It Started With A Kiss by Lindy Dale Page A

smiled weakly
at a few people but not one of them stopped to lend her assistance.
Most of them pretended she didn’t exist and a few of the real
sadists smirked at her plight as they ran past. Ignorant asses.
There was nothing for it. She’d have to hike a leg up alone.
    Georgie stood up and put her shoes and iPod
onto the ledge of the wall. Fingers searching for a grip on the
concrete, she flung her leg upwards next to them, cringing at the
ripping sound coming from somewhere in the region of her thigh. Or
was it her hamstring?
    That was all she needed.
Those pants cost her seventy-five dollars. They had special
soak-up-the-sweat fabric in the crotch and butt-lifting technology
that she was sure wouldn’t work if her bum cheeks were poking out.
Georgie leant a little to the left, wiggling her leg as she did,
but it was pointless. The pants were firmly snagged and she
couldn’t put a hand down to free them without falling into the
water again, so she had no choice but to let them tear. And tear
they did — into a
hole so gaping, the whole of Perth could see she needed a bikini
wax.
    Two attempts to hoist herself onto the grassy
bank later, Georgie lay prone, catching her breath and trying to
get over her annoyance at her own stupidity. It was when she
straightened to pick few bits of shell from her thigh that she saw
him, jogging along the path towards her and looking all buff and
handsome. Georgie blinked.
    Nate Adams. It couldn’t be.
    She flipped her sunglasses down over her eyes
and took another look, while pretending to excavate the weed from
her sock.
    Nate Adams.
    He hadn’t changed a bit and judging by the
pounding that was coming from Georgie’s chest as he drew closer,
his effect on her hadn’t changed either. It had been how long? And
he could still make her heart race like she’d just done a hundred
meter dash.
    Shoving her foot into her dry shoe, Georgie
tied the laces and stood up, straightening her damp clothes as best
she could. Her heart was thumping uncontrollably now and a goofy
smile had spread across her face. It was Nate, the hero of the love
story of her life. He was here. Right in front of her.
    As Nate drew close and made to move past,
Georgie signaled to him. “Nate!”
    She half expected him to stop and swing back,
a beaming smile on his face as he recalled the girl he’d loved when
he was seventeen.
    Instead, he gave her a sideways glance and
continued down the path, a look of, well, nothing, on his face.
    “ Nate?” Georgie called
after him.
    This time he did stop. He turned, his
expression changing to one of confusion. “Yes?”
    Well, this was a bit awkward.
    Georgie walked towards him, hoping that a
closer view would jog his memory. “It’s me.”
    Such had been their relationship that Georgie
was positive she wouldn’t have to remind Nate of her name. She knew
she looked different since the last time she’d seen him but surely
he couldn’t have forgotten her, could he? They’d been in love since
they were eight years old. Nate had made her promise to marry him
when they grew up. They had a thing.
     
     
     
     

Chapter 2
     
     
    Georgie was eight when her family moved from
Melbourne to Perth. Her dad got a promotion at the lawyer’s office
where he worked and, within the space of a month, her life had been
packed into a shipping container and transported from one side of
Australia to the other. Mum and Dad had been excited about the move
and the new house. Georgie hadn’t been that pumped. She liked her
school and her friends. She liked that the park was across the road
from her house and that, on Saturday mornings, she went to tap
classes with Miss Suzie. Georgie didn’t want to move house.
    The first day at her new
school had been nerve-wracking, to say the least. The kids all knew
each other, they’d been at school together since they were four and
their parents had drinks on Friday nights. The girls didn’t look
like they wanted more friends and the boys made