Page 61 of Wicked Minds
I laugh because, of course, Logan makes that inference.
“It also means dawn in Latin.”
“As in, the dawn of a new day?” Royce queries, and I nod.
“I was in a bad place before I found out I was pregnant. I—” My throat closes over, tears welling even as I fight to push them away. Just talking about that time is too much, and I can feel the shadows closing in.
Sensing I’m on the brink of crumbling, Logan reaches out to clasp my hand in his. “It’s okay. You don’t have to talk about back then. Not if it upsets you.” I sniffle, and he brushes a hand over my hair. “You were meeting up with your mom and Aurora on Christmas Day.”
I nod. “Yeah. I hadn’t seen Aurora since I left for college, and I’d finally managed to get my mom to stick to her agreement to come?—”
“We’ll come back to that later, James,” Royce growls. I give him a blank look, a thickness in my throat at the thought of explaining the control my mother has over me. Letting them see how I’ve let Aurora down.
When he squeezes my thigh in a bid for me to continue, I push thoughts of that conversation aside and go back to explaining to Logan how Christmas Day unfolded.
“—I’d planned to get up early and sneak out of your house and back to my apartment. Only I overdid it on the eggnog the night before.”
“Fucking Grayson,” Logan snarls.
“Ugh, let’s not mention him, yeah?” I groan. “Anyway, I slept in and woke up within ten minutes to get there and went banging on Royce’s door, pleading with him to take me.”
Royce snorts. “She practically dragged me out of the house in my boxers.”
“You were wearing clothes!” I retort with a teasing smirk.
“I’m surprised you were able to convince him at all,” Logan states, sounding surprised.
“Yeah, I didn’t. He was an immovable bastard. I had to use my Gin Rummy favor.”
“I still wanna know how you got so good at that game.” Royce points a finger my way, his scowl very real. Clearly, someone is still pissy about losing.
Biting back my smug grin, I shrug a shoulder. “You learn a thing or two when you spend the latter part of your teenage years in a school for troubled teens.”
“A school for what?” Logan splutters.
I smile at him, except this time it’s cold and biting. “Mom had to hide me away somewhere where I couldn’t cause any more trouble after I’d had Aurora.”
“That’s…” Logan begins.
“… Royally fucked up,” Royce finishes.
“It is,” I agree with a resigned nod and a casual half-shrug. “But it is what it is.”
“I’m starting to really not like that phrase,” Logan grumbles. When I roll my eyes, he thankfully continues. “So, Royce took you to meet your mom and Aurora…”
“Yeah. I knew it would mean he’d figure it all out, although I didn’t care at that point. I’d have sold my kidney to get there on time.”
“She practically dove out of the moving truck when we reached the park,” Royce tells Logan, glaring daggers at me.
“And you saw Aurora?” Logan asks, a slight whine in his voice. “Do you have any pictures?” he directs at me. “I wanna see her.”
More of that happy warmth infuses me as I grab my phone and pull up my photo album. It’s filled with screenshots I’ve taken while I’ve been on FaceTime with her, and if you scroll far enough back, there are ones of the two of us before I left for college. Bringing up the first one, I hand my phone to Logan.
He falls silent as he stares at the photo, and I watch his eyes widen as he scours the picture, drinking in every detail as a soft smile graces his lips.
“I know you said not to mention him, but I can’t get over how much she looks like Grayson.”
Royce leans closer, squishing me between them so he can get a better look. He nods in agreement. “I thought the same. She’s got Ry’s hair but Gray’s eyes. His smile too,” Royce tacks on as Logan switches to a photo of Aurora’s toothy grin.
