Kiss It Better
Page 18
‘Are you chatting up my girl, Papou?’
‘Cassie is telling me about her job. She is a clever girl.’
Better yet, she was a happy woman. She slanted a laughing, triumphant glance at him, delighted with his grandfather’s praise. She’d decided to return to nursing and had taken a temporary contract at the hospital, starting tomorrow.
Mick, her dad, was quietly pleased. Theo’s mum had contacted him and invited him to the party and he’d left his project in the Kimberley to fly down and see Cassie’s happiness for himself. Now he stood with Theo’s dad and uncles outside the garage and argued…no, actually Theo didn’t want to know what they argued about.
‘Papou, I’m going to steal Cassie.’
‘Go, go.’ The wicked twinkle in his grandfather’s eyes said he understood and approved.
Clasping her hand, Theo strategically avoided the kitchen where his mum and aunts would be setting the world to rights over yet more coffee and cake. The last thing he wanted was their grins and comments — they’d be worse than his cousins, who’d approved of Cassie wholeheartedly.
‘My old room.’ He closed the door, locking it out of knowledge of his cousins and how a good party sent them straight back to high school behaviour. Then he dropped onto the bed and pulled Cassie over him. They bounced and jostled, but any laughter was lost to kisses and touches.
‘No sex,’ she warned. ‘Not with your whole family out there.’
He’d have argued, but just then a kid’s wail hit notes an opera singer would envy before settling into a prolonged tantrum. His planned seduction faltered. ‘Do you want kids?’
She made herself comfortable on top of him. ‘Yes.’
‘That was very definite.’
‘Today, I’ve seen you accept sticky kisses, mediate a dispute involving a dozen screaming kids and even change a nappy. If you tell me you don’t want kids, I won’t believe you.’
He laughed at her confident tone and at the truth. ‘I want two, maybe three?’
‘Suits me.’
He squeezed her. She gasped. He tickled her.
‘You demon!’ She shrieked with laughter.
Life was good.
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ISBN: 9780857991867
Title: Kiss It Better
Copyright © 2014 by Jenny Schwartz
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