Royally Kissed | ✓

44|2; the prettiest words

Once Santi was finished preparing the ones she needed for Owen's breakfast, which didn't really take five minutes, she preheated the pan and drizzled some olive oil soon after. At the same time, Santi was mashing the avocados.

"How did you end up working for the Callaghans, Santi?"

"Well, we've been living here for long enough to be friends with the previous owner. I'm old now and I prefer to watch over my wife. She has arthritis. And there's nothing much to do here in this small town, so I told him I could take care of the cabin when he's not around. Then he referred me to Senator Mike a week before he left for England to be with his family."

"I see. That's nice, you know. The simple living. No pressure. You do have kids, right, Santi?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am Paige–"

"Paige."

"Paige, yeah, okay. I have two sons. One's a nurse, the youngest is in college in Rockstring."

Paige smiled at him, now frying the mushrooms. "Oh, really? Which school?"

"At Saint Michael," he said, and she'd faintly recalled that before Arthur got into Hackett University, he was studying at the said school. To this day, Jouwee and her never really figured out what she was telling her about 'something different' with him, or what actually happened when he left Saint Michael. "I miss my boys. They grow too quickly, you see. So tall now. My oldest is about to get married. They are coming home today to spend the holidays with us parents."

She cracked the eggs into the pan when the mushrooms were already fried to how she'd wanted it. "Today?"

"Yeah. Right now. My wife's waiting for them."

"Oh, well...you have to go now, then."

He shrugged, sprinkling some salt into the avocado. "It's alright. I want to help you here."

She gave him a feigned glower. "If you stay here, I'm not going to like it." Then she beamed and patted him on the shoulder. "Go on. Your kids would surely want to see you both waiting for them, you know? I'll be fine. This one's too easy to make. You're practically disturbing me."

They both chuckled and he nodded understandingly. She was left in a comfortable silence right after, and she was contented at cold mornings like this in a country place. It was heartwarming and satisfying to the soul.

Before the eggs had been fully cooked, she put the bread to the toaster and turned back to the pan as the eggs and the mushroom mingled together in nice polka dots of browns and yellows with whites around them.

When a pair of arms around her waist made her leap in surprise.

"Owen!" she chided; his chest rumbled against her back when he'd laughed right at the shell of her ear. Everything just made her dumbfounded. His tone implicated that just-got-out-of-bed voice, lazy and unmistakably intimate; his blistering breath enveloped her left ear that raced a sultry sensation down her spine, and she'd quickly scolded herself for even overthinking of it in the first place.

It was honestly hard not to feel like she'd been disarmed; not when they'd just shared their first kiss last night after so many years of hiding their feelings for each other. It was like those moments where you'd been so far away for a long time from someone, and when you'd meet again, you'd understand how much you yearned for them. And then you ought to cherish the times you'd wasted from the circumstances that had carried you apart.

It had been a long time coming.

The kisses were a strong evidence of it. They almost didn't let go, actually. But Paige had chuckled and shoved him off, urging him to go to bed. Climbing upstairs together, they both had an exhilarated smiles on their faces. While all had been said and done, Paige still couldn't quite get over the fact that it just happened. No matter how much she tried, she could never not be awkward.