Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 103050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103050 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
She might be wondering the same thing as she shifts in her seat as she catches a waiter approaching. “We haven’t even had our starters and we’re talking about kissing.” She smiles and gives a little shrug that just makes me wonder how her skin will feel under my fingers as I undress her. “I don’t know what that means for the rest of the evening.”
“It means we have chemistry.”
We fall silent as the waiter brings our food, but our gazes are locked like we’re just on pause, waiting to be left alone.
Is this just lust? The question swirls in my brain.
I’ve felt lust before, but this?
It’s more intense.
The waiter disappears.
Aurora’s mouth turns up at the corner.
“Tell me everything about you,” I say.
She laughs, and I can’t take my eyes off the way her chin tips up a little as she does. “Where shall I start?”
“Anywhere. What do you like to do on weekends? Have you ever parachuted out of an plane? Who was your first love?”
Her smile dims a little, and I wish I could stuff the last question back in.
Except I don’t. Because I want to know how he got it wrong so I don’t make the same mistake.
“I’ve never jumped out of a plane. On weekends, I like to hang out with my best friend, her kids, and her husband, and…I’m not sure if I’ve been in love before.” She presses her lips together. “But I had an epic crush.” She laughs. “My best friend’s older brother. He lives in New York now, actually.”
Panic crawls under my collar. “You have an epic crush on a guy who lives in Manhattan?”
“My crush is long gone. We grew up together. We never even dated. He moved to the States years ago. He’s married now.”
“Happily married, I hope.” I sound more irritated than I should.
Aurora has the grace to laugh. “Very happily married. I like her very much. They have two children.”
“So it’s a buried crush?”
“Not buried. Expired. He’s like a brother to me now. He always was, I think. No more crush.”
I nod approvingly, and Aurora laughs again. “Tell me about your love life. What happened with your daughter’s mother?”
“I wasn’t in love with her. We had a thing, the condom split, and she got pregnant.”
“That’s it? You said that already. Was your thing serious? Who called it off? I want the details, Deacon.” She smiles teasingly at me.
They feel like ridiculous questions, but I can’t blame her for asking. From the outside, it’s easy to presume that Gabby and I were serious about each other, but we never were. Even when we were living together, there was no real intimacy. There was plenty of sex. But we weren’t close.
“I’m not withholding details, honestly. There’s just nothing much to tell. We weren’t serious. If Willow hadn’t come along, Gabby and I would have gone our separate ways a long time ago. And there wasn’t a huge breakup. I think we both realized it wasn’t going to work. She officially ended it, but no hearts were broken. That’s probably why it’s so amicable between us now.”
“Do you ever think it might be nice if you reconciled and were a family again?”
I pause to think about my response.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” she says.
If anyone else had said this to me, I would have silently committed them to the “never want to speak to them again” bucket in my brain and then never spoken to them again. It hits different with Aurora. There’s something in her soft gaze that tells me she really wants to know. Her tone feels warm and safe. I want to tell her, and I never want to tell anyone anything.
I shrug. “I don’t want to be with Gabby. That’s true. But I wish I could have given Willow a more traditional family. One that Willow will be able to look back on and have happy memories of.”
“And you don’t think she’ll have happy memories now?”
“I hope she does, but they won’t be of a mum and dad and siblings and…it won’t be a traditional nuclear family.”
She nods as she stares at me, as if she’s really looking into my soul. “And you wanted to give her that traditional family because you didn’t have that for yourself,” she says.
“We moved around a lot.” I hated it. I never felt like our home was ours. It always felt temporary. I was always waiting for the next time I’d have to pack up.
“And your older sister’s death must have cloaked a lot of good memories.”
My entire body tenses. I never discuss Penny’s death. Not even with Chloe. We don’t talk about it. Most people in my life don’t know about it at all, so naturally, it never comes up.
But Aurora does know about it. I told her.
“Penny…it wasn’t that. It was the moving around.”