But he didn’t.
Disappointment hollowed out the place where my heart had been. I felt empty and alone.
My only solace was knowing that I’d done the right thing. If Ethan could let me go so easily than he really didn’t care.
For better or worse, we were over.
Aubrey and Chance returned home with boxes and bags of baby things: a crib, playpen, clothes, blankets, and toys.
I tried to distract myself and ignore my throbbing heart, but even the joy and excitement of a new baby couldn’t drag me out of my misery.
Instead of sobbing my heart out and ruining this beautiful moment, I bit my lip and smiled. When my eyes filled with tears, Aubrey elbow bumped me, “What’s up? Are you okay?”
I forced a laugh and shook my head. “It’s just overwhelming. I’m so happy for you guys. I’m such a sap.”
Getting up, I made my way to the bathroom, wiped my eyes, and gave myself a stern lecture about not ruining this day for Aubrey.
Finally, after another hour of forcing my face into a smile and watching Chance build baby furniture, I excused myself.
“Hey guys, I’m not feeling well, I’m gonna get an early night.” I lingered in the alcove to the bedrooms, trying to hold my tears in.
Aubrey glanced up at me, something in her eye, “Oh. Okay, Caro, let me know if you need anything.”
Closing the door behind me, I threw myself onto the bed.
I didn’t think I’d made a mistake, but it hurt so bad.
After several minutes, a knock sounded at the door. “Come in.”
Aubrey’s face peeked in through a sliver before popping inside. “I know why you’re upset.”
I widened my eyes, “You do?”
“Yeah. I’ll help you, and everything will be perfect.” She smiled and sat down next to me on the bed.
My brows came together, “You will? How?’
“I know why you’re going to bed early. It’s okay, I’m not mad. It’s not like we were going to just kick you out, but you’ll need to find an apartment, and I’ll help you look. We’ll still have coffee together on weekends, and once the baby comes, I’m sure you’ll be over here all the time anyway.”
I sucked in a deep breath.
Of course. There were only two bedrooms in this house, and I would need to go.
She touched my foot. “I’m glad you’re here for this….Auntie Caro.”
The rest of that week dragged on, and I found myself peeking over at Ethan’s closed door and dark office.
I’d been moping, and this needed to stop. What I needed to figure out was Mel’s cryptic warning to Ethan and her comment about the mysterious death.
When I saw Aster eating a candy bar out in the courtyard, I slipped onto the bench beside her.
“Hey,” I said, looking out over the trees and down onto an orchard.
“You’ve been quiet lately,” she said, popping the rest of the chocolate into her mouth before balling up the wrapper.
“Yeah, I guess so. I’ve been thinking about something I heard Mel say.”
Aster shook her head, “Don’t let her get to you. That’s just how she is, kind of abrasive, but she’s not on purpose…well, maybe on purpose. Huh.”
I turned toward her, “Oh, it wasn’t anything like that. She said something about a mysterious death here at Dumont. Do you know anything about that?”
The barbie sucked in a deep breath, “Well, I don’t know about mysterious, but about a year ago, one of our interns died, a coder. I didn’t really know her well.”
I met her gaze. “An intern? As in college intern?”
Aster nodded.
“How did she die?”
“I don’t know. Why are you interested, anyway?” She narrowed her eyes.
“Hmmm…” This had to be what Mel meant by mysterious death. “How did she die?”
“I don’t remember. I think it was some kind of freak accident.”
I tapped my fingernails on the arm of the bench. “Why would Mel call this a mysterious death?”
The barbie closed her eyes and rested her head against the wall behind the bench. Her thick eyeliner curved up into wings on both sides.
“I don’t know. Anyway, I’m beat! I’m so ready for the weekend!”
Mind whirling, I agreed absentmindedly. “Yeah.”
10
Monday morning, I let myself into the building early and sat down at my desk. Glancing over at my boss’s office, light shone out into the main workroom.
Ethan was back.
My stomach did a flip flop, and my heart raced. I wasn’t sure whether I was excited to see him or anxious. Busying myself with small tasks, I tried to ignore that horrible pit in my stomach.
Breaking it off was the right thing to do.
Besides, part of me knew it was only a matter of time before Ethan realized that I wasn’t glamorous or sexy enough for him.
My heart squeezed at the thought.
Yes, it was much better to cut this whole thing off before it got any messier.
Besides, whether true or not, there was a reason vampires were scary and dangerous.
As the weeks went by, working with Ethan became more relaxed, and regrets began to creep in. My eyes were open to everything he did, how hard he worked, and selfless he was. His brisk manner wasn’t to be mean but to be efficient and compete at the highest levels in the business world.
When I caught him staring in my direction, he’d smile his half-smile and occasionally wink.
Part of me wondered if I’d had some kind of delusional break with reality. Had there really been a mountain lion attack? Had he actually bitten me then given me his blood? Had we really had that intimate moment in his bedroom?
Maybe I’d had a head injury. It happens. A head injury could’ve corrected my eyesight and given me hallucinations, or delusions, right?
Because I mean….vampires?
That was absolutely crazy.
Yet, every day, one by one, the parade of beautiful people still came to Ethan’s office, leaving sleepy and blurry-eyed and sometimes a bit pale.
But this was LA…strange, and crazy things happened here on a daily basis. California seemed to have no seasons, it was an eternal year-round summer marked only by storefront displays and holiday decorations.
Then one morning, as I sat at my desk, I realized the paper I read was a little blurry.
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, but nothing changed. Then as the days progressed, my vision became increasingly worse until I was forced to search through some of my old boxes for my spare pair of spectacles.
Lucy stood atop another tower of boxes watching me as I rifled blindly.
Near the door, Aubrey called out, her belly now ripe with pregnancy. “What are you looking for?”
“I lost my glasses, I need to find my backup pair …” I trailed off, still digging in the box.
“Did you run out of contacts? Go to that eye place near my work. I think you’d look good in rimless.” She sipped her new coffee alternative, warm chocolate milk with whipped cream on top.
“What place are you talking about?” I asked as I pulled out thick pink, plastic rimmed glasses.
Aubrey shook herself and laughed. “Oh, no. Those are terrible. How about I take you today—I drive—because you’re obviously blind. How old are those anyway?”
I laughed and smiled. “They’re not that bad. Stop laughing.”
My friend doubled over in hilarity, holding the box next to her for support. After wiping the tears from her eyes, she spoke, “Chance is consulting with a client in the city today, so it’s just you and I. Let’s get your glasses and have lunch.” She touched my arm. “Have you been sending out your resume?”
I pressed my lips together. “Not really.”
“Okay, I’ll help you with that later! Come on, grab your purse. I’m itching to get out of the house!” She laughed.
“You always are when Chance isn’t here.”
After collecting my things, I followed her out to her own non-electric BMW.
As I took a seat, I looked around and poked the Obama bobblehead she had on the dash. “I thought you sold this car?”
She turned to me while she moved her seat back some more to give her belly more room. “I did, but Chance found it and bought it back for me.”
“Oh! This is the car?”
“Yes, this is the car where we met and,” she flicked the bobblehead with her finger, “the first gift he ever gave me was that bobblehead.”
I let out a silent laugh and smiled at her. “What a dramatic love story you get to tell your children. Here you thought he was an irredeemable cocky bastard.”
“See, miracles do happen.” Her eyes assessed my face. “Stop thinking about Ethan, though. He’s right in front of you, and if he wanted things to work out, he’s had enough time to make a move.”
I clenched my jaw, knowing she was right. “Aubrey…just…”
“Okay—I get it. I’m stopping.” Turning on the radio, she put the car into gear.
Even without an appointment, I got in with the ophthalmologist, got a new prescription, and was told to pick my frames up later that day.
As Aubrey and I walked to the little café nearby, we stopped at an antique store. Everything in it reminded me of Ethan.
Picking up a pitcher that sat in a basin, I realized that for most of Ethan’s life, there was no running water. Looking at Tupperware bowls from the sixties, I knew even that was a new thing for him.
I couldn’t even talk to my best friend about everything that had happened.
Aubrey watched me, and I could feel her concern as she eyed me from across the aisle.
“I’ve been looking for an apartment,” I told her. “Although everything has been either super pricey or unliveable.”
She neared me in my peripheral vision until I looked at her. “You’re fine staying with us until you find a place. I told you to stay as long as you want.”
I shook my head. “Where will the baby go? You can’t just leave everything in boxes. Sooner or later, you’re going to have to find a better place for that beautiful crib.”
She bit her lip. “It’s fine. The baby will be in our bedroom for a while, anyway.”
I sucked in a breath. “I know, and I’m so thankful for you and Chance, but I know I need to go. I guess that one place for seventeen hundred wasn’t too bad.”
Aubrey swallowed and fell into an old rocking chair, tears filling her eyes. “Caroline, I’m starting to get pretty afraid.” She motioned to her belly, “This baby has to come out somehow, and it’s freaking me out. Maybe it’s better that you don’t move out so soon.”
“Oh, Aubrey, you’ll be fine. Everything will be all right, and Chance will be right there with you.”
She smiled and sniffed before pulling herself from the chair. Aubrey hugged me fiercely, her large melon belly between us.
I pulled back, “It kicked! Did you feel that kick?” I asked, placing one hand on her belly to feel what I’d felt in the hug.
She laughed. “Yeah, this little peanut is an active little one. I think he takes after his daddy.”
I raised my eyebrows. “It’s a boy?”
She frowned. “I don’t know, I just have a feeling.” My friend took my hand and placed it on the jumping spot of her belly.
“Holy cow! You’re in trouble. This little guy is going to give you a run for your money!”
“I know, right?” She held up a pretty green vase. “I’m getting this.”
I shook my head, “You should be getting childproof things, not breakable things.”
She shrugged. “I’m pregnant, I’m allowed to be irrational.”
Smiling, I followed her to the checkout and stood there peering into the glass case as she paid.
Then I saw it.
A coin with the Belgium lion. “1830,” I muttered and squatted in front of the glass. I couldn’t see it as clearly as I’d like.
“Looks like something’s caught your friend’s eye,” the older proprietor drawled to Aubrey before addressing me, “Young lady, would you like to take a closer look?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “The coin, there. No, that one with the lion.”
“She’s a history teacher,” Aubrey explained. “Where is the coin from?”
The gray-haired man set it on a velvet tray and gave me a magnifying glass.
After examining the object, I sighed, “How much?”
“Three hundred.”
“Three hundred dollars for an old coin?” Aubrey spat out. “Come on, Caro, let’s go.”
I wanted the coin, but I couldn’t afford that.
Sighing again, I turned to leave.
“I’ll let you take it off my hands for two hundred.” He offered.
“Sorry,” I told him as we wound our way out of the antique shop.
At the café, we were seated on the patio in the sun. This was a local haunt for Aubrey, but I looked over the menu, unable to read the selections without my glasses.
My mind wasn’t on lunch; my mind was on that coin. I itched to hold it and examine every detail with my own eyes.
I tried to push it from my mind, but this coin seemed to symbolize the man himself.
Shouldn’t I want nothing that reminded me of the vampire?
I gave up trying to read the slanting microscopic cursive of the menu.
Had my vision been this bad before?
Pride overruled sensibility, and instead of just asking Aubrey to read the menu for me, I pointed at a random sandwich selection when the waiter took our order.
Aubrey sipped her water as she watched me. “You’re so jumpy, and what’s up with that coin? If you really want it, we can go back and get it.”
“He wanted two hundred for it. That’s ridiculous…and for what? A tiny piece of metal.” I told her, my knee bouncing.
She fluttered her eyelashes and pulled out her phone. “Well, let’s look on the internet and see what it’s actually worth.” Her eyes met mine, “What’s it called?”
“Just look up 1800’s Belgium coin,” I breathed, squinting at a sign across the room. “Darn it! I can’t read a single thing!”
Her gaze shot up at me, “Well, you shouldn’t have let yourself run out of contacts.”
“Not helpful,” I told her dryly.
“Hey, I’m pregnant, I get to be blunt.”
“You can’t use your pregnancy as an excuse for saying or doing whatever you want.”
“Oh yeah? It’s a universal defense. Besides, everything is starting to hurt all the time—my back, my feet. Even my fingers have swelled up!” She gasped. “Okay, I got it. Belgium 2 centime….yeah, he was trying to fleece you. You can get one for ten bucks on e-bay.”
I held my hand out, “Can I see?”
Zooming in, I examined the listing. “The one he had is pretty close to this other one.” I gave her the phone back.
“So, tell him you’ll offer him fifty bucks, and if he doesn’t take it, just order it online.” She shook her head. “It’s beyond me what you’re going to do with an old Belgium coin.”
We sat there in the breeze of the chilly day, a light sweater around my shoulders.
Finally, Aubrey spoke, “You know, I was serious when I said you didn’t have to move out.”
I nodded, lips pursed. “Yeah. But it would be selfish to stay. You need room for baby. Besides…” I smiled playfully and tapped her arm with my sunglasses. “I don’t want to be kept up all night.”
She cocked her head sideways and teased, “What? My baby? No way. Little bean’s a perfect angel. I can already tell that he’ll sleep through the night and be mommy’s little angel.”
“Of course,” I said on a laugh.
“Speaking of which, has Ashley had her baby yet?” Aubrey reached over and stole a sip of my icetea. She was supposed to be off caffeine, but one sip wouldn’t hurt, so I ignored it.
“Huh, the timing i
s right. She should’ve had her baby, but I’ve heard nothing about it. No card circulating through the office to sign, no baby pictures.” I bit my cheek.
“Maybe she quit? I hear it happens all the time. Women have babies, then decide to stay home. Would you work permanently at Dumont if they asked you?” Aubrey raised her eyebrows.
“I don’t know. I’m content for now, but there’s still this tension between Ethan and me. Maybe.”
Aubrey cut me off, “Sexual tension. He wants what he can’t have.”
I rolled my eyes. “No way… Although, when our eyes meet, and he’s talking to someone, he’ll give me that little cocky smile. How can he act like nothing happened? It’s driving me crazy.”
“Just get a good vibrator and push him out of your mind.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve seen a side to him that you haven’t. His life is more complicated than you think.”
“You are not going to make me feel sorry for Ethan Dumont,” Aubrey said dryly.
“He had a harder life than you think. He's lost a lot.”
His parents, his only surviving brother... Not to mention being turned into a vampire later on.
She raised her eyebrows and shook her head. “I don’t know. He came from money. Besides, Dumont tech was started in the 90’s—probably by a relative. Ethan’s like what? Twenty-eight, twenty-nine? He would’ve been a kid.”
I bit my tongue.
Thankfully, our waitress set down our food before us.
I looked at the sandwich I’d “ordered” and groaned. I’d ordered a Rueben? Sighing, I scraped as much French dressing off the rye bread as possible before taking a bite.
I wasn’t a massive fan of pastrami or sauerkraut.
This was the direction my life was going—sauerkraut and pastrami.
Walking back to the car, Aubrey and I popped back inside the antique shop and made our way to the counter. The proprietor was nowhere to be seen, so I tapped the bell on the desk.
“Hello?” Aubrey called out into the packed historic building.
“Be there in a moment,” came the man’s voice as he wound his way through the wares. When he returned, I let Aubrey do the talking. The man stood before us, still breathless and red-faced.
Bloodthirsty Bastard: A Hero Club Novel Page 10