Something to Talk About (Rose Hill, #2)

by Rachael Johns

  ‘Why were you guys taking so long?’

  ‘The lock was stuck.’

  He was impressed with Tabitha’s quick thinking. Thank God she didn’t wear lipstick, otherwise he’d probably have it smeared across his face.

  As she reminded the kids about the orderly line, Ferg took a proper look around, amazed at what could fit in such a compact space. A smaller version of the ice-cream display cabinet at the tea rooms ran along the side opposite the window, and on the other side were cones, a row of ice-cream scoops, paper cups and waffle cones.

  Following his gaze, Tabitha said, ‘I keep things simple—no toppings to detract from the ice-cream flavours, although this lot really only like vanilla, chocolate or rainbow anyway. No imagination.’

  He laughed as she shook her head and reached for one of the scoops. ‘What can I do?’

  ‘You hold the cones while I scoop.’

  He knew that usually she popped the cone in a little holder while she scooped and was happy that this time she let him assist. Soon all the kids were happily slurping ice-cream as their parents bundled them into cars.

  ‘Thanks Tab, thanks Mr McWilliams,’ said Victoria and Milly’s mum—he’d forgotten her name—as she waved through the open hatch. ‘See you Saturday.’

  ‘Will do.’ Ferg waved back.

  Alone again, Tab turned to face him. ‘So what flavour do you want? Are you game to try my cheese one?’

  ‘I thought you only brought the kiddie flavours?’

  She winked. ‘I brought some just for you.’

  His chest squeezed at the idea she’d been thinking of him. ‘In that case …’

  He picked up a cone and held it out to her. She scooped, and once again their hands touched in the exchange. He flicked out his fingers, closing them around hers to prolong the connection. Sparks erupting inside him, he snatched his hand back and lifted the ice-cream to his mouth.

  The cold had barely touched his tongue before Tabitha closed the hatch, swamping them in darkness again. ‘You can give me your opinion in fifteen minutes but it better not be a long one because talking isn’t what I have in mind,’ she said, then stepped past him and opened the back door.

  ‘Are we going home now?’ Ned was standing at the back of the van, chocolate staining the corners of his mouth and an impatient expression on his face. ‘Everyone else has gone and I’m bored.’

  ‘I’ll be fifteen minutes, max,’ she promised Fergus and then climbed into the driver’s seat beside her nephew.

  Those fifteen minutes felt like the longest of Fergus’s life. He drove home, fed Mrs Norris and then made sure his bedroom was presentable. Tabitha likely didn’t give a damn about his housekeeping skills and he didn’t plan on giving her the time to think about such things anyway, but it kept him busy until he heard her van pull up outside.

  He met her as she was climbing the porch steps and yanked her into his arms, resuming the kiss they’d started just half an hour ago. They stumbled into his house, and in a matter of moments they were tearing at each other’s clothes. This time they were so hot for each other that they didn’t even make it to his bed. There wasn’t much need for foreplay; the last three days of fantasising about this was enough for the both of them.

  They collapsed onto the couch like a couple of randy teens, hands and mouths sliding against each other as Fergus drove into Tabitha. Even with her legs clamped around him, he wanted to go deeper, wanted to feel the very essence of her as he took them both where they wanted to be.

  Afterwards, they simply lay there, slippery with sweat and panting. The worrying fact of the matter was that Fergus knew this mad coupling, although incredibly satisfying, hadn’t sated his need for her nearly enough. A few more minutes to recover and he reckoned he could quite easily go for it all over again, but would that be giving her the wrong idea? Just because the two of them had out-of-the-planet sex, didn’t change how he felt about relationships. Didn’t change the fact she was pregnant and he was only here temporarily.

  As if Tabitha could read his mind, she reached up her hand and smoothed her fingers over his furrowed brow. ‘How long till you leave?’

  He did a quick calculation in his head—term four was always a short one. ‘Six weeks.’

  ‘Okay,’ she whispered, ‘then stop thinking so much. Don’t make this into more than it is. We’re two grown adults enjoying each other’s bodies—I don’t see why we shouldn’t continue doing so until you leave.’

  He blinked. ‘Really? You’d be okay with that?’

  ‘I thought by now you’d have realised I don’t say or do anything I don’t want to, but if you’d rather just be friends …’ She ran her hand down his bare back, her nails leaving a trail of goose bumps in their wake.

  Like hell he would, he thought as he rose from the couch, scooped her into his arms and carried her into his bedroom. If they were going to be friends with benefits, or fuck buddies, or whatever the hell it was people called it these days, then he was damn well sure gunna make the most of it.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Just as Tabitha thought the lunch rush was dying down, the bell above the door dinged and she looked up to see Fergus entering. Her heart did a little flip. Instinctively, she lifted her hand to check her hair and almost dropped the tray she was carrying.

  ‘Hi.’ She smiled as he strode across to where she was standing next to one of the now empty tables, resisting the urge to throw herself into his arms.

  ‘We won!’ His face exploded into a grin.

  ‘No way,’ she exclaimed, putting the tray down on the table. ‘Are you freaking serious?’ She’d have thought Lawson would have messaged her and Meg with the news, but then again, they’d been busy today. This was the first moment’s reprieve they’d had, so neither of them had had the chance to check their phones.

  Fergus nodded, his thick dark hair bouncing on his forehead. Tab resisted the urge to reach up and push it back.

  ‘You should have seen them. And Ned was a superstar. The other team underestimated him because of his arm. Granted, they were nowhere near as good as Brunswick last week, but our little cricketers were on fire. Maybe it’s all that ice-cream you’ve been feeding them.’

  ‘I wish I’d been there. Did you get some photos?’

  ‘Tonnes, and some videos.’ He handed her his phone and she scrolled through the images, delighted at the action shots and the beaming faces in the team photo at the end.

  She handed him back the phone. ‘This is so great. Have you had lunch? Can I get you anything to eat or drink?’

  He screwed up his face slightly. ‘I had a sausage roll but it wasn’t good.’

  She screwed hers right back—there was nothing worse than bad pastries. ‘I’m sure we can do better than that. Take a seat and I’ll see what we have left.’

  ‘Sounds good.’ He got out his wallet, but Tab waved her hand.

  ‘This one’s on the house, in celebration,’ she added, before he could read anything into it. Then she went out back where Meg and their junior kitchen hands, Lucy and Bonnie, were starting to put the kitchen back together.

  ‘They won!’ Tab and Meg announced to each other at the same time.

  Meg frowned, her phone in her hand—she’d obviously just checked her messages. ‘How do you know?’

  ‘Fergus is here. He came to tell me the good news.’

  ‘Fergus?’ Meg raised an eyebrow. ‘That was nice of him. Rose Hill is not exactly on the way back.’

  ‘He’s excited and he knew I would be too, don’t go getting any silly ideas.’ Tab felt her cheeks heat but she held her chin high, determined not to give anything away.

  Ever since dinner last Sunday, Meg had been in her ear about the supposed chemistry she’d seen between them. At first Tab thought she might have witnessed the kiss by their cars, but it soon become clear Meg was just engaging in some wishful thinking. She’d be delighted if she knew the truth but Tab wasn’t going to tell. However close they’d become over the past cou
ple of years, she wasn’t sure Meg would understand they were both just in it for a bit of fun.

  Keeping their ‘affair’ private felt vital to keeping it light and uncomplicated.

  ‘I’m going to take him a plate of leftovers,’ she told her sister-in-law firmly, ‘and then I’ll finish helping with the clean-up.’

  ‘Good idea. After all, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.’

  ‘I’m not trying to get to his heart,’ she said. Into his pants? Now that was something else entirely. He was making her into a very naughty girl but she deserved a last hurrah before she had the baby and became a sensible single mother, didn’t she?

  ‘Pity,’ Meg said. ‘Either way, Bonnie, Lucy and I are fine here. Why don’t you take him a big slice of chocolate cake and share it with him?’

  Tab gave her a warning look. ‘Why don’t you take your head out of the clouds and stop meddling?’

  Meg sighed and held up a hand. ‘I’m sorry. But the least you could do is keep the poor man company while he eats. No one likes to dine alone, do they, Lucy? Bonnie?’

  The teenagers looked from Meg to Tab as if they weren’t really sure what was going on. ‘I guess not,’ Bonnie said eventually.

  Tab’s feet were aching from being on them for hours, and she did want a blow-by-blow account of the match, but she wasn’t sure she could trust herself out there alone with Fergus. Besides, the sooner they finished cleaning up, the sooner she could get rid of the others and have her way with him again. A thrill skittered through her at the thought.

  ‘Here you are. Enjoy,’ she said to Fergus as she delivered a plate of leftovers to him.

  ‘This looks amazing,’ he said, but he was looking up into her eyes as he spoke. ‘It’s good to see you.’

  ‘Same.’ She leaned in a little closer and lowered her voice. ‘Do you want to hang out when we close up here?’

  ‘You not too tired?’ he whispered back.

  Twenty minutes ago she’d been ready to fall into bed and sleep the rest of the afternoon away, but one look at him and she’d found a second wind. They only had six weeks—it wouldn’t be smart to waste too much of it.

  ‘I’m fine.’ She glanced back into the kitchen, where thankfully Meg didn’t appear to be snooping but wiping the counters down furiously as if her life depended on it. ‘I’ll get rid of them as soon as I can, but maybe when you’ve finished that, pretend to leave. You can drive down the road to the service station and park around the back. They won’t see you when they drive out of town that way.’

  He grinned deliciously at her. ‘This sneaking around business could be quite fun. I always wanted to be a spy when I was little.’

  Tab laughed and straightened again. She’d been so worried when she turned up at cricket that things might have been uncomfortable between them, but that wasn’t the problem at all. If they kept on having sex until he left, maybe they could avoid the awkwardness all together.

  ‘Eat up. You’ll need your strength,’ she said with a wink as she headed back into the kitchen.

  It seemed she wasn’t the only one eager to get everything done. Meg was cleaning almost manically. ‘You okay?’ Tab asked.

  Meg glanced at Lucy and Bonnie, and seeing they were busy chatting as they put the clean plates back into cupboards, she whispered, ‘I’ve been charting my ovulation via my temperature. I just popped to the loo to check and I’m in prime ovulation time right this second. I need to get home, put a movie on for Ned and take advantage of my husband.’

  Even though Meg was talking about her brother, Tab couldn’t help but smile. ‘What are you waiting for? I can finish off here. You need to get on home and make me another niece or nephew.’

  Meg half-chuckled but there was a sadness in her eyes. ‘Don’t get your hopes up. The amount we’ve been bonking lately, we should have spawned a whole football team by now. If it doesn’t happen this month we’re biting the bullet and starting IVF.’

  Tab pulled her into a hug. ‘It’ll happen. Now go. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  ‘You sure you’ll be okay? What about our last customer?’

  ‘Fergus?’ Tab pretended to dismiss him with a shake of her head. ‘I’ll kick him out soon, and you can turn the sign on the door to closed when you leave so we don’t have any latecomers.’

  ‘You’re the best. Thank you,’ Meg said, grabbing her handbag and calling to Bonnie and Lucy, who she always drove back to Walsh after a shift. ‘We’re knocking off early.’

  They didn’t have to be told twice; their phones were out of their pockets and they were following Meg out of the kitchen without even closing the cupboards behind them. Normally Tab didn’t like a half-finished job but she couldn’t bring herself to care today.

  ‘They left in a hurry,’ Ferg said, wiping his mouth with a serviette, and then shifting his seat back and tapping his knee. ‘Did you scare them off?’

  ‘Something like that,’ she said as she all but fell into his lap and then did what she’d wanted to do since he first walked in. And oh sweetness, he tasted so delicious. Even better than she remembered. They kissed for what felt like hours and although she was hungry for more of him, this was good too. Kissing, she decided, was underrated and he was very, very good at it. His tongue danced with hers and occasionally he nibbled gently on her lower lip as his fingers massaged the back of her neck. Their previous couplings had been urgent and electric, but neither of them appeared in a particular rush today.

  Eventually, however, kissing was not enough. Tab felt the heat rising between them and knew neither of them would be able to hold out much longer. She pulled back. ‘I think I should give you the grand tour of this wonderful historic building.’

  He nodded, his expression serious. ‘That sounds good. I’m very interested in history. Perhaps we should start with your bedroom?’

  ‘That’s as good a place as any,’ she said as she pushed off his lap, grabbed his hand and led him through the kitchen to the stairs at the back.

  Tabitha was pretty certain Fergus didn’t take in any of the high ceilings with their decorative plaster that Meg had lovingly restored or the beautiful hundred-year-old woodwork on the stairs. And she didn’t care because he only had eyes for her. There’d be plenty of time to wow him with history and give him a proper tour later. That’s if he wanted to stick around a bit. This no-strings sex thing was completely new for her and she wasn’t a hundred per cent sure of the boundaries. Were they allowed to hang out and have fun together as well or was it purely a sex thing?

  The answer would have to wait because they’d arrived at her bedroom. A cold draft wafted past them as Tab pulled him inside and she hoped that was Eliza making an exit, but not even the thought of a ghost spectating was going to stop her now. She kissed Fergus into the room until he fell back onto the bed, then laughed as she climbed on top of him and picked up where they’d left off downstairs.

  Previously he’d been so attentive to her needs, but this time she wanted to make sure she was attentive to his as well. With only a little assistance from the man himself, she unbuckled his jeans and freed the very thing she’d been dreaming about since she’d first laid eyes on it. She stooped her head and kissed it.

  Fergus felt his eyes roll back in his head as Tabitha’s mouth closed around his erection. He groaned as he lost the ability to think and gave himself over to the sensations. It didn’t take long before he was on the edge, but he didn’t want to be the only one getting his rocks off today.

  ‘If you don’t … stop that … now … this is going to be over before it’s begun. Come here,’ he said, dragging her up and putting his mouth on hers, before seeking the waistband of her shorts.

  It didn’t take long to get her where he was and, after removing the rest of their clothing, he was inside her again. Only this time she was up top and he got to touch and taste and gaze at her breasts as, once again, they flew over the edge together. He’d never managed to be so in sync with a woman before.

  �
��Wow,’ they whispered in unison as she collapsed onto him. He could feel her heart thumping against his chest and his working just as hard.

  Fergus knew that according to the rules of a ‘fling,’ he was supposed to give her a quick kiss goodbye, yank his jeans back on and leave. But he didn’t want to go back to his boring house and another lonely evening with Mrs Norris, cheap beer and bad TV. Not just yet anyway.

  ‘Did you mean it about giving me the grand tour?’ he asked.

  She smiled. ‘Course I did. Just give me a few moments to catch my breath.’

  ‘Take as long as you need,’ he said, planting a kiss on her forehead.

  After another few moments, they climbed out of bed and Tabitha went down the hallway to the bathroom while he put on his clothes. It was the first time he’d had a chance to take stock of his surroundings. The walls were almost the same white as the ceiling, which had that intricate plaster art popular in the early 1900s, but the big prints that hung on the walls added colour. The room felt bright and cheery, just like Tabitha, and he imagined it would be hard to wake up in a bad mood in here.

  Fully dressed again, he ventured out onto the landing, which was darker and much less modern than the décor in the bedroom. There was an antique hall table and a mirror of similar vintage along one wall, and gold-framed paintings of rural Australian landscapes, like the ones he’d seen in the gallery downstairs. No sign of Tabitha, he wandered on to the next room and pushed the door open a fraction.

  He gasped at the sight of what looked to be hundreds of pieces of wood scattered across the floor. What the hell had happened here? Some kind of furniture explosion? He narrowed his eyes as he tried to make head or tail of the mess, and had just made out what he thought was the side of a cot when Tabitha appeared.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Her voice was sharp and he spun around and almost into her.

  ‘Sorry, I just …’

  ‘Started the tour without me?’