‘Nothing has changed,’ he answers, amused. As I frown he adds, ‘It’s so good to be home.
Our houses sit side by side on the edge of London, secluded from neighbours at the rear by extensive gardens. In an unspoken agreement, we follow a path that leads into the trees. We used to walk along this little path a lot when we were kids. Now, more than a decade later, the path is almost non-existent, and the trees are so much bigger than they used to seem. As we walk, our silence is a comfortable one, allowing memories of our past to flow like a river through my brain. We spent a lot of time playing hide-and-seek between the trees, climbing into sturdy branches and hiding behind the many trunks. Sometimes we’d pack a picnic basket and eat sandwiches next to the stream where we’d throw the remains of our sandwiches to tempt the minnows swimming around the edges. All the memories of us around that time are filled with joy, and Josh is at the centre of every single one of them.
When I glance up, I find him smiling at me.
‘You’re staring,’ I say, calling him out.
‘Hard not to,’ he answers with a cocky smirk. ‘You grew up well, Kallie. Really well.
‘You always were a smooth talking devil.’ I smile, more comfortable in being open with him now that we’re alone. Which is the opposite of how I feel when Ads is around. My brother and his overprotective streak is another one of the reasons I’d buggered off to California. At least I can now spend time with men without needing his permission or their vetting. Not that I go out a lot. You can take the girl out of suburbia, but you can’t take the suburban out of the girl. Or something.
Josh takes a small step closer to me and he’s close enough now that I can smell his cologne despite the breeze. It’s intoxicating. And familiar, it can’t be the same as he wore back then, but the scent of him is like nothing else. Woodsy and manly.Oh, hell.
‘Trouble, am I,’ his voice rumbles. ‘You really have no idea, but I’d like you to find out.’
His voice is like velvet brushing against my skin—teasing my nipples and halting the breath in my throat. My body responds, my skin alive at the proximity of him. Every fibre in my being screams for him to step closer. For him to take me in his arms and make me his.
Actually, I’d be just as happy if he pushed me against a tree and shagged me.
Chapter 4
Josh
Kallie is everything she was when we were growing up, and more.More woman.When I joke with her, she laughs and responds. She’s wittier than I remember, or maybe just more confident now, and able to speak her mind.
And she does.
‘I can’t believe we’re back here.’ We’re standing by the stream at the end of our joint properties, the space around us silent but for the singing of the birds and the sound of the breeze rustling the trees. But it’s not just the physical space we’re in that I’m addressing. It’s more than that. It’s in the attraction I feel toward her—the resurrection of feeling I thought I’d overcome all those years ago.
‘I can’t believe ten years has passed.’ She looks at me, her eyes deep and soulful and sort of daring me. I let my own gaze slide down to her lips for just a beat.
‘I can,’ she answers with a sudden gleam. ‘You look so old and haggared.’
‘Thanks. Here I was just enjoying the moment, thinking of nothing-’
‘Oh, it’s never been nothing with you,’ she says, a teasing smile playing on her lips.
‘Excuse me for trying to spare your blushes.’
‘Blushing? Over you?’ Despite her words, she’s absolutely is blushing now. ‘Fat chance, Joshy.’
My chest heats at the use of her pet name for me. At least, she was the one who started it when she’d lost her front teeth. ‘You so are blushing. And it’s kind of beautiful.’
‘Only kind of beautiful.’
‘Absolutely beautiful,’ I confirm.
‘And you always were a smooth tongued—’ Her words halt immediately, her teeth closing over her bottom lip. Fuck if that doesn’t make me want to taste it, too.
‘Tell me more about this smooth tongue.’ My words dare and my tone teases.
‘Oh, bugger off,’ Kallie responds, but she’s smiling and I know she doesn’t really want me to go anywhere just now.
‘Hey, you let the tongue out of the bag,’ I counter, my pants tightening as I think how much I’d like to get it into her pants.
But it’s more than that. We haven’t seen each other for so long and I regret the past decade, all those years I could’ve been part of her life. It wasn’t my call not to be with her. Yes, I was young, but I should’ve manned up. But then again, being around her would’ve been torture. You don’t taste a girl like Kallie if you’ve no intentions of making her yours permanently. and her dad would’ve made that impossible.
‘I’m thinking about coming back here to live.’ I lower myself to a fallen log and she parks her bum next to me. Sunlight falls through the trees, dappling her hair with beams.
