Laura's Big Break (15 page)

His coffee was thick and delicious.

The wind went out of him. He looked the girl in the eye.

“I worry about her,” he said. “She’s wound up so tight, who knows what happens when she eventually blows. Seriously, her eyes twitch, she grinds her teeth and I swear I’ve seen her bite her tongue. One of these days she’s going to go boom.”

“Perhaps you should not push her then, if you are worried?”

Charlie took a second to look at the girl.

“Are you a shrink?” he said.

“Hairdresser.”

“Ah, that explains it.”

He signalled for the bill.

“I need to go check on her,” he said apologetically.

“I understand,” the brunette smiled.

She was really a pretty girl in her pink mini dress and platform heels. Any other day he would have loved spending time with her. But Laura was ruining his love life too. He couldn’t think straight when she was driving him so nuts.

“Thanks for listening,” he said as he left money for the bill.

She shrugged like it was nothing.

“I need to go,” he pointed to the door. “The woman needs constant supervision.”

The brunette finger waved good bye as Charlie stepped out into the warm night air.

Laura was on a mission. He may have blackmailed her into the trip from hell. He may have teased her to the point where she humiliated herself enough to sleep with him. He may even be stringing her along with the promise of an interview. Oh yeah, he may get away with a lot of things. But he wasn’t going to have sex with some girl he picked up in the tent next to hers.

“Listen lady,” one of the English guys said. “Why don’t you come sit with us, we can have a drink, chat a little. Wait until your boyfriend gets back.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” she said with a snarl.

“No, right, absolutely.” They shared a look that telegraphed she was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. “Still, how about that drink?”

She ignored them. She was fed up being pushed around. She’d reached her limit. She didn’t give a flying fig if Charlie slept his way around the whole of Holland; she just wanted him to wait until she was far, far away from him to do it. In the meantime she would make it as hard for him as possible. She had a plan.

“Either of you carrying cooking oil?” she said.

They shared a look before shaking their heads.

“There will be some in the kitchen.” One of them pointed to the small building by the entrance.

“Matches?” Laura asked.

“Are you cooking again?”

They shared another gleeful grin. She was about to be camp entertainment all over again.

“Well?” she prompted.

The floppy one rummaged around in his backpack.

“Here.” He thrust a box at her. “If you need help with the stove let us know. Your boyfriend, I mean the guy you’re with, wasn’t too pleased we didn’t help out last time.”

Laura smiled. She could feel how cold and menacing it was and from the look on their faces they could see it too.

“I won’t need any help,” she said evenly. “This, I can do all on my own.”

Then she walked calmly, and purposely, towards the kitchen.

Charlie saw the flashing lights before he saw anything else and picked up his speed. Years of dealing with trauma at home, and abroad, made him run to the centre of the commotion, to the centre of the campsite. Someone might need a doctor.

Instead he found a couple of cops, a fire crew packing up their gear and a black scorched patch of ground where his tent had once been. No sign of Laura.

“What happened?” He grabbed a cop. “Was anyone hurt?”

“I’m sure someone else will tell you, sir,” the guy said before turning back to his notepad.

Charlie ran his hands through his hair.

“That was my tent,” he said.

Now that got their attention.

“The woman -” He almost choked on the words. “My girlfriend, is she okay?”

“She’s fine; we’ve taken her to the hospital.” One eyebrow flicked upwards. “Apparently it was an accident.”

Charlie had dealt with enough cops to see clearly that accident was the last thing he thought this was.

“Unless you have something to add, we’re finished here.”

He waited, almost hoping that Charlie was going to tell him it was an attempt on his life.

“No, nothing. I wasn’t even here.”

They seemed to want something more.

“She is very accident prone.”

The guy flicked his notebook shut, adjusted his sidearm and stared at Charlie for a minute before deciding that there was nothing he could do. He turned away. The air gushed out of Charlie. She was at the hospital. He was about to ask how bad Laura’s injuries were when two guys popped up beside him. The two English guys from earlier.

“As we told the nice officer,” the floppy haired one said with a false smile, “we saw the whole thing and it was a complete accident. We also told him that we saw something similar almost happen in the last campsite.”

His voice was deliberately loud and he had one eye on the cop. The cop shook his head and sauntered off. Charlie let himself be led away by the boys. Once they were out of earshot, they became hyper.

“We couldn’t stop her,” the other one said.

“We tried,” the floppy one said.

“She was determined.”

Charlie took a deep breath, let it out slowly, folded his arms over his chest and looked at the two of them.

“First things first, is she badly hurt?”

They shook their heads in unison.

“Burns on her hands; she freaked when the tent went up and tried to put the fire out.”

“And her hair.” The floppy one looked at his friend for confirmation. "She burnt her hair. We told her she didn’t need cooking oil, these things,” he motioned to a tent nearby, “will go up easy if you just hold a match to them.”

“Highly flammable,” the other one nodded. “Whoosh!”

He motioned the way the fire had gone with his hands.

“Cooking oil?” Charlie shook his head to clear it. This wasn’t making sense. “She was cooking?”

They shared a look; the floppy one shook his head.

“Uh, no. She went to the kitchen to get some to pour over your tent. Then she set it on fire.”

“I gave her the matches.” The other boy seemed earnest. “I wouldn’t have if I had known what she planned.”

“Let me get this straight.” Charlie looked between them. “She set the tent on fire on purpose?”

They nodded. He rubbed his face.

“Any idea why?”

The non-floppy one shuffled his feet.

“She said you were with another woman.”

Aw, hell. His arms fell to his side.

“And then when the blaze got so big so fast and caught the tree above it, she went bonkers. She poured her water bottle on it, then started hitting it with a towel.”

“That’s when she burned her hands.”

“And she kept shouting.”

“Yeah, it was totally mad.”

“Over and over again, the same thing.”

Charlie held a hand up to stop them.

“What was she shouting?” he asked with the last of his patience.

“I am not my father.”

They both shrugged. Charlie closed his eyes briefly. He knew exactly what that meant. Laura had gone to the one place she was terrified of going. She’d snapped. He’d broken her and it had only taken just over a week.

“I need to go see her,” he told them.

“Yeah.” The floppy one nodded. “And you might want to apologise for the other girl. Chicks don’t like that.”

He gritted his teeth. Advice from teenagers. As he turned away one of them grabbed his arm.

“Which campsite are you going to after this?” they wanted to know. “We don’t want to miss what happens next.”

Charlie looked towards heaven before turning his back on them and heading in the direction of the local hospital.

He found Laura sitting on the bed in a cubicle in the emergency department. Relief overwhelmed him, making him pause before he let her know he was there. Her hair was singed, her hands were bandaged and she was wearing an old pair of blue scrubs. Her shoulders were slumped in a way he’d never seen before; everything about her screamed that she was defeated. Broken. Charlie felt sick to his stomach. He had caused this. With a deep breath he pulled back the curtain. Her head snapped towards him and she flinched. Something inside of him died a little.

“Well this is a helluva way to get your interview.” It was hard work to keep his tone light and a smile on his face.

Wide red rimmed eyes peered up at him.

“I suppose you’ll want the pity vote now, well you can forget about that, you still need to keep your end of the deal. A whole holiday, you can’t even get out of it by setting fire to my tent.”

One heavy teardrop slid down her cheek.

“Aw honey,” he said.

He stepped towards her and wrapped his arms tight around her. Laura buried her face in his old t-shirt and sobbed. Her whole body shuddered with them. Charlie rubbed her back and muttered soothing things. He wasn’t even sure what he was saying. At last Laura pulled away, wiped her nose on the bottom of his t-shirt, and then looked up at him.

“This is all your fault, moron,” she told him, then hiccupped.

Charlie grinned wide with relief before wrapping his arms around her again. Things were going to be okay.

CHAPTER NINE

“You look cute,” Charlie told her.

Laura gave him a look that she hoped would kill. She’d told the moron to bring her some clothes and instead of raiding her tent, he’d gone shopping. Unfortunately she was going to wear his idea of appropriate clothing out of the hospital. She looked down at herself and grimaced.

“I always said you should come with a warning.” Charlie was clearly amused.

Above the pink hot pants he thought were shorts, she wore a t-shirt with the slogan
Lizzie Borden Lives.
On the back it said -
Watch your back.

She growled in Charlie’s direction. He grinned as he pointed to his t-shirt it said,
I married an axe murderer.

“See. Matching set.”

“Oh how the simple minded are easily amused,” she told him.

Unfortunately there was nothing she could do about it. It was wear these stupid clothes or leave the hospital naked. She pursed her lips before pulling her hair back into a tight ponytail. She winced from the pain in her hands, and told herself to get over it. It was her own stupid fault and the burns weren’t that bad. She would be fine in a few days.

“Here, let me.” Charlie took the hairbrush and the hair band from her hands.

She sat on the chair to let him work.

“I’m not sure this is such a great idea,” she said. “I remember what you did to Maddie’s Barbies.”

He chuckled.

“Ah, the military haircut. Works well on both sexes.”

In a surprisingly short time he had her hair in a ponytail. She studied her reflection. It wouldn’t win any awards, but her hair wouldn’t drive her crazy all day either.

She forced a smile for the mirror, took a deep breath, closed her eyes and silently reminded herself that everything would be fine.

“Okay, let’s get out of here.”

Laura was more than ready. She knew she had spent the night in the hospital because Charlie had thrown his weight around. Her injuries were minor at best. She scanned the pastel coloured room. There were no belongings to gather, paperwork had been signed, bandages changed. There was nothing left to do except leave. She looked at Charlie. Well, one more thing. She took a deep breath.

“I need to explain about last night.”

Instantly his face took on the look all men got when a woman suggested they talk – panic, fear and a huge dose of ‘oh no’. He held up his hands to ward her off.

“It’s fine, we all go mental now and then.”

That was the problem. She took a step towards him.

“I don’t,” she said.

She actually saw him gulp as he tried to calculate how far he was from the door.

“Seriously, it’s fine. So you set fire to my tent. It happens all the time.”

Laura wasn’t going to be swayed by his charm.

“I don’t lose control. Think about it. You’ve known me most of my life. How often have I done anything spur of the moment? Anything that you would consider normal and the rest of the world would consider irrational?”

She could actually see the wheels turn behind his eyes and knew the moment he came to the same conclusion she had reached.

“Not often,” he said tightly.

She took another step towards him.

“You only came up with a handful of things didn’t you?”

He looked away as he plopped onto the bed beside her chair.

“And they all involved you. Didn’t they?”