Melt Your Heart

Thanks again for all your feedback and support on this one. This is a lot of fun to write as I kind of get to make it up as I go along! I didn't mean to leave it quite so long without an update, but life is back to being quite busy again. I'm hoping to update this and It Takes a Village once a week, but it depends how hectic things get!

Chapter 10: Changing Dynamics

After that evening in Sam's kitchen, there was definitely a subtle shift in their relationship. Perhaps things had gotten off on the wrong foot between them at the very beginning, but for now at least they knew where they stood with each other. More importantly, Sam now knew that he could trust her completely. He hadn't felt that way about a woman for a long time.

They settled into an easy rhythm. Sam would stop by Grey House in the evenings, usually after work and when the twins had gone to bed, and he would sit in the kitchen with Cassie and Abigail. If he or Cassie noticed that Abigail made more frequent excuses to be elsewhere, neither of them commented on it. Normally Cassie handed Sam a bottle of cold beer from the fridge the same way that Abigail did, but one evening he stopped her.

"I've got to be up early for a seminar at the university in the morning, I probably shouldn't have any alcohol."

"Oh, okay." Cassie replied. "What can I get you instead?"

"Coffee would be great,"

Cassie placed her hands on her hips and looked at him disapprovingly, even though she was fighting off a smile.

"You have to be up early in the morning, but you want to drink coffee?"

"Cassie," He sighed, wondering what the woman had against the beverage. The way she talked about coffee, anyone would think he was suggesting injecting heroin into his eyeballs.

"Let me make you some tea, I promise you'll like it."

He didn't want to offend her, but he didn't want to drink tea either. He personally couldn't see the attraction of drinking hot water poured over dried leaves, but he couldn't deny that some of the brews Cassie made smelled quite fantastic.

"Okay fine, but don't be offended when I tip it in the plant pot while you're not looking."

Cassie chuckled at that, and turned away to fill the kettle at the sink. Although her back was turned, she could feel Sam's eyes on her and she was suddenly aware that the two of them very much alone. James and Catherine had fallen asleep ages ago, and she had always been lucky that they were very sound sleepers. They had been sleeping better than ever since moving to Middleton and school had certainly been tiring them out, though they always seemed to have buckets of energy the rest of the time.

She took a breath and focused on the tea making preparations; it seemed safer than thinking about Sam. Their relationship had certainly changed recently, but it didn't mean that Cassie was ready to take things any further. Even though life in Middleton was helping her to rebuild her life again, she was still in mourning for Jake. She thought she always would be. It didn't seem fair to his memory, or to Sam, to even think about changing the dynamic of their relationship. She had the children to think about too, they were still adjusting to life without a father and the two of them had to be her priority. They were why she had accepted Abigail's invitation to come to Middleton in the first place.

She let the tea steep for a few minutes while Sam checked emails on his phone. When it was finally ready she brought two mugs across to the table and placed one in front of him. He looked at it sceptically, peering into the deep brown liquid the same way he might examine a patient. Cassie hoped to goodness that he didn't look at his patients with the same look of disgust on his face.

"Sam, I promise that if I was going to poison you, I would have done it already."

"That's comforting," He grimaced.

"And," She continued. "If I was going to poison you, don't you think that I would have slipped something into something you actually like, like that yellow cake you're so fond of."

Sam let out a mock gasp and clutched at his heart. He finally reached for the mug of tea and blew across the surface. Cassie watched him intently as he took a sip, his face already screwed up against what he was expecting to be a horrifically awful taste. For a moment he reminded Cassie of her children whenever she had tried to get them to eat an unfamiliar vegetable. To be fair to James and Catherine, they usually made less fuss.

Sam swallowed, and then took another sip. He hated to admit it, but it wasn't bad at all. And really, if you didn't know, you might think that you were drinking black coffee.

"Okay, that's pretty good," He admitted.

Cassie grinned triumphantly. "I hate to say I told you so, but…"

He drank some more, getting accustomed to the taste now.

"Dare I ask what's actually in it?"

"I could tell you," Cassie replied. "But then I'd have to kill you."

Sam smiled and continued to drink his tea. He was grateful that they were now at point where they could chat and joke as if they had known each other for years. There had been time where he had thought they were destined to be no more than acquaintances, who just happened to live next door to each other.

When he had finished his tea, Sam went to the sink to rinse out his mug. He didn't really want to leave yet, but he had been telling the truth when he told Cassie that he had an early start. He was giving a seminar to the students at the university about the realities of being a surgeon at a busy hospital. It wasn't something he usually did, but he was quite looking forward to it. He was a little nervous about it too, and wanted some time to go over his notes before he went to bed.

"I should be going now, Cassie. Thank you for the tea, I really do mean that."

Cassie smiled and got to her feet.

"Good luck for tomorrow Sam, I know you'll be great."

She went to the kitchen door and held it open for him. He walked towards the open door, his sleeve brushing hers as he passed her. He looked back at her and their eyes met. He wasn't sure what made him decide that this was the moment to cross the line they had been walking; to act on the attraction between them that had been present from their very first meeting. He closed the gap between them, his hand on her upper arm.

Cassie saw it coming before it happened, but what surprised her more was that she did nothing to stop it. She watched as he lowered his face to hers, tilting her head so that their lips met.

It was a sweet, simple kiss. Not much more than his lips brushing against hers, but it was all the more potent for that. If he had tried to devour her mouth with his, slipping his tongue between her lips, she was certain she would have pushed him away. He seemed to instinctively know that, and he kept things light and easy. There was nothing light and easy about the way their eyes met afterwards.

"Goodnight Cassie," He said, his voice lower than normal; so low that the Cassie almost didn't hear it over the roaring of the blood in her ears.

"Goodnight Sam,"

He slipped out of the kitchen door and Cassie shut it after him, leaning against the doorframe for support. Her heart was still doing a wild dance in her chest, and part of her wanted to run after him; to get him to kiss her again. She couldn't put her finger on exactly what she was feeling, but she wasn't feeling guilty and for once she wasn't thinking about Jake.

Cassie really wanted to tell someone about what had happened between her and Sam the previous evening, but she didn't have a lot of options. The one person she could confide in was Abigail, but she knew that her cousin would make more out of it and Cassie wasn't ready for that yet.

Instead she buried herself in her routine. The twins were always a welcome distraction but as much as she loved them sometimes it was a relief to drop them at the school gates. She stopped into the Bistro and asked Stephanie for a green tea. She had been putting off having a conversation with Martha, but knew it was like outrunning a tropical storm; it would catch you up eventually.

She took her tea over to a vacant table and waited for the Mayor to arrive. She had not made plans with Martha, but she had a feeling that the woman would be visiting the Bistro that morning and it seemed the closest she could get to having this interaction on her own terms.

While she was sipping her tea, she saw Ryan crossing the road opposite and heading for the Bistro entrance. She considered moving to another table out of sight of the Bistro counter, but that seemed rude. Ryan seemed like a nice enough guy but she was getting a vibe from him that she didn't like though she didn't know him well enough yet to explain why she felt that way. She hoped he would be too busy to stop and chat.

"Yoo hoo!" Martha called, seeming to appear from nowhere but Cassie was actually relieved.

She grinned. "Good morning Martha, would you like to take a seat."

Martha slid into the seat opposite Cassie before she had even finished extending the invitation. She doubted Ryan would approach now that Martha was here, he would probably end up getting roped into helping with something, too.

"A little bird tells me that you're quite handy in the kitchen," Martha began, winking not inconspicuously at Stephanie who had just brought over a large, foamy cappuccino.

"I like to cook," Cassie replied, hesitantly. She still felt a little awkward about mentioning her culinary skills in Stephanie's presence, even if the Bistro owner had given Cassie her blessing.

"I was thinking you could cater our first meeting of this year's Middleton Halloween committee. Actually, Grey House would be the perfect location."

Cassie could already feel that Martha was becoming a runaway train about this.

"I'd have to check that was okay with Abigail…"

Martha brushed her concerns aside. "Abigail won't mind, though she'll probably find an excuse to be elsewhere."

Cassie hid her smile at this remark behind her tea cup. It seemed like her cousin might be the only one who could beat Martha at her own game. Although the idea of cooking for the committee intimidated her a little, she thought that if she won Martha's seal of approval she would be less daunted when it came to serving paying customers. Hopefully they enjoyed her cooking as much as Sam did.

Cassie tried to pay attention while Martha talked to her, or rather at her. She couldn't help her mind wandering every now and then as she wondered how Sam was getting on with his seminar at the university; couldn't help but wonder if he was also still thinking about their kiss.