Page 73 of New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Cafe
‘Do you get along?’ Tori asked.
‘We used to fight like cat and dog when we were kids. She was always getting me into trouble, but we’ve outgrown the bickering and have been a lot closer since Lara was born. Lara’s dad didn’t stick around once she arrived.’ He pulled at the label on the wine bottle.
‘That must be really tough on them both.’
‘That’s one of the reasons I wanted to take the job in Rye when it came up. So I could be around more for them both.’
‘I remember you saying,’ said Tori. ‘Lara’s an amazing kid – her dad’s missing out, I’d say.’
‘She really is. I can’t even explain what she means… how much I… there aren’t enough words…’
‘To say how much you love her?’
Leo nodded.
‘Don’t worry, she knows,’ whispered Tori.
‘You think?’
‘It’s like me and Mum. She doesn’t need to tell me every day for me to know that she’d jump in front of a bus for me. Dad left when I was fifteen; I was quite a bit older than Lara, but it still hurt. It took me ages to work out that I hadn’t done anything wrong. Mum was the one who was there for me, even though she was dealing with him leaving her too.’
‘Sorry, Tori, I didn’t know.’
‘Honestly, I’m fine with it now. A younger woman showed him a bit of attention and he ditched us without a second thought. That’s onhim, not me and Mum.’
‘And you never hear from him?’
‘We did at first, for a while, but he made less and less effort over the years until he finally stopped bothering at all.’
‘Well, he sounds like an arse.’
‘Cheers to that,’ said Tori, raising a glass. Leo smiled, his eyes not leaving hers. Leo had shared some deeply personal stuff with her this evening, which made it even harder for her to believe that Claire was right when she had warned her he was a player. ‘Seriously though, Lara is lucky to have you in her life, Leo; she clearly adores you and that kind of bond is something to treasure. Not everyone is that lucky.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Right, don’t we have a barn dance to organize?’ she said, just as the doorbell chimed to signal the arrival of their pizza.
‘I don’t think I’ve ever been so full in my whole life,’ said Tori, pushing the empty pizza box away from her and grabbing one of the sofa cushions to put on her lap.
‘You did put away an entire meat feast, plus chicken wings, garlic bread and I lost count of how many of those disgusting mozzarella sticks—’
‘Hey! You ate just as much as me!’ she said, batting him with the cushion.
‘A fact I’m not denying, butI’vestill got room for the cheesecake in the fridge…’
‘Cheesecake,’ Tori groaned, ‘you’re not serious? You’ll have to roll me out of here at this rate.’
‘Or I could give you a fireman’s lift?’ said Leo, raising his eyebrows.
Tori reached for the bottle of wine on the coffee table at exactly the same moment as Leo, bumping hands with him. Her instinct was to pull her hand away, but she resisted. His skin felt, warm… soft. She realized that she didn’t want this moment to end. Electricity pulsed through her and all she could think about was how much she wanted his lips to touch hers; nothing else seemed to matter. She slowly moved her head closer towards his and shivered as he ran a finger down the bare flesh on her arm. She closed her eyes, anticipating the moment their lips would finally touch—
‘Eurgh!’ she cried, jumping up from the sofa as something wet and slimy landed in her lap.
‘Bloody hell, Tinks!’ cried Leo. Sat in the middle of the sofa was a very proud-looking cat watching a small but very energetic frog.
‘Shall I get Tinkerbell out the way?’ asked a flustered Tori, scooping her up off the sofa.
‘Can you shut her in the kitchen for now and grab me something to try and catch this thing?’ replied Leo, making frantic and unsuccessful attempts to get hold of the frog.
Tori ran through to the kitchen, closing the door firmly behind her, putting a squirming Tinkerbell down on the floor. The cat yowled at her angrily. ‘Don’t give me that, young lady,’ said Tori sternly. ‘You have no idea what you’vejust interrupted.’ Had she and Leo really been about to share their first kiss? And had they really just been interrupted by afrog? She’d heard of the frog prince, but this was ridiculous. Now what to use to pop the frog into… Tori flung open Leo’s kitchen cupboards, hoping to find something they could use. Settling on a salad spinner, she sprinted back to the lounge.
‘Is this okay?’ she asked, passing him the spinner.
