“Sorry, Reverend Mother.”

Bent low, Kate turned her head down the aisle and watched as Sister Ruth’s feet disappeared out the side door of the church. Within seconds, Lexi started up again.

“Far out,” Lexi sighed, “it’s not my problem old mate Rodney has to hike it here every morning at the crack of dawn to give the sisters their daily mass.”

Kate shot up onto her knees.

The girls started. “Shit,” Lexi whispered.

Kate locked eyes on her. “Did you not hear the Reverend Mother? Has the cannabis affected your hearing too?”

They dropped their gazes to their laps.

“Zip it!” Shaking her head, Kate returned to working on the kneeler, the stone floor icy beneath her palm.

Lexi leant forward over the back of the seat. “Are you still dirty with me?” she dared.

“I’m not dirty with you,” Kate murmured, buried beneath the pew and practically on her belly. “I’m deeply disappointed. Now sit back in silence and think about all of the sins you can confess to when you step into the confessional and…”

Kate trailed off, her gaze darting to the side as a familiar pair of sandals came into view. Tilly stopped before her. A strong impulse gripped Kate—the need to reach out and skim her fingers over the delicate bones of that ankle, to trail her hand under the hem of that dress… Swallowing, she glanced up.

Dancing lithe fingers across the back of seat in front, Tilly smiled down at Kate. “Good afternoon.”

Audibly, Sister Mary Monica motioned to Lexi and her partner in crime across the church, leaving Kate alone in Tilly’s company.

Tilly held her gaze.

“Hello, Tilly Longstocking.” Kate could hear the husk in her own voice. Immediately, she returned her eyes to the kneeler, trying to ignore the way her heart hammered against her breastbone. Get a hold of yourself. If she didn’t cut it out now, she wouldn’t survive the next three months feeling like she was going to combust every time she locked eyes with Tilly.

Tilly sank to her knees at the end of the pew. “Can I help?” she whispered, setting the straw hat on the seat.

Kate let her gaze flicker upward for a moment. Tilly’s neck was flushed pink from being out in the sun. Kate wanted to kiss it, maybe even taste it, slide her tongue along the slope of the tendons there, against her pulse. Congratulations, Kate. Thinking dirty thoughts in a chapel—you’ve officially stooped to an all-new low. It wasn’t Tilly, she told herself. It was just that she hadn’t had sex in such a long time and here was Tilly, looking at Kate with those kind green eyes, and she was so gorgeous and sweet and they had a history fuelled not by passion but by pure love and unfailing care. She just needed to be touched. That was all.

Kate shifted back, placing some space between them. “Could you, uh, hold the end of the kneeler up for a sec? While I get the screw back in?”