Page 36 of What I Should Have Felt

“Yeah, we’re good,” Cory said and finally rolled his neck. “Besides, my brother should be here in like one minute. We’ll have him wait with us until Macy’s mom gets here.”

“All right.” I scanned the group one last time and then glanced back down at Azelie. She gave me another wide smile. Without a word, she skipped toward the exit, and I tagged along, giving myself one more second to scan the surroundings again. I hated leaving three kids alone, but myconscience was eased as an old 90s single-cab truck pulled into the parking lot.

Returning my focus to the teenager I was tasked with bringing back, I took a couple of large steps and closed the distance between us. Without saying anything, I guided her to the left and down the hill where I’d parked off to the edge so it wasn’t out in the open, just in case.

“So, how do you and my mom know each other? Everyone says that you’re the Thibodeaux son that left, and I thought us LeBlancs were in some sort of rivalry with you guys,” Azelie suddenly said.

I smiled to myself as a small chuckle danced in my throat. “We technically are. I mean, my parents and your grandparents are definitely feuding.”

“But not you and my mom?”

Raising a brow, I stared at the blue, cloudless sky. “Nah, though I’m pretty sure she’s not too pleased with me either.”

Azelie stitched her brows together. “But she sent you to get me. That means she trusts you to protect me.”

“Or she had no other options that wouldn’t send up red flags with your grandparents.” I glanced at her, and she shook her head.

“You’re not going to tell me?” Azelie asked and narrowed her eyes.

With a grin, I shook my head. “Nope. I’ve already been stabbed by your mom, so she gets to tell you what she wants.”

“You’re being metaphorical about that, right?” Azelie continued.

I simply chuckled. This was strange, murky water I was wading through. Colette had no idea I knew Azelie was her daughter, not sister, which seemed to be something Colette had been avoiding telling me. I’dflat-out said “sister” to Colette, and she hadn’t corrected me. Part of me also swam in a river of shock.

“Can I ask you something else?” Azelie said, pulling me out of my thoughts again as we wandered off the grass and onto the sidewalk.

I nodded and glanced at her. She kept her gaze forward, but as her brows scrunched tighter together, it was as if the wheels spinning in her head were visible to the naked eye.

“Did you ever get bullied for it growing up?” she asked.

“Bullied for…what?” I replied.

“Your heterochromia. You know, your two different-colored eyes.”

I stopped walking and studied her. She took a couple more steps and then turned back to face me. Innocent eyes lifted to my face and locked onto my gaze.

Slowly, I shook my head, racking my memories for any moment I could remember some kid being an ass about it. “No, not really. I got bullied in middle school ’cause I hadn’t hit puberty like the other kids, but never for my eyes.” Tipping my head, I studied her gaze intensely. Something strange swirled behind her gaze, something that pleaded with me that I couldn’t quite decipher. “In fact, especially in high school, I got some…what’s the word y’all use these days? Clout? Is that what it is? They gave me clout.”

Her shoulders drooped forward, and she finally pulled her gaze away from mine. But she remained quiet. I wasn’t sure if that was normal for her or not, considering this was our first real interaction that wasn’t just me seeing her down the street at her family’s restaurant.

“We don’t say clout, but I get what you’re saying,” she mumbled with a soft giggle.

“Why do you ask?” I pressed.

She looked back at me and then reached up toward her face. Closing her eyes, she pinched her right eyelid and then opened again. “Because I’ve never met someone with eyes like mine.”

One hazel eye and one green eye stared back at me.

I couldn’t stop my jaw from falling open as she released her eyelid, blinked a couple times, and then upon reopening, her green colored contact had slid back into place.

Complete heterochromia just like me. She had two different colored eyes. A hazel one just like I did. All words left my mind as I simply stared at her. She watched me quietly, but said nothing and made no move to shift her stance. This wasn’t possible, was it? Heterochromia was either genetic or caused by some traumatic experience.

Did Liam have heterochromia? I mean, I hadn’t gotten a good look at his eyes the one time I’d seen him. It had been way too painful watching Colette smile at him the way she had. So, it was very possible it came from him. Or was it from something traumatic?

“How long have you had it?” I asked.

She furrowed her brows. “What do you mean? My whole life.”

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