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“Coffee for me,liebchen,” Wolf said, smacking Abby’s arse as she rose from her seat, making her blush.
“Me too.” Rafe.
“And me.” Jane.
“She’ll have tea,” Rafe said, scowling at his wife.
Jane smiled sweetly back. “You do remember our deal, don’t you, dearest?”
Rafe snorted. “I’m pretty sure my balls are safe.”
“You have to sleep sometime,” Jane said, winking.
But her husband didn’t budge. “Tea or decaf, beautiful. Pick one.”
“Fine,” she conceded with a huff. “Tea, please.”
Abby shook her head at her siblings, then looked at her. “Something for you, Mia?”
“I’ll have tea, thanks.”
“Black with honey and lemon,” Oliver added as he finished his breakfast.
Mia stared at him in surprise. “You remember how I take my tea?”
Oliver looked at her then, a small smile on his face and a softness in his eyes that made her swallow thickly against the knot of emotion clogging her throat. “I’m glad you’re home,” he said quietly, ignoring her question, then pushed his chair away from the table and stood. “I have to get to work. Come find me when you’re done, yeah?”
Mia nodded. “Will do.”
Then Ollie dumped his plate in the sink and left the kitchen.
Just as she was finishing her tea, she heard the rhythmicclang,clang,clangof metal on metal and smiled to herself. It was a sound she knew well, one she’d grown up listening to and one she hadn’t realised she’d missed until that moment.
Her emotions swelled inside her. She’d missed a lot of things over the years. Looking around the table, listening to the easy flow of conversation and laughter, she realised she’d missed a lot of people too. Friends she’d abandoned when she’d run away from home and joined the circus commonly known as the Royal Australian Army.
But instead of crying about it, she did what she’d been trained to do and shoved the feelings down deep, locking them back in their cage until she was ready to deal with them.
Which was never.
Getting to her feet, Mia gathered her dishes and placed them beside the sink, but when she made to help with the washing up, Rafe and Abby shooed her out of the kitchen. “You’re our guest,” Abby said, then pulled her in for another hug. “We’re all really glad you’re home, Mia.”
“Thanks, Abbs,” Mia said, and hugged the woman back a little tighter. “I should go do my Pilates.”
“On the back deck is the best place to do that,” Jane said as she waddled closer, one hand pressed into the small of her back. “The guys rebuilt it before Christmas, made it bigger. There’s lots of room to move now.”
“Out the back, huh?” Right where Ollie would be working. “Thanks for the tip.”
Chapter Five
Oliver trained his focus on the red-hot iron in his hands as he moulded it into shape. Nothing could silence his mind quite like work did.
The rhythm of the strikes, the heat of the forge, the sweat running down his back. It wasn’t just the routine of it but the simple joy of creating each object, of knowing each thing he made had purpose.
But nothing would silence his thoughts today.
Nothing would calm his mind while Emilia Caldwell lived under his roof, wearing those skimpy little panties and tit-hugging tank-tops.
Certainly not while she was planking in the backyard wearing skin-tight work-out gear, her firm arse pointed squarely in his direction.
