How to Keep a Boy from Kissing You (Aurora Skye Book 1)
How to Keep a Boy from Kissing You: Chapter 30

As the weekend progressed, my anxiety levels continued to rise. I worried about Alex’s cavalier attitude towards dating. I despaired over my own fickleness when it came to my secret admirer. Thankfully one worry disappeared: the agency, once informed that I hadn’t agreed to being part of the Get High (Heels!) social media campaign, promised that they’d remove me from the competition. They weren’t thrilled, but at least my picture would be off Facebook in the next forty-eight hours or so.

Unfortunately my other problem wasn’t so easily fixed. My thoughts, hopes and dreams about Hayden were incessant. Even more so after I misguidedly pulled out my Potential Prince List and realised that Hayden matched it exactly, right down to the broad-shouldered physique. I tried to tell myself that I shouldn’t be having these thoughts about someone who wasn’t my secret admirer, but even though I knew it was the honourable thing to do, I didn’t want to stop loving Hayden. I kept hoping that he would text me, or call me, or knock at the door. It was weird to think that he was only metres away.

My jitteriness increased when my mother sent me a text on Sunday morning asking me to meet her for a late afternoon coffee. As the Get High (Heels!) Facebook page was still running my photo, she might not have heard yet that I was no longer in the running for the contract. A very unpleasant conversation was awaiting me.

I headed outside to wait for the taxi that Mum was sending for me, hoping it would arrive before the rain did. While I waited, I heard footsteps crunching up the drive.

‘Aurora.’

‘Alex!’ I started with surprise to see him, athletic attire and all, on my driveway. ‘What are you doing here? Are you looking for Jelena? She’s away for the weekend. Didn’t she tell you?’

Maybe she wasn’t speaking to him. It could be part of her Ms Non-Available tactics.

‘I’m not looking for Jelena.’ Alex gave one of his wide, white smiles. ‘I came to see you.’

‘Do you need some information on an assignment or something? You should have just called. I’m just about to leave to meet my mum.’

‘I came to see you,’ Alex said slowly, ‘about something very important.’ He gave me a wink.

‘Oh!’ I suddenly got it. Jelena’s playing it cool had obviously shown Alex the error of his ways. ‘You’re planning a surprise for Jelena, aren’t you? That’s great! Well, her favourite flowers are pink tiger lilies —’

‘This isn’t about Jelena.’ Alex stepped closer to me. ‘Can I give you a clue?’

He pulled a hand from behind his back, revealing one long-stemmed, crimson rose.

Oh. My. God.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.

Alex grinned. ‘I’m your secret admirer, Aurora. Surprise!’

‘But you’re Jelena’s boyfriend!’ I stared at him in horror. There had to be a mistake!

‘Hardly,’ he said.

‘But you’ve been on dates.’

‘Dates during which I grilled her about you. You know, subtly, so she wouldn’t pick up on it. I had to replace out what you like in a guy.’

Had the world gone topsy-turvy? The man of Jelena’s dreams was professing a secret ardour for me? This was terrible.

‘No!’ I shook my head violently. ‘This doesn’t make sense. If you liked me, why didn’t you talk to me or hang around me, instead of Jelena?’

‘Aurora, I learnt from Jelena that you’re a girl who’s impressed by what’s under the surface. That’s why I decided to do the secret-admirer thing. I wanted you to get to know the real me instead of judging me straight off the bat.’

‘But you acted so crazy about Jelena!’

Alex shrugged. ‘I had to play the part, make it so I’d be the last person you’d suspect. Asking you to the club was part of the plan. Once you said yes, I was going to tell Jelena I couldn’t make it so she’d decide not to go. Then, when you and I were alone, I’d give you the rose and you’d be blown away. But then you cancelled, so I decided to come over this morning to tell you.’

My head was spinning. ‘I can’t believe it.’

‘Aurora, I’m mad about you.’ Alex stepped closer to me again. ‘You’re the most beautiful girl in school.’

Was he hallucinating?

‘You said the same thing about Jelena last Saturday night!’ I cried, stepping backwards to put space between us.

‘Forget Jelena!’ He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to him. ‘I want you.’

‘Alex, stop it!’ I tried to push his hands away. ‘You might be my secret admirer, but there’s no way I’m going to date a guy Jelena’s crazy about. It would be a total betrayal!’ I looked him straight in the eye. ‘You knowingly hurt my best friend. I’m sorry, but that proves you’re not the guy for me, nice gifts or not.’

I expected Alex to look mortified, but he just laughed and grabbed me around the waist again. ‘Come on, you’ve got to forgive me. I’m a man who’s infatuated. We do stupid things. One of my kisses should do the trick.’ He pushed his lips towards mine.

‘No!’ I wrenched my head back and gave him a ferocious shove.

Alex’s eyes popped open as he lost his balance and fell backwards. The next second he’d landed in the ever-present driveway puddle with an enormous splash.

I was a little frightened he might try something else, even when soaked to the skin, but at that moment the taxi pulled up.

Alex got to his feet, wringing muddy water from his sodden Adidas T-shirt. ‘You know what your problem is, Aurora Skye?’ he spat. ‘You think you’re too good for anyone.’ He turned and stormed off down the drive.

I stood there shaking until the taxi driver blasted the horn. I dazedly got in. I didn’t dare look out the window as we passed Alex.

As the taxi headed towards the city, I kept seeing Alex’s furious, dripping face. How could he have thought I’d betray my best friend and take up with him? He’d been so confident that I’d fall at his feet, grateful for the honour of his attention! As for trying to force his kisses on me! I shouldn’t have just pushed him into the puddle, I should have thrown some judo kicks into the mix too.

I couldn’t believe Alex was my secret admirer. Suddenly the thought of the poem made me feel ill. How could Mr AA have come up with that? He must have plagiarised it. And how had he managed to get so crazy about me? It wasn’t as if he’d spent enough time in my company to appreciate my personality or my mind or anything! Was it my looks he was infatuated with? If so, the whole thing made even less sense, because Jelena was phenomenally beautiful.

Jelena! How on earth was I going to break this to her? I’d never seen her so mad over a guy. I had to call her ASAP. She needed to hear the news from me, instead of through the grapevine. The rumours would probably be flying by the time she and Cass got back from the spa.

I bit my lip and called her mobile. It rang and rang before going to voicemail. Why wasn’t she picking up?

I tried Cassie’s number and got the same response. Was there no mobile reception at the spa? How far from civilisation was it? I couldn’t leave a voicemail — I had to speak to Jelena personally.

Maybe I could reach her through the spa itself. I dialled information and got the number.

‘Hello, Oasis Spa, Mandy speaking. How may I help you?’

‘Hi, is there any way you could put me through to the Cantrills? They’re guests of yours this weekend.’

‘Is it an emergency?’

‘Well, technically, no.’

It was an emotional emergency. Did that count?

‘We encourage our guests to switch off during their time here since we have a no-calls policy except in the event of an emergency. All our guests are asked to sign an agreement on arrival. We replace that it helps them disconnect from the pressures of the outside world.’

‘Okay.’ I struggled to maintain a pleasant tone. ‘It’s just really important that I speak to Jelena Cantrill. Is there any way you could make an exception?’

‘I’m afraid not,’ Mandy replied firmly. ‘Unless it’s an actual emergency, I can’t put you through.’

‘She’d want to take this call!’

Mandy was unrelenting. ‘The Cantrills are returning to the city tonight. You’ll be able to chat then, dear.’

‘It can’t wait —’

Mandy said a swift goodbye.

I called several more times, in the hope of reaching another staff member who might be more lenient about the no-calls policy. But it seemed that Mandy was the only one manning the desk.

The taxi finally reached the coffee shop. I headed inside and saw Mum sitting with her back to the door. As I headed towards her, I realised she was on the phone.

‘Carlos, it was wonderful.’ She gave a tinkly laugh. ‘We need to get away for romantic weekends more often. Bellbird Island was just perfect.’

I froze.

‘Okay, I’d better get going, but I’ll see you at Michaela’s at six for drinks.’

I stared at her back, unable to take a step.

She turned around, as if feeling my trembling presence behind her.

‘Aurora! What’s this nonsense about you telling the agency to remove you from the competition?’

My pulse was roaring in my ears. ‘You were with him last weekend,’ I said. ‘You weren’t with clients. You lied to me.’

‘Aurora, I didn’t exactly lie. I had a meeting there for the new development, but I stayed —’

‘Admit it!’ The words ripped from my throat. ‘You lied because you didn’t want to come. You knew you weren’t going to fly all that way and come back hours later for the play.’ My voice quavered slightly. ‘You’re not interested in my life.’

‘How dare you say I’m not interested,’ Mum snapped. She gave me a warning look as her coffee arrived. ‘I’m meeting you here today to discuss your future opportunities.’

‘But that’s the only time I see you, isn’t it?’ I said. ‘When there are opportunities for me. You want me to be in the public eye so it reflects back on you. And you know what? I wanted your approval — no, your love — so much that I played along. I auditioned for the play, then I waited on tenterhooks for you after curtain call the other night, hoping you’d be proud.’ I could feel the lump in my throat pressing down on my vocal cords. ‘Hoping you’d see me. Not who I could be, but who I am. Hoping for something — anything — from you.’

I’d never seen Mum look so angry. ‘Stop that nonsense right now.’

‘You want me to stop?’ I said. ‘Tell me then, if you love me so much, why didn’t you cancel that weekend with Carlos?’

My mother didn’t respond.

‘Why didn’t you just tell him you’d made a promise to me and couldn’t break it?’

‘Because he doesn’t know about you!’ Mum burst out.

Something inside me crumpled. ‘What?’

‘I haven’t told him. I don’t know how he’d react.’ She gathered her handbag up, ready to leave. ‘He’s never had kids.’

‘No,’ I whispered. ‘You haven’t told him because, in all honesty, I don’t exist to you.’

They were the last words I managed before my throat closed up and I ran for the door. This time I’d be the one to leave first.

Somehow, I made it onto the busy city street and into another taxi. If I could just get home, I could hold back the flood of tears.

As I stumbled up the driveway, I ran into the NAD dashing out of the house, briefcase in hand.

‘Aurora.’ He put his hand on my arm and his voice sounded tight. ‘I have to tell you something.’

A sudden terror came over me as I looked at his serious expression.

‘Snookums has gone missing.’

‘How?’ I choked.

‘Dana let him out after seeing that he’d scratched the new Tibetan rug.’ The NAD’s tone was cautious. ‘She didn’t know he was an inside cat. I called out for her to grab him, but Snookums was already halfway down the drive by then.’

Instead of a reply, a choking sound burst out of my throat. Snookums was gone. Out onto the road, where people didn’t always brake in time for animals.

A roll of thunder sounded. The sky was like a bruise now, black and blue and green.

‘I’m really sorry, honey,’ Dad said. ‘I’ve been looking for forty-five minutes, but I have to leave now.’

‘You what?’ My voice cracked.

‘I’ve got a plane to catch, and I’m in danger of missing it. I have to be in Perth for a meeting tomorrow morning. I only found out at lunchtime that I had to go.’

‘You’re leaving?’ I gasped.

As if in answer, a taxi pulled up at the end of the drive.

‘Aurora, it’s Sony. I have to be there.’ Dad pushed a bag of Crispy Treats, Snookums’s favourite, into my hand. ‘Give this a shake when you call out for him. He’ll come home soon. I’m sorry.’ His voice was distracted.

‘But …’

My voice faded as I watched him race away from me. Once again, I was completely invisible to a parent. I tore after him, panic rising in my chest.

‘No! You can’t leave me here alone.’ I clung to his jacket sleeve like a toddler being dropped at daycare.

Dad twisted away from me. ‘Aurora, I’ve got to go!’

‘I can’t believe you’re doing this,’ I babbled, stumbling as I tried to keep up with him. The sky was dark with the approaching storm.

‘Aurora, stop being unreasonable!’ Dad yelled.

I stared at him. Something deep inside me quivered.

‘I’ll be back tomorrow night,’ he called through the taxi’s window. Lightning flashed behind him.

‘Just go!’ I screamed.

I saw his face drop as the taxi pulled away.

The sky opened up — a deluge of water that slammed through my clothes and drummed at my skin. But I didn’t care. I ran up and down the deserted street, calling Snookums’s name and listening with all my might for the meow that would make everything alright again.

I desperately shook the box of Crispy Treats, which had become a soft, soggy cardboard mess. ‘Here, puss!’

Silence.

My voice broke. ‘Snookums! Come back, please!’

I stumbled through a vacant lot, the long grass a blur through the tears that burned my eyes. I was trying desperately to hold back the flood that threatened to overwhelm me.

‘Snookums!’

I tripped and fell, my palms slamming into the muddy ground. Half a dozen Crispy Treats tumbled out of the carton onto the grass.

‘Aurora, wait!’ There was a loud shout from behind me.

As I stumbled to my feet, I saw who was calling. And finally the tears came.

Hayden’s eyes were heavy with concern. ‘Aurora, what are you doing out here in this storm?’

I just cried harder. And then Hayden was pulling me to him, drawing me into his arms, sheltering me under the white umbrella he carried.

‘Snookums has gone,’ I sobbed. ‘Snookums has gone and it’s my fault. If I’d been home today, then he wouldn’t have annoyed Ms DeForest and she wouldn’t have let him out. But I wasn’t. I was off trying to please my mum yet again, and I couldn’t, and I’m so sorry, Hayden, I’m so sorry!’

‘Sorry?’ Hayden pulled slightly away from me and looked at me intently. ‘For what?’

‘The day before she left.’ The words rushed out of me. ‘The day before Mum left, you invited me over to your place to go swimming. Remember, how the pool was finally finished? I was just heading out the door when Mum’s car pulled up. I was surprised because she never came home early. She said she wanted to spend the afternoon with me, but I wanted to go over and see you, so I said no. And she looked at me with these disappointed eyes — I’d never seen her look like that before. And then the next day she was gone! And I thought … I thought that it was my fault, that maybe if I’d spent that afternoon with her she might not have left. And every time I saw you after that, I was so angry at myself. And so I dropped you!’ I sobbed. ‘I dropped my best friend and acted like I hated you! Just so I could cope! I’m so sorry!’

‘Hey …’ Hayden gently pulled me into his arms again. ‘You don’t have to be sorry at all. I knew how much of a hard time you were going through.’

‘I’m so sorry!’ I whispered into his tear-stained blue shirt. Even though he said it was okay, I needed to repeat the words. ‘For the other day as well, for what you heard — I’ve wanted to explain it to you since Monday. And … and I can’t stop crying for some reason … I’ve drenched your shirt.’

‘Shhh,’ Hayden soothed, stroking my back. ‘You cry as long as you like, okay?’

I clung to him, the steady rise and fall of his chest guiding my own shaky breaths, his heartbeat reminding mine to keep time. I was not alone. The rain thundered down on our umbrella, but Hayden’s arms were a stronghold.

After what seemed like a century, I pulled away and looked up at him. ‘I have to keep looking,’ I said softly, wiping my eyes. ‘Snookums is out there in this storm. I have to replace him.’

‘I’ll help you,’ Hayden assured me. ‘Let me go grab a torch. It’s going to be pitch black any moment.’

In Hayden’s arms, I’d been oblivious to the creeping shadows all around us.

‘Wait here.’ Hayden handed me the umbrella. Before I could stop him, he’d dashed out into the downpour.

I stood under the umbrella, feeling oddly numb, listening to the happy croaks of the neighbourhood frogs, until Hayden raced back to me.

‘Alright.’ He switched on the heavy-looking torch. ‘Let’s start the search.’

And search we did. Under hedges and parked cars, in people’s frontyards, along bike trails, up trees. As it grew later and later, I felt myself panicking. What if I never saw Snookums again? What if my furry family member, the one who had seen me through endless trials and tribulations, was gone forever?

‘We’re going to replace him.’ Hayden answered my unspoken fear.

‘What if it’s too late?’ I whispered, looking fiercely at the ground so I wouldn’t cry again. ‘He doesn’t know how to take care of himself out here in the wild.’ I gasped as a new thought hit me. ‘What if he becomes a victim of the fur trade? I saw this program on SBS about it. Neighbourhood cats poached under their owners’ very eyes.’ I felt like I was going to be sick.

‘Aurora.’ Hayden took my hand, and I looked up. ‘We’re going to replace him. I promise you that.’

I stared into his earnest eyes, at the droplets of rain glistening in his hair, and I believed him. Hayden would search with me for as long as it took. He squeezed my hand and a realisation hit me like a thunderbolt. I was free to love him. There was no secret admirer any more. I was free to hand him my heart.

And wait for his reply.

Suddenly I started shaking. My responsibility to my secret admirer might have fallen away, but I was terrified. What if Hayden did feel the way my soul ached for him to feel, and I let him in and he ended up hurting me? Turned away, like my mother had? He would become yet another scar on my heart; another warning to slam the door, turn the key and live out my days in solitary confinement.

‘Hey, you’re trembling,’ Hayden said softly. ‘I think I should get you home.’

‘No, I’m fine.’ The concern in his eyes made me shake even more.

Hayden began guiding me home. ‘You’ve been drenched for two and a half hours.’

‘But Snookums …’ He was counting on me to come through for him. I just had to get a grip on myself.

‘It’s going to be really difficult to replace him tonight,’ Hayden said. ‘He’s probably hidden somewhere to get out of the rain. I think we’ll have more of a chance once the storm clears. We can start looking again at dawn.’

‘But —’

‘And that will give me a chance to create some “Missing” posters to put up,’ Hayden continued as he gently steered me up the driveway. ‘It’ll increase the odds of replaceing him.’

I knew he was right.

‘You go take a hot shower straight away,’ Hayden said as I unlocked my front door. ‘I’ll make you some tea.’

I stood in the shower, feeling the hot water sink into my skin, wishing the warmth could permeate my insides. I got out, got dressed, and numbly tried Jelena’s number. Still no answer.

‘Feeling better?’ Hayden asked when I joined him in the kitchen.

I nodded absently as I watched him pour water from the kettle into a mug. He carefully spooned two teaspoons of honey into my herbal tea. How had he remembered that after all these years?

‘I should get started on the posters as soon as possible,’ he said.

‘I could help you.’

He shook his head. ‘You look exhausted.’ He handed me my drink.

‘But I need to do something.’

I needed a distraction or else I’d go mad imagining Snookums in various dangerous scenarios.

‘Why don’t you replace a photo of Snookums for the posters?’ Hayden suggested.

He left the room and returned with several bound albums. Our family photos. I hadn’t looked at them in years.

‘Wait a minute.’ I ran upstairs and grabbed a copy of the shot of Snookums in a Santa hat. ‘This one’s nice and clear.’

‘I’ll head home and do the posters straight away.’ Hayden squeezed my shoulders. ‘Don’t get up. I’ll see myself out.’

‘Will you help me look tomorrow morning?’ I asked.

I knew he would, but I needed to hear him say yes. I needed the certainty.

‘I’ll see you at 6.30 am,’ he called back as he headed for the front door. ‘Goodnight, Princess.’

His voice was so full of reassurance that I felt like crying again.

I sat at the kitchen table, staring at the family albums in front of me. Before I knew what I was doing, I reached for them.

Here was my family history — laid out on the pages of these rust-brown albums. A run-through of the past sixteen years. Photos of Mum and Dad with radiant faces and eyes that were full of love for one another. Studio photographs of me as a baby, carefully posed. The three of us on a holiday at the beach. Me in my mother’s high heels, playing dress-ups. Hayden and I grinning at the camera. Snookums as a kitten. Then my parents’ smiles, so loving only pages before, became forced-looking. There were pictures of my mother’s many dinner parties, with a tense-looking Dad sitting at the head of a table that had long since disappeared. Shots from a holiday in Tahiti, which Mum and Dad had taken alone. I’d stayed with the Parises. I remembered the strained look on my parents’ faces when they’d returned two days early to pick me up. I hadn’t understood — wasn’t Tahiti supposed to be relaxing?

Then the shots stopped and the record got messed up. The person who’d taken charge of the camera had left the picture. The camera lay in a drawer, unused, because Dad and I didn’t want any reminders of how we felt then — like zombies, going through the motions of living with dead eyes and locked hearts.

A year later, when time had somehow started again, there were photos of my thirteenth birthday. The NAD had gone all out with a party at a rollerskating rink, and I stood amongst a huge group of grinning girls, all long-legged and gangly. No Hayden in the photo. He’d left a present on the doorstep, but I’d hidden it away in a drawer, unable to bear the reminder of our friendship.

Mum had forgotten my birthday that year.

I slammed the album shut. But the camera in my mind, which recorded and stored everything so carefully, was streaming images frenetically.

Me gazing up at my mother in awe when she was all dressed up to go out — this beautiful, mysterious mother, who looked so happy as she headed downstairs, wearing her wide smile, not the tight one she wore on weekends.

Me waiting by the school gate long after everyone else had left, making up stories for myself so I wouldn’t count every car that went by that wasn’t hers.

Me making a Mother’s Day cake at the Parises’ house. Mrs Paris had shown me how to crack eggs without getting any shell in the bowl, and Hayden had measured out the cocoa powder just so. When the cake was cooked, we’d squeezed the icing bag together, making swirls and hearts. Mum had given me a kiss when I’d surprised her with the cake, but she didn’t eat any of it because chocolate was fattening.

Me listening to her sighs when I was at home on school holidays and Hayden wasn’t there to play with me. She’d announce that we were ‘going visiting’, which meant sitting patiently on other people’s couches, then getting bored and wandering round an unfamiliar house, hoping to replace a bookshelf so I could escape into a new world. Feeling angry about how long the visits took, but also feeling guilty because you weren’t meant to get angry at your mother, were you? You were meant to love her. And she loved you back.

Me sitting in my room, trying to do my homework while I listened to Dad and Mum fight. Holding my breath each time one of them slammed the front door and drove away, yelling that they were going to leave.

And then one day, Mum had.

I opened the album back up, at the empty pages, and photos from my mind filled them. The NAD presenting me with a key so I could let myself into the house after school. Getting home one day and realising that I’d left the key inside on the kitchen table. Panic coming over me, and beating at the door until my fists were red and I realised that I had to be my own mother now. Going to the library to get books that taught me how to cook, how to take care of things in the house, how to cope with growing up. I became the girl with the answers to everything, the girl who was confident and didn’t cry. Only it hadn’t worked, because here I was, sitting at a cold marble table, feeling lost and scared.

Why didn’t my mother want to know me, even though I did everything I could to be agreeable, likable, lovable? Why had my father dashed out on me this afternoon? Was my whole family destined to leave me? Even Snookums?

The tears came again. I cried for all the times I’d called out for my mother and she hadn’t come; for all the times I’d tried my best to make her love me, but couldn’t. I cried for all the things she didn’t know about me and didn’t want to know, and the ache I felt inside when I looked at her. For how pathetic it made me feel to want to be loved so badly.

I cried for the twelve-year-old girl who’d believed that her mother’s sudden disappearance was her fault. I cried for my father, and how his life had changed. I cried for the way I’d treated Hayden, for the hurt I must have caused him, for the lost years of friendship. For the new way I felt about him and the terror that had me crippled and unable to risk telling him I loved him. I cried for Snookums, who was out in the storm, and the possibility that I might never see him again. I cried for the news I had to tell Jelena that would make her cry, and the way it would make her more cautious about giving her heart away. I cried until I couldn’t see, until I was exhausted, until four years of feeling had drained from me.

What was the way out of this? How did I lift the heaviness from my heart to try to forgive my mother, to make peace with the past, as impossible as it seemed? How could I learn to look forward, to let myself experience love, affection?

The thoughts spun round and round in my head as the night went on and the rain spilt down outside. Finally, I lay my head down on the cool marble of the table, overwhelmed.

And then I heard a pounding noise. I lifted my head off the table and realised from the faint light in the kitchen that the night had ended and the pounding was someone at the door.

The kitchen clock read 6.57 am. Hayden hadn’t come!

The banging at the door came again. Was it him? Why was he so late? I rushed down the hall, feeling hurt that he’d broken his promise.

I pulled open the door. ‘Oh!’ I gasped.

There on the doorstep was an exhausted-looking Hayden, with a wet, bedraggled Snookums in his arms.

He’d found Snookums! He’d found him just like he’d promised.

I threw my arms around the both of them, laughing and crying as Hayden grinned at me and Snookums yowled in protest at being squashed between the two of us.

‘But how?’ I asked, staring at Hayden.

I could hardly believe that Snookums was right here with us, that last night’s storm had vanished and the sky was a heavenly blue. I felt like a new person.

‘I kept looking,’ Hayden said as I rained kisses down on Snookums’s damp head.

‘But you went home.’

‘I only said that so you wouldn’t insist on coming with me. You looked so exhausted. Finally, at 6.30 am, I found Snookums in the park, scaring some geese.’

‘You rescued him!’ I cried, thinking of the hours he must have spent out in the rain. ‘You stayed up the whole night — why?’

‘Because I wanted to see you smile again,’ Hayden said softly.

And I did smile as the three of us stood in that embrace in the early morning light, listening to the sound of the birds, feeling the cool breeze tickle our skin.

It was a new day.