Safe and Sound (Twist of Fate 2)

Why is he hanging on so hard to something that isn’t there?

The door chimed and I forced myself not to look up right away. It was a lesson in self-control that I’d been working on. I was trying to prepare myself for the day I finally did escape Billy. When that day came, I didn’t want to spend even a second thinking about him, and that included looking around every corner for him.

I moved back to the cash register and looked up, prepared to greet the customer. Butterflies danced in my belly as my eyes met Aiden’s.

“Hi,” I said in surprise as he reached the counter. I’d never seen him come in anytime besides his morning coffee run. Even the day he’d returned my journal, he hadn’t come inside the cafe.

“Hi,” he returned, his voice warm and soft. His eyes held mine in some kind of trance that I couldn’t break free of.

Not that I really wanted to.

I could feel my cheeks heating as it hit me that I needed to look away, but damned if I could. What the hell kind of spell had this man put on me?

“Hellooooo,” I heard another voice say, and then a hand was being waved in front of Aiden’s face. I finally noticed he wasn’t alone. A teenage boy, maybe sixteen or so, was standing next to him. He had dark hair and a slightly darker skin tone, and his eyes danced with what I could only call mischief as he looked from Aiden to me and back to Aiden. “Hi, I’m Lucky,” he said as he stuck his hand across the counter.

“Ash,” I said because Aiden still seemed to be in a fog of some sort.

“Sorry,” Aiden finally said as he glanced down at Lucky. They exchanged some kind of look between them that I didn’t understand, and I swore I saw Lucky nudge his chin in my direction.

“Right, yeah,” Aiden said awkwardly. “This is Lucky. He’s my nephew,” he said. “I mean, not really, but kind of. He’s adopted. Not by me. Not that I wouldn’t have wanted to…”

“Smooth,” Lucky deadpanned. He shook his head at Aiden.

“Shut up,” Aiden said as he tried to get ahold of himself. I couldn’t help but smile at his show of awkwardness. The man was always so put together and smooth that I didn’t know what to make of this new side of him.

He took a deep breath. “This is Lucky. My best friend, Bennett, and his boyfriend have adopted Lucky, so that makes him my nephew… I guess.”

He glanced down at Lucky, who just rolled his eyes at him and then turned his attention to me. “Hi,” he said.

“Hi,” I returned, unable to stifle my chuckle. I glanced at Emily, who was barely managing to contain herself as she pretended to clean the espresso machine.

“Can I get you something?” I asked.

I took their orders and wrote them on cups and handed them to Emily. Aiden paid, but when I gave him his change and he put it in the tip jar, he continued to just stand there. He shifted on his feet nervously, and I saw Lucky elbow him.

“Um, so what are you guys up to?” I asked, more to break the tension than anything else.

“So glad you asked that,” Lucky said before Aiden could speak. “That’s the reason we’re here.”

“Jesus, Lucky,” Aiden said. He shook his head and looked at me. “What he means is that we came by to see you… to ask you…”

His voice dropped off as his eyes once again held mine.

“Seriously, dude,” Lucky drawled. “Who are you?” he said to Aiden.

Aiden ignored him and said, “Lucky’s a huge Star Trek fan—”

Lucky made some kind of grunting sound under his breath, but Aiden continued. “And he’s been begging me to take him to see this super-secret thing in Chelsea where some of the original cast members are getting together to reenact their favorite scenes from the show. The money they raise goes to charity. Anyway, I managed to get tickets but I got three because he had this friend who really wanted to come but then he got grounded—”

“Grounded?” Lucky interjected. “Who says grounded anymore? Dude, what are you, like fifty?”

“Shut it,” Aiden warned. Lucky rolled his eyes and turned his attention to the pastry display case.

“So his friend can’t come and we didn’t want the ticket to go to waste and I knew you were a fan so I thought you might want to come with us or… something.”

His words all came out in a rush except for the last one, and then he just stood there stiffly as he waited for my answer.

“I want a cookie,” Lucky announced.

Aiden’s eyes swung to Lucky. “What?”

Lucky tapped the display case. “I want this cookie… and a toffee bar.”

“Fine,” Aiden bit out. “I’ll get you a cookie.”