Read Online The Escape Collection: (The Escape Collection) by Elena Aitken - Free Book Online

shrugged, and went back to mangling the onion with her knife. “But you have to be gone by seven.”  
    “Deal,” he said, and headed for the door to empty his car of the remaining boxes.
    “Oh, Reid,” Whitney said before he could get out the door. He turned around to see her, still holding the knife poised above the cutting board, the onion now a mashed up, semi-chopped mess that must have been her version of diced. “Your room is at the top of the stairs, first door on your right. You can use the bathroom across the hall. And there’s an extra house key on the hook by the door.”
    “Thanks.” He grabbed the key and shoved it in his pocket. “Do you need any help?” He pointed to the mess of onions.
    She glanced from the cutting board back to Reid. “No,” she said. “Why would you ask? I can do this.”  
    He smiled. “Of course you can,” he said. From the looks of it, if they were going to be sharing meals, he’d be doing most of the cooking. “Forget I asked.”  
    She tilted her head and opened her mouth like she was going to say something. When she didn’t, Reid said, “I’ll leave you to it then. Pretend I’m not even here.”
    As he pushed his way out to the back porch, Reid thought he heard her mutter something else, but some things are best left alone, so he pretended he didn’t hear her and instead went to empty his car.
    It only took two more loads before all of his belongings were in his new room, which was a good thing since the space wasn’t very big. It was cozy and clean, and had everything Reid would need—wrought iron bed, a dresser and what was supposed to pass as a closet. It was a bit cramped, but it had character. The whole house, from what he’d seen, had character. It reminded him of the way his Grandma’s house used to be. Quaint and comfortable and full of the yummy scents of home cooking.  
    Reid sniffed the air. Except what he smelled was definitely not the same smell that Grandma’s house used to have. Something was burning. It hadn’t looked like Whitney knew what she was doing, but he didn’t think she would actually ruin what she was doing.  
    Reid chuckled to himself and opened the door to the hallway. Maybe he’d go see if she needed help after all.
    The second the door opened, his nose was assaulted and a haze of smoke filled the air. Shit. Something really was burning.

Chapter 4

    I had everything under control. The steaks were seasoned and ready to go, the asparagus was steaming and the prawns were in the skillet. Everything was going perfectly. All I needed to do was mix up the hollandaise sauce and I’d be ready. Who said I couldn’t cook? I was holding my own in the kitchen pretty well. Even with all the distractions, and there were a lot of distractions.  
    For the last twenty minutes, Reid made what seemed like countless trips through the kitchen with boxes. I told him it would be easier if he parked at the front of the house, instead of coming in the back door, but either he hadn’t heard me or he’d ignored me. Regardless, it had been challenging trying to stay focused with him clattering through the room every few minutes.  
    I turned to survey the counter and all my ingredients for the hollandaise. Eggs. Check. Butter. Check. I’d never made it myself, but Grams used to make Eggs Benedict for us on Sundays. It didn’t look too hard, but—
    The simultaneous smell of smoke and the shrieking from the over-sensitive smoke detector assaulted my senses.  
    “Shit!”
    I turned around to see the prawns, or what used to be prawns, smoking in a completely black frying pan. I moved to grab the pan, but fortunately stopped myself before I could touch it with my bare hand. Where was the potholder? I looked frantically around the mess I’d made, but the intense beeping of the alarm made it increasingly hard to think and I couldn’t find it.
    In a panic, I grabbed the tongs and started jabbing at the pan.  
    “What are you doing?”