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“You just told my mother off and sent her packing.”

Caz chewed her own bottom lip. “Yeah, that’s what you wanted, right? Did you change your mind? I can call her—”

She didn’t have time to finish the sentence before Grace crossed the room with all the gusto of someone on a mission. She grasped Caz’s face between both palms and pulled her closer, pressing her lips to Caz’s mouth. “That was…” she said between kisses, “the hottest thing…” Caz’s hands slid around her waist. “I’ve ever witnessed you do.”

The kiss intensified, past any level of heat they’d ever reached previously. Caz found herself pinned to the counter. Tongues battled in a duel for supremacy. Caz felt her fingertips moving, grasping at the material blocking them from touching the flesh she’d desired for so long.

“Grace…” Caz said when she finally had the sense to pull back. “What is happening?”

Getting her breath back, Grace covered her mouth with her hand, before lowering it and admitting, “I don’t know, but I suddenly felt this surge of…I guess, attraction?”

When Grace then giggled, Caz felt torn. She wanted Grace to feel better, after all, and though laughter sounded good to hear, Caz felt it hit differently.

“Okay…and that’s funny?”

“Yeah. I mean…you’ve always been protective of me. It was one thing when you told that bloke to back the fuck off, that was hot, but…my mum? That was…I’m sorry, I guess I just got lost in the moment and—”

Caz raised a brow as she stepped forward and pulled Grace closer again.

“So, what does this mean for…you know, us?”

“I guess maybe I can imagine us, like this…more…intimate…”

Caz nodded. “Noted. But to be clear, I am not taking advantage of your…”

“My mental state?” Grace smiled up at her.

“Exactly that.” Caz leaned forward, kissing Grace gently. “In our own time, okay?”

Chapter Forty-Eight

She couldn’t get it out of her head. Despite her sadness over the baby, and their dreams for the future, Grace Hart-Madden, as she’d decided she wanted to be known from now on, had something to distract herself with: The kiss.

Not just the kiss, but the intensity with which she’d needed it—needed Caz. It had been more than nice. But there was a worry there, too. Was she using it just to distract her emotions away from the pain of losing the baby?

She chanced a side-eye glance at Caz and smiled.

No, she told herself, they were two separate issues.

She’d wanted to kiss Caz like that for a while; she could acknowledge it now. It turned her on and she could admit that too. She was noticing a lot about Caz lately; things she’d never allowed herself to really think about before.

How had she never seen it?

“It’s good to see you smiling again,” Caz said as she drove them towards the beach house.

Grace turned to her and sighed dreamily, reaching out her hand to place it easily on Caz’s thigh, because that’s what lovers did, didn’t they?

“Yeah.”

She noticed the way Caz casually glanced down at the move and she gave a little squeeze for good measure. She’d never done this before with Caz—something so intimate and casual—but it felt right. It felt…nice.

The weather had cleared a little—at the least the rain had stopped—and in the distance there were shades of blue peeking through the clouds.

“It’s kind of like me,” Grace said, now looking ahead.

“What is?” Caz indicated and overtook the slow-moving car in front.

“The sky…it’s mostly grey, but…the sun’s trying to come out, and brighter bits are peering out from behind the clouds.” She turned her attention back to Caz. “I think that’s how I feel…brighter bits are there, in the background, and slowly, they’re making their way to the front.”