Years Later
“Can I take you to lunch?”
Cynthia threw a mean left hook that had Jared struggling to keep his balance. He always favoured his right a little bit too much.
“No.”
“Cynthia…”
She didn’t let him continue before releasing a barrage of blows that got his head back into the fight and away from emotional talks.
An hour later, she was walking out of the training centre with a bag slung over her shoulder after her shower.
“Cynthia, please wait up.”
She didn’t. She kept walking because she really didn’t want to have this conversation. He easily caught up to her though with his long legs.
“So off to pick up Cole?”
Cynthia stopped walking.
“What do you want? Please speak directly.”
Jared looked at her with hurt brown eyes that eerily reminded her of Calvin.
“I’m trying to have a conversation with you, Cynthia.”
“And I’m trying not to. We train together. That’s all.”
“It doesn’t have to be. We can be friends–”
“I apologise for my mistake. I shall find another trainer.” Cynthia nodded brusquely and turned to leave.
“Cynthia, that wasn’t what I meant…”
But that was what she chose to understand. She walked away feeling the cool wind over her hands and shoulders.
It might have been almost six years already but for her, it still felt like yesterday. There was only one man in her heart. There would be no room for any others and she would cherish the memories of their time together until the day she breathed her last.
But today, today wasn’t a day to dwell on such sad things. It was a day for celebration.
“Say it again.”
“I will not pull Matty’s hair, make faces at her, dunk her in anything or plan anything mischievous for her.”
Cynthia cocked a brow and Cole let out a long-suffering sigh that sounded too mature for his age.
“I won’t make anyone else do it as well. Please can we go now? We are going to miss everything!”
“Just making sure you won’t go off to sow chaos again.” Cynthia tweaked his nose.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. Godmom says I’m an angel.” Cole said easily with a confident look.
“She says you ‘look’ like an angel.”
“Same thing.”
They arrived at the party when it was already in swing. Cole shot her the superior I told you so look that only children could ever fully master.
“Cynthia!”
It was Jenny. Cynthia smiled and then hugged her.
“You are all muscles these days I swear. But it looks good on you though, maybe I should start working out too.” Jenny winked at her.
“You don’t need any workouts, trust me pregnancy is a workout on its own.”
“I know right? I keep increasing by the second. I can’t wait for it to be out yet.”
Cynthia could only smile in empathy. She remembered how often she had wished for the same thing when carrying Cole and how in the days of her grief she had wished that she had something left of Calvin.
Cole would have made a great older brother. This was the third time today she had thought of him. She had to stop but how could she? It would be easier to stop breathing.
“Have you seen Ava and Adrian?” Cynthia looked around.
****
“I look fat in this dress.” Ava announced. Perhaps it was because of the pregnancy. Not that she had told Adrian yet. It was going to be a surprise.
Adrian kissed her neck and reached for the ties of the dress. “It looks beautiful on you. Everything does. You look so delectable that it will look even better on the floor. Perhaps we should stay in today…”
Ava huffed and pushed him away.
“You are impossible. You are just saying it’s pretty because you are trying to get into my pants.”
“Is it working?” Adrian asked shamelessly.
Ava rolled her eyes suppressing a smile involuntarily.
“We have to get to Martha’s birthday party. We are her parents, we can’t skip it because you are horny.”
Adrian sighed dramatically. “I guess we can’t do that but I can do this.”
He pulled her close and this time she let him and he kissed her like he was making love to her and when he was done, her cheeks burned.
She loved him so much and these past six years together had been a dream come true. In the beginning, there had been trying times like getting Cynthia into therapy and working through her mother’s death mere months after they had reconciled with Gabby.
But things had gotten better. Cynthia found hope in life again through Cole. Even Javier had gotten an invitation to join the Werewolf Council but the jury was still out on whether he would accept it. She had Martha. She, Gabby, Alex and her father had bonded over her mother’s death as a family and now, now she took her happiness with both hands because she had worked too hard for it to do otherwise.
They all had.
“Now we can go.”