Page 68 of Code of Heart
He raised an eyebrow and leaned rigidly against the island, arms crossed. Aurelia handed him the rolling pin, an unspoken command to start rolling the dough.
“That’s how I met my best friend, Selene. We didn't hit it off right away when I got placed into the same home. She tormented me at first. Tried to take my clothes and personal items, whichled to several brawls. She and her friends made fun of me in school. It almost got her moved to a new foster home. After that, she left me alone and started trying to get to know me. We’ve been good friends ever since.”
“I’ll have to meet her at some point so I can get the real dirt on what teenage Aurelia was like,” Levi teased. “You at least managed to graduate high school. What happened then?”
“I did well in school academically. I always loved reading and can learn virtually anything from a book. It wasn’t enough to get scholarships or aid for college though. I couldn’t afford to do the extracurriculars that admissions wanted to see or afford the cost of tuition, so I started working right away.”
As they layered sauce and toppings on the dough, Aurelia recounted how she worked part-time jobs from the moment she was old enough, saving every dollar. How she eventually bought a car and lived out of it for years. How a YMCA membership gave her a warm place and a hot shower.
How every single decision had been about survival…until Eleanor.
That one unexpected opportunity, being hired as Eleanor’s personal assistant, had changed her entire life.
Levi said nothing the whole time and simply listened, eyes never straying, until the oven timer chimed. He carefully pulled out the hot, bubbling pizza.
They ate at the small table in quiet companionship, and for a while, it was enough. Up until Aurelia finally asked what had been lingering in the back of her mind.
“What made you decide to seek out a matchmaker?”
Levi nearly choked on a bite of pizza. “Well…that's an interesting story,” he said after coughing out a nervous laugh. “You’rereallygoing to judge me, but…the short version is I got mad and accidentally told my company’s Board of Directors I had a fiancée—which, as I’m sure you are aware, I certainlydidn’t have. I understandably needed to find one. With limited options, my friend Ivy suggested a matchmaker.”
Try as she might, there was no way Aurelia could have hidden her shock in that moment.
He took a long swallow of beer and ran a hand through his hair. “Then it became an intervention with my friends about how I work too much, and this would be a good thing for me. I could break up with my fake fiancée and be done, but the truth is, I wanted more than that. I wanted something real and figured this was a blessing in disguise…and here we are.”
It was a strange set of circumstances, but somehow, it made her feel a little better about how she had ended up in this mess. Weirdly, they were perfectly matched.
“You're right, I’mtotallyjudging you on this,” Aurelia joked. Levi cracked a reluctant smile. “Now I want to hear how this unfolded.”
And so, grumbling playfully, Levi began from the beginning and told her everything.
Levi
“This Tyler person sounds like a complete ass,” Aurelia said humorlessly as Levi wrapped up his matchmaking story.
Levi snorted. “That’s because heisan ass. Thinking about him makes me want to set his car on fire.”
She smirked. “And I thought I was the impulsive one.”
“What about you?” he asked, his tone shifting with genuine curiosity. “What made you go the matchmaking route?”
“Oh, mine’s a tale that might rival yours.”
“Impossible. Mine was peak sketchiness.”
“The jury is still out on that one.”
Levi laughed harder than he had in months as Aurelia recounted the events of Eleanor’s farewell party. The absolute chaos of backhanded eulogies, the surprise inheritance with marriage requirements, and the video message that caused a minor senior citizen uprising, had him in stitches.
But his laughter lessened when she reached the part about the personalized video message Eleanor had left her, the one with instructions, hopes, and consequences. Authenticity laced her words as she admitted how little she had left to lose when she agreed to this matchmaker plan, stirring something deeply possessive within him.
She sat back, her fingers nervously tapping the armrest. “That part of it, the inheritance, needs to stay between us, okay? I understand why making an effort is a requirement, so I figured…why not? After all my disastrous relationships, it felt like the least risky option left.”
Levi gave a thoughtful nod, then raised his beer in salute. “I stand corrected. Your story wins. It’s insane.”
Relieved, Aurelia laughed, clinking her glass of iced tea against his. “Here’s to creating even more insane stories together.”
As the last golden rays of sun dipped beneath the horizon, Levi leaned forward on the kitchen island, his eyes on the rippling lagoon outside. They had opened the back doors, letting the warm breeze drift in. The soft hush of water and the scent of salt and jasmine mingled in the air. It was peaceful, grounding—and utterly exhilarating.
