When a woman moves into the sleepy town, it rouses everyone's tongues to start wagging. She is strange and distant in her manner. Tia Frost is blissfully unaware of the townsfolk's discomfort with her. With Burt at her side, she wonders about the wo...
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I woke up and looked down to see Tia still asleep laying on my chest. I looked over at the screen and saw that one of the scouts was also curled up fast asleep only he was behind a bush.
Tia stirred on my chest and I smiled. She looked up at me. "Morning Maverick."
"Morning." She stretched and smiled at me. She rolled off me to lay on her side of the bed.
"Tia..."
"We need to get plenty of rest today. They could decide to attack at any moment with distrust and desensitisation in the ranks."
She doesn't want to talk about... "Tia do you..."
"Do you want to watch me let Burt out again?"
I sighed. There's no point trying to talk to her about this if she doesn't want to. Is she ashamed of what we did? "Yes.. we should be ready for them to come after us." She stopped shaking... I didn't notice she was shaking until just then! "Are you alright? You were shaking."
"Fine." Her tone was soft, not flat but soft and full of something... I'm not sure what.
"If you say so. When you say ready what do you mean?"
"We need to get our gear on and load the guns." She sounded relieved.
"What about Burt?"
As if saying his name called him he jumped on the bed. Tia laughed and batted him away as he tried to lick her face. "He will protect us if they get in. Get down Burt I don't want to get up yet."
He barked and bounced on us. Tia grabbed him and he lay between us.
"Well, that put an end to our cuddle."
Tia laughed as Burt rolled over onto his back. "That's the way with dogs and children. They don't like being left out."
I rubbed Burt's belly. "Yes, it would seem so."
Tia took my hand and I saw she was avoiding looking at me like she had when I first started to get to know her. "When will you need to take him out?"
Burt rolled over again looking excited. "After tea."
She sat up and moved to get out of bed. I watched her as she dressed and then walked to the kitchen. I got up too and approached her slowly. She turned. I couldn't hide my concern from her. I opened my mouth and she smiled offering me her hand. Her smile was genuine and I took her hand. She pulled me to her and as I got close I gathered her up in my arms. Her warmth was a comfort after the way she had been this morning. I kissed her neck and she sighed happily.
She turned in my grip and made the tea only slightly hampered by me holding her. "I will keep an eye out for their scouts." She spun in my arm's leaving the tea on the worktop behind her.
"You will protect me. I know that." She put her arms around my neck and kissed me. "You want to talk I know.... I can't right now. So we will concentrate on the job at hand ok?" Her voice was soft as she whispered in my ear.
