Chapter 9 A promise and a threat #3
I stop, heave out a sigh, and turn around to face him, instantly getting sucker-punched by his male beauty and presence. But that isn’t a surprise to me.
It’s the look in his eyes, and it’s not one full of judgment like I thought before. It’s like he’s physically restraining himself from going after my brother and his friends.
It’s like he cares…
Why does he care? He doesn’t know me. What does he want from me?
Just half an hour ago, I could swear the look in his eyes translated his distain for me.
Tearing my eyes away from his, I dump the broken pieces in the trash, feeling a desperate need to get him and his scent out of my house as soon as possible because I don’t like the way he makes me feel. I don’t like the storm that starts to brew in my chest at the sight of him.
“Aaron is sick, so he doesn’t care about consequences. And I’ve tried. I’ve tried before and it only made things worse,” I tell him, in hopes it’ll be enough and he leaves us alone. “Happy now?”
“I came to apologize,” he says quietly, and I stiffen, slowly lifting my eyes back to his. “You asked why I was here. I came to apologize. I didn’t mean to sound like an asshole back there.”
I swallow hard. “You’re forgiven. Anything else?”
“Let me help.” It’s more of a demand than question as Severin takes a step toward me, and my feet take one back at the same time. Every inch of my body attuned to how dangerous this man is.
Not in the normal sense of the word—although, I’m sure there’s more to him than meets the eye. No, he’s dangerous to me. To my heart that is at war at the sight of him.
“No, thank you. I got this.”
He stops at the sight of my retrieval, his jaw clenching harder but then he simply reaches out with his long arm and snatches the broom out of my hand.
“I said, I’ll help, Aurora,” he grits out.
“And here I thought you didn’t mean to sound like an asshole.”
“That applied to the situation on the lake.” He doesn’t look up as he starts sweeping.
“Ah. Got it.” I bend down, holding down the dustpan for him until he reaches down and snatches it from me as well.
“I said, I’ll help,” Severin repeats, his tone laced with so many emotions I won’t try to understand them.
“I really don’t get why you’re—”
“Rory, honey, I’ve given Seth a sleeping pill so he should be resting…oh, sorry, I didn’t realize you had company.” Betsy stops short at the sight of Severin with a broomstick.
“This is Severin. He’s one of the hockey players who trained Emett this morning,” I introduce him, and what do you know, he sends Betsy that disarming smile everyone adores, masking all hostility he’s been displaying freely around me.
Should I consider myself special? Or just stick with my usual brand of what the hell?
“Oh, how nice to meet you, albeit under less-than-ideal circumstances but alas. I’m Betsy, Seth’s nurse, as you may already know.” She shoots me a questioning look that I choose to keep for another day.
This one’s already been too much. And it will get infinitely worse when Betsy walks out and calls Stella with the fresh news.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Don’t worry, I’ll help Aurora clean up here,” Severin responds before I can.
“Oh, wonderful!” Her eyes sparkle, and I wince. Great. Just great. “Well, I guess I’ll leave you two, and, Rory, please give me a call if Seth or you guys need anything. Oh, and Emett wanted to stay with his grandpa, so he’s in there.”
“Thank you, Betsy, and I’m so sorry about—”
“Stop that, I already told you it wasn’t your fault. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She gives me a parting hug.
Severin starts sweeping again as soon as she leaves.
“Can you finally leave it be?” I ask.
“No,” he deadpans without looking up.
“Fine,” I snap back and start cleaning the counter, throwing the empty pill bottles away.
Severin doesn’t stop until every broken piece is picked up and the floors are spotless.
“Sorry,” Severin suddenly mutters again.
I raise my head from where I was pretending to not watch him to now openly stare at him.
“I was an asshole again—” He’s about to say something else when a four-year-old ball of energy rams into him.
“Mr. Brick!” Emett runs out of my dad’s room, crashing straight into his hockey idol. “You’re still here?”
“Hey, kid.” Instantly, Severin’s face softens and lights up at the sight of my son as he scoops him up into his arms.
My head tilts in curiosity of its own accord. Who is this man? I’ve seen so many sides in the span of a few hours it’s making my head spin. And now my hormones are not aligning with my head because seeing this man treat my son with so much gentleness and kindness does things to me.
“You saved Mommy today! I knew you’d make a perfect boyfriend.”
“Emett!” I groan. “I thought we discussed this already? You’re not going to walk around and ask every random man to be my boyfriend.”
“I am not!” he protests. “I was just being honest. You told me to be honest, remember?”
I narrow my eyes at the little smart-butt, using my own words against me. “I also distinctly remember teaching you something about thinking before you speak and more along the same lines.”
“But Mr. Brick did save you, did he not?”
“Yes.” I sigh. “He did.”
Emett places his small palms on either side of Severin’s scruffy face and smooshes them together.
“He deserves a treat for that!” Emett decides, and my eyes widen, almost scared to see how Severin will react to my son’s touchy antics but it’s not revulsion or annoyance I see.
It’s pure undiluted awe as he tries to grin at Emett through his squished face.
Oh, damn it. I don’t need to see that.
“Mommy’s going to make my favorite shepherd’s pie tonight, and I’ll share it with you.”
So much for trying to get rid of the man as fast as I can. Thanks, kid.
Emett finally lets go, and Severin’s face breaks out into a heart-stopping, ovary-bursting smile. “Well, I can’t imagine a better treat than that, but unfortunately, I can’t stay.”
Emett’s face falls instantly. “Why not?”
“I have a game tomorrow, remember?” He nods. “I need to get going to make it to tonight’s practice. Maybe some other time.” His eyes lift up to mine, trapping every breath I have.
“Yeah, I guess that’s an important reason,” Emett agrees, and Severin puts him down. “Bye, Mr. Brick, I’ll go talk to Button and Cranky. They lost one of their own today.” And with that he takes off down to our room, leaving Severin staring at him with the cutest confused look.
“Um…” he starts and trails off, clearly unsure what to say, and a tiny chuckle leaves my lips. His eyes instantly snap to mine, stealing that sound with them.
I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “Button and Cranky are his stuffed toys and Aaron ripped Kevin the police bear apart earlier. That’s what Emett meant.”
“Oh. I see. Does he need a new Kevin?”
“I’m not sure, maybe. I’ll take him to the store tomorrow.”
Severin nods pensively, staring down the hall where Emett disappeared to.
“I hope I didn’t hurt his feelings,” Severin says quietly, his eyes, troubled.
I clear my throat, “Don’t worry, if there’s one thing Emett understands, it’s hockey. He’ll be fine.”
“Right.” He shifts on his feet, almost like he needs to leave but doesn’t want to and it doesn’t make any sense to me.
None of this makes any sense to me, and I hate the feeling.
Just when I think he’s finally going to open that door, Emett comes flying back, carrying a white paper with something colorful on it.
“Mr. Brick! Wait up! Button, Cranky and I drew a picture for you.” He stops, panting. “Here…” He hands it to Severin. “It’s for saving my mom.”
Severin’s large fingers clasp around the paper, and a lump works itself down his throat as he stares at the colorful mess.
“You see it’s you and Mom and me right there. I’m the smaller one.” Emett points out each variation of a doodled, crooked somewhat circles. “Do you like it?” he asks, hopeful, and I bite the corner of my lip when Severin doesn’t say anything for a moment, just stares at the picture in his hand.
“Thank you, little man. It’s perfect,” he finally croaks out, and I can’t find an ounce of lie in that statement.
Huh.
Emett’s face breaks out in a huge smile as he jumps up, does a happy dance, and runs back into his room.
When he’s out of the earshot, I say, “Want me to throw that out for you?” I wouldn’t actually throw it away. I keep every little thing Emett ever makes, and I don’t want this one to go into the garbage either.
But Severin doesn’t hand it to me, instead, frowning. “Why? It’s mine. He drew it for me, no?”
“Um…” I blink at the fierceness in his tone. “Yeah, it’s yours.”
He nods.
“I’ll get out of your hair now. Bye, Aurora,” Severin says, each word laced with a thousand more unspoken ones but in a language I’m terrified to understand.
He turns toward the door, opening it.
“Severin?” I catch him right before he steps off into the early evening.
“Yeah?” He stops but doesn’t turn to face me.
“How did you know where we lived?”
Those caramel eyes cut to mine, and I suck in a lungful of cold, icy air. “I simply wanted to know. And when I want something, I’ll always find a way to have it, Aurora.”
Why does that sound like both a promise and a threat?