The Third Kiss (Love's Mortal Coil #1)

Chapter 4 - Cora

Cora

When I woke the next morning, Madam Curie stared down at me from my bedroom wall. Her stern expression told me she wasn't happy with me.

Well, I wasn't happy with me, either. I'd spent half the night wide awake, counting dust particles in the beam of moonlight stealing its way through my bedroom blinds. I could have blamed jet lag; a perfectly legitimate excuse to be wide awake at three in the morning. But Madam Curie and I both knew I was agonizing over the fact that Jonas had definitely acted weird around me last night. There had been stretches of almost normal, but then I'd catch him glancing my way, cautious questions in his eyes. If it hadn't been for Beth and Leo's bickering unintentionally providing a muchneeded buffer, things would have turned awkward fast.

Which meant I had to do something. Quick.

Madame Curie was still staring.

Don't look at me like that. I know the science comes first, but you can't tell me it was only ever research and radium for you. Like you've never had guy issues. You were married to a French man, for crying out loud!

I threw off the bed sheet and turned my back on the wall. Maybe it was time to get rid of that poster.

Where moonlight had snuck through the blinds last night, a bright ray of heat blazed through the gap this morning. I padded over to the window and pulled the blinds open. The sun sat high over the familiar expanse of gray-green eucalypts that lined the strip of bushland at the back of the properties along our street. Already a hazy layer of heat had the tree crowns shimmering where they brushed the horizon. This, exactly this, was what I'd missed. Yes, Manhattan had Central Park, but nothing came close to Sydney's bursts of bushland smack in the middle of what was a bustling metropolitan city. For most people, "Sydney" equaled "surf and beach." Not for me. I burned like an abandoned prawn at a weekend BBQ. Give me the bush any day.

After a quick shower and a rummage through my still unpacked suitcase, I threw on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts and made my way downstairs. I found Dad in the kitchen, mug of coffee in hand, and a medical journal on the table in front of him.

He looked up when he heard me walk in.

"Morning." His voice was tentative. What did I expect? I'd ripped into him when he chose the Outback Clinic over me a year ago. The month of silence I'd got from Jonas after I left was nothing compared to the cold shoulder I'd given Dad. And though most of it had now thawed, there was still the occasional icy patch of resentment.

"Morning." I planted a peck on his cheek.

"How was the party?"

"Loud."

He gave me a ghost of a smile. "Yes, I gathered that. The walls shook here, so I imagine the plaster was cracking next door." He took a sip of his coffee. "I meant was Beth happy to see you?"

I headed over to the fridge in search of breakfast. "Yep, definitely. You know Beth. She squeezed me so hard my liver protested." The memory tugged my lips into a smile.

"What about Jonas?"

And just like that, the corners of my mouth took a dive. Happy to see me? Not entirely. "I think he was...stunned." Stunned, then wary, then weird. Definitely weird. Which brought me back to what I had to do. Ugh.

I grabbed eggs and some butter and set about to do some serious scrambling. I didn't have much of an appetite, but I couldn't afford the distraction of a grumbling stomach. Not if I was going to head next door to have that conversation.