Chapter 22: Mothers Like Ours

Chapter 22: Mothers Like Ours

Rowan

She was wet. Water dripped from her hair onto the dry, cracked earth at her feet. Her nightgown was clinging to her skin, showing off her shapely curves in their entirety. I fought the urge to reach out and touch her, to cover her, but Kacidra grabbed my arm and yanked me backward.

“Rowan, don’t,” kacidra said firmly, her face pale and flushed with concern.

Hanna was looking at me, her deep brown eyes wide and flaked with gold. A wave of unease washed over me as I looked at her, the feeling cutting through the intensity of the bond we had yet to act on.

“Hanna?” Kacidra said in a tone I had never heard from her before. She looked almost motherly as she gazed at her sister, her eyes cloudy with despair. Hanna didn’t answer. She kept her eyes on me, reaching out her hand with her palm up toward the sky. “Don’t touch her Rowan,” Kacindra warned, sucking in her breath as she stepped between us, taking Hanna lightly by the shoulders and turning her around, the two of them walking slowly out of the field of solar panels and into the woods. “Come find me later, Rowan. We need to talk!” Kacidra’s voice echoed as she disappeared from view. –

***

Maeve

Gemma moved out from behind the desk in her office, flipping through the pages of a thick, paperback book.

“Are you.. nauseous?”

“Nope.”

“Are you… having back pain?”

“No.”

“What about food avessions?”

“Not at all.”

“Hmm…” She leaned against desk, her eyes scanning the book’s contents. It had been a week since Aaron and I slept together in the library. I was still reeling from it, processing it. Thankfully things were good between Aaron and me. He was attentive and playful like usual. There wasn’t a sheet of awkwardness between us.

And, I hadn’t given Gemma the details about our night. For some reason, I was desperate to keep it to myself, to cherish it. My heart squeezed as I sat down and looked up at the massive book she was holding. It was about pregnancy, I realized as my eyes flitted over the cover and title that was broken up by Gemma’s splayed fingers.

If I was pregnant, Aaron would be leaving soon. I didn’t want to even think about it. “Does your mouth taste like metal?”

“What?”

Gemma shrugged, closing the book and setting it on her desk. “It’s obviously too early to know, right?”

“It’s only been a week since…. Well, I think I have to go in for another blood sample next week.”

“Ah, yeah. It’s too early. And they’ll probably need to send the sample to the labs at the University. I guess we just… wait and see.” She turned toward the window, the sun reflecting off the dainty necklace she was wearing around her neck. I tilted my head to the side to get a better look at it.

“Where did that come from?”

She reached up to touch the delicate chain, sliding her touch down to finger the oval-shaped moonstone that was fixed in an intricate gold setting. “It was my mother’s,” she said with a soft, airy smile.

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Chapter 22: Mothers Like Ours

“I’ve never seen you wear it before. It’s beautiful!” I loved dainty jewelry, but I couldn’t be trusted to wear it. I always snapped the chains of bracelets and necklaces and lost them, and my hands were too busy for rings. Gemma’s necklace highlighted her slender neck, the color of the moonstone vibrant against the creamy color of her skin.

“I never thought to wear it, honestly. It was part of her collection. It kinda… I don’t know, called to me this morning, if that makes sense.”

I shrugged, missing my own mother suddenly. I did like to see Gemma dressing up more, though. She had traded her simple button-down shirts and jeans for skirts and dresses, rouge on her cheeks and lips and her hair now tied back in a neat bun at the nape of her neck. I looked down at my shorts, the same ones I had stolen back from Aaron a few days ago, and smiled softly to myself.

Gemma was every bit a Luna. I only wished she could see it. I wished Ernest would get over the insane notion that he was cursed so that they could be together.

“What are you up to today?” Gemma asked as she rounded her desk and sat back down, reaching into a drawer to pull out her agenda.

I shrugged again, standing and adjusting the tight shorts. Had these actually fit Aaron better than me?

Aaron and I are going to the village for lunch. I’ll be back before dinner.”

Gemma gave me a parting smile as I left her office, closing the door behind me.copy right hot novel pub