101
Garrett Leigh
After setting up the dishwasher—a habit he’d yet to break—Dex wandered over to the dessert section, noting Seb and the Chelsea Bun dough they’d made the day before had yet to appear. He retrieved Seb’s weekly planner and flicked through until he came to the right day, but aside from the words “bun” and “lunch,” he could decipher little from the handwritten plans for the day.
He rubbed his belly. The headache was fading, but his insides still felt empty and raw, like he was hungry, or sick, or both.
“Morning.”
Seb dumped a big plastic box down on the counter. Dex jumped but found himself distracted by the ball of Chelsea Bun dough billowing over the sides of a glass bowl. “That’s huge.”
Seb smirked, though Dex could see his eyes were drawn and weary. “Amazing, eh? Give me a minute to get a brew, and I’ll show you how to punch it down.”
Punch it down?
Seb ambled off to the bar and reappeared a few minutes later with two mugs of tea. He passed Dex one, along with a bag of sweets and a paper-wrapped package from his box of tricks. “Cheese and Marmite. Pink shrimps and fried eggs.”
Dex’s mouth watered. He felt like death, but cheese and Marmite? Food of the gods, and no one made it better than Seb. “What have you got?”
“Jam sarnies and cola bottles. Don’t let me eat them all before lunch. I’m going to need the sugar this afternoon. Pass me that bloody dough. Let’s get this over with.”
Dex stuffed half a sandwich in his mouth and watched, fascinated, as Seb knocked the air out of the dough with his fists and turned it out onto the floured counter. By the time it was stuffed with spiced raisins and rolled into spiraled buns, it didn’t look anything like the gloopy mess Dex had walked into the previous afternoon.
Seb wrapped them in cling film. “Right. They just need to proof on top of the steamer for an hour, then they can go in the oven. Do you know what cake you’re making today?”
Dex picked up the baking tray loaded with the buns. “Lemon drizzle.”
102
Heart
“You’ve got the recipe squared away?” “Think so.” “Okay. Good. I’ve got to pop out for a while. I’ll be back before
service starts. If you need anything, ask Rick.”
Seb took his bandana off and tossed it on top of the microwave. His tone was friendly enough, but he didn’t look happy. Dex took the buns to the steamer and slid them into the warm space where the air leaked out. When he came back, Seb was still there, staring into space.
“Okay?”
“Hmm? Oh yeah. Apart from hanging out of my arse, at least. Hey, can I ask you something?”
Dex nodded and reached for the second half of his sandwich. He felt better already.
“What does gorjer mean?”
He dropped the sandwich like a stone. “What?”
“Gorjer. You kept muttering it in your sleep. Is it someone you know?”
Dex waited a moment for his tongue to detach from the roof of his mouth. He’d never talked in his sleep before, at least not that he knew of. He was pretty sure Braden would’ve beaten it out of him. “You’re a gorjer. I’m a Traveller.”
Seb stared at him, then shook his head and gathered some paperwork from the file he kept in the counter drawer. “See you in a bit.”
About GARRETT LEIGH
Bonus Material available for all books on Garrett's Patreon account. Includes short stories from Misfits, Slide, Strays, What Remains, Dream, and much more. Sign up here: https://www.patreon.com/garrettleigh
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Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer, cover artist, and book designer. Her debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards, and was again a finalist in 2017 with Rented Heart.
In 2017, she won the EPIC award in contemporary romance with her military novel, Between Ghosts, and the contemporary romance category in the Bisexual Book Awards with her novel What Remains.
When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.
Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com
Connect with Garrett
www.garrettleigh.com
Also by GARRETT LEIGH
Slide
Rare
Circle
Misfits
Strays
Dream
Whisper
Believe
Crossroads
Bullet
Bones
Bold
House of Cards
Junkyard Heart
Rented Heart
Soul to Keep
My Mate Jack
Lucky Man
Finding Home
Only Love
Heart
What Remains
What Matters
Between Ghosts
Whisper (Skins Book 2) Page 22
