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Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Kate kept expecting a panic attack to come on but she made it back to her house without any problems.

Still, she was jittery and ran from her car to her house like the hounds of hell were snapping at her heals. She closed the front door behind her and leaned against it, breathing heavily.

'This is it,' she thought, sure than at any moment she was going to start hyperventilating but she didn't. Slowly her breathing returned to normal and she walked through to the kitchen, turning the kettle on and making herself a pot of tea.

She didn't understand it, every other time someone had asked her out or made any kind of move on her, she panicked. Every single time. That was one of the reasons she was so unsociable, because she wanted to avoid making a fool of herself in public if someone asked for her phone number or told her she was pretty.

Plus, John was a scary guy, at 6'2" he was almost a foot taller than she was and he was fit, not in the handsome way, though he was, but in the muscular, strong and easily-strong-enough-to-overpower-her way.

Yet she hadn't had any adverse reaction to kissing him. Her heart had sped up when she touched him, but she thought that might be more her attraction than any kind of fear.

Still, just because she was able to kiss him on the cheek did not mean that she was ready for anything other than friendship. Oh no, it would be a cold day in hell before Kate let any man she didn't know into her life again.

III

The next morning Lisa came down the stairs looking sullen.

John had already been on the farm for four hours when she came down. He silently handed her a mug of tea and sat at the table beside her.

"Look," he began. "I'm not real good at saying 'ow I feel. You know that, course you know that. But..."

"Just spit it out," she snapped.

John handed her an A4 sized envelope which she snatched away and opened.

"I love you," he said. "I always cared about you, you know that, but ever since your Mam left... I don't know what I'd do without you, lass."

Lisa looked at the documents in her hand, her expression stunned.

To his surprise, Lisa left her seat and threw her arms around his neck, holding him tightly. John put his arms around her and rubbed her back.

"I love you too," she sobbed.

"I know you do. And I want you to realise that you're my daughter now, you got that?"

She nodded and pulled away, wiping at her eyes.

"How long have you had those adoption forms?" she asked.

"Since a few weeks after your mam died. I wanted to say something but I was worried you'd think I were trying to take their place. I'm not, your mam and your dad are still your parents, but I'd very much like to be your parent too, if you'll let me."

Lisa punched his shoulder.

"Course I will, you daft beggar."

"Good, we'll have to see a judge and get them to sign off on it but I spoke to a solicitor when I got the forms, since your folks are deceased, it should be easy."

"I'm not too old?" Lisa asked, looking very much younger than her seventeen years.

"Legally you have to be under nineteen, so you can take some time to think about it if you want."