He had to give Mia the green light to turn his safe and ordered world upside down.
Chapter Four
THE NEXT morning Mia sat with Tilly in the cool of the white summer-house. A pair of galahs called overhead, their pink and grey wings flashing in the wide band of blue sky. Mia smiled as they turned as one and landed on the spreading branch of a red river gum tree. From the air the park-like garden would appear an oasis in a sea of scorched brown. Berrilea hadn’t heeded the memo that this area of Australia was slipping into drought. The nearby river ensured that the historic homestead had a plentiful supply of water and the careful blending of water-wise plants with traditional favourites meant that not a drop would be wasted.
Her smile deepened as Tilly placed an orange sock puppet on her hand and opened and closed her fingers to make the mouth move. The tranquillity of the outback had healed Mia and it would help this delightful child too, if given the chance. Tilly needed to feel the sun on her face and to have the space and freedom to be a child. The last thing Mia would do was entomb Tilly in a sterile music room, no matter how insistent her stony-faced uncle.
Mia rummaged in the laden basket beside her. She’d dealt with aggravating and difficult parents before. Ones who didn’t believe their child had a speech problem. Others who thought it wasn’t their responsibility to work on their child’s home programme. So why then did she feel so on edge when Kade was around? Why did she have to work so hard when near him to remain composed? It had to be because she was simply out of her physical comfort zone. Never before had she lived with a client when conducting therapy. The close proximity was only magnifying her distaste for a man who embodied the unemotional world she’d left behind. She just needed a little time to adjust to her new surroundings and her disarray would soon settle.
Tilly licked her lips as Mia placed a cereal box on the table.
Mia laughed. ‘Your tummy can’t possibly be empty again. You had three pieces of Vegemite toast for breakfast!’
Tilly rubbed at her stomach. ‘Still hund–ry.’
Mia pulled her chair in a little closer to the table. ‘We’ll do some work and then we’ll eat, okay?’
‘That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day,’ a masculine voice commented from behind them.
Tilly shrieked and almost fell out of her seat as she twisted to grin at her uncle. Kade stepped into the summer-house. Dressed in navy suit trousers and blue pin-striped shirt the only thing missing from his formal city attire was a tie. His top-shelf aftershave eclipsed the sweet scent of a nearby lavender bed. She withheld a sigh. There were no boardrooms to conquer out here, just a gentle, parentless child who needed his unconditional love.
He nodded toward Tilly as he would any other adult and then looked at Mia.
‘Morning.’ She waved toward the chair next to Tilly. ‘Feel free to join us.’
‘I’m not staying. I’ve got a work call to make.’ His tone was flint-hard. ‘I just wanted to…see how things were going.’
Mia ignored the bristle of her aversion. She shouldn’t have expected a different response. No-one knew better than she did that when it came to choosing between work or family, work always triumphed. It had been a given in her childhood that a business phone-call was more important than her.
‘Things are going well.’ She kept her tone even. ‘We’ve unpacked the crates in the music room and are now starting our first activity.’
‘If the music room is functional, why are you out here?’
She could almost hear the creak as her nerves stretched bow-tight. Stay calm. ‘You went to so much trouble to prepare the room the last thing we could do is to mess it up like we did the kitchen.’
‘That’s very considerate of you.’ His words said one thing but his disapproving expression another. ‘So what’s this work you can’t possibly do indoors?’
‘Why don’t you stay and see?’
It was as though she’d asked him to stick his hand in a tank full of underfed sharks. He took a step backward. ‘No. Thank you. As I said before I’ve a work call to make.’
Tilly half rose from her seat as though she were going to latch onto her uncle’s arm and pull him back into the summer-house. Mia’s heart ached. For Tilly’s broken world to heal she would need more than just assistance with her speech. She needed Kade. She needed to be part of his world. Long repressed pain stirred. She knew the price Tilly would pay if Kade continued to ensure that their two lives never converged.
Her official duty may be to help Tilly with her words but her unofficial duty was to dismantle the wall that kept Kade from Tilly. She only had two weeks to lever open Kade’s life and make room in it for his niece, even if it meant working alongside a man who was cut from the same work-focussed fabric as her father. Tension knotted within her stomach. Even if it meant going out of her way to interact with a man who made a mockery of her self-control.
She stood. ‘I know you’ve a call to make but this activity won’t take long. After all, you’ve walked all this way to check…sorry…see…how we’re going, it would be a shame for you to leave so soon.’
She may as well have been addressing one of the marble garden statues for all the response his face exhibited.
She turned and slid the box and a small plastic bowl toward Tilly. ‘Maybe you could get started and pour some cereal out, sweetheart?’
Tilly’s eager fingers grasped the box and tipped. Small, round loops, every colour of the rainbow, showered over the bowl, table and floor forming an edible carpet.
Kade’s eyes briefly closed.
‘Great job, Tilly,’ Mia said. ‘The bowl’s nice and full. Now Kade, take a seat.’
‘I’m not staying.’
‘Tum on, Untle Tade,’ Tilly chimed in.
Resolve filled Mia. She had to do whatever it took to keep him there with Tilly and to have them connect. It was of no consequence that every instinct told her to let him walk away, there was more at stake than her composure. A child’s happiness rested upon keeping Kade with them, a child whose bravery touched something deep inside her.
She lowered her voice. ‘Stay and we’ll spend the afternoon in the music room.’
His blue eyes gleamed. ‘This afternoon…and all day tomorrow.’
‘The only offer on the table is for this afternoon.’ She gritted her teeth. ‘And I might add that should you not accept my very generous terms then Tilly and I will be forced to boycott the music room, indefinitely.’
For a nanosecond she thought amusement would curve his mouth but then his lips settled into a familiar, inflexible line. ‘That’s blackmail.’
‘Really? My father called it negotiating.’
She steeled herself against the memories of her father’s cold eyes as he cut her off mid-stammer and shut the study door in her face. Their negotiation had only ever been one way.
Kade examined Mia’s suddenly set and ashen face. Just like in her office, when she’d realised she’d be living at Berrilea to work with Tilly, he caught a glimpse of unexpected vulnerability. And such vulnerability disturbed him. She might continue to pin him with her trade-mark stare but she couldn’t fool him anymore. Beneath her take-no-prisoners exterior lurked very real human pain.
He knew he shouldn’t agree to her conditions. In his old life he wouldn’t even be standing here hesitating. But he couldn’t think of anything but easing her hurt. Before he could flip the safety-switch on his mouth, he spoke. ‘You’re lucky I don’t have time to…negotiate…all day. You have a deal.’
Tilly cheered and waved an orange puppet in his direction and he immediately wished he could retract his words.
‘Wise decision,’ Mia said, not looking at him as she again sat in her chair. ‘Let’s get started.’
He too sat, careful to keep a gap between himself and his niece. He rested his elbows on the table and checked his watch. Mia sat opposite him. Her loose auburn curls bright against the cloudless sky. A faded memory stirred.
Yesterday in the dr
awing room, she’d mentioned knowing her way around an office and seeing as there was no middle management, let alone upper management, within an eight-hour radius, she must be referring to her life before the outback. A city life? A boyfriend? Husband? He ignored his growing disquiet. Despite the message of her bare ring finger, it shouldn’t mean anything to him that she might otherwise be attached.
The memory hovering on the fringe of his subconscious crystallised into a man’s face. His mind clicked into gear.
Surname Windsor.
No. Surely not. She couldn’t be related to Langford Windsor. The Bondi Brawler. Kade considered the burnished sheen of Mia’s long curls that fell over her shoulders. She shot him a hard look.
Possible.
Red hair. Rapid-fire tongue. Razor-sharp glare.
It was common knowledge that his wife had died from cancer years ago. But the whispers about him having a daughter hadn’t ever been substantiated. There was a sure way to find out.
‘Mia, you aren’t related to a Langford Windsor, are you?’
The dilation of her pupils confirmed his suspicions even before her subdued, tense words sounded.
‘Now there’s a name I didn’t think I’d hear west of the Blue Mountains, but yes,’ she paused, ‘I am related to him.’ She rummaged through her basket as though her life depended on reaching a particular item at the bottom.
Kade could almost hear the click of the stop button on their conversation. But he wasn’t done talking, not by a long shot, even if he had a crucial call to make. It wasn’t every day that someone surprised or intrigued him. This woman who sat across from him, who’d shown such empathy and kindness toward his ward, couldn’t be hard-hearted Langford’s flesh and blood. In all the dealings he’d had with him he’d never seen him thank anyone, let alone crack a smile. Compassion and altruism simply weren’t part of his DNA.
‘Father? Uncle?’ Kade prompted.
‘Father. Past tense.’
He examined her strained profile as she passed Tilly a second orange puppet. ‘I’m sorry. I hadn’t realised he’d passed away.’
‘He. Hasn’t.’
Her two concise words told him more than a whole sentence that her relationship with her father was a non-existent one. ‘I see.’
But what he didn’t see was how Langford’s daughter could be out here in the dust and heat as far away as possible from harbour views and water-front restaurants. Langford’s power-broking status was legendary. Anyone who was anybody hung around him hoping just by association their position on the corporate conveyer belt would be advanced. Mia’s life as his only child would have been a privileged one. Why then had she come to the outback, a place as far removed from her old life as she could get? What had happened between her and Langford?
Lost in thought he realised too late that she frowned at him. So much for her gentleness and compassion, in that moment she was truly her father’s daughter.
‘If you don’t mind I’d like to get to work,’ she said, voice crisp. ‘As you pointed out in our first appointment, time is money.’
He blinked. Never in his life had someone needed to remind him to get back on task.
It took all of Mia’s willpower to stay seated and not flee into the safety of the vast homestead. Despite the day’s heat, she shivered. On the outside she knew she appeared all cool efficiency but on the inside she was as unsteady as an earth tremor.
Kade had done it again. He’d flung her out of her comfort zone. Instead of the usual awe that greeted the news Langford was her father, sympathy had softened Kade’s eyes and relaxed the stiff landscape of his face. This time there was no oven-hot office or morning of disasters to blame her delusions upon. She knew what she’d seen, genuine emotion. Kade was capable of feeling.
Her pulses slowed and composure returned as she studied him from under her lashes. While he might physically sit next to Tilly, his rigid body was angled as far away from her as possible. It didn’t matter if a heart could possibly beat within his chest, until he treated Tilly with any warmth she wasn’t about to amend her first impression that he wasn’t anything but a mirror image of her father. In the meantime she had a job to do before workaholic Kade remembered he had a phone call to make.
‘Tilly can you please pass your uncle a loop. Any colour will do.’
Tilly’s small fingers plucked a loop from the bowl and she placed it on Kade’s palm.
‘No surprise it’s pink.’ He examined the small circle as through she’d just handed him a hand grenade. ‘I’m guessing this is more back of the throat stuff?’
‘You’re learning, Kade, and learning through play, I might add.’
He grimaced. ‘Let’s get this over with. What do I do now?’
‘We’re going to work on where your tongue needs to be to produce the ‘k’ sound. Put the loop behind your bottom front teeth, place the tip of your tongue in the hole to hold the cereal in place, and say ‘k’.’
‘This isn’t one of those things that Tilly’s science show always advises to not try at home?’
‘No, you’re perfectly safe. Besides I know the Heimlich manoeuvre. If you choke you’re in good hands.’
Kade’s only reply was a dubious quirk of a brow as he raised the loop to his mouth. Every alarm on her internal warning system tripped. How many times had she demonstrated speech exercises to a father to work on with their child? But never had she noticed how the smoothness of masculine lips could contrast with the faint stubble of a cleft chin, how a man’s mouth could be so…
She spoke to cover her confusion. ‘Tilly, how about you choose what colour cereal you like so you can have a go next?’
She picked up her own piece of cereal to roll between her fingers and risked another look at Kade. Slowly his lips moved and as if from a long distance away she heard the ‘k’ sound. He really did have the most gorgeous mouth…The cereal between her fingers crumbled, scattering candy-green evidence of her agitation across the table before her. She swept the crumbs up into her hand.
’Nice clear ‘k’ talking, Kade,’ she managed. ‘Your turn now, Possum.’
Tilly popped a pink loop into her mouth, and without attempting to hold the loop in place with her tongue, chewed. She looked at Kade, then at Mia, and grinned.
‘Let’s try that one again, shall we?’ Mia said with an answering smile. ‘This time you need to try and say ‘k’ before you eat.’
Kade again checked his watch.
Mia picked up another pink loop. She opened her mouth and pointed to where Tilly should put the loop in her own mouth. To her surprise Kade spoke. ‘Here, like this.’ He put a yellow loop behind his bottom teeth. Held his mouth open for Tilly to see, then ate the cereal.
Tilly giggled. She placed another loop in her mouth, held her mouth open for Kade to see the loop and again chewed. Her laughing eyes didn’t leave her uncle’s face. He stared at Tilly, bewilderment clouding his expression.
Did Kade even have a childhood? Friends that he’d played with? He simply had no idea that Tilly was copying his actions in an attempt to play and interact with him.
He passed a hand behind his neck and then leaned toward Tilly. ‘How about I put the loop in.’ She dutifully opened her mouth.
Mia couldn’t resist. ‘Make sure she doesn’t chomp on your hand.’
Kade jerked his fingers away. His shocked eyes met Mia’s.
‘Just joking. You won’t bite your uncle’s hand will you?’
Tilly shook her head, still keeping her mouth open. With a last glance at Mia, Kade carefully placed a loop behind Tilly’s front teeth.
‘There you go.’ He sat back in his seat as if to say mission accomplished. Tilly again ate the loop.
At the very least, Mia thought impatience would thin his lips but his impassive expression didn’t alter. He picked up another loop. ‘Open.’ Just as he was about to place the cereal into her mouth, he smiled briefly. ‘No eating, okay?’
Tilly nodded. This time when he positioned th
e loop, Tilly’s little mouth didn’t close.
‘Now,’ Mia said, ‘put the tip of your tongue in the hole to hold it still. Say ‘k’.’
Tilly did as she was instructed. But as soon as she attempted a ‘k’ sound the wet cereal shot out of her mouth and landed on the front of Kade’s shirt.
Mia dared not look at Kade’s face as he took three attempts to brush the sticky loop off his chest. ‘What a great try,’ she said, bitting off a giggle that was in danger of escaping. ‘Tilly. You almost had it.’
‘Right, Tilly, let’s try again,’ he said in a mild tone Mia didn’t recognise.
He placed another cereal loop in Tilly’s mouth and yet again it flew past her lips when she tried to say ‘k’. After the third attempt, Tilly’s grin waned. Mia opened her mouth to suggest a break but Kade beat her to it. He placed a handful of cereal on Tilly’s small palm.
‘Here, eat these and when you’re done we’ll try again.’
Tilly crunched and munched through a fresh smile as Kade unbuttoned his shirt cuffs and rolled up his sleeves. He gathered three pink loops into his hand and waited for Tilly to finish chewing. Again the expected impatience failed to tighten his features.
‘Here we go…one…’ he said.
Tilly opened her mouth. The cereal went flying. Kade continued speaking. ‘Two…’ Tilly frowned as she concentrated on using the tip of her tongue to keep the cereal in place. An audible sound emerged from the back of her throat.
‘K’.
Mia clapped. ‘Well done, Tilly. A fabulous ‘k’ sound.’
Kade placed another loop in Tilly’s mouth and again she made a clear sound. This time Mia didn’t clap. Kade’s tentative, almost shy, smile toward Tilly caused Mia’s suddenly unsteady hands to lower slowly to the table.
The modus operandi of the ambitious and powerful was all too familiar. It was the one thing she knew like the lines of pain carved on her reflection. She’d seen Kade’s indifferent hand hover over Tilly’s sobbing head, the way he could barely look at her as well as his obsessive watch-checking. Tilly was just an inconvenient distraction on the bottom of his ‘to do’ list.
What Love Sounds Like Page 4
