by Rinelle Grey
Leading her to assume that a couple of months was, indeed, long enough to be over someone.
That thought shook her a little. For the last couple of days she’d been trying to convince herself that she wasn’t going to get attached. That this was just a brief affair between her and Calrian. That once he found his family, he’d be gone.
That she’d be okay with that.
But suddenly she wasn’t sure about any of that. She didn’t want Calrian to go, and he’d kind of indicated that he didn’t want to.
She had no idea what to do with that information yet, but she did know one thing. Rylee straightened her back. “Things were over between Eric and me long before we officially broke up. And either way, I’m an adult, who I’m with is none of your business.”
Calrian had come around to her side of the car and now put a hand on her shoulder. Rylee was glad she hadn’t denied things between them because his clear closeness to her would have made a liar out of her.
And she couldn’t deny it made it easier not to back down as her father glared at her. “While you’re living on my property, it most certainly is my business. No, I can’t stop you, but I can tell you that he’s not welcome here. Tell him to leave.”
“No,” Rylee said immediately.
Surprise and disbelief flared in her father’s eyes. “What?”
Rylee realised it was the first time she’d ever stood up to him, ever actually said what she meant instead of just capitulating to stop an argument. And to her surprise, it felt good.
Rowan stepped up next to her, and for a moment, Rylee felt bad about him seeing this. He’d already lost several homes in the last few months. Lost his father too. He didn’t need to be in the middle of this. Trust her father not to be able to wait until Rowan wasn’t here. Trust her father not to care if he was upset or worried.
But Rylee couldn’t do anything about that. This was her father’s fault. He was the one doing this, not her. She wasn’t going to back down to hide this from Rowan. That wouldn’t help him at all.
Rowan slipped his hand into hers and gave it a squeeze, and it took a moment for Rylee to realise he was supporting her, trying to give her strength.
And it worked. Rylee squared her shoulders and looked back at her father defiantly. “I won’t tell Calrian to leave. If he’s not welcome here, then we’ll all leave.”
This time her father’s face showed outright shock. “You’d leave Rowan homeless over this… this…” He stared at Calrian, obviously at a loss for a suitable insult.
Rylee almost burst into laughter. This felt good. Better than anything had in a long time. When she’d left Eric, she’d expected to feel this kind of relief, but she’d spent most of her time worrying or looking over her shoulder. She hadn’t really felt free until this minute.
“I like Calrian,” Rowan said stoutly. “I want him to stay.”
Her father turned his disapproving gaze onto her son, but Rowan didn’t back down, just glared back at him. So he turned back to her. “I can see you’ve corrupted him too. None of you are thinking clearly.” He turned his glare to Calrian. “If you care for her at all, then you’ll leave before she ends up homeless over you.”
Rylee turned to Calrian, only to see a flicker of uncertainty on his face. He gazed down at her, searching her face. “Rylee, maybe I should go…”
His words cut her heart, hurting more than she’d expected they could. Panic and fear rose up in her at the thought of him leaving, even worse than it had felt while they’d still been connected by the Mesmer bond.
Her father’s threats didn’t bother her anywhere near as much as the thought of losing Calrian did, even though they should have. Being homeless was a serious concern. But for some reason, it didn’t bother her. It wouldn’t matter if they were homeless together, and she certainly wasn’t going to leave Calrian to be homeless on his own. He would do the same thing for her, she was sure of it.
So she smiled at him, trying to put all her trust and certainty into her eyes. Then she looked back to her father. “If you throw us out, Calrian won’t be the reason I’m homeless, you will be. You’re the one throwing me out over daring to live my life. You’re the only one to blame in this. Stop trying to shift that to Calrian.”
Her dad’s eyes widened again, and he stared at all three of them, confusion spreading across his face. “You really are prepared to leave over this?” he asked disbelievingly.
Rylee nodded. “I am.”
Her father stared at her, looking completely lost for words. For a moment, Rylee dared to hope that he might relent, that he might, for the first time in her life, realise that her needs and wishes mattered.
She should have known better.
“You have a week,” he said gruffly. “That should give you enough time to find somewhere else to go or to realise that you’re making the wrong decision. But I won’t support this. If you want to be with this man, then you’re on your own.”
And before Rylee could think of anything else to stay, he stomped away, up the path to the main house.
She stared after him, having trouble believing he’d just said that. She’d come here to Mungaloo because she’d been struggling to make ends meet, much less try to save anything, while paying for rent and food. Now she’d be right back there again.
“I’m sorry,” Calrian said, his voice sad and regretful. “I should leave. This will all blow over and your father won’t be angry if I’m not here.”
“No, you can’t.”
Rylee and Rowan spoke at the same time.
Her son’s support warmed Rylee’s heart. They could do this if they worked together. She knew it. And Calrian’s presence would only help.
“We’ll find somewhere else to go,” Rylee said firmly. “There’s no way I’d want to stay here anyway. It’s clear that Dad doesn’t support me at all. It was a mistake to come here in the first place. We’ll all be better off somewhere else. Together.”
As soon as she said the word out loud, Rylee wished she could take it back. She’d just assumed Calrian wanted to stay, guessing that he did based on him offering her a place with his clan earlier.
But maybe he didn’t want to. Maybe he’d only said that to be polite.
Maybe he didn’t feel the same way she did.
Chapter 33
Calrian’s heart warmed at Rylee’s words and at how she and Rowan had defended him despite the obvious disadvantages to themselves. And when Rylee had said they would be better off together, it had almost overflowed.
He wanted that. So much.
He would almost say more than anything else.
Except that would be disloyal to his clan. What he should want most was to find them, to know they were safe. If he didn’t, it would only prove that he was a hopeless prince and a bad brother.
But he could no more change what his heart desired than he could will his clan to pop into existence. And what he wanted most had little to no bearing on what happened. He would continue to search for his clan for as long as he drew breath because that was his responsibility.
But there was nothing to say he couldn’t be with Rylee in the meantime. “I would love to go with you,” he said, giving her a warm smile. “But I don’t want to make things difficult for you. Are you sure it wouldn’t be easier if I just left?”
He could see her immediate response in her eyes and in the downturn of her lips into a frown. “I don’t want you to leave.”
“You can’t go,” Rowan said just as quickly.
Rylee wasn’t the only one attached to him. Rowan was too apparently, which was just what Rylee hadn’t wanted to happen. He glanced at her, and she just looked determined. Apparently she wasn’t so worried about it now.
“Come on, let’s grab the shopping and go inside. Then we can talk about it,” Rylee said firmly. “We can’t really discuss it out here.” A glance back at the direction her father had disappeared in explained her words.
Calrian had no problem grabbing some of the b
ags of stuff and following her inside. Rowan did the same. Between the three of them, they managed to take it all inside in one trip.
Calrian felt a little better once they were inside, away from her father. The man might have seemed worried about Rylee previously, but it was clear he was more concerned with her following his orders than in being happy. Calrian had little respect for him after that.
He put the shopping on the bench and did his best to assist with putting it away. Rowan was more help than he was though. Calrian really wasn’t very good at this, and it only emphasized the fact that Rylee was probably better off without him.
He didn’t say anything though. They’d both already made it clear they didn’t agree with him.
Hopefully that meant Rylee had a plan because Calrian had no idea how to help with that either. His new understanding of the human world only made him realise how little he knew and how little he could do to help.
Money seemed central to everything they did. They needed it to pay for their homes, their transport. Rylee must even have used it to buy the bags of food they’d just carried in.
It reminded him of the stories of how important gold used to be to the dragons. They’d hoarded it, fought over it, and even killed over it. And they hadn’t even had anything to spend it on. Imagine if dragons were out there now in the human’s world of money?
Calrian gave a shudder. He could just imagine how competitive they would get.
But dragons had decided to give up the lure of gold long ago. Most of them had anyway. Unfortunately that also meant that Calrian had no hidden stash of gold he could call upon. Even if he had, it probably would have disappeared along with his clan.
He had no help to offer Rylee, not when it came to money anyway. He grasped the principles. Humans worked and received money in payment, but though there might be some sort of work he could do, he suspected that his lack of understanding would show in anything he tried. He couldn’t risk his true nature being revealed.
He followed her into the living room and sat down opposite her, feeling lost and useless.
“Go do your homework,” Rylee automatically told Rowan.
Rowan sat down, a mutinous look on his face. “It’s Friday, I don’t have homework. Besides, I want to help.”
Rylee’s shoulders slumped, and she gave a sigh. “I need to figure out what we’re going to do first.”
That answered Calrian’s unspoken question. She had no more idea than he did. He wasn’t the only one feeling useless. For some reason that spurred him to try harder to help.
“How do humans find a new home?”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he winced. Rowan had explained it to him only yesterday. Humans couldn’t just fly around and find a nice cave for a new home. They had to buy one. And he already knew that Rylee didn’t have that kind of money.
Rylee heaved another sigh. “I’ll have to go into the real estate agency tomorrow morning and see if they have any rentals available.” She didn’t sound too hopeful.
“What’s a rental?” Calrian asked with a frown.
He wouldn’t have blamed Rylee if she didn’t have the energy to explain. It must be very tedious having to explain every little detail to him. But she didn’t seem bothered at all as she said, “People who aren’t living in their houses right now rent them out to people who can’t afford a house. It’s a lot cheaper than buying a house, though it’s still going to be a struggle. If they’ll even rent to us.”
“Some people have houses they don’t use? Where are they living then?” The human world was very confusing.
Rylee gave a ghost of a smile. “In another house somewhere. A lot of people have more than one.”
That seemed rather unfair to Calrian’s way of thinking. But he just nodded as if it made sense. “What can I do to help?”
Rylee was shaking her head. “Nothing, I’m afraid. I’m going to have to do this one on my own. I’m sorry, I won’t have any time to help you search for your clan for a few days. Maybe once this all settles down.”
Calrian couldn’t believe she was worrying about his problems when she had more than enough to deal with of her own. He waved a hand dismissively. “I can take care of that. Don’t give it another thought.”
He only wished he could do more. She’d said there was nothing he could do, but he struggled to accept that. It was his fault she was in this position. There must be something he could do.
Trouble was, he didn’t even know where to start.
Chapter 34
Rylee stared around at the stained walls and cracked lino and tried not to feel like giving up. This was the seventh house she’d looked at this morning and each one seemed worse than the last. All of them as bad as the ones she’d seen the day before.
The reality was anything that was in her price range was a dump, pure and simple.
What was she going to do? She knew she couldn’t bring Rowan here, even before she saw how he screwed up his nose at the place. Eric had been right—she was a failure. This only emphasized that fact.
And he’d be so happy to be proved right. Her heart sank at the thought.
Was it possible that Eric had been behind her father’s ultimatum. She wouldn’t put it past him. It was very much his style. Back her into a corner to try to force her into giving in to him.
For a brief moment Rylee imagined doing that, agreeing that she’d made a mistake and returning to their neat and tidy house in the suburbs. All her money worries could be gone in a flash.
But the idea didn’t bring her any comfort. In fact, her chest tightened and her palms grew sweaty just thinking about it. Panic welled up in her at the thought.
No, no matter how bad a house looked or smelled, it was far better than living with Eric could ever be.
She was not giving up. What had Calrian said? ‘Success isn’t just about having a nice house, it’s about respecting yourself.’ She could respect herself in a rundown house, but every minute she spent around Eric eroded her self-respect. And it damaged Rowan.
She just needed to keep looking. There had to be a house out there that wasn’t a dump that she could afford. It didn’t need to be for long. As soon as she’d moved and things were sorted out with Calrian, she’d get back to looking for a job. She’d find something soon.
She had to.
For a moment, the cliff she had to scale to get to that place seemed overwhelming and impossible. But Rylee had been here before. She made herself take a deep breath and take it one step at a time.
“Are you sure you don’t have anything else?” she asked hopefully.
The real estate agent gave her a condescending smile. “Not in your price range.”
Was her voice overly smug or was that Rylee’s mind jumping to conclusions?
“It’s not so bad, Mum,” Rowan piped up. “If we clean it up.”
Rylee stared around the room and tried to use her imagination. It did have three bedrooms at least, room for them all. And the backyard, though overgrown, was a decent size. It was better than the place that smelled of cat urine or the one that had anthills all over the yard.
The stains could be scrubbed off the walls. A rug would cover the cracked lino and stop anyone stubbing their toes. A few curtains on the windows to block out the neighbours who were only a few metres away, and…
Who was she kidding? Yes, she could make this liveable, but it was never going to be anything more than a roof over their heads. It would never be the home she’d dreamed about when she’d left Eric.
But, she argued with herself, right now they desperately needed that roof. If the places she’d seen in the last few days were anything to go by, finding anything better wasn’t going to be easy.
She hesitated, unsure what to do. They’d already used two of the days her father had given her to find somewhere else and found little that she’d consider suitable. If she kept searching, she was going to run out of time.
It was either pick one of these or face the reality
of having nowhere to go when the time was up. Her father would be smug about that, especially if she asked him for more time. He’d probably remind her that she could stay as long as she liked if she told Calrian to leave.
But was she making the right choice? Was bringing Rowan to a place like this really better than asking Calrian to leave? Was she putting her own wants over her son’s needs?
Her mind wavered back and forth, uncertain, unable to make a decision, not sure which was the right one.
Making decisions was one of the hardest things in the world. But the reality was, whenever she thought of asking Calrian to leave, her heart seized up. She just couldn’t do it. And luckily she knew she had Rowan’s support in that.
“I’ll put in an application,” she said, trying to keep the weary resignation out of her voice. “Along with ones for two of the other houses.” She’d worry about which one would be the best option if she was accepted to more than one of them.
Once she’d finished filling in the depressing paperwork that asked far too many questions about jobs and interviews, she and Rowan headed out to the car.
Her weary heart leapt at the thought of seeing Calrian. It was the highlight of her day. She hoped her dad hadn’t given him a hard time while she was gone, but she’d figured it was better not to bring him along on this search given he couldn’t really put his name on the application.
Now she was glad he hadn’t seen any of these dumps. At least if she got any of them, she’d have time to clean it before he saw how bad it was. She pushed that uncomfortable thought aside to worry about later.
As she headed home, her heart rose, but not because she’d achieved anything to do with finding a new home. It was because soon she would be seeing Calrian.
It was crazy, the way she felt about him. She’d thought that once the Mesmer bond was gone all these feelings would fade away. Yeah, he was still gorgeous, but while she loved looking at him, it wasn’t what attracted her to him.