Chapter 12
Aurora
“Come with me,”Dylan said, taking hold of my hands.
He’d woken me up with a cup of coffee in bed, then he’d given me a few minutes to get dressed, and when he returned, he held a black tie which he covered my eyes with and tied it at the back of my head.
“Trust me,” he whispered as he led me out of the bedroom. “You’re fine, just keep walking…stop…step down…okay, and keep walking…”
I could already feel a breeze on my face.
“Where are we going?” I questioned.
“Just a few more steps….and now, you can look.”
I felt him reach behind me and pull the tie, letting it fall away from my eyes. A smile fell to my lips to see the table on his screened-in balcony set.
“What’s this?”
“Sunday morning breakfast,” he said, pulling the chair out for me, waiting for me to sit down.
He poured us each a glass of orange juice and then headed inside, returning with two amazing looking omelets.
“When did you do this?” I asked, shocked.
“While you were sleeping.” He pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
He sat down across from me, and we dug into the omelets.
I closed my eyes as I put the first bite into my mouth. “God that is great,” I muttered.
Dylan chuckled. “I’m glad.”
“What?” I questioned looking over at him.
“You like the omelet.” He winked. “Only wish I’d of had that same effect on you last night.”
I could feel my cheeks heat.
“Or did I have that effect on you last night?”
He leaned back against his chair and looked over at me, his eyes saying everything.
“I think you know exactly what effect you had on me last night. You just want me to confirm it.”
“So what if I do?”
I couldn’t tear my eyes from his. There was something so damn sexy about him. He scooted forward on his chair and leaned in, taking my mouth with his.
“What about breakfast?” I asked breathlessly as he kissed his way down my neck.
“The only breakfast I want right now is you,” he said, picking me up off the ground and carrying me inside.
* * *
I grabbedtwo coffees from Sip and Stir and headed out the front door, taking a seat on the bench just outside the coffeehouse. I glanced at my watch. I’d come to Vancouver to do a bunch of shopping, and about an hour ago my mother called, asking me to meet her. I hurried, and now I sat waiting; she was late, as usual. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did, since she was the one who’d called me.
I pulled my phone from my back pocket to see if Dylan had messaged, only to have a heavy feeling of disappointment follow when I saw there was nothing there.
“Aurora!” I heard my mother call.
I looked up and saw her walking toward me, waving. She was wearing a white pantsuit with a bright-green shirt underneath. She looked radiant, more so than I’d ever seen.
“Hey, Penelope,” I called, standing up. She wrapped her arms around me and then placed a kiss on my cheek.
“So good to see you, sweetie. Thanks for meeting me.”
“Of course, and I got you a coffee,” I said, holding up the cup for her to take.
She smiled. “Thanks, now let’s walk. Shall we?”
We headed across the street and into the park.
“How was the honeymoon?”
“Fantastic, Aurora. If you ever get a chance, you need to go to Europe. We ate in so many amazing places. We visited the Louvre, we dined in the Eiffel tower, we strolled through Luxembourg Gardens. Then we headed to Barcelona and finished the month in Prague.”
I’d never known my mother to be interested in travel, never mind to any of the places she’d just mentioned. It still shocked me that, almost overnight, Penelope had become an entirely different person. Never mind that she had called and asked to see me. I couldn’t in my entire life remember a time that she was interested in anything Walker, or I ever did.
“So, why did you want to see me?” I questioned.
“Can’t your mother want to spend time with you?”
“Of course,” I replied.
“Okay then. I just wanted to check in with you, see how school was going.”
I frowned, unsure of why she was even asking. I felt like I was living in some sort of alternate universe.
“Good, only a couple more months and I’ll have my degree.”
“How was your last exam? I ran into Lorelai’s mother. She said that you two are studying harder than ever.”
“Yep, we get our grades back for that exam tomorrow, but things are looking amazing.”
“Have I told you how proud I am of you? You wanted something, and you reached out and took control. Something that I’ve failed to do during my life.”
My mother was such a free spirit, it was strange to hear her talking like this. Maybe Lorelai was right and Joe had been a good choice for her, but this was still weird to me. Or was she sick? Panic flooded me for a moment, then quickly passed. She wasn’t sick, maybe lovesick, but not actually sick.
Just then I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and I pulled it out in time to see Dylan’s name flash on the screen. I was still feeling confused about the other night and really wanted advice from someone. Then I caught my mother smiling at me.
“Mom, can I…talk to you about something?” I questioned.
My mom stopped walking and turned to me, an odd look coming over her face. I could recall one other time I’d actually called her Mom in the past few years. It was always Penelope to her face, except for when I’d panicked at Joe’s house because Dylan had been there. She was fine with it. Penelope said she actually preferred being called by her actual name instead of mom. She said it made her feel younger.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, taking a seat on a park bench and tapping the space beside her.
I sat down beside her and looked out over the park, not sure how to answer that. Was everything alright? I supposed so. I was more confused than anything.
“Mom, I want to ask you about relationships.”
My mother perked up. “Alright, what would you like to know?”
I thought for a moment. She probably wasn’t the right person to ask, or maybe she was because she’d had tons of relationships, but what I wanted was sound advice, not Penelope’s flighty wisdom.
I continued to sit there, thinking about how to ask what I wanted to know, when she patted my leg and leaned back against the bench seat.
“Does this advice you need have anything to do with Dylan?”
I bit my bottom lip and nodded. “It’s weird to me still, but I don’t know what we are to one another. I don’t know how to tell if this is something serious, or something I shouldn’t invest my time in.”
I’d been in one relationship, or what I would have called a relationship, with Greg. Other than that, I’d had the occasional date, but none of them ever went anywhere. I’d also always invested way more time than the guys had and that ended up leaving me getting hurt. I also felt different with Dylan than I did with Greg. I didn’t know how to break this down to something I could understand.
“Do you like him?”
“Yes.”
“And we already know you’ve had sex with him. Which, I’m sorry to say that I still find hilarious in some ways, Aurora. Honestly, you really shocked me with that piece of information.”
I frowned. “Why?”
“Oh, my dear, you aren’t the spontaneous one, not in the slightest, so to find out you had a one-night stand nearly made me want to pee my pants. However, I think it’s wonderful that you took control and loosened up a little, but we won’t dwell on that.”
I let out a sigh. This was my mother, not the greatest advice giver there was. It was good to know she had a chuckle over my admittance.
“First, it’s not weird.”
“Really?”
My mother nodded. “Really, it’s spontaneous. Some of the best lovers I’ve had were spontaneous.”
She sounded exactly like Willow. Walker and I had heard her and many of her spontaneous lovers many nights through the walls from the confines of our bedroom. The next morning, the both of us shared in the embarrassment to see whatever flavour of the month had left the house.
“What if it”s more than that, though?” I questioned.
“More than…spontaneous?”
“Yes.”
“Are you asking me what to do if it’s love?”
I shrugged, not entirely sure what it was I was asking. I thought back to the other night, in his apartment after all hell had broken loose in the club, how the sex that night had been different. It wasn’t commanding like before, and there had been no laughter. Instead it was slow, passionate, and just… different. In the morning, we’d taken our time together, shared coffee and breakfast out on the balcony before we made our way into his shower before I’d left to go pick up Lorelai. Each time felt different, and I didn’t know how to handle it.
“I don’t know?”
“Well, only you can answer that, Aurora. I can’t. You are the one who knows what you are asking.”
I looked out over the water, at the sailors and their boats, my head full of questions that I didn’t know how to answer. I bit my bottom lip as I thought about what it was I really wanted to ask my mother. Did I want to know what to do if it was love? Was I even ready for that? I took a sip of my coffee and cleared my throat.
“Maybe that is what I’m asking? Would you frown upon it if it was?”
“Heavens, Aurora. Why would I frown upon it? I think it’s wonderful, and if you are right and it is love, then I say you should go for it. If being together makes the two of you happy, then nothing in the world should stop you.”
“Not even the fact that you married his father?” I questioned, swallowing hard.
My mother sighed and sat back against the bench. “Aurora, you should know by now that what is here today for me could be gone in the blink of an eye tomorrow. It’s why I never really get upset when it disappears. I take it for what it is, enjoy it while I have it, and if it disappears, then I pick up the pieces, brush them under the proverbial rug, and I move on. I’ve lived my entire life that way—after your father, that is.”
Here she was telling me the exact thing I thought would have ended all my hurt by being spontaneous, and now here I was with a much bigger problem. Living my life and enjoying the moment had started this entire thing, and now here I was with feelings for Dylan, something that was never supposed to happen. However, I also was never supposed to see him again either.
“Seriously, Aurora, just live in the moment. Enjoy it and make the most of it. You’ll regret it if you don’t. Take things as they come.”
Then my mother did something she hadn’t done since I was a very little girl. She reached over and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me in for a hug.
“Thanks, Mom,” I whispered.
“Now, I need to get going. I have lunch with Joe at the yacht club. Did you want to join us?”
I shook my head. “No, I have to get back home. Lorelai and I have a study group later this afternoon. Love you, and thanks, Mom.”
“Anytime, my dear. See you soon.”
I stayed on the bench and watched as my mother walked away. She seemed happy, happier than I’d seen her in a long time, and I really hoped that Joe was the one who’d be around for a while. He seemed to be good for her.