Chapter 21 - Soren
“Soren?!”
I wake to the sound of Gramps’s voice, and the knowledge that he’ll be bursting through the door at any moment.
My cock is still buried deep inside my mate, and half-hard, but I pull out and roll off the side of the bed.
Bleary-eyed with sleep and stumbling over to the door, I catch it just in time so it only opens an inch before he can peer in at me.
One of my worries while at the cabin was that I would return and find him much sicker than before. But he’s been going to play bridge, and both Lach and Xeran came around to check on him. The fridge is full of food I didn’t cook, which means it likely came from one of them.
“Hey, Gramps,” I say now, my voice rough from sleep.
He peers in, a floating eye between the door and the frame. “Who’s in there?” he asks cheekily, his cane thumping against the door. “And when can I meet her?”
Aurela starts to stir, sitting up in bed. I know that if she moves too much, the sheet will slip.
“We’ll all go out for breakfast,” I say, forcing the door shut as gently as I can. “Just give us a second to get ready.”
When the latch clicks into place, I sigh in relief and turn around to find Aurela sitting up and staring at me, her hands to her chest, holding the sheet in place.
The sight of her is a shock to my system, and for the first time since I was a teenager, I find myself wishing I didn’t live with my grandfather, that she and I could have a little more privacy.
That I could do whatever I wanted with her, at least for the rest of the day.
And I think that she might be thinking the same thing, too, wishing I lived alone like a normal man, until she beams at me, her entire face brightening.
“We’re going for breakfast?” she asks, already hurrying out of bed. “Do you have anything I can wear?”
After Aurela slips into the shower, I call Maeve, asking if she might have something for Aurela to borrow. Maeve appears on our doorstep five minutes later with a huge bag, filled to the brim with what I know are pieces from her clothing line.
“All prototypes,” she says, smiling at me. “Free of charge. Just tell her to flaunt the label if she catches anyone looking.”
“Will do,” I say, accepting the clothes and taking them to Aurela, who is just stepping out of the shower and smelling intoxicatingly like my soap. Gramps is in his room, likely getting ready, and I’m trying to mentally calculate how much time I might need to make her come before we go.
I can’t—my knot would take far too long to go away. But I could pull off her towel, set her on the counter, slide my hand between her legs—
“Whatever you’re thinking, stop,” she laughs, playfully snapping her towel at me. “I’m already cleaned up and not letting you make me a mess.”
“But you don’t realize just how much I want to,” I tease, stepping in closer to her and watching her cheeks go pink.
“Trust me,” she says, her voice catching, eyes skittering away from mine. “I do.”
I have to leave the bathroom before I do something I regret, which deposits me in the living room with Gramps.
“I knew you were hiding a girl from me,” he says, a smile slipping to the corner of his mouth as he stands by the table with his cane, flapping a hand at me. “But next time, you could give me some warning before you just up and go off on your honeymoon.”
“No honeymoon, Gramps,” I say. “We’re not married. And I’m sorry for leaving like that. It wasn’t intentional.”
“I know. Xeran said he had you out on a special mission, or something like that.”
He catches my eye, and I realize Xeran probably told him that so he wouldn’t worry, at least, not until they found more information. I know it’s going to take a while until I can repay Xeran for everything he’s done—covering for me, letting me explain myself, showing considerable mercy to Aurela.
“Alright,” Aurela says as she walks into the living room, as though me thinking of her is enough to summon her to me. “Are we ready to go?”
I swallow my throat when I turn around to look at her. She’s radiant, in a bold blue dress and a pair of strappy sandals. A matching bag hangs at her side. Her golden hair is braided simply, and her eyes shimmer with makeup. Either she used some magic to get ready, or Maeve thought of everything.
“Boy, am I,” Gramps says. “I’ve been starving for breakfast for hours.”
He heads for the door, but I turn, taking three steps to Aurela and gathering her up for a searing kiss. We’ll get breakfast now, but—
“Later,” she whispers to me, a promise.
“Later,” I agree roughly, before Gramps calls for us to hurry up from the front porch, breaking us out of our embrace and forcing us back to the moment at hand.
“Don’t dawdle,” he grouses as I help him into the car. “You have plenty of time for kissing after we eat.”
***
“I think this might have been one of the best days of my life,” Aurela says, her head on my shoulder as we walk, arm-in-arm, down Main Street together.
When we got to the breakfast place and realized Xeran, Phina, and their kids were all there, too, Phina insisted that we join them, which led to Gramps asking more about the mission, and Xeran and me having to lie together to cover both our asses.
“Mission, huh?” Phina mused, laughter shining in her eyes as she popped a piece of pancake into her mouth.
Aurela and Gramps got along instantly, and she makes him laugh with a surprising frequency, especially considering that he never thinks my jokes are that funny. He’s even mostly annoyed by Felix, who most people think is charming, hilarious, or both.
Breakfast was stellar, a little café downtown not too far from Felix and Maeve’s place.
In fact, we ran into them while leaving, and they convinced us to come with them to a lavender festival just on the outskirts of town.
The farm was lovely, rows and rows of the vibrant purple flowers set against the backdrop of the mountains and the rising pines and firs of the forest.
Gramps said the stuff stank to “the highest heavens,” but I know he had a good time, especially when it came time to try the lavender cupcakes and lemonade.
We came back into Silverville with Felix and Maeve, and now, after they dropped us off at my car, we spot Lachlan, Valerie, and Levi at the park.
Valerie goes to the bathroom to change Levi while Lachlan sits at one of the chess tables with Gramps, taunting him playfully while Aurela and I take a loop around the place.
“I just didn’t…” she says, clearing her throat and looking up at me. “I didn’t know this place could be like this.”
“What? The park?”
“Silverville,” she admits, and when she meets mine, I can see it all written there in her eyes. The way this place has treated her has made her feel over the years.
And if I’m being honest, it’s not like I’ve exactly had a wonderful time, either, watching all my best friends pair off while I knew I would never get to be with my mate.
Waking up every morning with firefighting as the only purpose I had, caring for my Gramps, but still feeling incredibly lonely at the end of the night.
“Let’s make a deal,” I whisper as we turn and start heading back toward Lachlan and Gramps, who have been rejoined by Valerie.
“Okay,” Aurela whispers back. “What’s that?”
“We’ll make this place good together.”
The way she smiles at me tells me she’s more than accepted that deal, but she doesn’t say anything because we’re now close enough to hear Lachlan groaning loudly.
“It’s not fair,” he complains, turning and looking at me. There’s still a ripple of distrust there in his eyes, but nothing like the plain hatred when he first came to the cabin, when we were in Xeran’s office. “How does he win every time?”
“He’s probably cheating,” I joke, which earns me a tap from Gramps’s cane.
“Let’s go,” he grumbles, stifling a yawn. “Since there’s nobody decent to play against down here.”
We say our goodbyes to Lach and Val, a weird tension hanging in the air as we do. An understanding that this is the new normal—me and Lach’s sister, together. Coming and going at the same time.
As we climb into the car, I study Gramps, try to discern how much this day has taken out of him. He seems younger, healthier, in a way that defies his illness. Maybe it’s all the excitement, or maybe he’s just finally found something to get out of bed for, other than the bridge.
I realize I might not have been the only lonely one in our household.
When we get home, Aurela holds the door, and I help Gramps inside. He tells her good night and thanks her for the day, then gestures with his hand for me to follow him into his bedroom.
While Gramps is typically a very neat and tidy man—even folding his newspaper precisely every morning—his room is stuffed full of things, a lot of them once belonging to my grandmother.
It smells like the old house in here, and a little like rosewater, reminding me of my childhood.
He moves slowly, his cane tapping along steadily, and when he reaches his dresser, he reaches into a wooden box, pulling out something small, black, velvety.
“Come here,” he says, pushing the thing into my hand. When I pull it back and look at it in the low light, I realize it’s a ring box.
“Gramps—”
“Uh-huh,” he says, shaking his head and raising one of his hands before settling it back on his cane for balance.
He’s tired—I can see it in the sway of his body, the toll that today has taken on him.
“That was your grandmother’s. She told me to give it to you when I felt you were in love. I’m only following orders.”
My throat grows thick.
“But I do have my own bit to add,” he says, letting out a loud sigh as he lowers himself onto the bed, looking up at me as he lays his cane down on the floor beside it. “You give it to that girl sooner rather than later. I’d like to attend your wedding as something more than thoughts and memories.”
“Gramps,” I object, but he’s already waving me out, grunting loudly as he positions himself in bed.
“Get out of here,” he says gruffly, but he can’t hide the smile on his face. “Aurela is a lovely girl, and you definitely should not keep her waiting.”