7
Andy
I was coveredin mud by the time the dogs had exhausted themselves and we all headed back toward the house, cold and tired, but happier than I had been.
Especially since Kit maybedidwant to kiss me, and really was just being too polite for his own good, as usual.
“Kit’s in the parlor again, talking to an old school friend,” Teddy told me as I stepped into the warm kitchen, finding him perched at the counter with both hands wrapped around a steaming mug of what I guessed was tea. “He’d probably be grateful for the rescue. I know I would.”
I smiled at his dad and headed out of the kitchen, toward the parlor, wondering if now was a good time to replace the bell on the Christmas tree.
“Stop right there,” Kit’s mom called out as soon as I emerged into the entryway, coming down the stairs as fast as she could in a pair of heels that made me dizzy just looking at them. “I want to talk to you.”
I stopped, but only because I was a guest in this house and didn’t want to be exactly the rude, uncultured American Kit’s mom clearly thought I was.
“Ma’am, I’m covered in mud,” I tried. Maybe if I couldn’t rescue Kit, I could at least escape up to our room.
Wherever it was.
“And tracking it all over my carpets,” she said, sniffing.
“I was just looking for Kit,” I said. “His dad said he was in the parlor.”
“Speaking to the Duke of Exbridge, and you willnotdisturb him. I will not allow his overdeveloped sense of noblesse oblige to ruin his life like it very nearly did his father’s.”
“But he’s—“
“No buts,” Kit’s mother said, jaw hard.
She would’ve been pretty when she was younger, I thought. But now she looked like she’d spent so much of her life frowning that her face was stuck that way.
“I thought you were dying to meet me?” I challenged.
“And now I have, and have unsurprisingly found you wanting.” She sniffed. “You won’t do for him. I won’t have it.”
“I don’t think you get to make that call,” I said, straightening up to my full height. She was still standing on the bottom stair, but with my shoulders squared, our eyes were almost level.
Her hair gave her a couple of inches of height advantage, but hair didn’t count, and I wasn’t backing down.
She’d clearly made her mind up about me, but if she thought I’d let her use me as a doormat, she’d made a mistake.
I wasn’t Kit, but I cared about him. If he couldn’t stand up to her,Icould.
She opened her mouth to say something else, but the door to the parlor swung open at that moment.
“Ah, there you are,” Kit said, practically purring.
I barely had time to react before Kit swooped in, tilting my chin up like he had earlier, touch tender and gentle.
“Hello, darling,” He murmured, eyes softer than I’d ever seen them.
Since when was hethisgood an actor?
My heart sped up as he leaned in, blood pounding in my ears. He was going to kiss me. He was going tokiss me.
Those butterflies in my stomach woke up with full force as the tip of Kit’s nose brushed against mine, lips parting and eyelids falling as he pressed forward, a barely-stifled moan welling up in my throat.
Even with an audience, this was sogood. Blood-rushingly, toe-curlingly good, think-about-it-late-at-night good, chocolate fudge sundae with a cherry on top good.
