Cake at Midnight
Page 33
‘I’m not here to put expectations on you,’ he said, lowering my hand but keeping a firm grip on it. ‘But, if you’ll let me, here’s what I expect from myself when it comes to you. My expectation is that I’ll always tell you the truth, with no omissions. Particularly in relation to any plans to leave the country.’
I gave him a wobbly smile and he returned it before continuing, ‘My expectation is that I’ll always value your opinion because you’re smart and understanding and see the heart of things faster than anyone I’ve ever met. My expectation is that I’ll savour any food you make for me and do all the cleaning up afterwards. My expectation is that, modern, old-fashioned, or somewhere in between, I will honour any relationship we have and commit to it, and you, wholeheartedly. My expectation–’
But he didn’t get any further than that as I grasped a handful of his T-shirt and pulled him in for a kiss.
He responded instantly, his free hand cupping my face, his lips catching at mine as if he could only breathe with my breath.
‘I’m sorry, was that you not having the words?’ I teased breathlessly several minutes later as I pulled back. ‘What would you having the words have sounded like? A sonnet?’
He laughed and kissed me again. ‘My expectation is that I will kiss you like this every day,’ he mumbled against my mouth. ‘That I will kiss you here.’ He pressed his lips against my temple. ‘And here.’ Then my cheek. ‘And here.’ And finally a light brush against the underside of my jaw.
It was like pulling a perfect soufflé out of the oven, a soaring, proud, hopeful moment, and I didn’t care that my whole heart and soul was on display as I grinned at him and said, ‘My expectation is that I’ll enjoy that very much.’
He leant back, smoothing some of my hair out of my face and staring at me intently as he asked, ‘Yeah?’
‘Yes.’ And we both knew I was saying yes to a lot more than an allocation of daily kisses.
I pulled him to his feet and wrapped my arms around him, tucking my face against his neck and breathing in his familiar scent. I needed to feel and smell and touch him, to fully comprehend that he was back and that he was mine.
In the next moment, I let out a little squeak as he swept me up, my toes leaving the ground and my whole body practically shuddering in welcome recognition as it was enfolded by him.
‘Are you going to carry me manfully to bed and ravish me?’
‘Would you like that?’ he asked, his voice a low rumble in my ear, his golden stubble scratching against my cheek. He must already have known the answer, but it was only polite to reply.
‘Yes, please.’
And so he did.
Four months later
‘It’s . . .’ O’Connor cocked his head one way and then the other before Zoë finished for him, ‘Weird.’
‘Yes.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘That’s it. Weird.’
Theo was working on his laptop, but he looked up as Giovanna’s friends made their verdict. Glancing between them and his girlfriend, he shook his head.
‘Okay, I’ll bite,’ he said heavily. ‘Why is having shelves built for Giovanna’s cookbooks weird?’
Giovanna, O’Connor and Zoë returned their attention to the floor-to-ceiling shelves where they covered the whole of the wall beside the bed, and gave it further consideration.
‘Logic,’ Giovanna replied slowly after a few seconds, and her mates nodded.
‘What about logic?’
‘It’s just never really been used in Aggie’s flat.’
Theo rolled his eyes at her and she grinned that unabashed grin of hers.
‘You know, I think there are patches of this floor I’ve literally never seen before,’ O’Connor said thoughtfully, turning in a circle to take in the newly rearranged studio. ‘And has that couch always been there?’
‘Ha ha,’ Giovanna deadpanned. ‘It wasn’t that bad.’
In a rare moment of solidarity, Theo and O’Connor exchanged looks.
‘Sweetheart.’ Under the table, Theo’s hand rested on her thigh and he gave it a quick squeeze. ‘It really was.’
She pressed her lips together, but she’d told him months ago that she’d never been able to keep hold of a bad mood, and this was yet again borne out as they soon twitched back into a smile.
‘Fine, but resign yourself to the fact that there’s no way it’s going to stay looking like this,’ she said, angling her body so she leant against him. ‘I’ve only allowed you this amount of cleanliness as a moving-in present.’
‘And because his toes are probably shorter now, considering the number of times he’s stubbed them on your books,’ Zoë said.
Theo wasn’t stupid enough to think that, at the end of the day, Zoë would ever properly take his side against Giovanna. It had taken a long, long time for her to even halfway forgive him for leaving her friend. Every now and again, however, she allied herself with him and he took it as the compliment he had no doubt it was intended as.
‘Beauty has a point, this place was a death trap.’
O’Connor’s allegiance was even more firmly with Giovanna and, Theo noticed without rancour, that he’d phrased being on Theo’s side as agreeing with Zoë.
He also noticed, however, could almost feel, that Giovanna was reading too much into O’Connor’s offhand comment, repackaging it as an overture of deep and abiding friendship. She was determined that the four of them would end up as best mates, that old grudges would be put aside or even forgotten altogether over time, but Theo wasn’t so sure.
He genuinely liked and admired the bluntly affectionate Zoë, but, while he was a grown up and could get through interactions with O’Connor in a friendly enough manner, Theo couldn’t ever see himself completely trusting him, not really. The wariness clearly went both ways, but Theo allowed that it was a testament to how much they both liked Giovanna that they made an effort to get along for her sake.
Sorry, had he said ‘liked’? He meant ‘loved’.
Having grown up in a household ruled by fierce but fleeting passions, Theo hadn’t known it could be such an uncomplicated, freeing feeling to align yourself so firmly to another person, but it was. Loving Giovanna and being loved by her was everything he’d previously assumed other people were exaggerating about, and Ari had yet to exhaust his ‘I told you so’s in relation to Theo’s realisation that what he’d had with Vanessa had truly been all business with just some sex on the side.
‘Right, well, we’ll leave you to it.’ Zoë gave the bookshelves one last, vaguely mistrustful look and retrieved her bag.
‘Yeah.’ O’Connor bent down and dropped a quick kiss on the top of Giovanna’s head, something that Theo tried not to mind. ‘McKillop, if you could report back on when the first of Gio’s books ends up on the floor again, that’d be great. Zo and I’ve got odds on and–’ He broke off as Zoë clipped him round the back of the head.
‘For someone whose nickname is “Brains” you’d think you’d remember to use them occasionally,’ she said. ‘You’ve skewed the results now. Gio’s probably going to last a whole five minutes longer now she knows we’ve placed bets on it.’
Giovanna laughed. ‘Bugger off, the pair of you. Theo doesn’t mind my untidy ways, he thinks they’re quirky and endearing.’
Behind her, Theo made a big show of shaking his head and mouthing ‘No, I don’t’ and, as her friends smirked at him, the camaraderie Giovanna was so keen on them all having didn’t seem so far out of reach.
Still, he was glad as they said their goodbyes and trooped out of the flat he was only today able to properly call home. Having Giovanna to himself still felt like a treat, a prize he shouldn’t have had the right to win.
He looked at his laptop screen, saving his work just as Giovanna shut the door and turned to walk back to him in an exaggeratedly sexy swagger. When she was within reaching distance, he pulled her onto his lap, kissing her just behind her ear.
‘Hey, roomie,’ she murmured, snuggling against him, and he let out a s
hort chuckle.
‘Roomie?’
She shrugged. ‘Just trying it out.’
He slid his hand under her T-shirt to rest it against the soft skin at her waist as he replied, ‘I think I have enough names to be getting on with for now, don’t you?’
‘And speaking of your Leventis/McKillop namesakes.’ She rested her palm over his hand, keeping it from travelling up any higher. ‘Did you tell your various families that you were planning to move here?’
He grimaced in a way that made his answer obvious and she gave him a look.
‘I know it’s slow going on the “developing strategies to deal with them” front, but telling your family your address is a little sign of trust that might go a long way. McKillop would probably throw a party, he’d be so pleased.’
‘Yeah, and Lena would probably show up here every time she was drunk and bored,’ he countered.
She pursed her lips and then released his hand. ‘Just think about it,’ she said and he sighed, dropping his forehead onto her shoulder.
‘It’s dangerous that you know how little there is that I wouldn’t do for you,’ he said, lifting his head again to see that she was beaming at him, incredibly pleased with herself.
‘So!’ She wriggled atop him cheerfully. ‘Which way around is it going to be?’
Busy once again tracing the contours of Giovanna’s body beneath the soft cotton of her top, it took Theo a moment to grasp that she’d asked him a question. And, even when he did, he wasn’t sure he understood it.
‘How d’you mean?’
She looked at him as if he was being incredibly dense. ‘To celebrate you moving in. Which way around is it going to be? Cake or sex first?’
He laughed and then bent his head to press a slow, searing kiss to her lips.
‘Sex first,’ he said firmly. ‘And then cake.’
Acknowledgements
Huge thanks to my agent, Samantha Wekstein, who is always so lovely and supportive, and whose food puns are exemplary!
I’m also incredibly appreciative of the encouragement from, and expertise of, my editors Roberta Ivers, Melissa Bendixen, Adam Wilson and their teams. What a glorious bunch they are!
Loves(!) to Leah Peggy my Lass who was always there for me as this story came into existence, even as she brought an actual person into the world (hi, Luce!).
Thanks to Sami-Ray for going full Sami-Ray on me. I’m as honoured as I am terrified!
Sarah Louise, Alex, Lynelle and Gab, thanks for getting this writing thing. If I could be half as good a writer or human being as any of you, I’d be set.
102 point Scrabble scores for all my workmates who narrowed their eyes at me if I didn’t spend my lunch hour writing, and an extra chocolate frog for Simon for demanding those two little words.
Cheers to Mum, Dad and the Spityard lads for not quite understanding why none of my characters are on the hunt for a serial killer or wielding a lightsaber, but being proud of me, nonetheless.
And massive thanks to my sister, Christie, for being a fierce champion of the people she loves. I’m so lucky I was born into that group (and that she hasn’t yet kicked me out of it for jiggling my foot in her eyeline).
Jessie L. Star
About the Author
Jessie L. Star studied business at university and learned primarily that writing and talking were very much her thing and numbers were very much not. She writes new adult and contemporary romance full of snark, banter and a smidgeon of heartache. She lives in Tasmania.
SIMON & SCHUSTER
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Also by Jessie L. Star
So Much to Learn
His Saving Grace
Lighthouse Charlie
Private Lives, Public Property
Saving from Monkeys
The Do-Gooder
CAKE AT MIDNIGHT
First published in Australia in 2018 by
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© Jessie L. Star 2018
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