Page 102 of Fated

He glances over at me then, the yellow light of the hurricane lamp glowing softly over the room. “Fi?” he asks, his voice hopeful.

Slowly I nod, my cheeks heating. “Yes.”

His lips curve into a slow, sad smile. “If I kiss you now, will it hurt much tomorrow when you don’t want me?”

He isn’t asking me. It’s a question for the storm and the dark of the night, but I answer anyway.

“I’ll want you.”

“Will you?”

It’s like he’s asking if I’m going to put him away, stop the watch, lock it in its box, and never open it again.

“Yes,” I say, moving closer, pressing against the warm line of him. “I wanted to tell you. The other night in the garden. I wanted to tell you I feel it too. I’m falling too.”

He searches my face, catching every glimmer and nuance of expression.

“You’re falling, but ...” He trails off and waits for me to finish the sentence. He knew there was a “but” there, a hesitation.

“I’m a little scared,” I say, “of what happens when the music ends.”

“When the blackbirds stop singing?” he asks.

I swallow down the tight lump in my throat and nod. My stomach tilts and dips.

He reaches forward and runs a finger soothingly across my cheek. “Don’t be scared. I’ll be there too. When it ends.”

He looks solemnly into my eyes when he makes this promise. I reach up and hold my hand over his, then I link our fingers together.

“Tell me something else about you,” he says. “Something I don’t know.”

I catch the light glinting off his jet-black hair and it reminds me, “I love to sail at night.” I used to with my dad and Daniel in the Greek isles. “There are so many stars when you’re out in the middle of the ocean. You’ve never seen so many. It’s like the sky is painted with diamonds. When you lie on your back and stare at the sky you nearly burst from the wonder, the awe. You feel so small and so big at the same time. I love it.” I glance at him. There’s a glint in his eyes. “Someday we could go out together.”

“Yeah?”

My heart gives one hollow thump. “Yeah.”

“What else?” he asks, tucking me into his side. He leans back against the couch cushion and I settle into him.

I rest my head against his chest and his fingers tangle in the ends of my hair. “I have a brother.”

“I know that.” I can hear the smile in Aaron’s voice.

“Maybe. But you don’t know that I think he’s one of the best human beings on the planet. He’d do anything for me. And I’d do anything for him. When I was a kid I’d save my allowance and buy him marzipan because I knew he loved it. And even though I never liked the beach, I always took him because he’d beg—” I smile up at Aaron. “You’d like him.”

“I already do like him. We grew up together.”

“He’d like you too,” I say.

“Well, if Miami hasn’t changed him then he still does.”

And Max. Would Max like Aaron?

I don’t know. I think at first Max would be wary of him. Max is wary of everyone when he first meets them. I was the rare exception. It takes months, sometimes years, to earn his trust. But once you have it he’s loyal to the end. I think if Max met Aaron in the real world, at a gala or a business function, he would respect him, and that respect would turn to like.

My chest pinches at the thought, a bittersweet tug. Aaron at a gala? In my world? The real world? There isn’t even the slimmest possibility of that ever happening.

“One more thing,” I tell Aaron, leaning into his warmth. I breathe in the scent of coffee and cool pounding rain.

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