Kylie & Jack 1: Humble Beginnings

76. Show and Tell

Monday at work, it was life as normal. Surprisingly, news of Kylie and Jack's engagement bypassed everyone at school. Even more surprisingly was that they both contained the news all day. Kate was sick – and had been for the last few days. Linda was somewhere along the south coast doing PD, leaving Kylie and Jack with the run of the school, Kylie resuming the acting principal's position once again. Only this time, she owned the role without an ounce of stress stabbing at the base of her neck, triggering a full body headache.

Tuesday was the day Kylie decided to make a powerful start on her reports; discussing with Jack the night before that she would try to find a casual for today and tomorrow so they could both find some time to begin writing their reports.

By Wednesday, Linda was back and when she walked into the kitchen to make herself another coffee, noticed Kylie filling up the kettle, the hot sunlight bouncing off her engagement ring.

"Good lord! What's that blinding me?" Linda cried in surprise, making Kylie look up with concern.

"What? You ok?"

"When did that happen?" Linda asked, beaming brightly and pointing to the white gold, diamond ring on Kylie's finger.

Glancing down at the beautiful ring, Kylie felt the blushing heat in her cheeks. "Oh, this ... Saturday –"

"– congratulations!" Linda threw her arms around Kylie's shoulders in an almost uncharacteristic hug. Kylie giggled, returning the hug one handed.

"Thank you!"

"You kept that quiet!"

"Well, we didn't –" Kylie started but was drowned out by Linda spotting Jack wandering out of the front office and calling out to him.

"You sneaky devil!"

Jack spun on his heels, looking for the speaker, confused but grinning. "How's that?"

"You and Kylie getting engaged! You're a sneaky little devil!" Linda beamed at him. Kylie smiled hard as she replaced the lid of the kettle, setting it back on its base plate and flicking the switch on.

Jack grinned even wider and walked up to Kylie, kissing her cheek and rubbing his stubbled jaw against her temple, making Kylie blush, grin and giggle even harder.

"I was pretty sneaky, wasn't I, Kylz?" Jack asked, patting her hip and winking. Linda stood there grinning like a proud mother.

"I was truly surprised, I'll give you that." Kylie replied happily.

"So, Saturday? I love a good engagement story!" Linda said, her eyes bright and smile even brighter. Kylie was rather surprised by her reaction if she was totally honest with herself.

She and Jack stood side by side, Kylie pouring everyone's drinks while Jack filled Linda in on the events of Saturday.

"– really? You'd never gone on a date? My word, has it changed that much?" Linda teased, making Jack and Kylie laugh.

"Aw nah, but we haven't really done anything in the typical order, have we Kylz?"

"You know what they say, there's no fun being boring!" Kylie replied through her wide smile, handing Linda her coffee, turning to hand Jack his as well.

"So ... you two were an item when I started here, yes?"

Jack bobbed his head, taking a sip of coffee. "Yeah, yeah – we'd been together a few months by then –"

"– oh really! So, you two haven't been together even a year, then?"

"It'll be a year in April," Kylie answered, feeling a sudden shockwave of realisation dawning on her – that was only six months away!