“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 totallymewho’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.
