Read Celestra Forever After Online

Authors: Addison Moore

Celestra Forever After (10 page)

BOOK: Celestra Forever After
10.05Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

 

A few days drift by, and I decide it’s best to pluck Liam from Ellis’s chemically altered clutches. We ditch Marshall’s and head over to where I probably should have gone to begin with, the morgue.

“My God!” Barron’s face does its best impersonation of those corpses he keeps on file in that oversized freezer behind him. He lunges at us both at the same time, and before we know it, we’re locked in an Oliver love-fest.

I can feel Liam’s chest buck with emotion, then I begin to lose it, too. Here we are after all these years. It was Liam and Barron who fought to save me, even if it was Skyla’s mother who put the kernel of the idea in their heart. They didn’t hesitate. One sacrificed his life for mine, and the other raised me as his own—all to end my suffering.

“Thank you, both.” I pull back and take them in. One brother aged to his prime, and the other still robed with the dew of youth. And here I am, locked somewhere in the middle. “I don’t deserve your kindness, either one of you.”

“That because you’re a jackass.” Liam ruffs up my hair. “But we love you, man. I’d walk through a fire for you if I had to.”

“Let’s stop while we’re ahead.” I pat them both on the back. “No more fires. No more death.”

“Now, I wouldn’t go that far. Death keeps a roof over my head.” Barron takes off his glasses and wipes his face down with the back of his hand. “Look at you both.” He pops the lenses back on and inspects us with fresh eyes. “I’m old and haggard, and you’re both at the top of your game. Looks like I got the short end of the stick.”

“A wife—two beautiful children.” Liam taps him on the back of the neck as if he were knocking some sense into him. “You’re a lucky bastard, Barron—always have been.”

“I know it.”

A murmur of voices trickle from the room behind him. They’re coming from the
kitchen
, that’s the term Barron uses to refer to his own personal chop shop—the room where he preps the corpses for burial.

Barron glances over his shoulder before trying to edge us back out the door.

“Why don’t we have lunch somewhere?” It comes from him far too animated as if he were trying to usher us out before we discovered what was going on back there. “Or perhaps the bowling alley? I hear Ellis is taking wonderful care of the facility.”

“What’s up?” I push past him. I know for a fact when Barron starts talking shop, he’s clearly avoiding a bigger issue. He couldn’t care less what’s happening at the bowling alley. The morgue is his baby just as much as Gage and Giselle.

I burst in through the double door, and I’m sucker punched by what I see. Gage and Chloe Bishop, hovering over a body. Then it clicks, Ezrina has taken over Chloe’s form, and that would explain why she only remotely looks like the old Chloe. Her hair is shorn close to the back of her head with long bangs in front. She’s sporting thick-framed glasses and a turtleneck with slacks. Practical brown wedges adorn her feet that I’m pretty sure Chloe Bishop wouldn’t be caught dead in. In fact, given the chance, Chloe might kill Ezrina simply for the fashion faux pas she’d accuse her of committing. Personally, I think it’s an improvement.

“Gage.” My shoulders pull back as I take a never-ending breath. In truth, I wanted to reveal myself to Skyla first, then my nephew. But now that I think about it, Gage is as good a place to start as any. I guess I shouldn’t be too hung up over the fact he’s trying to sleep with Skyla, after all, I did.

“Guess again.” He stands up, his chest expanding the size of the wall. “You might know me as Wesley Paxton, or, I suppose, Parker.” His eyes glint to both of mine. “These days I’m just going by my father’s last name—Edinger.” Those all too familiar dimples dig into his cheeks, and my body turns to stone.

Edinger?

What the fuck is going on?

 

 

3

The Horrible Surprise

 

Skyla

 

 

On Saturday, Barron and Emma host a pool party which is odd in and of itself for several reasons: One, when they made the last minute announcement the weather forecast was set for rain. Two, it’s now miraculously quasi-sunny—nothing short of a pool party miracle. And three, I’ve been to Barron and Emma’s home more times than I can count, and, thankfully, I’ve yet to see either one of them in a bathing suit.

Last night’s dream still boomerangs around in my mind—Marshall and me on a horse, riding the poor stallion while riding each other. A heat wave pushes through me, and that tender part between my thighs quivers just thinking about the incredible way he made me feel. Before the wild stallion of a romp, he mentioned we were “going back” that
Clara
needed us again. There’s that name, and I can’t seem to place it. Clara…did she go to West? East? Hell, does she live on this overgrown rock at all?

“Knock, knock!” Mom sings. That’s her nonsensical way of barging in. “It’s just me.” She pokes her head in before proving my point and migrating toward the bed. She gives a quick look around as if she’s expecting someone. “I can’t shake this feeling that one day I’m going to find a handsome dark-haired Oliver hanging around in his briefs.”

God. Did she just go there? Isn’t there a law that clearly stipulates bedroom humor is strictly off limits with your grown daughter? I don’t care if I’m eighteen or eighty, I’m pretty sure I’ll never want to discuss Gage in his boxers with her. An image of just that pops into my mind, and I bite down over a smile. Hot damn, I need to see that boy in his briefs—heck, less than his briefs.

“Not to worry. He made his escape more than an hour ago.” I’m only half-kidding and, disgustingly enough, I think she knows it. Darn these paper-thin walls. Not that we’ve done much more than kissed. Gage and I are stuck on first base, not that first base is such a bad place to be stuck with Gage Oliver. “Can I help you?” It’s obvious I’m going to have to facilitate this conversation along. It must be serious because she’s short at least one human dangling from her nipple. It’s rare she escapes the little people these days.

“Just wanted to see how you’re doing.” She glides her hand down the back of my head, and the curls crush to my skull. My hair is so unruly in the morning. I look like a lion who’s just stuck his paw in a light socket. “Everything going okay between you and Gage?” She nods into her words as if now were as good a time to confess as any.


Yes
,” I say it slow, measured. “Did something happen between Gage and me that I should know about?” God, I’m almost afraid to hear the answer.

“Oh nothing, I just wondered if there was a special reason the Olivers might have invited everyone over. I mean, summer sort of melted away. Everyone is back at school—it’s practically fall. I thought maybe they knew something I didn’t—like say an official engagement that might be on the horizon.” Her eyes widen like twin clovers.

“Well if that’s true then I’m just as in the dark as you are.” There’s no way Gage would have an ambush engagement party. It’s not his style. Not that I hope he won’t pop the question—I’d die for that to happen. I’m right there. I’m ready. I’ve thought through about a thousand could-be scenarios with each one even more romantic than the last. But, then, if we fell in a mud pit and he asked, it would still feel pretty damn romantic. This is our time, and I can feel an engagement coming on like a cold. Not that I equate it to one—in fact, quite the opposite. I get the warm fuzzies just thinking about it—butterflies come to life in my stomach. Gage makes me feel like a giddy thirteen-year-old every time I think of him.

“So are you okay?” She nods cautiously, and I can tell the conversation just took a turn for the Logan.

“Yes. I mean, I’m hanging in there. He’s always on my mind. My heart still breaks thinking about what happened.” That’s putting it mildly. The truth is, I miss the hell out of Logan Oliver. Our short-lived honeymoon ricochets through my mind like a love song and one that I don’t feel bad about playing on a loop unlike those carnal encounters that Marshall is imparting—even if he does deny it. I know a dream when I see one, and those are no dreams, they almost feel like… light drives?

Shit! I suck in a quick breath.

“Skyla?” Mom gives my shoulder a gentle shake. “I asked if you thought you could handle Logan coming back into your life. You mentioned it was a possibility.”

“Oh, right.” I snap to. “Yes.
God,
yes.” Actually, not so much. It’s going to be like knifing the wound right open. But I’d rather feel every ounce of pain on the planet than live a life without Logan Oliver.

“Skyla.” She slips her arm around me, and I scoot over, making room for her on the mattress. “I always know when you’re stretching the truth. It’s okay not to feel ready. This is a unique situation. It’s not going to be easy. I won’t lie, it wasn’t easy seeing your father.”

Dad passed away years ago and, thanks to some celestial rule bending, he’s popped back into our lives a few times.

“God, I didn’t even think of how much that must have hurt. I’m so sorry.”

“No, don’t be. He’s the love of my life, always will be. It’s just hard to, you know, see him now that I’m married to someone else.”

And seeing someone else on the side on top of that, but I leave Demetri out of it for now. Although, Demetri can never fully be left out of the conversation seeing that he’s my father’s killer. Chloe may have told him to do it, but something in me knows he didn’t mind obeying orders one bit. He’s Chloe’s supervising spirit, in other words, her celestial bitch. I seriously hate them both. And, oddly, neither of them ever truly seem to get what’s coming to them. I don’t care if Chloe is relegated to the Transfer—something isn’t sitting well with me, but that’s a topic to take up with my
other
mother.

“It’s okay to hurt, Skyla.” She pulls me in tight. “And a part of the reason I wanted to come and talk to you this morning was just because of that. Hurting goes along with the territory. A part of you may never fully recover. God knows I didn’t.” She leans her head over mine. “The pain may not go away as fast as you’d like, so don’t wait for that magic moment to happen just yet. You may never get there, and you know what? Nobody will ever judge you for that. But I have a feeling Gage can help you heal, Skyla. That is, if you let him. There’s room in your heart to love more than one person—and it’s a beautiful thing.” She leans in and presses a kiss over my cheek. “Your dad was a gift to me. Just like Logan was to you.”

Something in my chest cinches. It’s as if those were the exact words I needed to hear. Logan and Gage are both gifts. And she’s right. I will never truly get over losing Logan. And, when he finally does come back to me, I’ll be grieving Gage. That is unless I can change things, and I hope to God I can. Grief is a horrible place to live. I want no part of that pain ever again.

“Thank you.” I offer up the strongest bear hug I’ve given in my life, until she groans under my weight. “You’re the best mom ever, you know that?”

“Thank
you
.” She touches the tip of my nose. “Another thing I wanted to say was”—her chest expands, and I can tell we’re about to enter a no-fly zone—“Demetri is going to be there today.”

“Really? I can’t imagine why the Olivers would extend the invitation to him.” For one, he’s evil incarnate.

“They didn’t. I asked Emma if it would be okay. He and Darla are sort of on the outs—he never could commit to a wedding date.” She averts her eyes, but a brief smile plays on her lips, and I catch it. Darla is my best friend’s mother, our next door neighbor, and the very woman who drove Mom to the brink of a jealous rage due to the aforementioned engagement. It was fake from the beginning. I think we all knew that. “Anyway, I thought it’d be good for him to get back into the fold.”

My blood boils just thinking about it. All of my pent up anger regarding her borderline affair with the enemy, a Fem no less, is ready and willing to spew right out of my mouth in the form of a verbal assault.

A loud knock vibrates over the door, and Brielle saunters in clutching an overnight bag.

“Morning, sunshine!” she sings, twice as chipper as my mother ever could. Her strawberry blonde hair is rumpled, her mascara is running down her cheeks, but she’s glowing, and that can only mean one thing, she slept with my stepbrother last night.

“And on that note.” Mom sails to the door. “Let’s everyone play nice today. I think we’re going to have a really good time at the Oliver’s.” She clicks the door shut behind her.

“Play nice?” I scoff, making room on the bed for Brielle. “I believe that’s code for ‘be nice to my boyfriend.’”

“Your mom has a boyfriend?” Bree bounces onto my mattress as if I’m about to dispense the latest island gossip.

“Never mind. How’s your boyfriend?”

“Moving on up.” She looks at me as if I should know what this means.

“God, if that’s some sexual innuendo, it’s really too early for me. Note, it will always be too early in the day for any kind of sexed-up news regarding Drake.”

“Gotcha, sis.” She gives me a light kick over the thigh. “Anyway, Drake is doing really well at the Gas Lab. Ever since that Chloe chick and Pierce have taken over, we’re finally seeing some profit.” She shakes her head. “Best damn donuts in town.”

BOOK: Celestra Forever After
10.05Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

And Again by Jessica Chiarella
The Devil's Fate by Massimo Russo
The Spirit of ST Louis by Charles A. Lindbergh
Until the Night by Giles Blunt
Windrunner's Daughter by Bryony Pearce
Her Twisted Pleasures by Amelia James
Marriage at a Distance by Sara Craven
Finding Grace by Becky Citra
Oceans Untamed by Cleo Peitsche