Alice POV

“This is really good, Alice!” Jenna commented, taking another sip from the tea I’d made her. It was Tuesday morning and she’d come to take the rest of my statement. I didn’t have much to add as I barely remembered what had happened last night. According to young Officer Jones, I’d been suppressing the memory due to shock. In order to cheer me up, she’d brought me some of her favorite chocolate ice-cream, claiming that it helped her relax after a hard day’s work.

“Alice, yesterday you said “thanks to my delinquent friends”…” She started a bit hesitant. “Who did you mean?”

“Oh, that! There are these three boys that everyone says are trouble and that I should steer clear from them…”

“Caden Kavanagh, Keegan McNeil and Asher Rowan.”

“H-how did you know?”

“Honey, when you are in this town and you mention three boys and trouble in the same sentence, it’s always them. I don’t think they are that bad though. I think it’s just circumstances that make them act the way they do.”

“I know! They don’t want to hurt me. Actually, Caden thought me how to fight because he was worried about me. He wanted me to be able to protect myself, if something happens.”

“Caden Kavanagh … Arrested plenty of times on minor misdemeanors… Enough to earn him a certain reputation and a record but nothing that would send him straight to jail. He is suspected of several crimes, sadly we never had enough evidence to convict him. But ask yourself this, Alice: the boy is a teenager who until a week ago did not work; his older brother can’t keep a job; his mother is… away and his father is never around; so where does he get his money from?”

I did not respond. I didn’t want to think about that. I always knew he was mixed up in something illegal, but I didn’t want to think about it.

“You are not going to answer me? Is it because you don’t know or because you don’t want to know?”

I gulped. It was as if Jenna had read my mind. And she knew her assumption was spot on.

“You not acknowledging the problem won’t make it go away, Alice. And just because he doesn’t want to hurt you, it doesn’t mean you’re not going to end up hurt because of him.”

She placed the teacup down and pushed herself away from the counter. Without another word the young female cop exited our kitchen, leaving me in the company of my own grim thoughts.

*****

I was sitting alone on one of the chairs surrounding the wooden table, drinking my second cup of chamomile tea, when I heard the door open and close with a bang, followed by the sound of hasty footsteps. I startled and the first thought that ran through my mind was “he’s back”. I thought that the robber from last night had returned for me. A moment later I realized that my fear was ungrounded as a face I knew all too well ran into the kitchen.

“Alice, are you okay?”

“Cade, what are you doing here?” I wondered, knowing he should be at work now.

“ARE YOU OKAY?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine!”

“Fine?!” He bellowed at me. “How can you be fine after what happened last night?”

“Y-you know about that?”

I hadn’t called him, the other two boys or the twins. So how did he find out?

“Yes, I know… Carl Jones came by at Cillian’s and told us what happened. But why didn’t you? Why didn’t you call me?

So that was how he had found out? I was eventually going to tell him myself, but I wanted to make sure I had control over my emotions first. I knew he’d get agitated and me being distressed wouldn't have helped the situation.

“I didn’t want to make you worried about…”

“ENOUGH WITH NOT MAKING ME WORRIED, ALISSA! When are you going to learn that I’ll always be worried about you? From now on I want you to tell me everything! And I do mean everything. No matter if it will make me worried or if it will upset me… When something happens, I want you to call me. I want to be the first one you’d call!”

*****

Caden POV

I was breathing heavily, I was shouting and I was pacing back and forth in the kitchen. More like darting from one side of the room to the other actually. I just couldn’t stay still. I had to move around or I’d go insane!

Why the hell didn’t she call me? Stubborn, little… Stubborn girl!

“Cade, relax! Here, have some tea!” She extended her hand and offered me her drink, making me halt and look at her.

“Tea?” I repeated unbelieving. “You were hurt and frightened last night and I’m supposed to calm down because of a cup of tea?”

“I wasn’t hurt,” she claimed, putting the cup on the table. “Well, my knuckles are bruised, but that is all.”

“Let me see!” Alice obediently extended her arms and I grasped her by the wrist. Her knuckles were just slightly bruised, but that was enough to make me go mad with rage. If I could only get my hands on the bastard responsible for this! He should still be in the precinct. Maybe if I got myself arrested I’d end up in the same cell. I wondered what the chances of that happening were.

But if I went inside, who’d take care of Alice?

I let her hands go and sighed. Irrational thoughts based on anger were exactly the thing I should avoid. If I wanted to be with Alice, I should learn to be more in control of my temper.

“I’m sorry that I upset you, Caden!” She muttered quietly, looking at her feet.

“Upset me?” I repeated, once again disbelieve my ears. How could she think that? “You didn’t upset me, Alice; what happened to you did.” I took her chin between my fingers and lifted it up so that she would face me. “You can’t upset or disappoint me, Alice. When I’m with you…” My words were getting harder and harder to utter, each of them leading to something personal; each of them giving the girl before me a chance to laugh at my face and turn me down. I felt vulnerable, but I had to say them. “When I’m with you, Alice, I just can’t stop smiling… I’m happy. And I want to keep being happy. I want to be with you!”

She didn’t laugh. She didn’t turn me down. She just stared at me with her wide green eyes and her mouth slightly opened.

What was she thinking? When was she going to say something?

I let go of her chin and backed away.

She wasn’t speaking; she was probably attempting to figure out a way to get rid of me. I could hear the excuses now: “I see you only as a friend”; “it’s not you, it’s me”; “my family would never allow it”…

“Okay,” she finally responded.

“Okay”? That was her answer? I told her I wanted to be with her and she responded with “okay”?

“Okay? Okay what? Okay, you’re glad that I’m not crossed with you… Okay, you’re glad that you make me happy… Okay, something else… What? Which is it?”

Getting off her chair, Alice took a couple of decisive steps towards me, stood on her feet… and kissed me. It was short and soft, but unwavering, giving me the answer I’d been praying to hear.

“Oh, that okay!” I responded through a smile, once our lips parted. “I can work with that okay!”

I leaned down and returned the kiss. Her hands snaked behind my neck and mine wrapped around her small waist, pulling her closer into me.

Now this was heaven!

No matter with how many girls I’d been with or what things I’d done with them, none came even close to kissing Alice. Even though we kept it a gentle kiss, very different from the time at Cillian’s and at the diner, it was still enough to make my heart pound. And Alice’s too; I could feel its rapid beating in her chest. I could be kissing this girl all day long…

The sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted us, making us halt in our actions.

Now wasn’t that a déjà vu! Only this time it wasn’t Bertha, the waitress, who interrupted us. As I turned my head in the direction the noise originated from, I came face to face with two of Alice’s aunts.

“Oh, my God! Aunt Rose! Aunt Flora!” Blood rushed to Alice’s face and she immediately took a step away from me. “We were just…”

“We know,” the slightly taller woman, who wore glasses, said.

“We saw,” the other one added with a goofy expression. “It was so romantic!”

“Flora!” The one who had spoken first rolled her eyes.

“Well, it was,” the second one replied, nodding her head.

“So you’re Will’s Flora?” I mused and only when the shorter one blushed, I realized I’d spoken aloud.

“Oh, my! Will’s? I’d… we haven’t… I mean, we went out a few times…I-I’m going to make some tea!” She babbled on, reminding me of the many times I’d seen her niece do the same thing because she was nervous or embarrassed.

Must be a family trait!

“I already made some, Aunty,” Alice claimed, pointing to the kettle over the stove.

“Did you? That’s, that’s good,” Flora replied, avoiding everyone’s gaze and trying to hide her reddened cheeks behind her long brown hair.

“Where’s Aunt Azalea?”

“Grocery shopping,” the woman with the glasses answered briefly and each of us was quiet after that. The silence was unnerving, so I decided I should be the one to break it.

“I… I’m Caden.” I said, thinking that if they caught me kissing their niece in their kitchen, the least I could do was introduce myself.

“Oh, we know, dear. I’m Rose and this is my younger sister Flora.”

“Dear?” I questioned, furrowing my eyebrows. I don’t think anybody had ever called me that before!

“We are aware of what you did; I mean, what you taught our Alice,” Flora announced, as if that was their explanation for the endearment.

“And that makes you okay by us,” Rose added. “Who knows what could’ve happened if that… that terrible man…”

“It’s okay, aunty! I’m safe,” Alice moved to the woman and squeezed her hand, giving her a reassuring smile.

“Yes, my dear, you are.”

“And we owe that to you,” Flora stated, turning to me. “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to repay you!”

“Repay me? All I want is for Alice to be safe,” I explained, earning myself a smile from both of the women.

“Don’t worry, we know that too,” Rose spoke, still holding her niece’s hand.

“The two of us anyway,” Flora piped up. “But Azalea could still be a bit… headstrong. Give her time, will you?” I nodded, nerves twisting in my stomach. Ever since Alice had told me about her aunts, I’d always believed (or maybe just hoped) that Rose and Flora would eventually warm up to me, but I knew for sure that Azalea won’t be so easily won over. And I had yet to meet her.

“Now how about we all sit down and break the ice?” Rose suggested, pointing to the chairs around the table and claiming one of the seats. Alice and I followed, but Flora stood rooted to her spot with a frown on her face.

“The kids just got together, Rose; they’d probably want some privacy.”

“And they will have it after we get to know each other,” her sister stated firmly and Flora sat down with a sigh.

“Tea?” Both aunts asked me with a polite smile.

What was with this family and tea?