Chapter 30 Aurora #2
“I’ll be right back,” I say with a fake smile, and then I turn and sprint up the stairs.
I’m in my room for all of two seconds before Mabel comes rushing in behind me.
“Are you okay?” She pulls me in for a hug, and I inhale gardenia. “God, he’s such a fucking prick. I texted Ham. He’s on his way, and then we can get rid of that asshole.”
I step back and let her arms fall away. “You texted my uncle?”
“Yeah. I figured we’d need—”
“You shouldn’t have done that.” I shake my head as I tug off yesterday’s clothes and dig through my suitcase for a sundress. “I don’t want Uncle Wade to get involved.”
“Aurora, you’re going to need his help if you’re—wait, what are you doing?” I look over my shoulder and find her staring at me in disbelief. “You’re not actually going to go anywhere with that asshole.”
“I have to. I have to get him out of here before Sav starts something.”
“Before Sav starts something? Are you kidding?”
“You know what I mean. She’s deliberately pushing his buttons.”
“Yeah. Good. He could stand to be knocked off his fucking high horse.”
I sigh and pull my dress over my head quickly. “You don’t understand.”
“So, tell me. Help me understand.”
I shake my head, but I stay quiet. I have one goal, and that’s to get Brady out of this house as soon as I can.
“Aurora. You can’t go with him. What if he hurts you?”
“Red will be there. It’s fine.” I drop to the floor and start looking for my sandals.
“It’s not fine, Roar. Nothing about this is fine.”
I find Mabel’s boots under my bed, but not my shoes. Then see her jacket on the floor by the door, so I crawl quickly over there to see if my sandals are underneath it.
“I know you’re worried, but you have to trust me.”
Lifting Mabel’s coat, I find my sandals, but then my eyes catch on a small, rectangular card on the floor beside them.
It looks like the kind of card you’d get with a flower delivery.
I remember a lot of those after the accident.
This one isn’t expressing Deepest Sympathies, though.
It’s got red hearts on it, and the print says. ..
My heart trips over itself as I read the card once, then twice, before turning to Mabel.
“What’s this?”
Guilt transforms her face, and it’s like a knife to the chest. It doesn’t hurt, though. It just renders me numb. I’ve been a bundle of live wire nerves since waking up this morning, and my body can’t handle any more. It just shuts off.
“She sent me flowers yesterday. I threw them away, but I still should have told you.”
Yesterday.
Before or after I told her I wanted a divorce? Is that why she was so insistent that I not make the decision based on her?
Kat wants to go public. Kat misses her. This is what Mabel wanted. I close my eyes and breathe.
“You threw away the flowers but kept the card.”
“It’s not like that. I swear.”
I push to standing and hold her eye contact. My heart might me breaking, but I’m too exhausted to feel it.
“Have you texted her since getting the flowers?”
“No.”
“So not even to tell her you’re not interested.”
I watch sorrow flood her eyes, and that’s the first pinch of pain. Since I’ve met her, Mabel has never looked at me with sympathy, with pity, until right now.
“Did you consider it? Her offer. She said she wants to go public. Have you considered it?”
She stays silent, and that turns the pinch into a cut.
“Foundation of truth, Mabel. Have you considered it?”
She exhales. “Yes.”
My eyes fall shut as the word slices through me, and I imagine myself bleeding from my chest. I wish I could go back to the numb.
I turn toward the door, but she wraps her hand around my wrist and stops me.
“It’s not like that, Aurora. I was going to contact her today. I just haven’t had a chance.”
Logically, it makes sense, but I’m struggling to think straight right now. Too much is going on. Too much is happening.
Kat misses her. Kat wants to go public. Mabel considered it. It’s what Mabel wanted from the beginning.
Meanwhile, my husband, whom I don’t love, is downstairs right now being insulted by Sav Loveless. I want to leave my husband. I’ve been fantasizing about a life without him. But Mabel, the one I have been picturing in his place, is considering an offer from her ex, the tall, gorgeous, famous model.
God, I can’t even process it all. It’s too much, too fast, and it hurts too much to think about, so I don’t even try. I force a plastic smile and cue up my happy homemaker tone of voice.
“It’s fine. You have to do what’s right for you, right? I’m happy for you. You and Kat make a beautiful couple.”
“Don’t do that. Don’t talk to me like I’m him.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You’re acting like you don’t care. You’re lying. We don’t lie, remember?”
I almost laugh. “But lying by omission is okay?”
Her frown deepens, and I see real regret in her eyes, so I turn away. I can’t look at her anymore.
“I was going to tell you. I’m sorry.”
Her hand brushes my arm, and I take a step away. I’m losing my grip on my composure. I need to get out of here before I start crying.
“You’re getting what you want, and I’m happy for you.
And you two make sense. Much more sense than we do.
You’re closer in age. You’re in the same industry.
She can make you happier than I can. You probably have more in common.
My uncle would likely lose his mind if I dated you anyway.
I mean, I’m married, for God’s sake, and I’m not even gay, so of course you’re going to consider going back to Kat.
It makes sense. It does. It makes sense, and I’m not mad.
It’s okay. I’m fine. But I really have to go.
I’ve taken too long as it is, and Brady doesn’t like waiting. ”
When I look at her, she’s staring at me like I’ve just slapped her, but I’m too busy trying not to fall apart to analyze it.
“Right,” she breathes out, nodding. “Yeah. Okay. We’ll, um, we’ll talk when you get back.”
She drops her eyes to the carpet, releasing me from their hold, so I leave quickly. If I don’t do it now, I might never.
When I step back into the kitchen, it’s eerily quiet, and everyone is staring at each other. I rush past Callie, Claire, and Sav, and take Brady’s hand.
“Okay. Sorry for making you wait. I couldn’t find my sandal.”
He scowls. “Lost your phone and your sandal?”
I force a laugh and tug him toward the door, waving at the girls as I do. “I’ll see you guys later.”
“Red’s coming with,” Sav adds, and I nod.
“Okay.”
Then she looks at Brady and twirls her finger around her own hairline.
“And bud, you might want to wear a hat on the beach. Australian sun is strong. You don’t want those balding spots to burn.”
Goddamn it, Sav.