Aurelia takes the bolster pillow and sits on top on it before placing the soles of her feet together and letting her knees open. I’m sitting behind her as I wait for her to tell me what to do. I can’t even bring myself to listen to the instructor on the TV because it means taking my focus off of her.
“Put your feet on my back,” she finally tells me. I glance down at my sneakered feet before removing my shoes until I’m left in just my socks. And then I lean back on my hands to place my feet on her back. It’s comical the way my big-ass feet dwarf her back. “Lower.”
Obeying, I slide my feet down until they rest on her lower spine. “Like that, baby?” I let slip.
I feel Aurelia’s muscles tense under my feet like she’s just as startled, but then she relaxes just as quickly. “Perfect.”
She doesn’t thank me this time, and it feels like a step forward from the polite distance she’s been keeping. After she’s done breathing some more, she tells me to move one of my feet to her upper back.
And that’s how Thorin and Seth find us.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” Seth asks as they walk in through the patio doors. All morning they’ve been out doing their rounds patrolling the grounds while I stayed inside to look after Aurelia.
Thorin already scolded Aurelia for not doing better to keep people out, to which Aurelia gaped at him and made a very good point that only someone insane or with a death wish would attempt to scale a mountain just to gain entry to her backyard.
“Yoga,” I grunt when Aurelia ignores him. She’s busy pulling in her deep breaths again.
Thankfully, Thorin and Seth don’t stick around, but I can feel Thorin’s eyes on us as they cross the room to reach the door leading to the kitchen. When I look up, he lifts a brow before disappearing through the doorless entryway.
I stay with Aurelia, helping her through her poses and assisting with her stretches, and then I help her stand when she’s done while I roll the mat and tie it.
“How are you feeling now?” I ask once I set the mat aside and toss the pillow on the couch. “Do you need anything?”
“Fries,” she says immediately while staring longingly out the window. The landscaper is out there mowing the massive lawn, and I wonder if she thinks about her garden back in the Cold Peaks.
“Okay,” I say even though it’s ten in the morning. “Easy enough. I’ll get you some fries.”
“And ice cream.”
My brows raise as I hope she doesn’t mean together. I’ve heard about pregnancy cravings from my aunts and cousins back in Six Forks. “Any particular flavor?”
Her nose wrinkles as she gives it some thought. “Pistachio,” she finally decides.
“They make that?”
She shakes her head while looking like she’s caught in a trance. “I have no idea.”
“I guess we’ll find out then. I’ll be back.” It feels like I’m running when I rush the door.
“Khalil,” she aims at my back. The tremble in her voice makes me pause even though I don’t want to. I turn to see tears welling in her eyes. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for—” Her voice catches. “I’m sorry for leaving you too. I never wanted you to feel alone.”
I don’t realize my feet are moving to return to her until I’m already standing in front of her, cupping her cheeks and usingmy thumbs to wipe away her tears. I stay with her until the rush of hormones settle and then I kiss her forehead when she quiets. “It’s cool,” I finally say before I let her go to leave and hunt down her fries and ice cream.
By some miracle, I actually find pistachio-flavored ice cream, and then I return to her hilltop mansion to watch in horror as she sprays cheese on top of the ice cream like whipped cream while shoveling fires inside her mouth.
“I don’t know what’s happening, but I’m scared,” Seth says after he and Thorin join us by the pool where Aurelia was sunning herself when I returned.
She’s got on a two-piece bathing suit now, and her hair is pinned in a high bun as she lounges on one of the patio chairs. I’m sitting on the one next to her with my legs thrown over the side and my arms braced on my thighs as I watch her dip a fry inside the cheese and ice cream and then devour it one bite.
“It’s so good,” Aurelia moans.
“We’ll just have to take your word for it,” Thorin retorts as he watches her stab the ice cream with a spoon and then lick it clean. Aurelia grins like she knows she’s grossing us out, and it brings her even more joy. The baby seems to like it too if the way her stomach changes shape, the skin rippling and bubbling from his excited kicks, is anything to go by.
His…
It’s when I realize I don’t even know the sex. There are a million questions I have, but my broken heart won’t let me ask any of them.I don’t want her back, I whisper to myself.I don’t want her back, I don’t want her back, I don’t want her back.
Maybe if I say it enough times, I’ll start to believe it.
