Lustful Hearts
Chapter 99: Surрrіѕе

The knock at the door instantly brought a smile to my face. Joel gave me a quick kiss before releasing me to answer.

I took a few breaths, trying not to cry but I knew the moment I looked into his eyes it would be inevitable.

His face broke out into a giant smile the moment our eyes locked together. "Here's my favourite girl in her new home."

A sob erupted from me, and I flew into his arms, almost knocking the wind from him. "Oh Dad . . . thank you so much, what you did it was just . . ."

"Shhh," he soothed. Pulling me in tighter, the tears now flowing freely.

There weren't enough words to ever thank him enough for all he had done.

After I managed to compose myself, I untangled myself and we walked back inside. Joel instantly stood up, walking over to shake his hand. "Hey, Geoff."

"You taking good care of my baby girl, Joel?" My dad's voice was laced with humour but had an edge to it like he meant business.

Joel's face instantly lit up. "Of course, she's my number one priority." His eyes sought out mine, and we exchanged a look that needed no words.

"Good to hear," he said instantly breaking our moment. He laughed, pulling me down to sit next to him on the sofa while Joel headed off to make some drinks.

"I really like him, Iz. He's a good guy. He's worked tirelessly to get this place ready for when you finally got your cast off."

Oh, the guilt.

I felt like an even bigger bitch for jumping to stupid conclusions. I needed to make it up to him even more, not that I wouldn't enjoy doing so myself. "Hey, are you okay? Are the headaches..."

Oh shit.

Heat filled my cheeks at being caught thinking of all the amazing things I would be doing to thank Joel later.

Concentrate Izzy.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." Thankfully Joel spared my blushes by walking through with the tray loaded with coffees and all kinds of chocolate biscuits on the plate. My face lit up and I made a mental note to raid that chocolate cupboard later, but by the looks of it Joel had us well stocked.

That wasn't a surprise, he was as big a chocoholic as me, we were equally matched in that respect.

"So did we do a good job, Iz?" my dad asked smiling, but he had already got his answer.

"Amazing how you pulled it off without me every suspecting a thing." I narrowed my eyes at them both in a joking way, and they both grinned.

"Ahh, but we had our secret weapon." My dad winked at Joel, and he laughed.

"Well Elijah will take most of the credit, we did all the hard work but he was the one that gave us your vision."

"Yeah, the guy should be a poker champion with that face; he's so good it's scary." My dad shook his head in amusement, sipping on his coffee.

He was right, Elijah did have the perfect face for acting, but damn I thought he would have been different with me.

But I guess his heart was in the right place, and he was doing a good deed. I definitely owed him a spray tan or two, which I knew he would quite willingly take as payment.

"So was he his usual self?" I smiled at my very words. I could only imagine the kind of ranting and raving that usually went on when he put his interior skills to good use. "What do you think?" Joel asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Oh, I had a good enough idea.

My dad chuckled. "Yeah, that was pretty funny to watch, at one point he kicked off at Joel, and well I was pretty sure by the end only dogs could hear him."

My eyes snapped to Joel, and he gave me that shrug I knew only too well. I leaned over out of hearing range of my dad and whispered, "I'll make it up to you later."

A huge grin spread across his face. "Well, he was really, really bad." He shot me a wink and I smiled, rolling my eyes. He was just playing on it now, but I would get him back later. "So when are you both going to come out to Australia to let me show you what Sydney has to offer?"

Joel's face dropped along with mine, that wouldn't be happening anytime soon. We were just and so managing to run a home, fancy holidays were not high on our agenda. "I think it will be a while just yet..." I muttered awkwardly.

Joel's eyes dropped to the floor, I could tell he was feeling bad at the lack of money situation. No doubt berating himself for our lack of funds.

"What if I said I'd pay for you both to come over, you wouldn't have to spend a penny, you could stay with us. I want you to meet Kay and the girls, you'd love them all."

"I can't ask you to do that, Geoff. You've done more than enough, but Izzy can go," Joel offered.

My eyes flashed to his in a 'yeah that's not even an option' way. He frowned at my reply before I had even spoken the words, but my dad got in there first.

"Joel, I think we both know Izzy won't go without you. If it's the money then please, I want to spoil you both. You're family too, I want you to be apart of everything.

If it makes any difference, Mike has agreed to come over as well. Please I want all my family together. I've missed out on so much." He quickly bowed his head in an attempt to try to mask the unshed tears.

I grabbed Joel's hand giving it a squeeze, he smiled softly and the frown gradually left his face. My dad had won him over with his emotional display.

There was no way Joel would refuse after that. He gave me a quick nod of approval before I turned back to my dad.

"We'd love to accept."

His eyes swept up to mine and he grabbed me, pressing me into a hug. I felt his cool tears trickle softly against my neck, and I knew in that moment we'd made him happier than he ever thought possible. He moved away chuckling, quickly swiping away the tears. "How about coming over in time for Christmas? I've missed so many."

His words made me frown, my mother wouldn't be happy that I'd be gone for the big day. "Dad, I can't do that to..."

"Your mother is fine about it, I asked."

"Really?" Had he spoke to the same woman? As her answer in my head would have been far different.

He chuckled at my face. "Yes, I asked, and she agreed to let me have this one Christmas." His hands cupped my face, and his eyes bore deep into mine.

"That's if you want to." There was a look of hesitance there in his eyes, but my smile soon changed his expression.

"Umm of course, as long as Joel's with me, then it's a yes."

I turned to face Joel, looking hopeful, but I needed to hear the words.

"Sounds good to me."

I almost leapt on him, kissing him with every breath in my body. He'd made me so happy. It wasn't easy for him to accept anything easily, he had always felt a deep sense of pride of doing things himself. But this was something he was giving me, and I loved him even more for putting me first.

"Okay, calm down, you two, Dad in the room, remember?"

We both instantly pulled away laughing. Well that was slightly embarrassing. We turned to see him nodding his head slightly, but with a huge smile on his face.

"Well, now you've made your old dad happy, I'll go. I'm meeting up with Mike shortly and a few of his friends, we're going to have a five aside match."

Joel's eyes lit up, and I could see it had instantly sparked his attention.

"You can come too if you want, Joel?"

Joel looked slightly conflicted, football was his kryptonite.

"Go if you want, I'm fine here, I'll sit and read." I motioned with my eyes that it was fine, but he shook his head.

"No, I'm staying with, Iz. It's our first night and well..." A huge smile spread across Joel's face.

Oh god.

Subtle Joel. Subtle.

My dad's eyes widened in horror. "Well, I don't need to hear another word, give me a kiss, Iz, and then I'm off."

His eagerness to leave was almost laughable. "Bye Dad, we'll maybe see you tomorrow?"

He shook his head smiling. "Of course, that would be great. Anyway I'd better go and let you... yeah, bye."

He quickly patted Joel on the back, probably making the fastest exit ever.

Why couldn't Joel have a poker face?

I needed Elijah to give him lessons.

Joel finished seeing my dad out before coming back in grinning. "Well then, what do you fancy doing now?"

I rolled my eyes at his eagerness, my dad was barely down the path, and he was about to jump me there and then. "You know you could have gone to football, I'm not that kind of girl."

I didn't want him to think I was one of those possessive kinds of girls, keeping tabs all the time. I wanted him to have boy time too, after all I got a little cranky when I didn't get enough Kindle time.

"Hey I know, if I'd wanted to I would have, but I much prefer the kind of work out I'm going to have with you." His eyebrows rose in such a teasing way that instantly my body flushed in anticipation of what was ahead.

"Got anything special planned?" I teased with a smirk. I was pretty sure I would be in for a treat either way.

"Oh plenty to make this a memorable night, care to join me upstairs?"

He didn't have to ask me twice.0000