Irish Sex Fairy: Ellora's Cave by Kelly Jamieson (the lemonade war series TXT) 📕

and more relaxed than she had in ages. Dear God, Maeve had been right. She couldn’t help the smile that pulled up the corners of her mouth, and when Maeve looked up at her from the counter and did a double-take, she knew Maeve probably recognized her change in demeanor too.

“And where have you been, young lady?” Maeve demanded, but her twinkly eyes belied the harsh question.

“Um. With Shane.” She knew Maeve would know exactly what they’d been doing. And she didn’t even care.

“Ah. Well, that’s fine, then. You look quite…relaxed.”

“Yeah.” Keara touched a hand to her hair, sure she still wore a goofy smile. “I feel pretty good.”

“I won’t say I told you so, as long as you promise to remember that I am right about most things.”

Keara laughed, and it felt so good it startled her. “Okay, I’ll remember that.”

“Not to ruin your mood, but what happened at the police station?”

Keara told her and shrugged. “I doubt they’ll find anything. But Shane believes me.”

“Well of course he does! I believe you too!”

Keara regarded her aunt, and a soft warmth spread inside her. “Thank you,” she choked out. “That means a lot to me.”

Maeve shook her head, but was smiling.

“Anything for me to do?” Keara asked.

“Actually there was a phone call for you a while ago.” Maeve reached for a piece of paper and handed it to Keara. She looked down at the name and phone number. Oh lord. It was the case manager from the disability insurance company the bank contracted with. She was the one who’d arranged for Keara to see a psychologist when she’d been having the flashbacks and nightmares, and had arranged for Keara to go back to work—until she had that episode of dizziness. Then the plan had been put on hold. Keara had emailed her too, that she’d be out of town and could be reached at this number.

“I guess I should call her,” she murmured. “I’ll go upstairs.”

Up in Maeve’s apartment she called Stefanie Craig.

“Hi, Keara, how are you doing?”

If Stefanie had asked yesterday, she’d have gotten a totally different answer, but today Keara felt pretty good. “I’m doing okay,” she said. “Considering.”

“Considering what?”

Keara told her about the accident.

Stefanie was shocked. “Oh my goodness! Are you okay?”

“I’m a little bruised up, stiff and sore, but I’m okay. They checked me out at the hospital but they released me.”

“Well, I guess that means you’re not ready to come back to work, then.”

“Uh…well, no. I mean, I could, but…” The thought brought on a familiar anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach, although not anywhere near as bad as the attack she’d had the day she’d tried to go back to work. Would it escalate into more? Keara pressed a hand to her tummy as she talked. “I think I’ll be ready soon. One problem is I no longer have a car. I doubt if it will be able to be fixed, so I’m going to have to get a new one once I settle with the insurance company. So I have no way to get home.”

“Well. There are other ways to get home.”

“Yes. I suppose. I could uh…fly down.”

“Or take a bus,” Stefanie said cheerfully. “But if you’re still sore from the accident, that’s okay. I’ll give you a call next week and see how you’re doing. Okay?”

“Okay. I’ll know more by then and I’m sure I’ll be feeling much better.”

She was sure of no such thing, but considering how cheery she’d felt after her romp with Shane, there was some hope that she actually might get better enough to go back soon.

* * * * *

The bright mood lasted until Shane’s phone call later that day to tell her that they had in fact found traces of blue paint on her back bumper.

“Oh, dear God,” she breathed. “Really?”

``Yes. Dark blue. Not much. We’ll see if there’s enough to analyze.”

She drew in a breath. “Then what?”

“It’s unlikely we’ll ever find the vehicle it belongs to,” he said. “But if we know the make and model, it’s a starting point.”

They had to believe her now. Which she should be happy about, but goddammit, someone had really tried to run her off the road! Why? Why would someone do that to her? It was insane. She rubbed her hands up and down over the goose bumps that rose on her upper arms.

It was just a stupid accident. Probably a kid showing off, trying to act like a NASCAR driver or something, got carried away and when he’d seen what he’d caused, he probably ran scared. It was despicable. It was bad luck. But she was okay.

It took a few days for the car to get estimated and everyone had been right, it was a total loss. She thought she’d be sad about that, considering how much she’d loved rewarding herself with that car, but hey, it was just a car. She was alive and that’s what mattered. She’d get another car.

Shane had dealt with her insurance company even though she kept telling him he didn’t have to do that. She’d seen him every day when he popped in to check on both her and Maeve. She told him he didn’t have to do that either. She wasn’t a baby or an invalid, for heaven’s sake. So she had a few problems—he didn’t have to worry about her.

“I like looking after you,” he’d murmured into her ear. “How about we go back to my place and I’ll look after you even better?”

They couldn’t keep their hands off each other and when he wasn’t around, she had a hard time thinking of anything but him. Again, Maeve was right. The more you had sex, the more you wanted it. She had this insatiable hunger for Shane that no amount of foreplay, sex, afterplay or any kind of play seemed to assuage.

Keara helped in the store as much as she could. She listened to Maeve give out jaw-dropping sex advice. Like the man who wanted a strap-on