she ran to wave the smoke away from it. Once it stopped, she ran back over to wave the smoke out the window until once again she had to stop the smoke detector from its blaring insolence. Back and forth she ran while Caleb tried to put the fire out. It took a while. Apparently, he was even better at starting them than he thought. Finally, he got a bowl of water from the sink and was able to douse it out completely.

Once it was all over, they stood in the middle of the smoky apartment just shaking their heads and laughing.

“So that’s what happens when the
man
does it, huh?” Alex said, imitating Caleb’s low accent and laughing.

Speechless, Caleb just sputtered and shook his head. He looked so adorable standing there with a smudge of soot on his cheek, looking bewildered and ashamed. Alex burst out laughing, but it quickly turned into uncontrollable coughing.

Caleb ran over to wave the smoke away from her and got her a glass of water. They were such a pair, with Caleb’s wild hair and Alex hunched over from the cough attack, both of them squinting, their eyes watering.

Chuckling, Caleb grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s go eat while the smoke clears.”

After a delicious meal at Shenanigan’s and a big laugh with Joe and Josie about the “firecapade”, the couple drove home early to get some rest before the week started.

With their arms wrapped around each other and smiling, they walked down the hall to Caleb’s apartment. When Caleb took his key out to unlock the door, he found it slightly ajar and stopped.

Immediately alarmed and thinking quickly, he pushed Alex back behind him as he slowly peeked into the apartment. All the lights were on inside and Caleb could hear movement and papers being shuffled in the living room around the corner. He turned back to Alex and whispered to her to call 911, then tiptoed into the foyer. Alex tried to pull him back to keep him out of danger but he kept moving, so she ignored his request and followed in behind him.

Slowly they crept through the little room. Caleb looked around for some sort of weapon. The kitchen was to his left and, for a moment, he thought about grabbing a knife. Alex grabbed an umbrella and held it up like a bat. Finally they got close enough that Caleb got a view of who was inside. He stopped short and stood up straight. Barging into the room, he boomed, “What the bloody hell are you doing here?”

Alex blinked at the scene before her. There Caleb stood, relaxed and smiling at a man she had never seen before, who was standing in the middle of Caleb’s apartment like he belonged there. Not exactly a good first impression. Already this new person rubbed her the wrong way, and he hadn’t even spoken yet.

“There you are!” the man exclaimed as if Caleb was the one who was being mysterious.

The men embraced in a big man hug and then Caleb just stood there staring at him as if in awe.

“I’ll do the introduction then?” the strange man said as he rolled his eyes at Caleb. He then gave Alex what she was sure was usually a very charming smile, and stuck his hand out to hers.

“I’m Graham, Caleb’s cousin. And you are?” he questioned in a sweet but almost accusing way.

Alex was not amused. “I’m Alex,” she quickly answered.

Graham raised an eyebrow at her shortness. He looked over at Caleb.

Caleb had completely lost his wits. Seeing his cousin standing in his American apartment and his new life was weird and out of place for him. It didn’t fit and it took him a moment to recover.

“How did you get in here?” he stammered.

“You put your spare key in the same damn place here as you did back home,” he answered and accused at the same time. “You really shouldn’t do that,” he added.

“I guess not, if it’s going to let rubbish like you in.”

The men just looked at each other for a long moment, and then both laughed.

“My God, you look so different!” Graham said, looking him over. “You need a haircut, too.”

“What on earth are you doing here?” Caleb ignored him.

“I came to see you, and to report on your sanity to our mums. Yours is going quite a bit batty in your absence,” he informed him. “But it seems you may have a good reason for staying away.” He looked over at Alex, eyebrows raised.

Alex moved closer to Caleb. She still didn’t know what she thought of Graham. It was weird to meet someone from Caleb’s past.

Caleb instinctively put his arm around Alex and pulled her into him. He wasn’t sure what Graham was going to say or think of Alex and it made him feel protective.

Graham stood watching them as if assessing the situation. After a moment, he seemed to brush off his thoughts, whatever they were.

“Well, I’m sorry for the intrusion, mate. I wasn’t thinking, I guess. Uh, how about I go get a hotel and we can talk about this in the morning.”

Caleb felt bad about his hostility and deflated. “Nonsense,” he waved off the thought with his hand. “You’ll stay here, obviously. I’m sorry, it’s just odd seeing you here.” He smiled. “But I’m glad you are and there’s no way in hell you’re sleeping in a hotel.” He went and put his arm around him.

Graham smiled, feeling better. Then he looked over at Alex, who was still standing there with a slight frown on her face.

She looked over at Caleb and saw how happy he was to see his cousin. Relenting, she cleared her throat and said softly, “I’ll get the spare set of sheets for you if you’d like. To set up the couch?” she looked at Caleb.

Caleb, oblivious to her temperament, nodded enthusiastically.

While Alex set about getting the couch ready for the unexpected guest, the two men sat at the small dining table and quietly caught up. Once the couch was as nice and comfortable looking as possible, she walked back to the table.

The two stopped talking and looked up at her.

“It’s all ready,” she said quietly and added a forced smile. “I’ll leave you two to talk and see you tomorrow.” She looked at Caleb and turned to walk away. Something was bothering her about the whole situation and she needed to get out of there as soon as possible. Over her shoulder she said, “It was nice to meet you Graham.” She knew she was being rude, and in the back of her mind she hated herself for it, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

Caleb jumped up to stop her, but didn’t catch up to her until she was already at the front door.

“Wait, what’s wrong, love? Where are you going?”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, looking over toward Graham in the other room. “I just thought I’d leave you guys to hang out.” She gave him a weak smile.

“Well, you can hang out too,” Caleb whispered back. He could sense his little doe on the move and didn’t want to spook her.

“No, really, I don’t want to sleep here tonight. It would feel weird. Plus, I haven’t been to my apartment in like a week. Bear is going to smother me in my sleep if I don’t spend more time with her,” she tried to joke.

Caleb could tell this was a battle he wasn’t going to win. Besides that, he was still feeling a little wacked out from the situation anyway. He begrudgingly surrendered.

“Okay, but we will talk tomorrow for sure.” He smiled, watching her eyes to see what she was thinking.

She smiled back. “Of course.” She gave him a quick kiss and ran out the door.

She walked quickly down the hall and out of the building, not stopping until she was in the clear. She took a deep, shaky breath.
That was weird
. Not only the strange cousin who breaks into apartments, but also her reaction to it all. Even
she
didn’t know what was going on in her head right now. She hurried to her car, just wanting to be home in her own bed.