Hazel in the Demon's Den

Will went to go fetch their things from the car, leaving Hazel alone with her thoughts in the basement. This place was very cozy though she had to admit the walls were quite bare. Maybe she could convince him to let her hang some of her paintings. Or she could do entirely new ones to match the rest of the décor.

The thought had merit. They had passed some truly beautiful scenery on the drive up here. There were probably a ton of places on Will's land where she could paint a gorgeous landscape in tones that would match the woodsy feel of the cabin.

Unfortunately she needed to get through the rest of these character designs first. iPads were an indoor activity. There was too much light interference and glare off the screen if she tried to work outside.

Hazel may have to claim a favorite chair in the library and make that her work station for any and all digital art. She wandered upstairs to test out which one was the most comfortable and settled on a giant beanbag.

She was so tiny she could stretch out completely and still not have any limbs hanging off into space. This would do quite nicely.

Will found her sprawled across the bean bag a few minutes later and offered to help her unpack. She got up and thanked him for the help in advance, directing him as she went.

Her blankets went into the linen closet. Trinkets went on the vanity, though she had to wonder why he even had one. Most males didn't have vanities in their bedroom. Maybe he expected to get married at some point when he decorated this place.

Hazel put her treasured family photo album in the library, rearranging a couple of things with Will's permission to make room. Her paintings ended up stored in the garage.

Oddly enough, she didn't have any trouble fitting her clothes into Will's room either and she had a lot of them. Just like with the vanity, he had a matching dresser set.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Why do you have so much furniture in here?"

Will shrugged. "It was part of a bedroom set. I went in looking for a bedframe and came out with all of this. It wasn't a huge deal; I expected to get married someday. Little did I know it would happen less than a year later."

"How long have you lived here?"

"About nine months. Before that I was in L.A. My company offered me a raise to transfer to the Salt Lake office and I didn't have a reason to say no."

Hazel couldn't help but wonder more about his background. Was he from L.A. or did he move around a lot? Had he gone to college? If so, what had he studied? There was still so much basic information she needed to know about this man she had married.

He already knew she was an artist and that comprised the largest part of her life. The other important thing to know about her was that she used to have PTSD because of her parents' deaths but nobody knew about that.

Her uncle was dead. Hazel had lost contact with everyone from the mental hospital. Nobody would ever know unless she specifically said something and why would she? It wasn't exactly pleasant conversation.

The way people looked at her when they thought she was crazy was something she would rather die than repeat. It was better to pretend that nothing had ever happened. It wasn't like she had ever gotten close enough to anyone to even want to spill her secrets anyway.

There was no need to talk about it with Billy Lawson because she thought he already knew. Looking back, he probably would have run for the hills sooner if she had mentioned it. Maybe she should have. She wouldn't have wasted so much time on him that way.

Hazel sighed as she put the last of her things away. There really hadn't been much to unpack. All of her makeup and other beauty products were either in the vanity drawers or the nearest bathroom.

"Are you hungry?" Will asked suddenly. "It's way past dinner time but we didn't get anything on the plane but pretzels."

Now that he mentioned it…her stomach growled, giving him an answer. He chuckled slightly.

"I'm not sure how much I have in the fridge since I've been out of town. My milk might be expired," Will mused, continuing to mumble to himself as they went downstairs together.

He was right; the milk was expired. But there was more in the fridge than he had originally thought, including some leftovers that needed to be thrown out.

Hazel checked the pantry to see what there was to work with. There were an awful lot of canned foods, bags of rice and beans, and jugs of water in one of the corners. Will noticed her line of sight and explained that it was food storage in case the power or water went out due to a snow storm.

"One of my neighbors warned me that I should stock up. She says her family uses and replaces them as they get close to expiring so they never run out."

"Fine by me," Will said with a shrug.

Feeling extra lazy, she divided it into two portions (she made hers a bit smaller because he was taller than her and probably needed more) and stuck them in the microwave. Not only would it be done faster this way, she wouldn't have to worry about dirtying a pot and ladle.

A couple of minutes later they blew on spoonfuls of soup at the dining room table, trying not to be too impatient and burn their tongues. Hazel always hated waiting for food to cool down. She burned the roof of her mouth on pizza nearly every time she ate it.

At least she wasn't alone. Will seemed as impatient for food as she did right now. She wasn't sure whether it was because he hadn't had dinner or if he was always like that.

Hazel would have to conduct a thorough study of his habits and behavior over the coming weeks to see what he was really like. It could be quite interesting to see what kind of person she had bargained for on a whim.