Page 35 of Violet Moon
“Hugh!Flowers messed with my head and you messed with my head, so now I have to talk with you.”
He glanced up from the book of poetry in his hands and motioned to the chair opposite him with an overly sweet grin.
She flopped down into the well-worn chair and gripped the empty cup in her hands.“How did you know I liked her?”Sera couldn’t bring herself to say Parisa’s name and she definitely couldn’t say another four letter word that would much better describe the humming in her chest.
He closed his book and folded his fingers together as his features softened and those steady, calm eyes found hers.“Everything,” he replied.
“Unhelpful.I’m serious.Please, I’m reeling here.”
“What do you need from me,mon lou lou?”
“I need you to tell me what you’ve seen that made you know so that I can know it, too, because right now I think I know but I don’t know.”
“This seems like a conversation for another location.Shall we take a walk?”
“Please.”
Back out on the sidewalk, there was a flood rising up in her throat and she couldn’t voice any of it.She simultaneously wanted to let the dam burst and shove it all back down inside.
“That was the least coherent I’ve heard you be in years.It must be serious,” he said, bumping his shoulder into hers.
Sera stared down at her shoes and the uneven pavement.
“You need me to tell you what I’ve seen, hm?”He paused.“I’ve seen every cliché thing that you’re not going to believe because it sounds so fake when someone else says it, but so real when you feel it.Your entire face changes when you talk about her.Your voice sounds different, too.You brighten.You laugh easier.”
“She’s my Alpha and I’m her Beta.That’s part of it.”
“I don’t doubt that, but it’s more than respect and admiration, more than the pack bond between you two.Sera, you care about every person in that house.You tell me stories and laugh and rant, but with her — with her, you get stars in your eyes.”
“You’re right.It does sound cliché,” she deflected because it was easier than letting anything else out.
“Cheesy like staring into one another’s eyes, but when you do it, it’s anything but.”
“I give her flowers,” she blurted, not knowing where to begin.She scanned the street looking to see if it was busy and if she should be more careful with her words to avoid gossiping tongues, but Hugh had steered them down a quiet street lined with parked cars and not a whole lot else.“I always put thought into it, just as I would a gift for anyone, but I do it every day.Flowers can mean something, Hugh,” she turned, placing her hand on his upper arm until his pace slowed.“I think I wanted it to mean something.”
“What’s your favorite part of your day?”
“When we sit by the fire and talk.Or in the summer when it’s too warm, we sit out on the back porch and listen to the cicadas.Whenever one of us is too busy to talk I never sleep well.”
“What’s special about her?”
“She’s strong, strong in so many ways.I’ve seen how she can fight, and don’t get me wrong, that’s hot, very hot, but she shoulders burdens with grace and carries the weight of the pack every single day in a way that shows that she does it not only because it’s her responsibility, but because she wants to.Because she loves her pack.”
“And you.”
“What?”
“She loves you, too.”
Sera’s heart sank.“That’s the problem.”
“Hm?”
“There’s no way this feeling, whatever this is, is returned.”
“Why not?”
“For a million reasons!For her this is just our normal life.She’s not over there suddenly realizing she’s been giving someone love flowers for years or thinking about how if she doesn’t get to talk to someone that she isn’t going to sleep because that’s insane.She’s too level-headed for any of that.She’s never given any indication of any kind of that love is even a possibility for her.”
