What Love Sounds Like (13 page)

Mia swung around to see Kade eyeing off the bowl filled with the chocolate flavour. She moved it out of his reach. ‘I think I’d better get the cakes into the oven before there will be no mixture left.’

Kade pulled a pout that Tilly would be proud of. Mia’s laughter burst free.

‘What?’ He held up his hands, palms facing upward. ‘Pouting works for Tilly.’

The kettle whistled. ‘Like a coffee?’ he asked as he moved to flip off the switch. She shook her head. ‘I need to get these done.’
And to get away from you.

She focussed on spooning vanilla cake mixture into pretty, pink and white polka-dot paper cases that lined the cupcake tin.

‘You look like you’ve made a tray or two of cupcakes in your time?’ Kade said, his steaming coffee in his hand.

‘I have. Some of my happiest childhood memories took place in the kitchen.’

She winced. What was she doing? She needed to get out of the kitchen, not suddenly take a misguided stroll down memory lane.

‘With your mother?’

Mia took her time to answer. ‘Yes, I’d make cupcakes with her when she’d come home from hospital. It was our special time.’

‘Your mother must have really enjoyed making them with you too?’

‘Yes. She did. Even at the end when she wasn’t strong enough to help, I’d make cupcakes and everyday I’d sit one next to her bed. Even when they were never e–eaten…’ She spooned so much mixture into a paper case it overflowed. ‘Anyway, that was all a long time ago now.’ She half turned to look at the mug he held. ‘Your coffee will get cold. Don’t let me keep you. I’m sure you’ve got a call to make.’

‘I’m used to cold coffee and I’ve nothing on that can’t wait.’

He placed the coffee on the bench and picked up the cupcake recipe book.

Her grip tightened on the spoon. Why wouldn’t he go and leave her alone with her loss and her pain? He always had work to do.

He flicked through the recipe book. ‘So which cupcakes are you making?’ He held up a picture of cupcakes sporting pirate faces, complete with black eye patches. ‘These look good.’

She shook her head. ‘Flip three pages back.’

He did so and groaned. ‘Pink rosebuds and red hearts.’

She stepped away to collect a second cupcake tray and set about filling it with the paper cases. ‘Every four-year-old girl’s dream cupcakes.’

’And every guardian’s worst nightmare.’

Mia allowed herself a small smile. ‘They will still taste the same, despite the different icing and decorations.’

‘Do you make cupcakes for all your clients?’

‘Sometimes, it depends what we’re working on.’

‘What about non-clients?’

She stopped filling a paper case with strawberry cake mixture. ‘Non-clients? You mean friends?’

Kade nodded, an unspoken query in his eyes.

She kinked a brow. ‘If you’re asking if I cook cupcakes for a boyfriend, the answer is no.’

‘No?’

‘No boyfriend. And no cupcake cooking.’

‘Ever?’ Despite the teasing note in his voice, his intent gaze never left hers.

‘Once.’

‘Dare I ask? Did he choke?’

‘I’ll have you know you’re the only person my cooking doesn’t seem to agree with, so no, he didn’t choke.’ The personal line loomed closer but she knew the only way to end this conversation and retreat to safety would be to give Kade the brief version of her toxic relationship. ‘Let’s just say Jack assumed our engagement was a two-for-one deal. Not only would he gain a wife but also a powerful father-in-law. When he discovered the truth, that there was no chance of reconciliation between myself and Langford, he decided that I wasn’t the type of spouse an aspiring business-mogul needed.’

Anger hardened Kade’s mouth. ‘If you don’t mind me saying so, your fiancé…’

‘Ex-fiancé.’

‘Your
ex
-fiancé was a fool.’

She went back to filling the cupcake papers. ‘That’s exactly what Dr. Sheldon said. He also said one day I’d look back and realise what a narrow escape I’d had.’

‘Dr. Sheldon’s a wise man.’

’Very much so. I left Jack’s Sydney speech pathology practice and came out here to start my own.’ She picked up the filled cupcake tray. ‘And just like Dr. Sheldon predicted, I know now Jack and I would never have worked. It was my surname he was in love with, not me.’ She spoke over her shoulder as she crossed to the oven. ‘I never asked how you know Dr. Sheldon. Nowadays he’s busy with his university research. He hasn’t practised speech pathology in quite a while.’

‘It’s a long story.’ Kade watched the cupcake tray as she slid it onto the oven shelf. ‘I can tell you over a coffee?’

Her hand stilled on the oven door handle as she pressed it shut. Self-preservation wailed like a banshee in her head. She shouldn’t prolong contact with Kade any longer than necessary. She had to keep things strictly professional between them. But maybe it wasn’t the cakes that had marbles in them, only her head, for she wanted to accept Kade’s offer. It’d been a long time since she’d talked, really talked, to a man who saw her simply as Mia Windsor, not as Langford Windsor’s daughter.

She turned on her heel. ‘Okay. I can spare ten minutes while the cakes cook.’

‘White, no sugar?’ Kade asked as he collected a mug from the kitchen hutch.

‘Yes, please.’

She placed more paper cases into a third tray. Kade set her coffee on the kitchen island bench and she drew up a stool.

‘Thanks,’ she said, sitting. She squinted against the bright, overhead light. At least there was no danger of intimate lighting torpedoing her self-control, unlike the last time she sat opposite Kade in the kitchen. ‘So, how does this long story go?’

Kade pulled the coffee he’d collected from the bench toward him. ‘Actually it’s not that long…more like…complicated. Dr. Sheldon is my mother’s cousin. My grandmother left me a copy of our family tree, along with every letter she’d ever written to me that my father had returned. I’d forgotten such a family tree existed, until Tilly arrived.’ Darkness rippled across his eyes like waves upon a still pond. ‘Sometimes it’s a bonus having a good memory.’

‘But not always.’

‘No. Not. Always.’ Even as she watched, the grooves beside his mouth deepened. ‘You were right. When I was a child, I did feel things deeply. Apart from various nannies, my father was the only person I had growing up. He was everything to me. Then I started noticing other fathers who picked their kids up from school, other fathers who came for Father’s Day lunch, other fathers who hugged their sons. That’s when I realised my father was different. And I was different too. When my father married Claudia, in my childish naivety, I’d thought things would change, I’d have a ‘real’ family.’

Mia merely nodded. She didn’t want to speak and break the moment.

‘But we didn’t. Then Brad was born and it was as though a light switched on in my life. He’d follow me around and smile whenever he saw me.’ Kade stared into his coffee. ‘But when I was ten, and Brad must have been about three, it’d been a hot day so we had a water fight with the garden hose. My father was furious because I was supposed to be inside studying and not outside playing and as for Claudia, well, she never believed I belonged in their precious family in the first place. So the next day my bags were packed and I was sent off to a new school as a boarder. I never had a chance to say good-bye to Brad.’

No wonder Kade exerted so much control over his adult life, he’d exercised none as a child. ‘That must have been hard,’ she said quietly.

‘It was.’

Those two strained words were enough to tell her just how deep the grief had cut at being separated from his younger brother. And it wasn’t only Brad Kade had lost in his childhood, he’d also been kept from the grandmother who’d loved him. He’d learned to blank out his emotions to deal with his grief and now as an adult he continued to use the same coping strategy. Successful, powerful and attractive, he’d be every socialite’s, and every father-in-law’s, dream. The fact that Kade hadn’t provided Tilly with an instant mother confirmed that his emotions had never been allowed off their short leash.

‘Did you ever again spend time with Brad?’ She secured her fingers around her mug to stop them reaching across the bench and taking Kade’s tense hand in hers.

‘When Brad was a teenager he tried to stay in touch. But by then I’d left school and was establishing my first company. We’d catch up for a quick dinner every now and then.’ Kade’s fingers fidgeted with the handle of his mug. ‘The longest time we saw each other was after my grandmother’s funeral. He skipped school to catch a bus from Sydney to Whylandra where I collected him. My father was livid, but he and Claudia were overseas so couldn’t do much about it. Brad and I sorted through my grandmother’s things, swum at the waterhole, mustered cattle on motor-bikes and talked until late. Then…we returned to our normal lives.’

Mia breathed in the unmistakable smell of cooked cakes. She couldn’t risk checking them. Kade’s words would disappear as fast as raindrops in a dry creek-bed if she stood now. The gouges slashed beside his mouth told her his ‘complicated’ story still had a chapter to go.

‘After he finished school,’ Kade continued, ‘Brad rejected all that my father stood for. He threw on a backpack and vanished overseas. I did receive emails and postcards until about five years ago. In his last letter he’d mentioned a New Zealand girl called Sarah and I’m guessing the life he created with her took precedence over the one he’d left behind.’

‘Was Sarah Tilly’s mother?’

‘Yes. It seems they got married on the top of a mountain in Canada and soon after had Tilly. They were visiting Sarah’s elderly aunt in New Zealand’s South Island when the helicopter they took for a scenic flight crashed.’ He swallowed. ‘Thankfully Tilly had been in the care of a neighbour. I don’t need to tell you where she ended up next.’

Mia smiled. ‘She came to live with her Uncle Kade.’

‘She did.’ An answering smile briefly crossed his lips. ‘I still don’t know why Brad chose me. Sarah has a sister who would have been a much better alternative.’

‘You were his brother, Kade. He loved you.’

‘We just don’t do love in our family.’ Bitterness scoured his words.

‘Brad gifted you his most precious thing – Tilly. In anyone’s family that is a sign of love.’

‘Maybe.’ Kade pushed his half-drunk coffee away. ‘There was a letter addressed to me amongst Brad’s papers. One day I might read it and find out why he and Sarah chose me.’ He came to his feet. ‘I’m no cake expert but I think those cakes are done.’

Mia stood too. Even as she watched, hardness again claimed his features. Like waves upon the sand, his gentleness and softness disappeared. With one blink of his blue eyes, Kade Reid, unemotional CEO, returned.

If only he could as easily block out thoughts of Mia like the vine’s leaves screened out the late-morning sun from the veranda. Kade frowned as the hot breeze stirred the broad, green leaves of the ornamental grape that formed a living screen beside him. As a child he’d taken sanctuary in a tree-house at the end of the garden but the wooden fort wouldn’t provide any breathing space now. He knew from visits in the past week that from its high platform he’d still see the burnished sheen of Mia’s hair as she walked in the garden with Tilly and still hear the distant notes of her laughter. So he’d taken refuge behind the grape vine. He’d be invisible to anyone inside the house as well as in the garden.

After their kitchen conversation last night, thoughts of Mia didn’t just plague him, they hounded him. Not once, but twice, had she been hurt. First by her hard-hearted father and then by a fiancé who sounded little better than Langford. Of all people, Mia deserved to be treated with respect and decency. He knew firsthand her unselfishness and courage were qualities that weren’t easily found. Without hesitation, she’d stepped outside her speech pathologist role to ease a grieving child’s pain. She’d also gone toe-to-toe with him to ensure that Tilly would lead the best life possible.

He stretched out his legs to ease the restlessness building within him. As much as he admired the strength of her spirit and her kind-heartedness, he needed to keep his distance. Last night she hadn’t been the only one to disclose personal information, yet again he’d opened his big mouth. But expressing his pain at being separated from Brad had come at a cost. His revelations had left him feeling raw and vulnerable and he now needed a chance to to regroup.

A faint cry sounded. He looked out over the green carpet of lawn. He’d seen Mia and Tilly from his office window looking like pirates dressed in red and white bandanas. Tilly must have found what they were searching for. A scream cut through the air. Heart in his throat, he shot off the wide veranda and ran into the garden to where the cry had come from. He burst through a gap in the hedge. And stopped.

Before him, Mia stood frozen, chalk-white, with Tilly in her arms. A basket lay at Mia’s feet, its coloured cards strewn on the gravel. To their right, sunlight flashed off reptilian skin.

His blood chilled. A snake.

‘Stay still, Mia,’ he said, not sure if the words would make it past his lips. ‘Just. Stay. Still.’

Her head nodded slightly but otherwise she remained immobile. His hands fisted. His instincts shouted at him to protect the woman and child before him, but he dared not move. He was no match for the speed of an aggressive western brown. Silence closed around him, broken only by Tilly’s sobs, an occasional distant cluck of a hen in the chook pen and the harshness of his breathing. The seconds stretched into an eternity. Then the snake’s head turned. Its scaly skin glistened as it slithered into the undergrowth.

Adrenaline detonated within his code-red muscles. He covered the ground to Mia in three strides. His arms encircled her and Tilly. ‘It’s gone,’ he said, his voice nothing more than a hoarse croak.

Mia looked at him. Her skin was translucent and lips bloodless. For an instant, her body leaned against his before Tilly’s desperate fingers plucked at his shirt and she launched herself into his arms. He hugged her against his chest with one arm and kept his other around Mia’s shoulders.

‘It’s okay,’ he said, as Tilly buried her head beneath his chin. ‘You’re safe now.’