‘She lives over here?’ Adam asked. ‘Maryland’s not that far away.’
Kitty frowned. She hadn’t really thought about how close Cutler’s Gap was to her sister. She was so used to living on different coasts that it didn’t even seem as though they were in the same country sometimes. The fact was, Juliet was almost as close in miles to England as she was to California. America really was that big.
?
?It’s not exactly walking distance.’ A 600-mile round-trip was hardly a hop, skip and jump. ‘Anyway, she’s busy with her own family. She has a little girl.’
‘She’s got a kid? How old is she?’ Adam sounded surprised.
‘A few years older than me. But she got married young. Poppy’s five now.’
‘That’s a pretty name.’
Kitty smiled. Poppy’s birth had been the best thing that happened to the family for years. Though they were scattered around the globe, somehow the tiny baby had brought them back together.
Adam’s palm was still pressed against her stomach. ‘You must miss them.’
‘I guess I do. But we try to get together when we can, even if it’s only on Skype. We’re planning to all talk on Christmas Day if we can agree a time.’ She placed her hand over his. ‘It’s a weird thing being sisters. We can go for months without speaking, and then it’s as if we’ve never been apart. When the four of us – five now, I guess, if you include my niece, Poppy – are in the same room it can be pretty overwhelming.’
‘I bet it can.’ She felt him smiling against her shoulder. ‘It explains how you’re able to manage my family, though. We must seem almost normal to you.’
She squeezed his hand. ‘No, you’re all totally crazy. There’s no hope for any of you.’
Adam growled loudly, flipping her over onto her back, hooking his leg over hers. She could feel him grow hard against her thigh as he ran his fingers down her side, nuzzling his head into her breasts.
‘You think there’s no hope?’ His teeth grazed her nipple. ‘I guess we’ll just have to go out in a blaze of glory then.’
Kitty lay back, submitting her body to his touch, enjoying the sensations created by his lips and his fingers.
‘A blaze of glory sounds good.’ Her voice was strained. He must know he was setting her on fire every time he touched her.
Not that she cared – she planned to enjoy every single moment of it.
It was late when Kitty walked back into the kitchen, pulling off her boots and placing them on the drying mat. The room was empty save for Annie, who was folding laundry and putting it into piles on the kitchen table.
‘Everything OK down there?’ Was that a twinkle in Annie’s eye? Kitty tried to ignore it, feigning an air of nonchalance.
‘The puppy’s still alive, if that’s what you meant.’
Annie’s smirk was totally out of place. Kitty’s eyes narrowed as she stared at her.
‘I didn’t mean anything at all,’ Annie said. ‘Unless there’s something you think I meant?’
A change of subject was probably for the best, thought Kitty. ‘Where is everybody?’
‘Everett and Mr Montgomery are in the library. Mr Klein is sitting with Mary. And Mia and Jonas have gone sledging.’
Kitty stopped dead. ‘Sledging? Where?’
She didn’t know what to think about first: the fact that Mia was actually paying her son some attention, or whether Kitty could actually trust her with Jonas’s safety.
Oh God, listen to her. Mia was Jonas’s mother; of course she had his best interests at heart. There’s no way she would put him in danger. Kitty walked over to help Annie with the folding, trying to ignore the nagging feeling in her stomach.
Adam’s cabin! That’s where the best sled run was. Had she passed Mia and Jonas on her way and not noticed? She’d been so deep in thought she probably could have passed half the population of Cutler’s Gap and not even bothered to look up.
‘They only left a few minutes ago. I’m not sure where they were headed.’
It was hard not to worry about Jonas, even though Kitty knew it wasn’t her place to fret. If Mia wanted to spend some time with her son what concern was it of Kitty’s? After all, Kitty had only been looking after him for a little while, he’d been Mia’s son for seven years. And she was his mother.