Magan came back and sat with me at the kitchen table. She fidgeted, and I reached out, and stilled her hands. “Whatever happens, we will figure it out, okay? You and me – I’ll be there for you every step.”
Tears pricked her eyes again, and she reached out, and put her arms around me. She hugged me for a long time, and when she pulled away, she said, “I’m so glad I found that photo of you and your address in Mum’s stuff that day I found out about you.”
I frowned. “Wait, you never told me that. I thought you got my information from her sister.”
; “No, she sent me a box of photos from when I was a kid, and on the top when I opened it, she had a photo of you and a post-it note with your address on it. That’s how I found you.”
My heart skidded to a stop.
She kept track of me.
“Did I say something wrong?” she asked.
“No, I just didn’t realise she’d kept track of me,” I said softly.
She smiled. “See, she does love you, Sophia.”
I still didn’t want to burst her bubble, so I changed the subject. “Do you want to come to dinner tonight? I’m going to get Griff to fire up my barbeque.”
“Steak! I’m in.”
“I knew I could totally bribe you with steak,” I said with a wink. Standing, I said, “Okay, I gotta get to work, but I’ll see you later. Do you want me to pick you up?”
“Nah, I’ll catch a bus. See you then.” She paused for a second before adding, “I love you, sis.”
She didn’t tell me that very often, so my heart swelled hearing it. “I love you, too.”
* * *
I took a sip of wine and laughed at Magan’s joke. She’d met me at home after I finished work, and wanting to take her mind off the fact her boyfriend was an ass, we’d turned the music up and baked some cupcakes. She loved baking as much as I did, and we often made cakes. They were our downfall, as both of us had a sweet tooth.
We’d moved into the lounge room and were almost rolling around on the floor in stitches of laughter when Griff arrived. I’d left the front door open for him, so he’d entered and now stood shaking his head at us, a grin fixed firmly on his face.
I jumped up and threw my arms around him. “Hey, handsome,” I greeted him and then planted my lips on his in a long kiss.
When I pulled away from him, he raised his brows, and said, “I see you started without me, sweetheart.”
I indicated with my fingers that I’d only had a small amount. “Just a little bit, I promise.”
“’Just a little bit’ she says as she slurs her words. Lucky I’m cooking dinner tonight.”
“We made cupcakes!” I said a little too enthusiastically. “Oh, shit, maybe I did have more than a little bit…I kinda am slurring my words, aren’t I? But, I had a good day at work…no, scratch that, I had a great day at work, and then I had you to look forward to seeing tonight. Oh, God, I’ll just shut up now…I’m rambling, aren’t I?” I slapped my hand over my mouth in an effort to stop the flow of words.
His arm slid around my waist, and he pulled me close. Brushing his lips over mine, he murmured, “I fucking love it when you ramble, in case you hadn’t clued onto that, baby, so feel free to do it whenever you want.”
Oh my.
A smile spread across my lips. “I’ll take that under advisement,” I said softly.
He let me go and left us to head into the kitchen. Once we were alone, her eyes widened, and with very expressive hand motions in the direction he’d gone, she mouthed, “Dude! He’s amazing! Where do you find men like that?”
While also making expressive hand motions, I mouthed back, “I have no clue! I got lucky for once in my life.”
Griff cleared his throat and we both snapped our heads to face him. He smirked as he said, “Sorry to interrupt what I presume is a female kind of communication that I never need to be enlightened on, but I need to know what you want cooked.”
Magan burst out laughing and I did my best to keep a straight face. Swallowing back my laughter, I said, “Sure, I’ll come and show you.”