Chapter 19
19
AURORA
I’ve never believed in coincidences. Those once-in-a-lifetime occurrences spoken about on the news. Like the unbelievable tale of an old man winning the lottery after finding a five-dollar bill on the street and deciding to purchase a ticket for the first time in his life that I heard being told on the radio station Eliza had playing this morning.
It wasn’t a coincidence that he found a five-dollar bill that day of all days or that he used it to buy a lottery ticket. It was simple chance. A spur-of-the-moment choice he made that paid off in the end.
Some days, I wish I believed in terms like fate and coincidences. It would make it easier to blame bad decisions on a sleight of hand from something bigger than ourselves instead of taking responsibility for our own choices. Hell, maybe it would make me hate Lee Rose less than I currently do.
If the universe called him away from my mother, then how could I possibly blame him for leaving?
Anger flushes my chest as I lean against the side of the house and heave an exhale. My phone weighs a thousand pounds in my hands. The number punched in and ready to dial mocks me. Doubts run rampant through my head until they’re all I believe .
She’ll tell me to get lost. That I don’t matter and shouldn’t have even attempted to come to Cherry Peak. That she couldn’t ever want a sister like me.
My eyes burn at the thoughts, each one puncturing a pin-sized hole in my chest. The breeze is hot, simply blowing the muggy air into my face, even as I stand out of its full grasp, protected by the walls of the house. I’m hiding back here, behind the garden shed Eliza uses to store the tools for the flowers along the porch.
I didn’t want anyone to hear me when I called Wanda. If Eliza knew, she’d offer me some sort of wisdom, and I can’t deal with that right now. It isn’t wisdom I need but a swift kick in the ass.
“It’s not every day I see a woman hanging around back here. Don’t tell me my brother has driven you into hiding.”
The woman speaking to me is unfamiliar but gorgeous all the same, with round blue-grey eyes and hair the colour of ripe cherries. She smiles kindly at me, and the dimple on her left cheek has my eyes growing wide at how similar she looks to Johnny.
Swooped nose, strong cheekbones, and the same arch in their brows. Even their chins curve the same. Yet despite all that’s similar, they’re distinctly different. For one, I’d have attempted to count all of Johnny’s freckles already if he had nearly the same number of them.
Clearing my throat, I collect myself. “You must be Daisy.”
“So, he does talk about his sisters, then. I was beginning to worry we’d meet and you’d have no idea who I am,” she says, approaching me to offer her hand. “And you’re Aurora, right?”
I nod, something warm filling my belly at the knowledge that she knows who I am. “He talks about you guys a lot.”
When I shake her hand, she swings her other arm awkwardly, as if she would have preferred to hug me instead of something so formal.
She beams at my words and takes a step back before rocking forward on her toes. “Everyone will be happy to hear that. ”
Times like this, I wish I was better with human interaction. This isn’t the time for my mind to go blank, unable to come up with something to say. I could cry with relief when Daisy opens her mouth to speak, seemingly unbothered by my silence.
“So, what are you doing back here? Are you hiding from the guys? I wouldn’t blame you if you were. They’re like yapping hounds when women are around. You can treat them like it, by the way. A swift kick between the legs, and they’ll be leaving you alone,” she says, the pep in her voice as she speaks about kicking a guy in the balls a bit . . . interesting.
“I’m not hiding, per se.”
“Just taking a minute?”
“Yeah,” I say on a weighted exhale. “Yeah, a minute that’s turned into quite a few.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” she offers.
I think about my answer twice before saying, “I need to make a phone call but can’t get myself to press the button. Could you do it for me?”
Her nod is instant. She bounces a step toward me and holds out her hand. “You’ve got it, babe.”
Giving my phone to her feels like a true test of my sanity. But thankfully, she doesn’t hesitate to grab it from me, making the decision to give it willingly a lot easier.
“Count to three or something first?—”
The sound of the dial tone has my muscles and joints locking up. Fear shackles me as ice water floods my veins, freezing me from the inside.
Daisy slides the phone back into my hand and rubs my shoulder in a soft, soothing motion. “Whatever this is about, you’ll be fine. It will be fine.”
I don’t believe her and don’t bother saying otherwise. Or anything, for that matter. Daisy gives me a squeeze and then shifts back, giving me room to breathe.
“You’re beautiful, by the way. I knew you would be—Johnny said you were—but I definitely concur with him. I’m glad I got a minute with you without him hovering. Hopefully, we’ll see each other again soon.”
I jerk my head in a nod and watch her skip off, with my phone clutched so tight in my fist I’m shocked it hasn’t crumbled to pieces by now. It continues to ring, even as I force my stiff arm to raise it to my ear. I gulp down a breath and wait.
It rings three more times before cutting off.
“Hello?”
I almost burst into tears at the first sound of her voice. My sister’s voice. The half doesn’t matter right now.
Clearing my throat, I lift a hand to my throat and say, “Hi. Is this Wanda?”
“That depends on who this is.”
I flinch at the blunt tone but don’t let it deter me. As the daughter of a famous public figure, I assume she deals with random people calling a lot.
“Are you sitting down somewhere? If not, you might want to.”
“How about you just tell me what this is about.”
“Alright,” I mutter. Jumping right into it, then. “My name is Aurora Bennett and?—”
My lips clamp shut when I feel a shift in the air. Whipping my head to the right, I feel that stupid fucking burn in my eyes again. Daisy went to him. That’s why she left so quickly.
A coincidence, maybe. That Daisy found me in a moment I needed not only the company but unknowingly also someone to be my side through this conversation.
Johnny presses a finger to his lips and comes to stand right in front of me, close enough that when I drop my head forward, it rests against his shoulder. His arms wrap around me, anchoring me to his chest as I blink away the emotion in my eyes.
“And I’m your sister,” I state into the phone.
A kiss on my head comes as I wait for a reply. The weight of a large hand on my back, rubbing up and down my spine, is a steady reminder that I’m not alone .
I’m not alone.
“I don’t have a sister,” Wanda says, her tone of voice hard and to the point.
I flinch again, but this time, Johnny’s tightening his hold on me. “I didn’t think I did either. But it’s true. I can show you anything you want to see to prove it.”
A weighted pause. “How’d you even get this number?”
“Does it really matter?”
“Of course it does. You’re out to lunch if you think I’m going to take the word of some random woman who’s somehow come across my number. Are you looking for money, is that it?”
I suck in a sharp breath, all of my fears coming back in full swing. Daisy’s reassuring words get buried beneath them, never to be found again.
I’m so lost in my head that when a gentle set of fingers peel mine from my phone, I don’t fight them. I keep my forehead pressed to Johnny’s chest and inhale the smell of cologne and outdoors.
“Hey, Wanda.”
“Johnny? What the shit is going on right now?”
I cringe at the fact the volume is loud enough he could hear every one of Wanda’s comments before as I hear them all now.
“Listen, you’ve gotta come home. I know this is the last place you want to be right now, or ever, but Rory’s telling the truth.”
I count the seconds it takes her to reply. Ten.
“She’s not. I don’t have a sister, and she’s tricked you into believing otherwise. What game are you playing? Is this some sort of dare?”
“It’s not a dare.”
“Is Anna there? Let me talk to someone else,” she demands. “This isn’t a funny prank.”
Her adamant denial hurts. It’s unfair to have expected her to be at all believing or accepting of this bomb I’ve dropped on her, but it still hurts regardless. Everything is unfair right now.
All but the man who’s wrapped himself around me like a shield. Who’s still dressed in filthy jeans and boots to match. He keeps himself against me and his arms wrapped around my torso as if he’s trying to tuck me inside of him.
I don’t let myself think twice about my next move. Giving in to the desperate urge to touch him, I slide my arms over his hips and lock my fingers at the base of his back, hugging him right back.
“There isn’t anyone else to talk to right now, Wanda. Just you, me, and Rory. And it’s up to you now whether you buy what we’re saying or not, but you’ve gotta drop that attitude before I tell your sister you aren’t worth knowin’,” he says.
I open my eyes to stare at our feet, his threat shocking me. The part of me that hates not taking care of myself and my own problems demands I grab the phone back and take care of the rest of this conversation myself, but the other part of me? It wants me to climb up this man’s body and beg him to kiss me.
Hard. Preferably until I can’t feel my lips any longer.
I haven’t had anyone take care of me like this in a very, very long time, and despite everything, I want to let him.
“Give me your word, Johnny. Promise me this is serious, and I’ll get on a flight as soon as I can,” Wanda says, the biting edge in her voice dulled considerably.
His mouth brushes over my hair as he says, “I promise you that this is real. You’ve got a sister, Wanda, and you’ll want to meet her. I can also promise you that.”