Scarlet Awakening (Sweet Secrets #2)

by Taylor Henderson

  “I’m just a little impatient.”

  “A little?” I countered, earning an eye roll.

  She huffed out a breath of air and placed her hands on her narrow hips. “Well, I have a good reason to be a little annoyed, don’t I?” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “We have two siblings we’ve never even met, for Christ’s sake. We don’t know their names, or even their sexes. I want to know if they have red hair like us, or if they look more like Mom or more like Dad. We finally have a connection that could possibly lead us to finding them, and I’m a little impatient to find out these answers. Is that such a crime?” When she finished, she took in a deep breath of air and let it out slowly. She had always used breathing exercises to calm herself down. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t.

  I watched in silence as her face slowly faded from its pinkish tinge and went back to her normal complexion. It was a good indication of whether she was truly calm or not. We couldn’t approach my grandparents and demand answers. We had to broach the subject casually. If they knew anything, that would get us way further than attitude would.

  “Feel better?” I questioned, eyeing her suspiciously. Despite the fact that she was guarded toward most people, Ella was an emotional person. This was an aspect that showed itself too many times to count throughout our years growing up together.

  She nodded her head, her red curls bouncing around her face. “Yeah, let’s just find Grandma and Grandpa and see if we can find out anything about the guy in the picture.” With that, she turned and headed further down the hall toward the staircase that descended to the lower level.

  With a calming breath of my own, I followed her to the living room where we found our grandparents. Grandma Marianne was sitting in her old rocking chair knitting. Her hands were moving so fast and skillfully that the blanket she was working on would most likely be complete in just a few days. Grandpa Paul was laid out across the couch with his eyes focused on the television that was mounted on the wall near the entrance to the room. As we walked in, his eyes shifted from the TV to us.

  “There are my lovely granddaughters!” He sat up and patted the cushions on either side of him. “You girls are up early,” he pointed out.

  Grandma’s stitch slowed as she looked up and gave us a smile. “I was wondering what you girls had planned for the day. Did you finish unpacking?”

  Ella nodded her head and went to take the seat on the left of my grandfather. “I finished last night.”

  Grandma looked at me expectantly, waiting for my answer. I shrugged my shoulders and took the other seat next to Grandpa. “I got a little distracted,” I confessed, earning a knowing smile from her.

  She made a tsking noise as she looked back down at her needles and picked up speed again. “My little procrastinator. You’re just like your mother, you know.”

  Instead of replying, I used her mention of my mom as a segue into the topic that Ella and I had truly come to talk about. “About Mom…When I was unpacking I found a picture in my room that I wanted to show you two.” I stuck my hand into my pocket and brought the picture out, passing it over to my grandfather first since he was sitting nearest to me.

  Taking the picture, he unfolded it and peered down at it. I watched as his eyes widened a bit in shock. He looked up at Ella, then at me before handing the picture to Grandma. She took it, lifting her glasses up and squinting her eyes at the picture. She always did that to get a closer look at something.

  “Do you know who the guy in the picture is?” Ella questioned, watching Grandma closely to see if her reaction gave her away—it did.

  Grandma readjusted her glasses, folded the picture in half, and handed it back to me with a slight frown on her face. She said nothing. She and Grandpa made eye contact, and I noticed then that both of them looked nervous with the change of topic.

  I tucked the photo back into my pocket just in case they tried to take it from me. Grandpa shook his head, possibly in response to Ella’s question, but I couldn’t be sure. He placed his hands on his knees to brace himself as he stood up.

  “Hey girls, your grandmother and I were wondering if you felt up to running a few errands for us.” He glanced between the two of us curiously.

  I furrowed my brows and met Ella’s confused stare. Obviously they didn’t want to tell us what they knew, and instead were trying to change the subject.

  Ella sighed, but said, “Sure.”

  “Great,” Grandma said. “There’s a short list on the refrigerator. I just need you to grab some stuff for dinner tonight.” It wasn’t even nine in the morning yet, and they wanted to send us out to grab stuff for dinner?

  Grandpa dug into his pocket and handed me a few folded bills. “That should be enough for you two to get something small for yourselves too.”

  “Take your time, and while you’re out you two should grab something for breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day. Go sightsee a little too. It’s been a while since you’ve been home.” She strained a smile as Ella and I stood and went to grab the list from the kitchen.

  I glanced over it before heading up the steps to change out of my pajamas. Once we got to the top of the steps, Ella murmured, “Weird,” dragging the syllables out.

  “I know,” I replied before we went to our respective rooms to change for our grocery run. I changed fast and met Ella in the foyer once I was done. As we exited the house, list in hand, I thought about asking my mom about the picture, but instantly decided against it. If my grandparents didn’t even want to talk about it, then surely she wouldn’t either. Besides, I was still nervous about her state of mind. A part of me just didn’t think she could handle a question like this.

  “We have to find another way,” Ella said as we left the property, heading down the street. It was like her words had echoed my thoughts.

  “Don’t worry. We will.”

  Chapter 5

  “Cleanup on aisle five, cleanup on aisle five,” droned a monotonous voice over the loudspeaker.

  I groaned as I followed Ella down another aisle in search of a bag of yellow rice. My grandmother’s list of food items needed for tonight’s dinner was short, but contained items that we had trouble finding in the unfamiliar supermarket. We had spent half an hour searching for heavy cream, which I assumed was going to be whipped and used for dessert.

  “Stop groaning,” Ella chided, tossing me a glare over her shoulder.

  I huffed, coming to a stop behind her as she began to glance over the shelves. “This is taking forever. I have other things I could be doing.” I poked out my bottom lip in a pout.

  “Oh, really?”

  I nodded my head, crossing my arms over my chest.

  She raised an eyebrow at me, looking away from the shelves momentarily. “Like what?”

  “Unpacking,” I answered quickly.

  Ella raised her eyebrow even higher. “Is that supposed to be a joke?” She returned her gaze to the shelves to scan for the rice. “You and I know damn well that if you weren’t here you still wouldn’t be unpacking.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and raised my chin. “No, I was serious. I could be unpacking, but honestly, if I wasn’t here then I probably wouldn’t be.” If I wasn’t here then I probably would be back at the house just hanging out and relaxing. I had to admit that I loved the San Diego weather, but I was kind of nervous about leaving the house. There were so many people I didn’t want to run into. Old friends, an ex-boyfriend, and the mean girls who had made Ella’s life hell last year. I figured that my best plan of action was to hide out in the house for the next two months and just spend as much time with my family as possible. Really, they were the reason why I was here anyway. So far my plan had been working. It had only been two days, but if I stuck with this all summer, and limited my time going out, then everything should go smoothly.

  “Trust me, I know,” she responded, getting lower as she continued to look for the next item on the list. “Found it!” she exclaimed suddenly, dropping to a cr
ouch to grab two bags of rice from the bottom shelf. “What’s next?” she asked, tossing the bags into our cart.

  Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled the list out and examined it, mentally checking off the items we had already found. “Snacking legumes.” As soon as the words left my mouth, a frown settled on my face.

  Ella furrowed her eyebrows and scrunched her face in confusion. “What the heck is that?”

  “Don’t ask me,” I replied with a shrug. “Text Grandma and ask her.”

  She scoffed in response to my suggestion. “She hardly ever checks her phone. I wouldn’t get a reply until next week.”

  “Call the house,” I offered. I would have called myself, but I had left my phone in my room by accident, so I was going to be little to no help with solving this situation.

  She shook her head and began pushing the cart to the end of the aisle. “We can just find someone who works here. They can tell us what ‘snacking legumes’ are, and hopefully point us in the right direction too.”

  We exited the aisle together, heading toward the front of the store in search of an associate who could be of assistance. It didn’t take long for us to hone in on a tall, gangly teenage boy who was wearing the store’s purple and orange uniform shirt. As we got closer, I was able to read his name tag: Nathan. He smiled, showing off a mouthful of braces when we approached.

  “Hi ladies, is there anything that I can do to help you?” he asked, smiling hard at us. I noticed how his gaze lingered a little too long on Ella. She didn’t notice.

  “Yes, please. We’re trying to find this item on our list.” I held the list out to him, and pointed at the item as I said, “Legumes?”

  Nathan nodded. “Uh yeah, that’s in the beans and nuts aisle.” His gaze flicked to Ella, who was examining her nails. “I can take you there if you’d like?”

  I nodded, thankful that we wouldn’t have to search for it. Why didn’t we ask for help sooner? “That’d be great, thanks.”

  Nathan led us to an aisle not far from where he had been standing, and even helped us by pointing out a few snacking legumes. Basically, ‘snacking legumes’ was just a fancy way of saying snacking peanuts.

  I grabbed a container of unsalted almonds from the shelf and tossed it into the cart, hoping that was what my grandmother had wanted. “Thank you, Nathan. You’re a lifesaver,” I said graciously, ignoring the strange look he gave me before he headed back to the front of the store.

  Ella called a thank you after him, and when he turned back to say, “You’re welcome,” his face was as red as a beet.

  “Look at you, stopping young boys’ hearts from the East Coast to the West Coast.” I grinned at Ella.

  She rolled her eyes, but laughed too. “I guess.” Then, not wanting to stay on that topic for much longer, she turned her attention back to the task at hand and asked, “What’s next? I’m ready to get out of here.”

  I glanced over the list again. “Fresh broccoli.”

  “Oh, I think we passed that when we came in.” With those words, she turned and headed off the way we had come. She pushed the cart out in front of her, and was moving pretty fast.

  Speed walking to catch up, I fell into step beside her. For being a few inches shorter than me, she surely had a longer stride. Just as we turned the corner and exited the aisle, my eyes fell on a familiar face; one I hadn’t seen since I broke up with him and left for Virginia last summer. His dark hair was still cut short like when we were together, and he was just as tan as I remembered. He was facing in my direction, but he hadn’t spotted us yet. If it was up to me, he wouldn’t see me at all.

  Needless to say, I reacted instantly.

  I grabbed Ella’s arm and yanked her back into the aisle, pulling her out of his line of sight and dragging the cart backwards with her.

  Ella let out a startled screech at the sudden movement, but I managed to cover her mouth so it didn’t come out loud enough to gain unwanted attention.

  Once we were back in the aisle, and safely out of my ex’s line of sight, I let Ella go.

  “What the hell was that for?” she yelled, glaring at me with her hands on her hips.

  I raised a finger to my lips and shushed her. “Keep it down, will you?’

  “Why? You just man-handled me!”

  I frowned at her exaggeration. “Technically, I woman-handled you.”

  Ella huffed at my response. “Well, don’t do it again.” She turned, getting ready to leave the safety of our aisle, before I grabbed her arm and pulled her back again.

  “Would you stop? We’re hiding.”

  “From what?” she questioned forcefully, squinting her eyes at me. “Your sanity?”

  I mock laughed, before saying, “No, from Carter.”

  Ella froze, and then furrowed her eyebrows in thought. “Carter? As in your only real boyfriend ever, Carter?”

  I glared at her. “Oh, aren’t you funny? As if you know any other Carters.”

  She smirked momentarily. “Well then, why are you hiding? I’m sure he’d be excited to know you’re back.”

  “Excited, my ass. He’d probably run to the nearest airport and personally buy me a ticket back to Virginia.” I cringed as I thought about how terribly things had ended between us.

  “I highly doubt that. If I remember correctly, that boy was head over heels in love with you.”

  I scoffed.

  She frowned. “I’m serious. I don’t even understand why you broke up with him. He was cute, and nice, and cute,” she emphasized with a wink.

  “Yeah well, if you heard the things I said to him, you’d hate me too. I hate myself for saying them.” I bit my lip and lowered my eyes.

  “What happened?”

  I shrugged. “He wanted us to try and make a long distance relationship work, and I just wanted to start fresh. I said everything and anything I could to make him want me to leave.”

  Ella frowned. “Like what?”

  I grimaced as I met her eyes. “Well, when he was younger his dad cheated on his mom, and it was a really hard time in his life. He hated talking about it, and he resented his dad for a long time because of it. It’s the reason his parents got divorced.”

  “Okay, but what does that have to do with what you said?”

  A deep sigh escaped my mouth. “Yeah, well I said that the reason we couldn’t have a long distance relationship was because I didn’t think I could trust him. I said he was probably just like his dad, and if I left he would cheat on me and break my heart. You know, ‘the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’ kind of thing.”

  Ella’s mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened. “Wow. I would personally give him a piggyback ride to the nearest airport and go half and half on your ticket for your flight back. That was probably the bitchiest thing you could have said.”

  “I know. I bet he hates me. I would hate me too if I were him.”

  Ella raised an arm and patted my shoulder softly. “There, there. Cheer up. Maybe he’s forgiven you. It’s been nearly a year.”

  I shook my head. “No, I don’t want to see him again. I can’t face him after what I said. And besides, I don’t think I fully got over him, and it would get too complicated if we reconnected and I just left again at the end of the summer. It’s probably best if I avoid him while we’re here.”

  Ella looked away from me and leaned around the corner to peek out from the aisle. “He’s in line now. I think he’s leaving.”

  I sighed and placed a hand to my chest. It felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.

  Facing me again, she said, “You know you’re going to have to talk to him eventually, right? You have all summer to run into him again.”

  I shrugged. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

  Chapter 6

  The next day Ella came barging into my room with a heavy frown on her face. She stepped in and out of the piles of clothes that still littered my bedroom floor until she was standing near the foot of my bed.

 
; I turned my attention away from my sketchbook. I had the urge to draw something, but I didn’t know what, so instead I had gotten lost in looking at my old sketches. “What’s up?”

  She didn’t hesitate to tell me what was on her mind. “I can’t stop thinking about mystery man.” She groaned, then with a pout, she climbed up onto my bed and sat with her feet tucked under her.

  “Well, I can’t offer you any answers, so I don’t see why you came to me.”

  She squinted her eyes at me. “Well, aren’t you snarky?”

  I sighed, sat up straighter, and closed my sketchbook, placing it down on the bed beside me. “Sorry, I’m just tired. It’s been a long few days full of restless sleep. Finding the picture, seeing Carter; I’m just emotionally exhausted.” I swept a strand of hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ear.

  “I know,” Ella murmured, meeting my eyes. “You don’t think I understand? I just want to find out who this guy in the picture is and see if he leads us to the twins.”

  “What if he doesn’t?” I wondered aloud, playing devil’s advocate. I just didn’t know how we would find out who he was without asking the specific people who were trying to keep us in the dark about the adoption.

  She scoffed, shaking her head. “He will. We just need a name.”

  Shifting positions so I was sitting crisscross applesauce, I placed a hand under my chin and leaned forward until my elbow pressed against the fluffy comforter that covered my bed. “Well one thing’s for sure, Grandma and Grandpa are not going to tell us what they know.”

  “Yeah, I know. That’s how I know that this guy is our ticket to finding them. Did you see Grandpa’s face? He looked like he’d seen a ghost.” She flicked her hair back over her shoulder and pursed her lips; a sure sign that she was thinking about something.

  I sat quietly, waiting for her to finish her train of thought.