Chapter 8 Chamomile and Honey #2
Exton is behind us, rolling on the ground, laughing. I can hear Electra chuckling softly as well, but it’s the smartest kid on the planet and his mom who have my full attention.
I watch as she opens the back door of that tin can and deposits him on the seat, carefully taking off his skates before she puts his boots back on while Emett is talking her eat off the whole time.
And it isn’t until she tucks him into the car seat that she notices her purse is still by the camping chair she was in earlier.
Moving fast, she goes to pick it up and I’m aware I need to stop looking. I am. But I can’t. Aurora must feel my heated gaze on her because she stops right in front of me once more.
“I’m sorry again about Emett. He’s a great kid but can be relentless when he gets an idea in his head.” She finishes with a small smile that doesn’t reach her eyes.
“No need to apologize. He is a great kid.”
“Yeah.” She looks over her shoulder where he’s jumping up and down in his car seat and that smile turns genuine.
But it’s gone as soon as her eyes meet mine again as if a cloud drops in front of them.
“Well, thank you for going on the ice with him. I know this will go down as his favorite day in history,” she says and turns around to leave.
“No need to thank me.” She gives me another tight-lipped smile and starts walking away.
She’s walking away. Good. Good. This is finally over.
Fuck. Damn it.
“You know, it’s not safe to drive that,” I shout after her, and she pauses, glancing over her shoulder as her blonde hair sways against her back.
Aurora’s cheeks pinken for a split second, giving her the ethereal look of porcelain angels before she clears her throat. “It might look beat up, but it drives just fine.”
“I highly doubt that. Especially on the icy roads.”
Her jaw clenches. “Thank you for your concern but I’m capable of determining its safety myself. Have a good day, Severin,” Aurora dismisses me, striding to her car but clearly my mind is too fucked today because I open my mouth again.
“He needs to be in professional training. Like yesterday. You’re wasting his talent,” I bark out and she stops. It’s so fast, I’d miss the way her body went all tense if I wasn’t already watching her perfectly round ass like a fucking creep.
Fucking hell, Severin, get a damn grip.
Aurora turns her head, and I know I’ll deserve the lashing I’m about to get for sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong but…
she simply gives me yet another small tight smile and says, “Yep. Bye now,” before opening her door and getting inside.
Leaving me gaping after them with a clenched jaw and a storm of emotions inside.
“The fuck was that about?” Exton says behind me, immediately touching my forehead with his hand. I didn’t even notice him come up.
“Nothing,” I snap back, pushing his hand away. “The kid is talented. He’s got a big future if he trains right. The fuck are you doing?” I ask when he attempts to touch me again.
“We’re all well aware Emett is talented, hence why I’m training him. Can you stop moving? I’m trying to save your life over here.”
“Did you hit your head today?”
“No, but I think you did. Let me check for a fever. Where is the nice Sava? What’s with the asshole routine?”
I don’t have the energy to wear the mask. I can’t keep it on when she’s around it seems.
“I guess you’re finally rubbing off on me.”
“Ha-ha, hilarious. Whatever, I’m gonna go disassemble the net. You’re off to Boston?”
“Yeah,” I answer, but my eyes are still trained on Aurora who’s trying to get the car started.
I feel the nails dig into my palms as my fist tightens more and more with each unsuccessful start.
“Yeah…it’s totally me who’s rubbing off on him,” Exton snorts behind me, but I’m not about to pay attention to that.
Not because he’s wrong—quite the opposite, actually.
“She knows.”
“Huh?” I snap out of my haze at the sound of Electra’s voice, turning around to face her.
“She knows he needs to be in professional training.” Electra nods at her friend.
“But not all of us were born with a silver spoon in their mouth, Severin.” She narrows her eyes at me.
“I like you, I do, but if I catch you being an asshole to my best friend, I’ll end you.
Are we clear? We’re working on it, and for now he has Exton to train him. ”
Electra might be a little pixie of a figure skater in a wheelchair, but there’s fierceness in her tone that will send a shiver down the most menacing of men. And I admire her loyalty to her friend. So, I don’t waste her time with a bullshit excuse I’d give Exton.
I simply nod.
This wasn’t any of my business anyway, and I know better than to stick myself in the middle of it, but there’s something about that kid I can’t let go.
Something that reminds me of myself at that age. Something deeper and darker. And by all means, I don’t want to stir up that hornet’s nest. Not when everything about Aurora and Emett unsettles my carefully organized life that took me years to assemble.
With a parting smile on my face, I climb into my car, catching Aurora’s blonde hair behind the window as she finally gets the car going.
Her car is shit. She wasn’t wearing anything extra nice or expensive or even half as warm as it should’ve been. Yet Emett had some of the best hockey gear you can get.
I didn’t actually need Electra to tell me anything about her friend to put some pieces together. The main one being that she’s living her new life for her son.
But it doesn’t answer any of the other million questions I still do have, much to my dismay.
That night changed a lot of lives. It crossed them, twisting them up into tangles I never intended to be a part of.
Or thought to be possible. Because…how does this happen?
How, after all these years, do I find her here, in the middle of nowhere Iris Lake through my best friend who ended up babysitting her best friend by mere coincidence.
Still, it changes nothing.
So what if I found her?
So what if she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve laid eyes on?
So what if I’ve dreamed of her green eyes and chamomile scent all these years?
There are parts of her and parts of me that could never be together.
Is she the same? Is she like her?
My eyes catch those green eyes in her rearview mirror as they pierce through me with displeasure.
Aurora is too timid. Too shy. Too fragile. But not her eyes, they tell the true story. At least to me, they do.
For the first time in my life, I desperately want to peel back all those layers and see what hides beneath. To see if the poison spread through her blood yet and broke everything inside like it did in me.
Because you can’t change the heart when it’s already rotten to the core.
You can’t. You can’t.
“Fuck.” My hand slams against the steering wheel as I kick my head back against the headrest.
No matter how beautiful. No matter how real she is. Aurora needs to be extinguished from my head before I lose it. Before my cage crumbles completely.
It’s not until I’m watching Iris Lake fade away in my rearview mirror that I realize there was another emotion hidden in her eyes just now. One that pulls at my dead heart.
She was worried. Scared. Something happened, and it shouldn’t matter to me. I need to get away.
My heart sends a painful tug. A ripple of a slow-brewing thunder rushing through it with urgency.
“It had to be her. It had to be fucking her.” My knuckles turn white on the wheel.
The parting look in her eyes held no warmth toward me and that’s for the best. She obviously doesn’t want to see me anymore than I want to see her.
Then why the hell am I making a U-turn to make sure they’re okay?