Happy Mother's Day! - By Sharon Kendrick Page 0,169
that a little more.’
Kane’s legs leant sideways, into Siena, and her legs instantly uncrossed and went knock-kneed and askew. James realised that Kane had hugged her. He put a hand against the wall to steady himself.
‘Right, okay,’ Siena said, her voice suddenly thick. ‘We’d better get downstairs or your dad will think we’ve run away and he might then eat all the sausages himself.’
James pushed himself away from the wall and ran down two stairs and waited for Kane to barrel out the door before taking a step back up.
‘Dad!’ Kane called, his eyes bright and lit by an inner fire that made James glow from the inside out.
‘Yes, buddy?’ he said, doing his best not to take the kid in his arms and hug him tight.
‘I left my hot dog in my room.’ And Kane ran off as if the wind was at his heels.
Siena came out of his room, her mouth falling into a shocked ‘O’ as she saw him at the top of the stairs. She glanced back into the room behind her.
‘Don’t tell me, Kane was showing off the camphor blanket box. He loves that piece. When he was younger and loved playing hide and seek he could be found there nine times out of ten. He smelled like camphor until he was five.’
She smiled at him, her eyes bright and her cheeks pink. ‘Yep. That was it. Now, where are those hot dogs? I’m starved.’
She slid past him, leaving behind a trail of expensive perfume, heat and bashfulness as she jogged down the stairs.
After the strangest afternoon tea date of her life, eating reheated sausages over the kitchen sink with a guy, a kid and an ageing hippy, Siena said her goodbyes.
‘Is that your bike at the front door?’ Kane asked, as they walked straight past it.
‘Oh, heck, I almost forgot! I bought it for you,’ Siena said. ‘Considering I squished your last one, I thought it was only fair. But you are only allowed to ride it if you tell your dad every time and you always wear your helmet and pads. And wake up every day how we talked about, deal?’
‘Wow! Sure. Thanks,’ Kane gushed, taking it in his hands and spinning the handle bars and testing the bell. ‘I promise!’
‘Say goodbye,’ James told his son.
‘Goodbye, Siena!’ Though Kane was gone to them now, running the bike round and round the lounge.
‘What was that all about?’ he asked, walking her to his car as she hadn’t been able to convince him he had no need to drive her home. ‘Waking up every day?’
She leant against the passenger door of his dark sedan and crossed her arms. ‘Nothing important,’ she said, more than glad he hadn’t come looking for them any earlier than he had.
He sauntered over and leant against the car beside her, mirroring her stance, folding his arms and half-smiling back.
‘So?’ he said.
‘So,’ she repeated, willing herself not to blush beneath the warmth of his gaze, ‘this afternoon has been … educational.’
James watched her but she had no idea what he was thinking. She had barely known him long enough to be able to read his verbal language much less his body language. Though, for some reason, all through the sausages and bread he’d been acting like the cat who’d caught the canary.
It had left her feathers feeling ruffled. That decisiveness, that straight stare, the constant half-smile—she found that side of him utterly sexy. Strong. Masculine. And attractive as hell. And she too hadn’t been able to keep her own smile off her face all afternoon.
Though she thought that the conversation with Kane had had as much to do with her unbelievably high spirits as anything else.
There she had been, in her father’s old room, the place in which the hardest memories of her short life had taken place, and she had been stronger than she had ever thought herself able to be. She’d had to be, for there had been someone else in that room who had needed her to be.
‘You could stay,’ James said, and Siena was torn from her heroic daydreams.
She waited for him to finish his sentence and, in the silent moment that stretched on, she thought perhaps that was all he was planning to say and her heart swelled. Literally. She could feel it filling her chest until she could barely breathe.
But, after a pause, he added, ‘For dinner.’ And her expectant heart deflated back to its regular below average size.