Burnt by Karly Lane Page A

pressing the little green phone icon and answering the call. ‘Hello?’
    â€˜Bec? It’s Seb.’
    â€˜Seb? How’d you know my mobile number?’ she asked, more surprised than annoyed. His deep chuckle on the other end of the phone made her pulse do a funny little skip.
    â€˜I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you,’ he told her lightly and without remorse. ‘Where are you? I tried your home phone – you’re not at work, are you?’
    â€˜Ah, no. I’m at home. I was outside in the garden and just missed your call.’ Seb was calling her .
    â€˜Do you want to bring the girls out to Dad’s tomorrow?’ he was saying. ‘They seemed kinda excited about visiting a farm and I thought we might take them down to the creek … if you wanted to.’
    â€˜Sure. That’s a great idea. They’ll love it.’ She tried to keep her tone as casual as his offer. Did she detect a note of diffidence in his voice, or had he just been unsure she’d accept? With a shake of her head, she made herself stop analysing his every move and decided to just accept the invitation for what it was: something to make the girls happy.
    They’d be over the moon. Only this morning Sarah had been asking when they could go and visit Seb’s farm, and even Natalie couldn’t hide her interest. She’d tried to break it to them gently that Seb was an old friend, but they didn’t really know him well enough for a visit and it probably wouldn’t happen. She could just imagine the ‘I told you so’ looks they’d give her once she broke the news. Had they picked up on something she hadn’t? Or was it just the innocent assumption kids had that everyone would fall in love with them and want to invite them over to visit?
    Fall in love … Whoa – where had that come from? Now who was being delusional? She and Seb had shared a silly teenage romance, one of those heady, first-love rushes that she should know better than to even think about. This older Seb didn’t seem the kind of man who would easily fall in love and especially not with a woman who came with two little extras, no matter how cute they were. He was just being friendly – he didn’t know anyone else in the district these days, and he was probably bored out of his brain, stuck out on his dad’s place, healing.
    â€˜So come out whenever you’re ready; in fact, if you come in the morning, we can make a day of it,’ he suggested.
    â€˜Thanks, Seb,’ she said, ‘the kids will love it. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
    He said goodbye and she heard the click of the phone disconnecting. Distracted, she replaced the phone in her handbag and looked out at her backyard thoughtfully. The house phone ringing immediately after brought a smile to her face as she picked it up.
    â€˜What did you forget to tell me to bring?’
    The silence that greeted her remark immediately wiped the smile from her face as the familiar heavy breathing started in her ear once more. Slamming the phone down in its cradle, Rebecca moved away from the bench and hugged herself tightly.
    Bastard .
    Well, it wasn’t going to work, she decided, as the prickly sensation of uncertainty began to fade, replaced by the surge of injustice. He could try all he liked to play his little games. Let him get off on trying to scare the hell out of her – he was the loser. Really, who the hell did that, these days?
    Surely whoever it was would lose interest in her once they figured out she wasn’t going to fall apart or react at all. She sure as hell wasn’t going to needlessly worry her parents, who would insist she drag the police into it. Going to the police would be a waste of time, and she really didn’t need to be a pain in their already hectic lives for no purpose – she knew that the police were just as overworked and underpaid as nurses were. The last thing