“The Morgan girl?” Mum guessed and I couldn’t recover quickly enough to deny it. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. Does Declan know?”
“Of course not. Declan doesn’t have a bloody clue about anything past the next girl in his bed.”
“He’s never been with Pia?” Mum asked, “I know his reputation with girls. Other mothers talk.”
“He chased, but I’m pretty sure she’s never been caught.”
Actually, I knew for sure Pia had avoided Declan’s charms. Declan had a list of all the girls in his year, crossing them off as he worked his way through. I’d overheard Declan brag how Pia Morgan was the last name left and with the football trophy to his name, nothing would stop him from claiming the only prize that mattered.
“Kade, oh, Kade.” Mum had hugged me as close as I held my secret crush. “Pia isn’t going to fall for a man like Declan. Mark my words, she’ll be gone as soon as she finishes high school and won’t look back.”
Pia Morgan. Yes, she’d left town but was back for at least this weekend. I’d never gone all out for her when we were in high school, but the alternative now was to live with regrets, a lifetime of what ifs.
All I needed to do was meet up with M, explain and apologize that Christmas dinner wasn’t going to happen, and then track down Pia. It couldn’t be a coincidence we were both in town at the same time.
It had to be fate.
Arrived. CU soon. M
Damn. Decades of instilled manners denied me the ability to pull a dick move and cancel by text. Perhaps, I could at least follow through with the Christmas lunch but let Miss M off the hook for Boxing Day. I’d agreed to be a fake date for one meal, which would still give me time to find Pia and convince her to have coffee. Dinner. Babies.
Shit.
Still, I’d love to see Declan’s face if Pia Morgan came home with me on Boxing Day. But what would be priceless would be the vision I’d spent half a lifetime wanting to see—Pia’s face waking on the pillow next to mine.
“Can I get two serves of soft poached eggs,” I ordered, remembering how Miss M would find me. Not that the diner was busy, but no need to make it harder. “And two short black coffees.”
“Sure, love.” Old Mrs. Grainger said. “Want some hash browns and bacon with those?”
“Um, I don’t know what my guest will want. Can you just put a plate of options in the middle and make sure there’s some English spinach?”
“No problems, go back to your seat and I’ll bring them over.”
Each time the door opened, my heart stopped, and I looked up with a goofy smile. Trying to remember how easy it felt to chat to her online. That until half an hour ago, I’d been looking forward to meeting the divine Miss M.
“Here you go, love,” Mrs. Grainger sat down the plates. “Do you want me to put them back in the warmer?”
“No, my guest will be here in a minute.” Five minutes, but I’d stopped counting.
Pia Morgan. In town. Surely, I hadn’t been mistaken at how she looked up through dipped eyelashes, lightly touched her hair before speaking and hesitated before declining my offer for coffee.
“Pia! Twice in one day!” Mrs. Grainger was first to spot Pia coming back. “Did you forget something?”
I didn’t have a chance to react before Pia looked at the plate in front of me.
“I—” If Pia didn’t look up from my plate, the only redeeming feature of my impending heart attack would be her face as the last thing I saw.
No.
Could it be?
“I was hoping for soft poached eggs,” Pia asked, her voice barely above a hopeful whisper. She stroked the edge of the white plate with pink fingernails. Studying the eggs as if they would disappear.
“With toast?” My voice even more hopeful.
“Cut into triangles, please.”
“M?” Now, her dark blue eyes shone for me.
“If you’d asked for my real name, I’d have said, Morgan.”
Holy crap.
Pia
OMG
OMG
Oh, my—Kade!
Abbie will not believe me. I don’t believe me.
Years of writing and rewriting online dating profiles before suffering through insipid, boring or sleazy dates had been worthwhile. If only he answered the next question; “K?”
I held my breath and hoped.
Less than half an hour ago, I’d tried not to notice Declan’s baby brother. All grown up and worthy of my best hair twirling and pick-up line. Except, the good girl inside of me, the one who’d grown up only half an hour away from this café—couldn’t flirt with one man while waiting for my blind date to show up.
Kade Reiss! Who would have thought he would turn out, so irresistible?
Me.
I’d always thought he looked like Keanu Reeves with his dirty long black hair and sleepy dark eyes. Once, I’d even moaned Kade’s name in an awkward moment with my high school boyfriend but recovered by blaming Keanu. Now, Kade’s thin, athletic body had filled out in all the right places and—he was K!
“These are for you,” Kade said, handing over the bouquet we’d joked about, with me trying not show off my jealous streak. “I thought they’d be a good icebreaker.”
“I think the ice got smashed. Seriously, you are K?”
“Would you please join me for breakfast before Mrs. Grainger decides at least one of us has lost our mind.”
I could have taken the seat opposite, and spent the next hour trying not to stare. Resisted the urge to count each hair or reach out and stroke the chin I remembered so well. Instead, I shuffled him along the booth, taking my rightful and long-awaited place at his side. “I assume the bacon is for sharing?”
“I forgot to ask if you’re a vegetarian.”
“I ordered the eggs, remember?”
“Then, yes, the bacon is for sharing. Take whatever you want, hash brown, sausages, mushrooms and toast. Of course, there is a full plate of wilted English spinach just for you.”
His gushing was as sweet as I remembered, in complete contrast to the hard and fit body hidden under the ill-fitting t-shirt. “Thank you, I can’t believe this is happening. Kade Reiss.”
What was it about Kade Reiss that always got under my skin? Even when he was the little brother annoying Declan and his mates, I always enjoyed him tagging along. Eighteen months seemed a big age gap in primary school, but by high school, not so much. Especially when Kade was only a year behind in classes. But even if I could have ignored the age difference, my friends and Declan wouldn’t have. Whatever puppy crush I had on Kade back then had been locked away for my social protection.
“Shall we get all the formalities out of the way?” Kade asked as our coffees arrived. “Your parents are still local, and you’ve never married—otherwise I’m sure my parents would have filled me in.”
“Guilty on both counts. Mum insists that dad’s last job on the farm has to be to dig a trench big enough to bury them both in.”
“Marriage, boyfriends?” He asked, his voice slightly shaking in time with his tapping fingers. I welcomed how his nerves made mine fade. We could do this.
“If you ask my mother, I’m destined to destroy her dreams of grandchildren with my determined spinsterhood.” I rolled my eyes with exaggerated distain.
“Which explains Christmas lunch.”
I shrugged unapologetically, thinking how normal it would have felt to be embarrassed if my date was anyone other than Kade! “She will have kittens if I bring you home.”
“Unless you’ve forgotten, the deal was I take you home on Boxing Day!”
“Oh, no! I forgot.” I cried, grabbing his hand by accident but he didn’t seem to mind or pull away. “Your father always made such a big deal about me becoming part of the family. I never had the heart to tell him about Declan.”
“You never dated?” His fingers stopped tapping while he waited for my answer.
“Urgh, no.” I exaggerated my shudder. “He always e
xpected girls to fall over themselves, but I never saw his charm.”
Three seconds, ten seconds passed while we considered what being here meant; and could mean. Kade never knew about my crush, and now it seemed too late to play truth and dare.
“I’m glad.” Kade said softly. He shook off my hand to cut my toast into little triangles. We’d already confessed too much and I didn’t want to scare him off.
Perhaps I already had. Kade seemed out of words, but I drew comfort from the way he carefully picked out the best pieces of bacon, the crispiest hash brown and filled my plate. Like a gentleman. Could he be any more perfect?
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Saves us fighting over it.”
“I wouldn’t fight.” Not unless we were naked in bed and it was to see who was on top—did I just think that!
“Really? I remember watching you play a tennis final. From memory, you were down one set and 0-4 before giving the girl one crazy look and beating her in three.”
“You were there?” I raised an eyebrow to see if he was making it up, but I’d forgotten the game until he reminded me. It had been the biggest game I was ever likely to play, and I’d been crushed when my family stayed home to deal with some farm crisis. I’d played my heart out and at one point the umpire threatened to call the game off because of the setting sun. The threat only spurred me on to pull out my best returns and passing shots.
“Creepy confession time?” Kade’s hand clutched mine and I held my breath. Long-forgotten feelings for this boy-now-man had taken over and suddenly my greatest risk wasn’t his confession. It was this fake date thing would become my realest relationship until the moment he walked away.
“Fine. Hit me.” I waited for the crushing blow. That he’d never see me as anything other than a sister, or that he’d met someone else in real life, or that he refused to lie to my parents and call the fake-date thing off.
“I’ve had a crush on you since you stayed with us for those two weeks.” His smile lit my world and reduced my knees to rubble. Kade liked me!
“My mother decided to go off and give birth to my sister and dad thought it would be easier to stay with someone my own age.” At the time, Kade was Declan’s pimply younger brother who followed me around. Sweet and a great listener. My crush started later but this wasn’t a competition.
“You were 14.”
“And wanted to stay with my girlfriends, not with Declan Reiss’ family.” I hated going from only child to big sister, but Kade always seemed to understand and took the time to make me feel heard.
“Declan thought he had a chance.”
“He always thought he had a chance.”
“And?” I knew Kade wasn’t asking about his brother. His leg pressed against mine and I knew my answer could create crazy. We’d known each other for too long for this to end without at least one of us getting hurt.
Back off now while you still have a chance.
“With me, Declan never had a chance. Not when I always had a major crush for his cute little brother.” So help me, I wanted to ride this wave, not caring how it dumped me at the end.
We both giggled when his shaking leg rocked the table, rattling his teaspoon against the coffee cup. Kade prompted, “And.”
Heaven wouldn’t accept me after what I wanted to say, needed to confess.
“And I was waiting for the cute brother to grow up and kiss me.” Christmas pact be damned. I’d gone away to university with one regret—a chance to be with Kade without his brother casting a shadow.
One innocent kiss couldn’t be too much to ask?
Kade
Our legs were linked around each other, my excuse for not being able to stand up from the booth. Pia Morgan. Pia Morgan wanted to kiss me.
She’d been waiting for me while I’d been here, all along.
Her beautiful eyes were waiting; anticipating nothing could or would stop me. How right, and wrong she was.
“Not here,” I choked back her suggestion. Years of dreaming and hoping couldn’t come to pass in the back of a café. “The only person who’s seen us together is Mrs. Grainger and she’ll have forgotten by tomorrow.”
“You trying to hide me?” Pia smiled; confident I’d have a better plan. I did and it was simple honesty. If this was my only shot with the girl of my dreams, I needed to go all out and make every kiss count.
“Pia, I promise you on my first car you watched me strip back and rebuild, I’ve wanted to kiss you in ways you’ve never imagined.”
“That badly—I’m honored.”
“So, you’ll understand that if I start, I’m not going to want to stop at an innocent peck on the lips.” Pia might be all smiles and giggles here in the booth, but she needed to know this wasn’t going to be a one afternoon fling. I’d waited years for her to notice me. And now, with her confession still ringing in my ears, we deserved to take our conversation somewhere private.
“Go on.” If her hand slid any further up my leg, I wasn’t going to be responsible for the messy outcome. “Explain how you want to kiss me.”
“No,” I tried to laugh but it came out as a high-pitched warble. Time to show her the stakes were higher than any normal first kiss. “If you want to know about the kiss, you’re gonna have to experience it.”
“What if I don’t like it?” Even in the dimly lit café, her sparkling eyes played with mine. Yes. This was most definitely happening.
“What if you do?”
I hadn’t noticed the strength of her pink fingernails until she ran them up my leg. “Where?”
“Assuming you don’t want to go back to Sydney?”
“All that way just for a kiss?” she laughed. “A little extreme, especially if I don’t know how good it is.”
“Oh, baby, it will be good. I’ve been practicing for years, training for this moment.”
“Really? I practiced my serve until my arm almost fell off and I still couldn’t make it to Division 1.”
“My lips haven’t fallen off.” I flirted before blushing, “What I mean to say is—”
“You’ve kissed a few princesses?”
“Practiced, but now I’m ready for the main event.” This time, I felt her shiver at my touch. Just a light caress of her cheek, drawing down her jawline to the lips I could pick out in a line up.
“So, we aren’t driving back alone to Sydney?”
“Confirmed. We could drive back to the Southern Highlands and get a room.”
Come on, Pia, I thought. There is another option, but you need to be ready for it.
“A little presumptuous, aren’t we? I asked for a kiss and you want to get a room?”
“That way, if you dump my sorry ass, I can cry myself to sleep in a soft bed.”
“What’s behind door number three?”
Yes.
“I have a small cottage at the end of my parent’s property. I can almost guarantee you spiders, but I get one of the local girls to come in and clean it every couple of weeks.”
Hidden behind menus and with Mrs. Grainger focused on the fryer, no one saw Pia’s eyes soften a moment before leaning into me.
I held my breath as Pia’s lips found mine. Unexpected and dry, I quickly moistened them before sucking the bacon salt from her lips and then moving in to explore her beautiful mouth.
Songs and operas could be written about our first kiss. My body wanted to explode. That cardiac arrest I thought I’d avoided when Pia first arrived for our date—it was real and threatening. If we didn’t take this somewhere and finish our conversation like consenting adults, I may just spend the rest of my life with swollen and unsatisfied balls.
“Oh,” I groaned, twisting in the booth to grip her face within my hands with no intention of letting go. Not now, not ever.
“Is it soft?” Pia teased, pulling away and setting down the menu before Mrs. Grainger got any wiser.
“Move your hand and find out for yourself,” I couldn’t believe how fast we’d gone from zero to hero.
“But be gentle or I might explode.”
“Is the bed soft? The one in your cottage?” Pia looked around before lowering her voice. “I usually prefer it hard.”
“Bad back?”
“Only if you do your job right.”
Oh, heaven help me. “Am I dropping you off to your car or—”
“Or it can have a sleepover in the car park, and you can drop me back tomorrow.”
Pia
Little Kade Reiss!
Not so little. But oh, so very, Kade!
After we raced giggling to his car, our hands joined in a death grip, Kade drove his Ford utility truck and focused on avoiding potholes, while I focused on—well, Kade.
He still looked like Keanu, but I’d need to remove the shirt to know whether he was more Point Break or John Wick. What I could see was his dark stubble lacked any greys, his eyes still deep set and clear, and his determined jaw could break my heart. I trailed my fingertips up his arm, caressing his biceps until I could sketch them from memory. His t-shirt put up no resistance when I transferred my attention from his arms to underneath his shirt. A light smattering of hairs couldn’t hide his six-pack and trailed impressively down to his v.
I touched, he drove, and I couldn’t believe it had taken this long for us to get here.
“Pia, we have two choices.”
“Yes, Kade?” I replied as innocently as I could fake.
“Keep going and we’ll end up in a ditch. Or back off for the last five minutes while I cut across the bottom paddock.”
“Your choice.” Still, I made a point of my left hand grasping my right wrist in my lap, reluctantly behaving.
With a jolt, Kade swung his ute off the road and we bounced up the gutter through a gap in the fence. I didn’t know his parents’ property stretched down this far south.
“Is this a short cut?” Stupid question, but I had to say something before one of us lost our nerve. Probably me. I’d never agreed to do something like this, my friends joked I could go three dates before giving away one small peck.
But this was Kade and we’d waited long enough. I wanted my Christmas present early.
“Nothing about us getting to this point has been a short cut. Hold on.”
Her Christmas Romance Surprise Page 4
