Lingerie Wars (Invertary 1)

Only Rainne was disappointed.

“Come on, Lake. You can cancel your plans for one night,” his sister said. “How often do you see your parents?”

About once every decade, he thought.

“I can’t,” he said. “Meeting for the fashion show. If I don’t turn up, I could be ousted.” He turned to his parents. “And then your trip up here would have been wasted.”

He saw the flicker of a look pass between his parents, and his heart hardened further. They weren’t there for the show. They were there for Rainne—and not to support her, either. They wanted to drag her into their latest cause. He clenched his fists as he looked at his sister’s grinning face. The only way he could stop them would be to tell her that the shop was hers.

And that he couldn’t do.

Against her better judgment, Kirsty turned up at Caroline’s house for the meeting about the show. Now that Caroline was involved everything had to be coordinated, planned and documented. She loved her friend dearly, but she didn’t have time for all this planning. She needed to be doing. She heaved a sigh as she knocked the front door of the tiny terraced house. It was one of the old miners’ cottages that sat on the back hills on the edge of Invertary. The row of houses was quaint against the green countryside, all crooked and miniature. Not that she could see them in the dark.

“I brought wine,” said Lake as he came up behind her, making every nerve ending in her body stand to attention.

“To a meeting?” she said. “Last night you came for dinner empty handed, today you bring drinks to a meeting. Is this how they do things in England?”

He stepped in towards her, crowding her on the narrow path.

“If I remember right, last night you didn’t mind one bit what I brought to your house.” That low voice of his sent tingles up her spine.

“And what was that?” She swayed towards him.

“Me.”

Kirsty stuck her tongue out at him as Caroline opened the door.

“Good. You’re on time,” she said.

Kirsty found it hard to ignore Lake as Caroline led them through the short hallway and into the living room. Her senses were tuned into him. It was as though she was an FM radio and someone had set her to automatically find their favourite station. In this case, Lake. She was aware of where he stood, how he sat, what he wore, how he smelled. Everything about him was exaggerated to her keenly tuned senses. To make matters worse, it seemed that he was tuned into her too.

He put his hand on the small of her back to guide her ahead of him into the living room and her skin throbbed under his touch. He leaned towards her to talk as Caroline hung up their

coats and his breath brushed her cheek, making her heartbeat race. He sat beside her on the couch, brushing his knee against her every time he moved. She was sure it was intentional. He wanted to touch her. He wanted her to be aware of him. He got what he wanted.

To stop from throwing herself at him, Kirsty tried to focus on her environment. Caroline’s house hadn’t changed since her grandparents owned it. Caroline had been too busy raising her younger sister to spend much time, or money, on decor. The result was a house full of furniture you’d find in a retirement home. At least the furniture went well with the faded brown wallpaper. Lake handed the wine to Caroline, who seemed a little stunned by it.

“Thank you,” she said.

There was a pause.

“What do I do with this?” Caroline said at last, making Kirsty grin. “Should I give you a glass? We won’t be clearheaded for the planning.”

“I’m pretty sure we’ll all be clearheaded on one glass of wine,” Lake said.

He obviously didn’t know Caroline. One glass of wine and she was three sheets to the wind.

“Leave it until the end,” Kirsty told her. “I’d love a cup of tea, and I’m sure Lake would like one too.”

Caroline nodded and left the room, carrying the wine as though it had fallen from the sky.

“That wasn’t supposed to be hard,” Lake said.

“You don’t know Caroline,” was all Kirsty said in reply.

Lake rested his elbow on the back of the couch and traced a line down Kirsty’s shoulder with his index finger.

“How’s the cupboard technique going? Added anything to the list today?”