“You have no idea!”
Kelly deposited a big plate of couscous on the table, some salad, more fruit juice and thick slices of bread, and finally sat down herself.
“Here you go, people,” she said brightly. “Please help yourselves.”
Pam, who had been very quiet up until then, reached over and grabbed a plate. She started piling stew and couscous on it for Kristan, who was still busy with one very hungry baby.
Once again Liz chose not to comment.
Pam had claimed the seat next to her partner as soon as they had arrived, and Liz had said nothing. After all, if the woman wanted to make amends she had no problem with that.
Pam had been polite with Liz, and she had hugged Kristan hello and asked if she could talk to her in private. The two women had disappeared in the garden for ten minutes. When Kristan had come back she had walked straight up to Liz, wrapped her arms around her waist and given her a warm kiss.
“How are you doing babe? Enjoying yourself?”
Liz had been having a good time getting to know Jennifer, and James had helped with the cooking. It was obvious that Kelly really liked him. She had gone out of her way to make him feel welcome, and he was paying her back by being an absolute gentleman. Funny, helpful, and a pleasure to have around.
“This feels like having a family,” Liz had observed with a smile.
“That’s right.”
“How is it going with Pam?”
Kristan had just shrugged.
“Not wonderful, but she has apologised. I think she’s finding it a bit hard to be around everyone.”
“Why?”
“No idea.”
“Maybe she feels bad about the other day still.”
“Maybe. I told her to forget it. If she wants to hang on to it that’s her problem.”
Then Kristan had kissed Liz gently on the cheek and released her.
“I love you,” she had whispered.
Now as Liz watched her girlfriend hand Marion back to Jennifer she smiled at the happy look she could see in her eyes. It was clear that Kristan had enjoyed spending time with the baby, and Liz liked that about her. She liked it a lot.
“Thanks,” Kristan said as Pam handed her a full plate, and she intentionally broke eye contact when the woman tried to linger.
Pam had met Liz and she knew what the situation was, and so why she was finding it necessary to flirt with her now when she had never done it before Kristan did not really understand. And she wanted absolutely no part in that game whatsoever.
She took a mouthful of stew and closed her eyes.
“Kel, this is incredible, as usual,” she declared.
“Glad you like it,” Kelly said, looking pleased. “James, are you doing this vegan thing as well?”
“I haven’t been, but this is so delicious I might start,” he replied, drawing another delighted smile from Kelly.
Kristan caught his eye and smiled, and when she nodded at him some silent communication passed between them.
Liz knew that James’ first impulse had been to decline the invitation to lunch. But Kristan had spoken to him, promised that there would be no alcohol on the table, and finally he had agreed to join them. Kristan had explained to him how much everybody had loved his brother and that they all wanted to welcome him into the family. She was delighted that everyone had embraced him into the group, even Pam.
Pam, who even though she was not drinking now appeared a little bit tipsy.
She had regaled them with funny stories of guiding in the mountains, and Liz had to hand it to her; the woman was funny, quick-witted, and she had a gift for telling tales. But she also could not help but notice that she seemed to be touching Kristan a hell of a lot.
Quick touches, leaning against her every so often, pouring her juice and all that kind of stuff, and Liz’s mood was slowly turning dark as she watched the woman flirt with her partner, to the point that even Jennifer wanted to bring it up.
“What’s going on with Pam?” she asked as they were getting pudding ready in the kitchen.
Liz forced herself to smile.
“You noticed, eh?”
“Well, I think everyone’s noticed.”
Kristan was sprawled out on the floor playing with Tim and the baby, happier it seemed with the little kids, and Liz really did not like the look on Pam’s face as she watched her partner. The woman looked like she was only one step away from taking her clothes off and jumping on her, and Liz was slowly beginning to get really, really angry.
“Hey, Liz, go get her now,” Jennifer said with feeling.
Liz stared at her, eyes wide.
“Get her?” she repeated, astounded. “Who, Pam?”
Jennifer burst out laughing.
“I don’t mean get violent with Pam, honey, I mean go get your girl. No one but you is allowed to touch her, right?”
“You’ve got that right,” Liz said fiercely.
She flashed Jen a quick smile.
“Thanks. I will.”
Kristan was quicker.
She had been keeping an eye out for her partner and looking for an opportunity to be alone with her. She had noticed how Liz had been getting very quiet for a while, and she was concerned. She met her just outside the kitchen and reached for her hand.
“Babe, come here,” she said softly.
“Hey you. I thought you were playing with the kids.”
“Yes. Trying to get away from Pam more like.”
She saw the tense look in Liz’s eyes as she said that and she held her a little tighter.
“What the hell is wrong with that woman?” Liz exclaimed, and Kristan smiled and shook her head.
“I don’t know. I kept thinking I was going to get up and come sit next to you, but I want to make today work. For James and for Kelly, and Jen is exhausted with the kids, and…”
Liz relaxed immediately and she leaned forward for a quick kiss. When she looked into Kristan’s clear blue eyes again all of her anger was gone.
“You are so kind,” she said softly.
Kristan smiled.
“You must be rubbing off on me darling. And something’s not right with Pam either, so until I know what it is I don’t want to do anything to hurt her.”
“Okay.”
“But Liz,” Kristan added, holding her back as Liz started to walk back toward the living room. “You are the only woman in this room I want to go home with tonight.”
Liz felt her heart tighten.
“And not just tonight but every day for the rest of your life?” she asked.
“Oh yeah. That more than anything,” Kristan said with feeling. “Stick with me, okay? You don’t have to make yourself scarce for Pam’s benefit.”
They walked back into the lounge, holding hands, and Jen made space for them on the sofa, purposely leaving no room for anyone else.
Pam was on the other side of the table speaking to James, and she glanced in their direction a couple of times, especially when Liz started feeding Kristan her ice cream and fruit pudding and made her laugh. It was no surprise to anyone when Pam suddenly announced that she had to leave.
She did thank Kelly profusely for inviting her and promised to pop round again soon. She shook James’ hand, waved at everyone else, and her eyes lingered on Kristan, who sat safely inside the circle of Liz’s arms.
“Need to talk to you about a climb on Fox,” she said brusquely.
“Sure, no problem. I’ll be in the office tomorrow if you want to pop round.”
“Okay, see you tomorrow,” Pam snapped, and she was gone.
Liz took a quiet breath and Kristan kissed her softly.
“Thanks,” she murmured.
James also went not long after because he wanted to move into his new cottage, and Kristan was pleased to see the excited look in his eyes.
“Call me later if you need anything, okay?” she said.
“No problem. Kelly, thank you so much for lunch. I shall see you in the cafe soon, all r
ight?”
“For sure, James, for sure,” the older woman promised, and she went over to kiss him on the cheek. “It’s good to have you with us, young man.”
“Cheers, Kel. Jen, nice to meet you, good luck with the little ones, okay?”
“Yep. And James, if you ever want to babysit you just call me,” Jen shot back with a grin.
James chuckled, waved at Liz and left.
“He’s a good guy,” Kelly declared, and Kristan smiled and nodded.
“Sure is.”
Once she could relax, Liz was more than happy to spend the rest of the afternoon with Kelly and Jen. Kristan sat with Marion on her lap, looking happy and enjoying having all of her favourite people together.
“James was right,” Liz observed with a smile. “Marion really has fallen in love with Kris.”
“Do you like babies, Liz?” Kelly asked innocently.
Kristan started to laugh quietly. She was amused by Kelly’s pointed and less than subtle question, but her eyes were on Liz, curious and excited as to what her lover would say.
“I do like babies, Kel,” Liz replied, smiling. “I don’t think I’m quite as good with them as Kristan is, but…”
“Of course you are,” Kristan said immediately. “You just need practice. Do you want to hold her?”
“She needs feeding again,” Jen stated. “Do you want to do it, Liz?”
“Uh…”
Before Liz had time to say anything else Marion had landed in her arms and Jen was handing her a bottle.
“I’ve checked it’s not too hot, so you just go ahead,” she said.
Marion was already reaching for it, smiling her sweet little smile and making happy noises. Liz got lost in her pretty quickly, and she did not see the loving look in Kristan’s eyes as she watched her, but Jennifer did, and she smiled.
“Won’t be long before you two have one of your own,” she declared.
“I don’t think so,” Kristan and Liz exclaimed in unison, but there was a definite sparkle in Liz’s eyes when she glanced at her lover.
“Well, it’s picture time I think, you are all too cute not to,” Kelly announced. “Kris, Jen, go sit with Liz and the baby.”
“Can we have one with just us?” Liz asked when she was done, blushing furiously when Kristan glanced at her. “What?” she grinned. “I just want a photo.”
“No problem. Hey, Jen, make sure you send it on to me as well, okay?”
She laughed when Liz stared at her with an eyebrow raised.
“What? I just want a photo.”
On the way back to the Park Kristan drove, and Liz scooted over across the front seats until she was pressed tightly against her.
“You really got pissed off with Pam, didn’t you?” Kristan asked, smiling a little.
“You can say that again. She’s lucky we were at Kelly’s and I didn’t want to make a scene.”
“What would you have done otherwise?”
Liz did not even have to think about that one.
“I would have told her to keep her hands off what belongs to me, and I would have made you sit next to me.”
Kristan shot her a quick glance.
“Wow. Really?”
“Yes.”
“That’s sexy, doc. Remind me to make you jealous more often…”
“Don’t even think about it!” Liz exclaimed, and Kristan laughed harder.
“I mean it,” Liz said, running her fingers over the back of Kristan’s neck and kissing her temple, then her neck, and then sneaking her hand under her shirt.
“Hey, I’m driving,” Kristan protested half-heartedly.
“What, can’t you multi-task?” Liz murmured.
“I could, but…”
Kristan hit the brakes when Liz started to kiss her harder, and she pulled over onto a layby, way off the road into the trees where it would be safe.
“Liz…”
“Shut up, darling.”
Kristan started to laugh as Liz straddled her and wrapped her arms around her neck, kissing her like her life depended on it. Liz’s fingers went up into her hair, twisted her head until she could kiss her better, harder and deeper.
“What’d you say before?” Liz asked, wrenching her mouth away for just a moment.
It took a second for Kristan to be able to see straight again.
“I don’t know… What?” she said, and she was breathing hard.
“You said I was the only one you wanted.”
“Yeah, you are.”
“Please say it again,” Liz demanded.
Kristan looked up into her eyes, and she saw the heat in them. She could have lost herself in Liz’s gaze and never come up for air ever again. She pulled her closer against her and never broke eye contact.
“I love you, and you are the only woman I want,” she said softly, gently. “The only woman I want to touch, kiss, make love to and be with, for the rest of my life.”
Liz was silent for what seemed like a long time.
“What?” Kristan asked, smiling.
“I think you should drive me home so I can show you how much I love you too.”
“Done deal.”
Liz slid back to her seat and Kristan launched the heavy 4x4 onto the road again. They got a red light just on the outskirts of town and Kristan stopped at the junction with an impatient sigh.
“I don’t know why they put a traffic light on the least travelled road in the country,” she remarked impatiently.
The light turned to green and she pulled forward.
“Hey, can I have your phone?” Liz said suddenly. “I want to see if…”
She never got to finish her sentence. She never saw it coming, never knew what hit them. There was a flash of lights and a massive shock.
The car seemed to fly off into the air, and all of a sudden there was just silence, and everything went black.
Chapter 14
Liz woke up because she was feeling so cold. Everything was pitch black around her and she struggled to remember where she was.
Lunch, she thought after a while.
And Pam being a jerk.
Kristan.
She had been kissing her, holding her… Where was she?
“Kris?” she mumbled.
Gosh, it was hard to talk. She swallowed, wondering why she was so cold and why everything hurt. She could smell gasoline. Why could she smell gasoline? She managed to sit up and things slowly started to come back to her. Something hit us, she thought. Something came at us.
“Kristan?” she called.
She glanced to her right and realised that she was still inside the car, and her heart nearly stopped beating when she caught sight of her partner collapsed on the other side of the truck.
“Kris! Kristan, hey! Are you okay?”
Kristan was slumped against the wheel, unconscious. There was blood in her hair, on her face and on her shirt. The car window had exploded under the impact and the door was twisted and folded inwards. Kristan had been too close to it to avoid being hit full on, Liz understood that, and she rested her fingers against the side of her lover’s neck, closing her eyes and breathing hard until she found a pulse. It was racing, but it was strong.
“I’ll get help,” she said loudly. “Okay, Kris? Damn it, wake up Kristan!”
There was no response from her partner, and Liz got on her knees and searched for her phone.
“Shit!” she exclaimed when she could not find it.
She pushed hard against the passenger door and found that it would not open. At the same time she became aware of a dull, throbbing pain in her left thigh. When she touched her leg her hand came back all bloody.
“Shit,” she muttered again.
She knew she had to find the phone and be quick about it too. She carried on looking despite the pain, and eventually she did manage to locate it stuck in between Kristan’s leg and the door. She grabbed it with both hands and dialed 111.
“Yes, ambulance,” she said urgently, and she wa
s looking at Kristan the whole time. “We’re just outside of town. I… I don’t know the name of the road… My partner is unconscious and she has a head wound. We need help.”
It felt like an hour but it took less than five minutes for the emergency services to get there, during which time Liz tried in vain to get Kristan to wake up. She could not risk moving her because she did not know what injuries she might have. So far it looked like a dislocated shoulder at least, plus a deep cut on the side of the head and God only knew what else internally.
The side passenger door would not open no matter how much Liz pressed against it, so she had to climb onto the back seat and kick that door open with her good leg. She limped around to Kristan’s side and bit her lip when she realised the extent of the damage.
Something had hit them.
She did not know what, but when it happened she had not been wearing her seat belt. The force of the impact had thrown her across the car, and her left leg hurt a hell of a lot but fortunately nothing was broken. Kristan on the other hand had still had her seat belt on and so it had kept her in place, holding her in when something hit them so hard it was enough to almost bend the car in two.
The 4x4 stunk of gas and Liz’s stomach was in knots.
The Fire Service got there first on blues and twos, they made the car safe immediately, and then it was a simple decision for them. They cut inside it from the back, removed the seats, then got to Kristan. They got far enough in that they could pull her seat back and out from under the weight of the crushed door.
“Take it easy, take it easy,” Liz cautioned as they worked. “We need a rigid board and a cervical collar. Okay? You got that?”
A medic crawled inside the car as she was giving instructions.
“Can I help?” he enquired.
Liz glanced back at him.
“My partner is unconscious. Possible neck injuries. She has a bad shoulder too and it is dislocated. And a head wound. She got hit really hard…”
He nodded calmly.
“Got that. You’re bleeding too, are you aware of that?”
Liz glanced at her leg, and as she shifted position inside the wrecked car she suddenly felt excruciating pain inside her knee.
Unbroken Page 14
