CHAPTER 15
The day after the wedding, Ben and Erin went off on their honeymoon and Cate moved into their house.
She hadn’t realised how isolated it was until she was alone in the house. Kian’s house was just across the courtyard but apart from that, there was nothing else for miles around. As it got darker, she checked all of the doors and windows were locked and bolted and went up to the guest bedroom, which was at the back of the house. Out of the bedroom window, she could see nothing but blackness, there were no lights anywhere. Cate shuddered and quickly closed the curtains. Kian’s right; you are too young.
Cate got into bed and leaving the lamp at the side of the bed switched on, she tried to go to sleep. She’d just drifted off to sleep when suddenly she heard barking. For a second, she wasn’t sure if she was still dreaming. No, she was definitely awake and it was Monty downstairs barking. She could feel herself starting to panic. The barking didn’t stop. She forced herself to get up and looked around the room for anything she could possibly use as a weapon. There was nothing. She grabbed her phone from the bedside table and gingerly made her way down the hallway to the stairs. I hate this.
The downstairs was all in darkness so she quickly flipped the lights on in the hallway. The barking was coming from the kitchen so she went towards the closed door. Cate tried to hear if there was anything on the other side besides Monty but her heart was beating so loudly. She quietly opened the cupboard under the stairs and picked up the metal attachment for the vacuum cleaner. She turned the handle on the kitchen door really slowly. Why did I agree to this?
“Aargh,” she shouted loudly, throwing open the kitchen door. Monty stopped barking for a second and looked up at her in surprise. She opened her eyes and looked around, there was nobody there. Then Monty started barking again and she looked down at the kitchen floor.
“Oh my God,” Cate gasped. There on the kitchen floor was a little grey mouse. That’s what Monty had been barking at. Cate almost started crying with relief.
Cate knelt down on the floor and Monty immediately came to her side. The poor little mouse looked terrified. She found a container in the kitchen cupboard and carefully manoeuvred the mouse inside. Then she put a lid on it and unlocked the back door, ready to release it back into the wild.
As she opened the back door, there was a really loud, blaring sound and Cate suddenly realised that she’d forgotten to turn off the alarm. Shit! She put the mouse still in the container on the kitchen counter and shut the back door but the alarm didn’t stop. She ran back to the hallway and found the alarm panel but the noise was so loud, she couldn’t remember the code. Monty was running circles around her and she remembered that she hadn’t locked the back door. Don’t panic. She tried really hard to remember the code, was it Ben’s birthday? She tried that but it was wrong.
Then she heard the back door creak open. Who was that?
Monty pushed closer up against her. She heard footsteps coming down the hallway towards her.
She couldn’t turn around. The footsteps kept coming.
“Please don’t kill me,” she whimpered.
But it was a familiar voice. “I’m not going to kill you,” he said softly.
Cate had never been more relieved to see Kian. He leaned in front of her, punched in the alarm code and the noise stopped.
“Oh, thank God,” Cate said, covering her ears, which were still ringing.
“What happened?” Kian looked concerned. He put a hand on her arm and she jumped. “Oh my God, you’re shaking, come here.”
Kian wrapped her up in his arms and she buried her face in the safety of his chest.
After she’d stopped shaking, he guided her to the kitchen table and sat her down. “Let me make you some tea.”
As he went to reach for a mug from the draining board, he saw the container with the mouse inside. “What the…?”
Cate quickly explained what had happened. “I’d better get rid of it,” she said. “Will you come with me?”
“Okay.” Kian held her hand as they went outside into the field at the back of the house. Cate set the box down and carefully opened the lid. The mouse quickly jumped out and went running off into the blackness.
When they got back inside, Monty was hiding under the dining table. “It’s okay,” Cate said softly, kneeling down to see him. “It’s gone now, you can come out.” He gingerly padded his way towards her and she ruffled his head and tickled behind his ears.
“Here you go,” Kian said, “I’ve put extra sugar in it.”
As she took the mug from him, she noticed he was looking at her strangely. “What is it?” Cate asked.
He quickly turned around and busied himself putting the box of teabags back in the cupboard.
Cate looked down at what she was wearing. It had been a warm evening so she was wearing a pale pink vest and her pyjama bottoms. The fabric of the vest was thin and when they’d gone outside it was cold so…
Embarrassed, she quickly folded her arms across her chest.
“Sorry,” Cate stumbled over her words. “I, uh, I didn’t realise. I’ll go and get my robe.”
“Thanks,” Kian exhaled, keeping his back to her.
When Cate came back with her robe belted tightly around her waist, Kian was sat at the kitchen table. Monty was curled up at his feet. She sat down with him and they drank their mugs of tea in silence.
Kian said he couldn’t leave her and Monty alone in the house after their scare so he slept on the couch downstairs. When Cate came downstairs the following morning, he was still asleep. She watched him for a moment.
“Hey,” he said, opening his eyes.
“Hey,” she quickly turned away, embarrassed that he had caught her watching him.
He got up and stretched, his t-shirt riding up a little and Cate caught a glimpse of his skin. It felt like all of the air was pushed out of her lungs.
“We should have bought them a more comfortable couch as a wedding present,” Kian said, rolling his shoulders. “That thing’s so hard.”
“Thanks for staying,” Cate said. “Can I get you some breakfast?”
Kian looked down at his watch, “shit! I’ve got to go.” When he got to the back door, he stopped, “are you two going to be okay?”
Cate looked down at Monty who was noisily tucking into the breakfast Cate had just laid out for him. “Yeah, we’re fine. Thanks though for everything.”
“Okay,” Kian walked across the courtyard and Cate leaned on the doorframe, watching him go. Halfway across, he suddenly stopped and turned around. When he saw she was still there, he smiled. “Come over for dinner tonight?”
Cate thought about playing it cool, pretending she had plans, for like a millisecond and then said “Okay, what time?”
“Seven?” Kian asked and Cate nodded.
She waited for him to go inside his own house and then shut the back door. Yes! She punched the air. Monty looked up from his breakfast as if to say what are you doing?
“I’ve got a date,” she grinned at him.
He wasn’t impressed and went back to his breakfast.