Kiss Me at Midnight

Chapter One

Present day...

"Mum!" Leila said from the back seat of the car. "Are we there yet?"

Olivia took her eyes off the road for one moment to peer into the mirror at her almost ten-year-old daughter staring right back at her with those hazel eyes much like her daddy's.

It was still hard for Olivia to grasp the idea that at twenty-eight years of age, she had an almost ten year old daughter and Leila didn't like her mother to forget that she was hitting double digits a week after Christmas.

"Soon, baby, I promise you. We'll be there soon," Olivia told her, returning her gaze to the road in front of her as they passed a sign along the side of the road indicating that they were about twenty kilometres away from her hometown of Bennings Creek situated north west of Melbourne.

"Oh good. This is going to be the best Christmas ever!" Leila exclaimed excitedly. "I can't wait to see Grandma and Grandpa but mostly I just can't wait to see Dad."

It finally dawned on Olivia that within a matter of hours, she would be seeing her soon to be ex husband and father of her daughter again. They hadn't seen each other in six years, not since Olivia decided to leave Bennings Creek for her fancy new job in the heart of Melbourne.  Although in that time, she had always allowed Jay ample opportunity to see their daughter, watching Leila grow into the little girl that she was vastly becoming, more and more the spitting image of Olivia but with the personality of her father. The end of their marriage hadn't extended to keep Jay away from their child. Olivia simply chose to move on with her life in the city, where she always felt she belonged anyway.

An hour later, Olivia was pulling her black Hyundai I35 into the dusty drive of her childhood home where her parents still called home.

She noticed the dam in the field and the old oak trees lining in a row along the drive leading up toward the house. Nothing had really changed in the six years she had been gone which made Olivia wonder what else hadn't changed inside the house.

Olivia came to a stop, putting her foot on the brake as she pulled up and cut the engine.

She turned around in her seat to look at her smiling daughter. "We're here," she said, regardless of the fact that her face wasn't nearly as excited. If anything, Olivia was forcing the grin on her face.

Leila hopped out of the car in a hurry as she ran up the front stairs of the house leading to the wraparound porch and screen door which opened almost immediately after Leila sprung onto the porch.

Meanwhile, Olivia took her time as memories began washing over her, drawing her back to when she was twenty-two and leaving town with a five year old in tow.

Had six years really past by? So much had happened and so much had evolved since that day.

She wasn't the same person as she once was when she was leaving Bennings creek behind. Back then, Olivia had been on the cusp of turning twenty-three with a new job on the horizon and a new life in the city to look forward to as she settled into life as a single mother. Now she was returning to her small town as a highly sought out career woman in her job as a financial advisor at one of Victoria's leading banks.

Olivia was also newly engaged to an incredible man who was still in Melbourne. She thought about Ty, her handsome and very successful lawyer fiancé she had suggested stay with his family in Melbourne for Christmas so she could come home, gently breaking the good news to her own family whom she hadn't seen since she left. She didn't think now would be the best time to introduce Ty to her family for the first time when they didn't know she was even in a relationship, especially when there was the part that she was technically still married to Jay.