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He stood frozen to the spot for a moment, then laughed. “Ha ha, nice try. This is some kind of joke, right? I bet Cody put you up to it and any minute he’ll pop out of the woodwork with a camera and yell, ‘Ha! Gotcha!’, and then he’ll–”

I lurched forwards and pressed my lips urgently to his, my hands sliding behind his neck and down across his jaw line. When I finally pulled back, he was frozen in another position; lips protruding, eyes in blissful shock, his body about ready to slide to the floor like a lump of rapidly melting ice.

“Holy moly,” he whispered.

I chuckled, then drew him in for another kiss, realising that after the whole adventure that was my fiftieth birthday, Will and I had not kissed. Not once. He’d tried of course, but never struck gold and when I finally wanted to kiss him, he went off to have a shower and left me laying on the bed a tingling pile of desire until I was launched back in time. I was glad though. This was meant to be our first kiss. Not in the future, but here, at the beginning, where it all started.

We smiled at each other as we came up for air and I gestured to the dance floor. “You don’t like robot dancing by any chance, do you?”

Will grabbed my shoulders. “Do I ever! I’m like The King of robot dancing!” He led me towards the dance floor. “And that’s not just because it’s the only style of dance I know.” He winked, his eyes telling me it most certainly was.

A crowd gathered in a circle around us, clapping and cheering, except for Cody who stood on the sidelines shaking his head in utter disbelief. When the song ended and slow music took over, he pulled me close to him. “You’ve got me under your spell, Kelli Crawford,” he whispered.

“Then let’s make some magic,” I replied, leaning my head towards his and relishing the soft, warm touch of his lips again.

As we swayed in time to the music, he brought his lips to my ear and whispered, “Never in a million years would I have dreamed that Kelli Crawford would waltz into my school reunion and ravish me.”

“It just goes to show, you never know what the future has in store for you,” I replied, even though I was privy to some of it.

“That’s right,” he said. “Do you ever wish you could jump ahead in time and see what your future’s going to be like?”

“Well, it could be… interesting, but nah, I’d rather stay exactly where I am and let life lead the way.”

“Yeah, me too. Life is for living, is it not? If you’re too focused on the future you forget to have fun in the moment.” Will pulled back, putting a stop to our slow dance. “Speaking of fun, the annual fun fair’s on in the city all month. Being Saturday night it should be open till late.” His eyes twinkled. “What do you say we skip this joint and go have some real fun?”

A smile crawled onto my lips and I clasped my hand in his, eyeing the exit. “Hell, yeah!”

Chapter 21

Twenty-Five Years Later

“Mothers and daughters are closest, when daughters become mothers.”

– Author Unknown

“Wake up, Kelli, wake up!” I inched my eyes open to find Will shaking me gently. “Guess what? We’re grandparents! Diora had a baby girl!”

I shot up to a sitting position. “Oh my God! A granddaughter? Oh, I’m so happy!” I flung my legs over the side of the bed and stood quickly, resting my hand on the bedside table momentarily to regain my balance. “How’s the baby, is she okay? Is Diora okay?”

“They’re both fine, although apparently Jason’s wand has been snapped to bits,” he chuckled.

“What’s her name?” I asked, eagerly rummaging through my wardrobe and pulling out a random pair of pants and a shirt.

“They wouldn’t say, said they wanted to introduce her to us properly,” Will replied.

“Oh, okay.” I imagined the baby holding out her tiny hand and saying ‘Nice to officially meet you, Grandma’, and then shook the absurdity from my mind. “I can’t wait to see her!”

“Me neither, but you better come and have breakfast first, don’t want you collapsing with low blood sugar at the hospital,” Will said. “Although, you couldn’t get a more convenient place, if that were to happen.”

I whipped him playfully with my trousers before stepping into them and wiggling them up and over my hips. “I’ll just get ready first, see you in the kitchen soon.”

Will wandered out, pinching his e-pad and pulling the virtual strand to his ear. “Hi, Mum, it’s me. She had a baby girl… I know!… yep… okay, so…” his voice trailed off.

I flicked on the light in the bathroom and splashed water on my face. Squirting a blob of moisturiser onto my hands I massaged it into my cheeks, circling the laughter lines that had deepened after many a fun night watching comedy movies with Will. Then I let the lotion glide over my forehead, seeping into the furrows that had developed from hours and hours of concentration hunched over my designing desk. I dabbed my ring finger in the jar of eye cream and patted the lines framing my eyes which had cried at the birth of my two children, then pressed lip gloss into the lips that had kissed many a sore knee after a fall at the park, and lips that had poured forth my love for Will onto lips of his own. As the moisturiser sunk into my thirsty skin, I rubbed lotion on the arms that had rocked babies to sleep and embraced my husband. I lifted my shirt to nourish the loose but resilient skin on my abdomen that had long ago stretched with the promise of new life, and adjusted the straps on my bra, supporting the breasts that had fed my two children.

My body was a living reminder of my wonderful life. It had done amazing, beautiful things and there was no way in the world I’d prefer to look like a twenty-something perfect beauty with a body untouched by life. Of course, I still valued my appearance, but as I dusted my face with mineral foundation I knew that if I chose not to bother anymore, it wouldn’t make any difference. My family would still be here, my friends would still love me and my business would still be the award-winning empire that it was.

I flicked the light off as I strode confidently from the bathroom and entered the kitchen where Ryan and Ben were sitting at the counter stuffing their mouths with cake. “You call that breakfast?” I asked.

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