Page 133 of Northern Stars

“No.”

“Excuse me?”

I climbed into the window and stood stern in front of him. “I said no. You don’t get space right now because this whole situation is a mess. And just to be clear, I was going to tell you. I found out about the whole thing while you were gone and was waiting for you to come home, but he said he’d tell you first thing. It turned out you already knew. It’s important for you to know that I have not been sitting on this big secret for a long time, Aiden. I didn’t know.”

“I hear you. I do, but—”

“No buts. You don’t get to push me away right now, okay? Because, like it or not, you need me just as much as I need you, so I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.”

“Hailee—”

“Be pissed off. Be pissed off at the world. Be pissed off at everything that exists. Heck, you can be pissed off at me, too, but you can’t push me away, Aiden. I refuse to be moved. We aren’t doing that.”

“Hailee—”

“No. I’ve read enough romance novels to know how this is supposed to go. We are supposed to fight and break up at this point in our story, but I refuse to do that. No third act breakup, okay?” I took his hands into mine. “We are not going to have some dramatic fight between us and a breakup for a short period of time to just come back together to be happy. We already did that part, Aiden, okay? We are happy. You and me… we are good. It’s the rest of the world around us that sucks. So we aren’t going to screw this up because of them. I’ve already lost five years of you due to that man. I refuse to lose one more second.”

He shut his eyes and rested his forehead against mine as he pulled me against his chest. “I’m sorry. My emotions are jacked up.”

“It would be weird if they weren’t. But you don’t have to figure them out alone, right? I’m here.”

“I feel as if I’m too much for you right now. You’ve spent the past five years facing your shadows and growing. I’ve been running from them. Now, I have even more shit to face, and it’s not fair of me to ask you to stick around as I deal with my issues.”

“Hey, stop it.” I pulled back and placed my hands against his face, locking my eyes with his. “You don’t have to be perfect to be loved by me. That’s not how this love works. I don’t only love you on the good days. I love you on the hard ones, too. Be broken, be raw, be damaged. And still, I’ll stay.”

“Hailee?” he whispered.

“Yes?”

His lips brushed against mine ever so gently. “You are the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

43

Aiden

The next morning,I sat on the front porch for a while, getting fresh air when the front door opened and Mom appeared. She’d been sleeping for hours. I didn’t blame her.

“Hey, Mom.”

She smiled and stepped outside. “Hey, you.”

“Last night was crazy.”

“That’s putting it mildly.” She snickered.

I lowered my head and grimaced before looking back up at her. “Have you talked to Dad since everything unfolded?”

Her small smile faded a little and I saw the hurt she was trying her best to hide from me. I wondered how many times I’d missed seeing that. I wondered how many times my mother hid her hurt. “I did. He’s staying at a hotel for a few weeks.”

She walked to the top step of the porch and took a seat. I clasped my hands together. “Are you okay?”

She lightly laughed. “Define okay. Don’t worry about me, though. I’ll be okay. How are you?”

“I’m always going to worry about you. You’re my mom.” I took my hands and placed them on her shoulders. I wanted her not to only hear me but to also feel my words as I looked into a pair of eyes that looked nothing like mine, but her heart? It beat like mine. It was because of her heart that my heart knew how to love. “You’re my one and only.”

“Oh, Aiden…” she whispered with a shaky voice.

The tears sitting at the back of her eyes finally began to fall, and I pulled her into a hug. “My mother.”

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