Lucy smiled and nodded her head as he stood and left the house, torch in hand. Xanther hadn't been gone twenty minutes when there was a knock on the door and when Lucy swung the door open he was standing back there with a small backpack in his hand. Lucy smiled feeling butterflies begin to flutter about in her stomach. Xanther followed Lucy into the spare bedroom that had a big bed against one wall, a small closet and dresser that sat under a huge window. Lucy went to the closet and opened the door.
"There are more blankets and pillows in here if you need them" she said with a smile.
Xanther looked around the room, before putting his bag onto the bed.
"This is a great room do you rent it out?" he asked.
Lucy shook her head.
"We were going to, before Hudson died, we were going to start a bed and breakfast" she explained.
Xanther nodded and sat on the end of the bed.
"Hudson was your husband?" he asked
Lucy nodded her head trying to find a way to change the subject; she didn't want to bring the dark cloud back down onto them.
"Do you mind me asking what happened?" Xanther asked.
Lucy shook her head and ran her hands through her hair.
"He had bowel cancer" she said.
Xanther frowned and nodded.
"That must have been hard to watch" he said "Georgie died two years ago in a car accident"
Lucy went and sat beside him on the bed and looked over at Xanther.
"Sometimes I think watching Hudson die made it easier than if he had of been taken fast like in an accident. I'm really sorry you had to go through that" Lucy said.
Xanther nodded and looked up at Lucy with tears in his eyes as he swiped at them with the back of his hand.
"Yeah it's fucked. Death in general is fucked" he said angrily.
Lucy agreed wholeheartedly. She nodded her head and tentatively reached out patting him gently on the arm. Xanther reached out and put his arm around Lucy's shoulders and pulled her into his side. She stiffened at first before relaxing in his hug and putting her head his shoulder. They sat in silence in their own personal grief for some time before Lucy sat up and slapped her legs.
"For god's sake look at the pair of us miserable nellies" Lucy said with a laugh.
Xanther smiled and nodded his head.
"How about we go finish that bottle of scotch" he said reaching into his bag "because I've got another one to start"
Lucy barked out a laugh and stood nodding her head, leading him into the kitchen where she lined up their glasses and filled them with shots.
Chapter Five
When she woke her mind was fuzzy, her tongue felt like sand paper and her mouth felt like it was filled with sand. Lucy groaned as she rolled in bed to discover Samson beside her with his head nudged into her shoulder blade. She tried to remember the night before. Lucy remembered topping up glasses with scotch with Xanther. She had brief memories of bad karaoke singing, some terrible dance moves before both of them crawled off to their beds. Lucy put her hands up on her head and ran them through her hair feeling her hair snag on her wedding rings.
Lucy looked down at her rings and over at Samson who was snoring. She lay in bed staring at the rings; memories flooded her of Hudson proposing. It was on the beach just down the road from their house, it was what made Lucy fall in love with the little sea town in the first place. They had been wandering along the rocks, looking in the little pools of water for trapped crabs and starfish when she had turned to say something to Hudson. He was down on one knee with her engagement ring in his hand. Of course Lucy had accepted immediately. Hudson was the love of her life. She couldn't imagine a life without him.
Their wedding had been a grand affair, Melinda had seen to that. The truth was that Lucy had just wanted a very small intimate wedding, not with the great aunts and distant cousins that Melinda had insisted on inviting. However, her highlight of the whole day was walking down the aisle of that little beach town church in her white dress and seeing Hudson tall and strong with his blonde hair neatly cropped around his face and tearing up as she strolled toward him on the arm of her father.
Lucy swiped at the rogue tears that slipped from her eyes at the thought before she began to twist the rings from her hand. It was time. She had known for a long time that she needed to begin to move forward. She knew that Hudson wouldn't have wanted to stop living her life, but she didn't know how to go on without him. Xanther showing up on her doorstep and the ease in which they got along felt like it was her second chance. Even if nothing happened between them but neighbours she still knew it was time to start to find happiness again. Last night had shown her that. For the first time in three years she actually laughed, she actually had fun and she could only thank Xanther for that.
"Mum will be so proud" Lucy laughed as Samson looked up at her putting his face on her shoulder.
"Oh Samson your breath stinks" Lucy said waving her hand in front of her face.
She stood and went to her dresser dropping the rings into a small jewellery box that had been her grandmothers before sighing and reaching for her dressing robe and heading out to the kitchen. She could smell the bacon and eggs cooking before she got to the kitchen and when she walked in, Lucy saw a dressed and fresh looking Xanther busying around like he had always been there. When Xanther saw Lucy he smiled.
"I hope you don't mind, but I thought you might need some hangover food" he said with a smile.
Lucy nodded and looked over at the two empty bottles and half empty bottle of tequila sitting on the sink with a groan.
"I can't believe we drank so much" she said rubbing her face.
Xanther laughed and shook his head pointing at her.
"You drank most of it. I stopped half way into the second bottle of scotch" he laughed.
Lucy frowned and shook her head. She was sure that he was doing tequila shots with her. Her memory started to come back of Xanther sitting on her couch smiling up at her while she took shot after shot off the coffee table, dancing around to whatever music was on the radio. Lucy groaned again and put her head down on the bench.
"If it's any consolation, you're cute when you're drunk" Xanther laughed.
Lucy lifted her head and shook it gingerly.
"That's no consolation at all" she laughed as she ran her hands over her face again.
"Hey you took your rings off" Xanther said pointing at Lucy's empty finger.
She looked down at her hand and then back up at Xanther nodding her head with a sigh.
"Yeah, I thought it was time." Lucy said with a weak smile.
Xanther smiled at her as he served up two plates of bacon and eggs, sliding a plate across to her.
"Good on you" he said with a genuine smile.
Xanther came and sat down next to her and begun to tuck into breakfast. Lucy stopped eating and turned to him.
"Xanther I need to ask you something. Yesterday I had a man come to my door telling me he was a reporter. He was looking for you" Lucy said shoving a forkful of bacon in her mouth.
Xanther stopped eating and looked at Lucy with a frown and shook his head.
"What did he want?" he asked with a growl.
Lucy shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know. I told him that I didn't know you and then Samson chased him away" she said with a smile.
Xanther looked down at Samson and held a piece of bacon out for him, which of course the dog greedily gulped down.
"What a great dog, fucking reporters" Xanther groaned.
"Well he said you were famous, in a band?" she said watching Xanther start to look uncomfortable.
He nodded his head and ran his hand through his hair, as he put his fork down and turned to her.
"I figured you mustn't have known me when I met you on the stairs yesterday and you didn't go all fangirl" he said with a smile.
Lucy nodded and shrugged her shoulders. She thought she had been a little fangirl like, not because she knew he was famous but just simply because he was so good looking.
"I didn't know who you were until the reporter said your name and told me I must have been living under a rock" she chuckled.
Xanther smiled and nodded.
"Well it's true I was in a band. A rockabilly band. All I had ever wanted as a kid was to be famous and I got there, we toured the world, we sold hundreds of thousands of records, we were on covers on magazines. Then Georgie died and I just didn't want to be a part of that world anymore" he said with a sigh.
"I can understand that" she said with a nod. "I mean I wasn't famous. But I can understand not wanting to be a part of the world you were in"