Penmort Castle (Ghosts and Reincarnation #1)(75)

“I take it that’s a no,” he said over her head and she could tell by his voice (not to mention the laugh) that he found this highly amusing.

“That’s a no,” Abby admitted to his chest.

He kissed the top of her head and then murmured there, “I’ll drink the martini and make you an amaretto.”

She nodded then he moved away.

She had nothing to do but wait for the dumplings to bake. Therefore Abby was at odds with how to proceed seeing as they were moving around his kitchen like an old married couple and she shouldn’t be thinking about how lovely it was to move around Cash’s kitchen, with Cash, like they were an old married couple.

She decided to stand, hip against the counter and watch him make her drink.

“Did you have a good day?” she asked, thinking that sounded lame.

“No,” he replied.

“No?” she repeated, watching him work, noticing that the ingredients for her favourite drink were all ready at hand. Obviously Cash (or Moira) had a conversation with Aileen and the kitchen had been stocked with her preferences.

That gave her a warm feeling too.

He continued as Abby fought valiantly against the warm feeling. “I have to go to Germany tomorrow.”

Abby watched him move to the fridge for the ice and enquired, “When will you be home?”

“Saturday.”

Abby’s breath caught.

Her first thought was that she wouldn’t see Cash for three days.

She’d been with him every day for over a week. She was used to being with him. She was used to having dinner with him. She was used to sleeping in his bed. She was used to sleeping with him in his bed. She was used to doing other things with him in his bed too.

She didn’t like the idea of not seeing him.

Maybe for a day but three?

Then Abby’s emotional warrior reared up and mentally kicked her in the shin.

This reminded her that she and Cash didn’t exist in that joyful time where everything about their relationship was shiny and new. They weren’t caught in those early days of discovery where you spent every moment you weren’t together thinking about being together and every moment you were together thinking life was bliss. It wasn’t the beginning of something that you knew, you just knew was going to be something magical.

They were nothing of the sort (even though it felt like they were).

Three days was a godsend. Three days meant she could shore up her defences and have her head screwed on properly. Three days was a miracle.

Her miracle lasted two seconds because Cash went on. “I want you with me.”

Abby’s body jerked at his words.

“In Germany?” she breathed.

He dumped the ice in a tea towel but turned his head to her and she saw he was smiling. “No, darling, I thought you could go to Capri. We’ll meet back here.”

Even though he was amusing, Abby didn’t laugh. She was busy searching blindly for a way out.

Germany meant all Cash and nothing but Cash except when Cash was working, which would be time she was alone, without workmen, paint pots, Jenny, Mrs. Truman and her spaniels, which would be time she’d be doing nothing but thinking about Cash which meant zero time to get her head on straight.

She came up with a solution.

“What’ll I do with Zee?” she tried.

His brows went up. “Zee?”

“My cat.”

“You named your cat Zee?”

“His name is Beelzebub but that’s hard to say all the time, especially when you’re yelling at him,” Abby explained.

Cash stared at her then asked, “You’re telling me you essentially named your cat Satan?”

“Well, yes,” Abby replied as if it was perfectly natural to name your beloved pet after the Lord of Hellfire and Damnation and watched as Cash did a very slow blink which forced her to defend her choice. “You don’t know him. Trust me, he’s aptly named. He can be a little devil.”

He watched her a moment then his face grew warm and soft and Abby struggled with her instinctive, highly pleasant reaction to that look.

He smiled and turned away, shaking his head. Then he slammed the ice in the tea towel against the counter, twice.

“I’ve tried that, it doesn’t work. You have to use a rolling pin or a meat tenderiser,” she informed him helpfully but watched as he upended the perfectly crushed ice into her drink then she muttered, “Okay, well, if you have the strength of He-Man, it works.”

She heard his chuckle as he handed her the drink, tossed the tea towel into the sink and went back to the martini.

“Can you get someone to look after your cat?” he enquired.

She could. Jenny would do it. Pete would do it too. Hell, Mrs. Truman would probably do it.

“Yes,” she replied and tried not to sigh.

He poured the martini from the shaker into a stemmed glass, saying softly, “Make the call.”

Abby blinked.

Then she asked, “Now?”

He turned to her, took a sip, his eyes on her over the rim of the glass.

Her brain noted Cash looked very sexy drinking from a martini glass.

Her emotional warrior trotted over to her brain and slapped it upside its head.

“Now,” he replied after his hand lowered. “We leave from Bristol Airport at half ten.”