Fuck, it hadn’t gone either of our ways.
I didn’t want to push her away.
I wanted to pull her deeper into the alley, pull her pants and panties down, and slam into her until we were both weak and satisfied.
But Alara was young. Too young for me. And she was the baby sister of my cousin’s wife. That was just all sorts of off-limits. Whether I liked that or not.
She probably felt rejected and was trying to avoid me because of it. If only she knew that there wasn’t an ounce (or inch) of me that had rejected her.
It just couldn’t happen.
That said, it’d been impossible to put her behind me. First, because she’d been starring in every goddamn fantasy, no matter how hard I tried to focus on someone else.
Second, because the kids couldn’t seem to let a day go by without bringing her name up.
Charlotte wondered endlessly if Alara had finished the book, if she had continued on in the series, and if she enjoyed them.
Even Liam brought her up.
One night, he came home with a grocery bag full of supplies to make us “that sandwich Alara said would change our lives.”
She hadn’t been wrong.
I’d been craving the damn things ever since.
“It’s Alara?” Charlotte asked, turning over the back of the couch to look at me, wide-eyed and hopeful.
But any excitement I felt died right off when I realized why she was calling.
“You didn’t ask her about the books,” Charlotte said, pouting.
“You can ask her yourself. I don’t want to leave you here alone, so grab your shoes and let’s hit it.”
I’d never seen her move so fast in her life.
I worried as I watched her bounce around on her heels on the subway that she was craving something I couldn’t give her.
A female presence.
A mother figure, for the one she’d lost.
I’d been working so hard to make sure all their practical needs were being met that I hadn’t really stopped to consider what other things they might have been missing, seeking, wanting but were unable to express to me.
I thought maybe that kind of thing would have come up in therapy, and then the shrink would relay anything important to me.
I was sure that would be the case with Charlotte.
But maybe Liam wasn’t talking to his shrink much either. It was still new. He was a hard nut to crack.
I wasn’t prepared for the way seeing Alara again would feel like a punch to the gut.
But the second she opened that door, it was like all the wind got knocked out of me.
She looked a little frazzled and confused, maybe even a little annoyed—likely at me—but she brightened the second she saw Charlotte. And I had to be grateful to her for that.
I made my way out of the shop as they were already deep in a conversation about the book Charlotte got Alara to read.
I made my way outside, glancing up and down the street, wondering what kind of trouble Liam could have gotten himself into.
