Page 67 of Take Me Slowly: part 2
Riley rubbed his chin before pointing a finger at me. "Good point. Sooner or later I'd get involved and that would be like fucking my sister."
"Don't knock it until you've tried it," Brooks said over the top of his beer bottle, right before he took a sip.
I reached over and poked him in the forearm. "Behave yourself."
He just grinned and took a sip.
"Is anyone ready for birthday cake?" Holly asked.
I realised we'd all finished eating while we were talking and laughing.
"You aren't going to sing happy birthday to me, are you?" I grimaced.
"Of course we are." Riley pushed his chair back and stood to start gathering empty plates. "As loud as we can."
"I have to agree with Riley," Fiona said. "Nice and loud. So the whole town can hear."
"I thought they liked me," I said to Josiah.
"I can kidnap you and take you away from here, if you want," he offered.
"Don't even fucking try," Connor growled, but he clearly knew Josiah wasn't being serious. Unless that was something Iwanted. "We're going to sing, and you're going to sing along with the rest of us." He levelled a finger at Josiah.
Josiah gave me an apologetic look and a one-shouldered shrug. "I guess we're doing this." His dark eyes hinted at humour, like he really didn't mind at all.
I made a note of that for when it was his birthday. He'd probably hate being sung to more than I did.
I sighed dramatically. "Fine, I guess I'll have no choice but to let you." But, honestly, it was taking my mind off everything else. For that I was grateful. Too many possibilities were still on the proverbial table. What had my mother done? Who was I really? Did she even have the answers? And if she did, would she give them to me?
Connor looked as if he might smack my ass for suggesting I had any choice, but he helped pack up the table to make room for the cake. Apparently punishment could wait until the other girls had left. He wasn't going to forget, that was for sure.
Holly placed a couple of candles on top of the cake and lit them before putting it in the centre of the table.
As they sung happy birthday to me, it occurred to me that I couldn't even be sure it was my birthday. For all I knew, it could be a completely different date. I might not even be theageI thought I was. I could be a couple of years older, or a couple of years younger. I might not even be from Canada.
I managed to smile, but I felt like the cards of my life had been thrown up in the air and scattered on the wind. Did my mother even know?
Was she my mother? If she wasn't, then who was she and what the hell had she done?
27
LEAH
"Are you sure about this?"Connor glanced over his shoulder to where I sat between Brooks and Josiah. His hands hadn't left the steering wheel. He'd cut the engine, but was ready to start it again at a word from me. He'd drive us all the way back to Aurora Hollow without complaint. Without hesitation.
If I thought ignoring the past and trying to get on with the present and future wouldn't drive me up the wall, I'd seriously consider telling him to take us home. But no, this would hang over me for the rest of my life, always in the back of my mind. That itch I couldn't scratch. Sooner or later I had to do this, it might as well be now.
"I'm sure," I said with as much certainty as I could muster.
Okay, to be honest the certainty was all fake. Deep inside, I was actually terrified. Part of me wished a flare-up would come and give me an excuse to put this off. Yeah, that was silly and I knew it. Who would prefer pain to a confrontation? That list might be longer than I thought, but it wasn't entirely rational. Not in this context anyway.
"Let's do this."
"We're right here with you," Josiah said, giving my hand a squeeze. "None of us is going anywhere. Okay?" He looked me inthe eyes, assuring but as nervous as I was. He'd been waiting for these answers as long as I had. A million variations of the truth must have gone through his mind over the years. Finally, we could find out which one was real. After all this time, we could put this behind us.
"You better not," I growled playfully. If any one of them wanted to walk away right now, I wouldn't stop them. If they didn't look back, I wouldn't blame them. But I knew none of them would. They were all in this with me, one way or another.
"Come on then." Connor pulled the key out of the ignition and pushed open the door. As if he'd flipped a switch, we all hurried to get out of his truck and step around onto the front lawn of my mother's house.
