Free The Wells Brothers: Luke by Angela Verdenius Page A

around the freezer door.  “The…um…swelling?”
    “It’ll be fine.”  He adjusted his
position in the chair slowly.  “I don’t need peas.”
    “But-”
    “Trust me, Elspeth, I know.”
    “Okay.”  Dubiously, she shut the
freezer door.  “Do you need a heat pack then?”
    Mikki almost laughed out loud at
the incredulity that flitted across his face.
    “No!”  He lowered his voice. 
“No.  No heat pack.  Thanks.”
    “What can we do to make you more
comfortable?”
    “Nothing.  Honestly.”
    “What about a cushion to sit on?”
she asked earnestly.
    That manly jaw dropped.  “No,
really.”
    Mikki’s lips twitched.  Okay, she
knew she shouldn’t be enjoying this but Elspeth on a roll was something else. 
The woman had no idea what to do but wanted to do something to make up
for her niece’s actions.
    “A doughnut cushion?  With a hole
in it?”  Elspeth looked at Mikki.  “Maybe there’s a pharmacy open in town, or
the local hospital?  They use doughnuts for those women who’ve had babies and
need stitches, don’t they?  To sit on so the sore bits aren’t making contact
with anything?”
    “Oh yeah.”  Mikki couldn’t help
but nod earnestly.  “Will that help, Luke?”
    Oops, maybe she shouldn’t have
drawn attention back to herself.  Not when he said tightly, “No cushion.  I’m
fine,” before switching his gaze to Mikki accusingly.
    Crap, he’d seen her amusement. 
Sobering, she held up her hands.  “We’re just trying to help.”
    “I don’t need help,” he gritted
out.
    Elspeth bit her lip.
    Catching sight of her expression,
he sighed, his shoulders relaxing a little.  “Elspeth, really, I’m all right. 
I just need a little time to recover.”
    “Do you need to go back to the
city?” she asked worriedly.  “I can drive you back tonight.  I understand, I
really do.”
    “I’ll be back to normal by
morning.”  His face softened.  “I’ve had this before, so trust me, I know what
I’m talking about.”
    “You get kneed often?” Mikki asked
before she could stop herself.
    Oh boy, he might be prepared to
give Elspeth some slack, but his eyes narrowed on Mikki.  “Me and my brothers
rough-housed as kids, I played sport at school, accidents happened.”
    She nodded, then for something to
do other than sit and feel Luke drill holes in her with his eyes, she got up to
take the kettle from the stove where it started whistling.  As she prepared
three mugs of hot tea, she listened to her aunt and Luke talking.
    “So what were you two doing
upstairs at one in the morning?” he asked.
    “Hunting ghosts, dear, what else?”
     

 
    Chapter 3
     
    “Those two are a couple of
sausages short of a barbie.  Ghost hunting, Jason?  Ghost hunting ?”
    “Wait.  Mikki really kicked you in
the ball sac?”
    Luke rolled his eyes.  “Yes.”  It
took a full ten seconds for his idiot cousin to stop laughing.  “Finished?”
    There was a snort before Jason managed,
“For the minute.”
    “Laugh it up, drongo.”
    “Did they offer you first aid?  Oh
God, that would’ve been something to see!”
    For a man who was usually more on
the serious side, Jason was getting a lot of enjoyment out of this.  Not about
to relay the frozen peas offer, Luke forged onwards.  “Ghost hunt.  Can you
believe it?  They went upstairs after midnight to see if they could spot
ghosts.”
    “What did you expect?  It’s an
old, derelict mansion, has some stories about it, a man died there, and you
stick those two sheilas in the middle of it.  What do you think is going to
happen?”
    “I thought they were here for the
plans and packing and sorting out and stuff!”
    “One job during the day, one job
at night.  Very industrious, wouldn’t you say?”
    “I’d say nutty as a fruitcake.”
    “Aw, they’re harmless.  And fun.”
    “Fun is not getting booted in the
nut sack.”
    “If you were into pain, it would
be.”
    “Izzy is a seriously bad