A Kiss At Midnight (Delilah and Caelum) novel Chapter 70

Chapter 70

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Jace stood on the porch with his one hand tucked into the pockets of his jacket and the other as his back, a grin spreading across his face. “Well, I wasn’t about to miss out on all the fun.”

His gaze shifted to me, “So..” tilting his head, “how’s the birthday girl doing?”

I snorted. “My birthday was yesterday.”

“Maybe,” he shrugged like that was the least important detail in the world, “but last I checked, we’re still in the same week, so that means you’re still getting celebrated.”

Before I could argue, he reached behind him and held out a mediu sized gift bag, It was a matte navy blue gift bag with twisted white rope handles, finished with crisp white tissue paper peeking out from the top.

“Happy birthday, Delilah.”

I blinked at it. “You.. didn’t have to,” there was no hiding the surprise in my voice.

He smiled. “I wanted to.”

For a second, I simply looked at him before accepting the bag. “Thank you,” a small smile found its way onto my face, and just as I was about to say something else, another voice chimed in.

“I guess it’s my turn,” both Kaia and I looked toward the side of the doorway.

A head slowly poked around the wall beside the front door before the rest of Elias followed, an easy grin plastered across his face as though he’d been waiting for the perfect moment to make an entrance.

The second Kaia saw him, the smile she’d been wearing disappeared, and her expression flattened into a scowl. “What the hell is he doing here?”

Jace rubbed the back of his neck, looking just a little guilty, “Um.. I kind of told him we were hanging out.” he jerked a thumb toward Elias, “and he decided to tag along.”

Kaia let out a loud scoff, her glare shifted straight to Elias who placed a hand dramatically over his chest.

“Ouch,” he clicked his tongue, “that glare could kill a man.”

“It would be doing the world a favor,” she shot back without missing a beat, making him grin.

“See. This is exactly why I like bothering you.”

She folded her arms. “And this is exactly why no one asked you to come,” the grin on his face only grew wider.

I shook my head, already deciding I wasn’t about to stand between whatever weird rivalry the two of them had going on, “I’d better go put these upstairs,” lifting the gift bag Jace had given me and turned toward the staircase.

“Oh, yeah.” Elias’s voice stopped me, “can’t forget mine,” I turned back just as he placed a neatly wrapped gift box into my hands before I had the chance to protest, the box was wrapped in dark green paper with a thin gold ribbon crossing over the top into a tidy bow

I looked from the gift to him. “Elias.”

He shrugged casually as if it wasn’t a big deal at all. “Just thought it’d be rude to show up empty-handed.”

I rolled my eyes, though a small smile found its way onto my lips. “Well, thank you, Elias.”

He gave me a playful salute, “My pleasure.”

Kata clapped her hands together once. “Okay,” she looked toward the driveway, “we’ve still got one more person left.”

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Chapter 70

My brow lifted. “Who?”

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A sly smile spread across her face, “It’s a surprise,” I rolled my eyes at this before turning away from the front door.

Leaving the three of them downstairs, I headed back up to the room, setting the two gifts beside Kaia’s still unopened present on the dresser. I looked at the small pile for a moment.

Three gifts, definitely three more than I had expected.

I smiled to myself before turning toward the mirror one last time, smoothing the front of my dress, adjusted a loose strand of hair behind my ear, then gave myself a quick once-over.

“Good enough,” with ith that, I headed back downstairs. I was only a few steps from the bottom when a familiar voice drifted into the hallway.

“Are you sure she’s going to be okay with me being here?” my footsteps slowed, recognizing the voice.

“Don’t worry.” Kaia replied. “Delilah won’t mind,” there was a brief pause before she added with a grin in her voice, “besides, she told me you guys are friends.”

“She said that.”

The surprise in his voice was impossible to miss. “Kinda.”

My brows pulled together as I stepped off the last stair and walked toward the front door. Standing just behind Kaia, my eyes landed on Caelum.

For a second, I almost didn’t recognize him, not because he looked different but because he looked unusually put together.

He was dressed in a light blue button up shirt with the sleeves rolled neatly to his forearms, paired with dark jeans that looked newer than anything I’d ever seen him wear. a charcoal gray jacket rested over the shirt,, and his sneakers looked clean enough to seem almost brand new.

Everything about him was neat, Ironed and fresh. Not that he was ever untidy, Caelum always looked clean, but he usually wore faded hoodies or well worn clothes that had clearly been around for years.

Today was different, the clothes looked newer, though judging by how the sleeves sat slightly past his wrists and how the shirt hung a little loose around his frame, they were just a little too big for him.

He shifted awkwardly where he stood, clearly not used to being dressed like this. my gaze slowly traveled from his shoes to his face, and the moment our eyes met., my breath caught He was already looking at me, his eyes had wandered over me the same way mine had wandered over him.

The second he realized I had caught him, a blush spread across his cheeks. for some ridiculous reason, my heartbeat kicked up a notch, neither of us said anything.

Thankfully, Kaia broke the silence as she clapped her hands together once. “Well, seems we’re all here,” a grin stretched across her face.

“Come on, let’s go have a Delilah day,” before anyone could object, she hooked an arm around Jace’s and grabbed Elias by the sleeve with her free hand, “Move it, people.”

The three of them headed toward Jace’s car, their voices fading as they argued over who was getting the front seat, that left just the two of us standing on the porch.

Caelum shifted his weight awkwardly. “Hi,” his voice came out quiet.

I smiled “Hi”

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Chapter 70

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For a second, he simply looked at me. “You..” he cleared his throat. “You look.. really good,” the blush on his cheeks deepened the moment the words left his mouth and I couldn’t help smiling.

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