AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And I wasn’t exactly doing well with it, the longer it went on with her away from me.
I was at the tiny makeshift gym twice a day now, beating out my frustrations. Aaron had even come in to spar with me, trying to turn the rage into a kind of power by using it to help me brush up on my combat skills. In a way, it was a good thing I was in there so much, considering how much ice-cream I was shoveling down whenever I wasn’t. Then, each night I went to bed and first thing every morning, I spent so much time looking through the photos on my phone of Aurora and me, her and the guys, and just any that had her in them, where I’d replay the moments they were captured over and over. One particular video I’d taken of her had gotten the most play. It was her joking around in her room, putting on my hoodie and snuggling her St. Bernard, Buster, inside it as she danced around and giggled, then tugged me to her to join in, one of her rare light and free and silly moments.
As if missing her in terms of her and me wasn’t enough, there was also the way she altered the whole dynamic between me, Ash, and Jonah. The way her being a part of us now brought us together and smoothed out the rough edges.
She’d changed things.
She’d become integral to us.
There was absolutely no going back to what it had been before, to a life without her in it.
That was why I was willing to go to extremes now.
I just hoped she wouldn’t end up hating me for it.
“Killian,” Asher spoke in greeting, pulling me from my maudlin thoughts.
I’d been standing around the living room waiting for him to head down.
We were supposed to be getting an early start, but it had been delayed by his wounds needing redressing and then him heading out to the porch for a smoke. Jonah had led him out there, supporting his weight, and Caleb had then stayed with him, seeing as though the two of them smoked. During that time, Jonah had been hurrying around the kitchen making Asher some healthy smoothie that Caleb had recommended that would apparently promote faster healing.
“Morning.” Well, getting closer to afternoon now, but I managed to keep that rebuttal from leaving my mouth.
Caleb was trailing after Ash. I watched him instinctively reach out to help him into one of the armchairs, but he stopped at the last second, remembering not to touch him. Instead, he walked to the laptop and devices now set up on the coffee table and took a seat on the edge of the couch on the other end to where I was standing.
Jonah hurried in then, carrying the smoothie.
He handed it to Ash, then took a seat right on the arm beside him.
Ash leaned against him as he nursed the smoothie with both hands, even needing to rest it on his knee. Jonah stroked the back of his hair in a soothing motion.
Jeez.
He caught me looking and smiled. “You want some, Pretty?”
“I’m good.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, are you?” Caleb asked, giving me the eye. “Still can’t get a solid read on you when it comes to that.”
“You won’t either,” Jonah told him. “It’s gotta be the exact right circumstances for him. Isn’t that right, Pretty?”
I folded my arms across my chest. “Can we not? Let’s focus.”
“Leave him be,” Ash said, defending me. He winked at me, then even paid me a compliment, telling me, “You’re doing really well. Holding it together. You won’t have to much longer, I promise you that, all right?”
“I… yeah… I mean, thanks, Ash.”
He smiled. Genuinely. Nicely, even. Fucking heartfelt. Wow.
Caleb, Jonah, and I shared a worried look. As pleasant as it was, it definitely pointed to him being off, something not being right.
Aaron burst on into the living room then, his combat boots thumping along. “The traps are good to go,” he informed us. “Anybody gets within a two-hundred-foot radius of this place and they’re gonna be lit up like Christmas trees.”
“Nice work,” Jonah said.
“Well, it was a fifty-fifty effort, them being your devices. Sweet tech, by the way.”
