by Zoey Lennox
“Nothing.” Kenya quickly shoved the pouch into her handbag. “I just thought I’d drop some of this money off at the bank on the way home.”
“At seven o’clock at night?”
“Yeah. There’s a branch a little way out of town that stays open late.”
Ramie quirked a brow. “And you’re going to drive out of your way to deposit the contents of just two collection tins, are you?”
“Uh…yeah.” Kenya let out a strangled laugh. “Every little bit helps, right?”
It didn’t take a genius to guess something fishy was going on. Kenya was going to have a hard time convincing Ramie of her story when she didn’t sound like she believed it herself.
Ramie crossed the room and snatched the money from Kenya’s handbag. “Don’t insult my intelligence. You might have been able to pull the wool over my eyes while we were dating, but not anymore, Ken. You know full well you’ve got to sort the donations out into coin bags before depositing them at the bank. It looks to me like you’ve been helping yourself.” Her eyes widened. “You’ve been tampering with the collection tins for months, haven’t you? That’s why the numbers have been down. I must say, it was a good idea to leave some money behind. You wouldn’t want to raise suspicion, would you?”
Kenya stepped back from her desk and finally met Ramie’s eyes. “Okay, so I’ve been dipping into the donations. It’s only to tide me over until I get paid at the end of the month. I fully intend to pay the money back.”
“Are you serious?” Ramie crossed her arms. “This is a new low. Even for you. What ate up your wages this time? Was there a cute Louis Vuitton you couldn’t say no to?”
Her gaze landed on the shiny handbag that lay open on Kenya’s desk. “Oh my God, I’m right, aren’t I? If you’re one thing, it’s predictable.”
Panic filled Kenya’s eyes. “You’re not going to report this to management, are you? I’ll lose my job.”
“Of course I’m going to report this. You’ve committed a crime. It’s high time you felt the consequences of your actions. Maybe then you’ll get the help you so desperately need.”
Tears pooled in the corners of Kenya’s desperate eyes. “Please don’t do this to me. This could have all been avoided if you’d agreed to lend me the money I needed.”
“Nice.” Ramie didn’t sound the least bit impressed. “Blame your despicable behaviour on me. That’s what you do best.”
Kenya’s tears miraculously dried up when it became clear she wasn’t going to win any support.
“You know what?” She took a step in Ramie’s direction. “You’ve changed since Little Miss Perfect came along. You used to be concerned about my welfare, but these days you couldn’t give a shit about me.” She waved a finger in the air and then pointed it at Alexis. “Tell me. What has she got that I haven’t? Because it’s certainly not looks.”
“You’re showing your jealous side,” Ramie warned. “I suggest you shut your mouth before you embarrass yourself further.”
Sod this. Alexis wasn’t going to hang around while she was being insulted.
“Okay.” She clapped her hands together. “I think that’s my cue to leave.”
If she stayed, she might not be able to keep up her ‘everything’s fine’ persona. Yes, she may have gotten better at absorbing Kenya’s insults, but she wasn’t immune.
“Take your time,” she said, giving Ramie a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll wait for you in the front room.”
As she headed down the corridor, Ramie’s voice rang out loud and clear.
“You want to know what Lex has got that you haven’t? Integrity. You might want to look it up in the dictionary because you’ve obviously never heard of it before.”
Chapter 22
Alexis was almost skipping with giddiness as she and Ramie approached the entrance of Henry’s Christmas Tree Farm. The temperature had plummeted in the last few days, and a thick layer of frost covered the ground, sending one of her feet shooting out in front of her every half dozen steps.
“Will you calm down.” Ramie laughed as she steadied Alexis’s shaky frame. “You’re as bad as those kids.” She pointed at a family with six children squealing happily in the queue ahead of them, and Alexis fought against the blush that heated her cheeks.
She couldn’t help it. She loved Christmas. Her family used to come to Henry’s every year while her mother was still alive. Her job had been to pick out the tree, which they would then decorate to perfection. Her favourite tradition had ended abruptly after her mother’s death, and she was looking forward to reinstating it—even though it still hurt to think about celebrating without her mum.
Christmas was going to be weird without her father, too. No matter how much had changed since her mother’s death, they’d always spent Christmas together. He’d called and texted several times since their last meeting, but she was still too hurt to listen to what he had to say. Maybe she’d call him in a few days once her tree was up and she was feeling charitable. Right now, though, all she wanted to do was enjoy this special moment with Ramie.
The queue moved forward and Alexis’s nose twitched at the distinctive scent of pine in the distance. She hoped today would mark the start of a new yearly ritual with Ramie, and her stomach did a little flip at the prospect.
“Next!” yelled a gruff man who was standing at the open gate with a saw in his hand. “Pre-cut trees are to the left and choose-and-cut trees are to the right if you’re looking to have one felled.”
Alexis took Ramie’s hand and tugged her to the right where hundreds of trees awaited them. “Come on,” she said. “You can fill me in on what happened with Kenya while we look.”
They traipsed around the field for a few minutes before Ramie pointed at a misshapen tree. “How about this one?”
She had to be kidding. There were more branches at the top of the thing than the bottom and it was leaning precariously to one side.
“No way.” Alexis was looking for something about five feet tall with just the right amount of bushiness in the lower limbs. It was hiding here somewhere; she just had to seek it out.
“So?” she prodded, when Ramie wasn’t forthcoming about Kenya’s fate. “What happened at work?”
With Ramie’s schedule crazier than ever, and the demands of her own job, they’d had no time together since Kenya’s fall from grace earlier that week.
Ramie let out a bone-weary sigh. “You can probably guess what happened. She got her sorry arse fired.”
“I take it that didn’t go down well.”
“Nope.” Ramie dug her hands deep into her pockets. “There were plenty of tears and excuses at first. I almost felt sorry for her.”
“Ramie!”
Ramie laughed and held up a hand. “I said almost. I only had to remember the nasty things she said to you and I soon changed my mind.”
Oh yeah. Those comments.
“Hey.” Ramie lifted Alexis’s dipped chin, forcing her to meet her eyes. “I’ve told you once and I’ll tell you again, you’re a million times the person Kenya could ever hope to be. I honestly don’t know what I ever saw in her. She’s ugly. Inside and out.”
Alexis knew Ramie well enough to know when she was being sincere. The words warmed her heart.
“Did the centre manager report her to the police?”
Ramie took her hand and they began a second lap of the field. “Yeah. She had no choice. The centre has a moral duty to let other businesses know about her past. She may have only stolen money from the collection tins, but who knows how far she’ll go the next time she gets desperate.”
Ramie had a point. Everyone knew desperate people did desperate things.
“Fuck.” Ramie exhaled, letting out a puff of hot breath. “This really couldn’t have come at a worse time. The fundraiser’s coming up scarily fast, and with us already struggling for cover, it’s going to hit us hard having another man down.”
“I thought you had a new admin?”
“We did, and she w
as actually pretty good, but her elderly mother broke her hip falling down the stairs, and she can no longer work for us now she’s needed at home.”
Alexis’s spirits plummeted. If there were shifts to fill at the centre, then Ramie would be first in line to cover them. She didn’t mind Ramie helping. In fact, she quite enjoyed getting stuck in herself now she’d built up some confidence. But they couldn’t continue down the path they were on. Alexis already worked a full-time job. Spending her evenings camped out at the centre so she could fit in some quality time with Ramie was a sure-fire way to burn herself out fast.
Ramie sensed the turn in her mood. “What’s with the sad face?”
“Nothing.” She knew it was selfish to want more of Ramie’s time for herself. “I was just looking forward to spending more time together, that’s all. But now Kenya’s been fired, and with the admin falling through, you’re going to be busier than ever.”
She despised herself for letting tears fill her eyes, and hated herself even more for sniffling loudly when Ramie drew her against her chest. What was wrong with her? People didn’t always get what they wanted in life. She should suck it up and be an adult instead of snivelling into her girlfriend’s coat.
“Oh, Lex, don’t cry. I wasn’t going to mention this until later but now seems like just as good a time as any. The bigwigs at the centre did ask me to pick up more hours, but it’s not the disaster you might think.”
“It’s not?” She couldn’t see how.
“No, not at all. They want me to work full-time again. With a more concrete schedule and better pay, I’ll be able to quit my other jobs. Which means I’ll be able to spend some much-needed time with you.”
“Baby, that’s wonderful news! Congratulations!” Alexis wrapped her arms around Ramie’s waist. “When do you start?”
“As soon as I’ve served my notice. Trust me. In a couple of weeks, I’ll have so much free time we’ll be sick of the sight of each other.”
“Never going to happen.” Alexis grinned. “Come on, let’s go and find that elusive tree and then head over to Maddie and Chris’s for dinner. We can celebrate over red wine and filet mignon.”
Chapter 23
Alexis groaned as the alarm clock on her phone dragged her out of a deep sleep the next morning.
“Make it stop.” Ramie’s voice was scratchy, her breath washing a warm blanket of heat across Alexis’s cheek.
Alexis flailed a limp hand around the bed and silenced the shrill noise. What had possessed her to choose such an obnoxious tone was anyone’s guess. She made a mental note to change it when she got a spare moment. When silence triumphed, she let out a contented sigh and shimmied backwards into the crook of Ramie’s hips.
“It can’t be time to get up yet,” Ramie whined. “We’ve only been asleep for a few hours.”
Alexis reached behind her and pinched Ramie’s bare thigh. “And whose fault is that?”
Ramie sniggered. “I didn’t hear you complaining.” She snaked her hand beneath the material at the front of Alexis’s pyjama bottoms. “Still wet, I see.”
Alexis squirmed and slapped at Ramie’s hand. “Stop it. I haven’t got time for that. I have to be at work in an hour.”
She slid out of bed and shrugged on her dressing gown before Ramie could get any more ideas. She’d love nothing more than to spend the morning beneath the covers, but something told her that her boss wouldn’t understand.
Ramie tucked the duvet around her naked body and gave Alexis one of her devastatingly sexy smiles. “You should call in sick. By some miracle, I’ve got the day off. We can make love all day, and then if you’re lucky, you might be able to talk me round into helping you decorate that ridiculously large Christmas tree.”
Alexis lunged for Ramie and gave her a playful swat. “Shut it, you!”
After spending over two hours hunting for the tree of her dreams the day before, she’d come away with a six-foot monstrosity and had been forced to chop the top off to fit it inside her flat.
Ramie chuckled as she dragged Alexis back into bed. “I told you it was too big, but would you listen? No.”
Alexis grinned. Even though the tree took up a quarter of the floor space, she didn’t regret the purchase. She was making memories with Ramie, and that’s all that counted.
Ramie parted her legs and pulled Alexis between them. “Go on,” she dared. “Pull a sickie.”
“I wish I could,” Alexis groaned. She dragged herself out of bed again with great effort and flipped the switch on the electric heater. “But my boss is like a sniffer dog. He can detect bullshit from fifty miles off.”
Ramie pouted and jerked her chin at the heater. “I see you got that skinflint landlord of yours to loosen the purse strings.”
“Yeah, some random bloke turned up unannounced to install it last week. It’s not top of the range or anything, but it warms the place up a treat.” She headed into the kitchen. “Now I just have to be mindful about leaving it on for too long. It’ll cost me a fortune if I’m not careful.”
“I’ll just have to make sure you’re tucked up in bed with me whenever you’re at home,” Ramie teased. “You weren’t cold a few seconds ago, were you?”
Alexis gave her an adoring smile. “I’ll hold you to that, stud. Do you want a cup of tea?”
Alexis’s phone bleeped somewhere within the bed and Ramie sought it out, tossing it across the room into Alexis’s waiting hands.
“Yes, please. White, no sugar, because I’m sweet enough already.”
Alexis scoffed and pulled up her text messages. “Oh wow. You’re not going to believe this. The university’s only gone and declared a snow day.”
Ramie clambered onto her knees and whipped open the curtains. “Snow? It wasn’t on the forecast.”
Alexis bolted across the room to join her, pressing her nose against the cold glass.
A miracle had occurred overnight. At least four inches of snow blanketed the road. It covered the roofs of cars and houses and was still coming down in a steady stream.
Alexis’s mouth hung open. “Wow. It’s like a scene from a Christmas card out there.”
Ramie slung her arm over Alexis’s shoulder. “It looks like you got your wish, sweetie. Now let’s head back to bed so you can grant me mine.”
The sky was a blue-black when Alexis and Ramie ventured out of their bolthole and into the winter wonderland nature had provided. They had spent the day as Ramie had envisioned, making love until midday and then decorating the Christmas tree. In these domesticated moments, their bond strengthened, and Alexis was riding high on a wave of euphoria as they entered a recently renovated carvery.
Carrigan’s had been an Indian restaurant in its former life but now served as a pub and carvery which was popular with the locals. As Alexis followed Ramie through to the dining side of the pub, they passed a small stage on the left side of the room set up with music equipment. Nice. It must be an open mic night.
“Table for two please,” Ramie said, wiggling her fingers for Alexis’s hand.
They followed the waitress to a table tucked away in a back corner and then headed to the serving area after ordering some drinks.
“Why does it always seem like there’s more on my plate when I sit down?” Alexis mused when they got back to the table.
Ramie stuck a mouthful of sliced turkey into her mouth. “Quit complaining and start eating. This is delicious.”
Alexis dunked a roast potato into a generous pile of cranberry sauce. “Today has been perfect. I hope this snow keeps coming and I get tomorrow off as well.”
Scratch that. She hoped it snowed all week. Holing up in her flat with Ramie sounded pretty good about now.
“Well, don’t expect me to keep you company,” Ramie grumbled. “I’m scheduled on shift at the animal rescue centre in the morning. Those furry slave drivers need feeding whatever the weather.”
Alexis reached across the table and wiped a blob of gravy from Ramie’s chin. Damn. She was even sex
y with food splattered down her face.
“Thanks, hon.” Ramie snagged Alexis’s hand before she could move it away and kissed her palm. “Don’t look now,” she said. “but there’s a woman sat across the room giving us the evil eye.”
Alexis immediately swung around to check out the interloper. “Fuck.” It was Sophie. What was she doing here?
Ramie froze with her fork halfway to her mouth. “What’s wrong. Who is she?”
“She’s uh…” Oh God. A few carefully placed words from Sophie and her lesbian backstory could be blown.
“Is she an ex?” Ramie’s eyes widened. “Wait. Is she the one with the foot fetish?”
Alexis’s squirmed. Okay, she’s given you an out. Just roll with it. “Yeah, as a matter of fact she is.”
She knew she’d made a mistake as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Homophobic ex friend would not only have been the truth but a far better explanation. Why did her mind always turn to mush when she was put on the spot?
“Why’d you say you broke up again? She looks pissed.”
“She uh…” She should probably stick as close to the truth as possible. “She’s got a bit of internalised homophobia going on.”
“You mean she’s the kind of person who says she’s into women and then freaks out the morning after?”
“Yep. We weren’t together long, but she really messed with my head. Half the time she was needy as hell, the other half she’d blindside me with random double dates with men.”
Ramie’s brows rose. “Sounds like a piece of work.”
“Uh huh.”
Ramie put down her knife and fork. “I hate to break it to you, but she’s heading over here now. Do you want me to deal with this or are you all right handling her?”
Alexis closed her eyes. “It’s all right. I’ll talk to her.”
“Alexis!” Sophie towered above them with a fake smile plastered onto her face.
“Oh, hey, Soph.” Alexis feigned nonchalance. “It’s been a while since we last spoke. How’re things?”