He shifted closer, grounding me in a way nothing else had been all morning. I wanted to take him and escape this field. Just ride until I fall off the face of the earth. It’ll be a million times easier than having to look Aurora in the face and tell her the truth.
I leaned against the stall, forearms resting on the rail, letting the silence sit.
Letting everything I didn’t say back there catch up to me.
Her face when I spoke and the way she looked at me just now in the hall. I could only imagine how she’d react to my secret.
I shook my head, exhaling hard.
Spades huffed softly, nudging my shoulder.
“Yeah,” I added, rubbing a hand down his neck. “I wish we could go too.”
A part of me even wondered if I should tell her the truth. I swore I’d take a secret like this to the grave. Maybe I still can if I end it with her. It was never supposed to get this far anyway.
She thinks she loves me?
How the fuck did I let this happen? Why did I get back in bed with her in the first place? What was it about me that always made situations messier than it should be?
I breathed deeply.
Summer’s almost over and her time here was almost up. The smart play was to end it but I knew Rory. She wasn’t gonna just let this die without an explanation.
Her dad maybe?
Do I even care if he finds out?
Probably not.
Fuck.
I was already in deeper than I should be. And I was getting too old for this shit. There’s no graceful exit and someone was gonna get hurt because I didn’t know how to fix this without breaking something in the process.
For a second, I just stood there, hand resting against Spades, breathing slow, trying to clear my head.
It didn’t work.
Because the second everything went quiet, she showed up again. I spent an eternity trying to forget her and one word was enough to trigger her memory in me.
Her smile came first. Rory had that same smile. I didn’t notice it at first. Or maybe I did and ignored it. But now I couldn’t unsee it.
Then her voice.
She knew how to talk to people, how to settle a room without raising it. Rory didn’t have that same softness, but when she slowed down… when she wasn’t performing… it was there. Hiding underneath all that attitude.
Aurora.
Sweet Aurora.
Slowly, I realized the voice I missed…was my Bunny-rabbit. An hour talking to her was worth more than a hundred days in the vineyard. But I couldn’t let myself enjoy it because I was haunted by a ghost with her face.
I wasat my desk trying to get work done when the door opened without knocking.
I didn’t look up right away because I could tell who it was by the scent of that perfume. I kept typing, hoping she would take the hint and leave but no.
“Can I help you with something, Ms. Rodriguez?”
“I got your notes.”
