Page 82 of Stolen Kiss

“Just in case,” she’d said.

She could move her entire house in, he didn’t care so long as she was with him. Jason told her every day he loved her and her reply was non-verbal. Sometimes he was late for work and sometimes she was. Heidi showed Jason she loved him and Jason told Heidi he loved her.

Daisy had talked with Erica’s accountants and the renovations were well underway. The foreman Stan Myers had hired was a drill sergeant. No one had a cup of tea unless he agreed it first. Aunt Cynthia would be proud if she had come out of her suite of rooms to be nosey.

“You love my sister?” Keith asked.

They were sitting astride their boards. It had become their Sunday morning ritual to catch some waves before they headed back to the Shaw house to lunch.

“Yes,” Jason said with absolute certainty.

“Can I tell you what went down back then?”

“I’m all ears,” Jason said looking straight ahead. Keith and Jason were similar, it was probably why they were friends for so long and didn’t piss each other off.

“This beach?” Keith said.

“Yeah.”

“Everything you can see from the sand and back three hundred feet. This whole lagoon, in fact this peninsular?”

“Yeah.”

“I own it.”

Jason’s head swung to look at Keith to see if he was kidding.

“No shit?”

“No shit,” he replied quietly.

“And all you have on here is a shack.”

“I feel too guilty,” he said trailing his fingers through the water.

“Why?”

“It was coming to the end of the summer and Cynthia Turner stood next to me at the end of the quay for the final gig race. You were ten feet away cheering on Heidi.”

“I never saw her.”

“There was a reason for that. She told me it was a shame that you and Heidi got on so well. I took the bait and asked why. That was when she told me you were engaged to be married on New Year’s Eve. Some Countess on the mainland. It seemed legit. You were a Turner after all. Why the fuck wouldn’t you marry a countess? I didn’t see this as a problem, you and Heidi were just friends. She was my older sister. And there is an unwritten rule about best friend’s sisters. You getting married seemed shocking as you never let on but you were also set to leave for the rigs so I figured your wife would hole up at the estate like your mother did.”

“You had no idea I was besotted with Heidi?”

“No a clue.”

A lull fell between them. Jason thought back to the last weekend he’d spent with Heidi. It was getting cooler so there wasn’t as much time to lie in the soft sand and make love. Butthey did it for as long as they could and then bundled up under blankets.

“I asked your aunt why she was talking to me about your intended wife. And she said so I could let Heidi know gently after you’d left. It would be better coming from me, rather than Heidi finding out the hard way when you brought your wife back in the new year. Then is dawned on me you’d been with Heidi the whole summer. She was so happy and I thought it was because she’d studied her arse off and was letting loose before she started her job.”

“Fuck,” Jason hissed.

“I hated you so much. Hated you so much I couldn’t even look at you.”

“I wondered why you said you couldn’t meet up for one last drink before I headed off. You’d said that there was a meal at the house for family and you had to be there instead. I knew you were lying because Heidi was with me that evening and we were going to tell you.”

“Fuck. The timing was all wrong.”

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