Her Collateral Bride: A Lesbian Age Gap Romance

“What?” Haley rushed to catch up with Snake. She grabbed

his hand, which made him stop in his tracks. She edged around

him and stared up at his impassive, granite face. “What’s she

doing in the kitchen? Like, having lunch?” It was three in the

afternoon. Not exactly lunch or dinner time.

“She’s cooking.”

Haley’s jaw creaked open like a rusty hinge finally letting

go. “I—she’s what?”

“Cooking. She started in the middle of the night weeks ago

and she hasn’t stopped.” Snake winked at her. “I think I’m

employed here just to eat now. Not a bad job if you ask me.

She’s a great chef. Never should have given up on that career

path. She was just baking at first, but now she’s cooking

everything. Spends hours doing it.”

“That’s, uh, okay, that’s really strange. Is she happy?”

Haley desperately wanted the answer to be yes. She wanted

Claire to have found healing since she left. She wasn’t sure

what sign the cooking was. Was it a good thing? A horrible

thing? A way for Claire to work through what happened? Was

she doing what she loved again? She hadn’t been doing it

before, Haley knew that much. She wouldn’t have employed

Jean otherwise, and Haley had never once seen Claire set foot

in the kitchen. Okay, well, there was the time when she’d first

arrived and Claire had scolded her and Jean about the mess

they’d made, and briefly when her friends had come to visit

her, but never after that.

If Claire was cooking, did that mean she was happy? If she

was happy, did that mean she?

??d moved on from Haley? Did

that mean she was here for no reason at all other than to