Forbidden Serenade

Chapter Four

I sat across from Elijah, sipping on my coffee. Each delicious drink sent a warmth through my body. The caffeine did nothing to calm my nerves. There were more reasons than I cared to explore for my unease. I was an adult woman, out with a barely legal boy, with dirty thoughts running rampant through my head. The sexual remark he made earlier didn't help.

Elijah took a sip of his black coffee. "Tell me about yourself, Riley."

"There isn't much to tell you I haven't already."

Taking his hat off, he ran his hand through his hair before putting it back into place. "How long were you married?"

My fingers wrapped around my latte. "Fourteen years. Have you been married?"

He smirked. "No."

Biting my lip, I swore I felt the judging glare of everyone around us. Did they somehow know this younger man was flirting with me? Or did they see us as mother and son? I wasn't truly old enough to be his mother. Lilly's pregnancy at fifteen already put me as an extremely young mother. It didn't make this right. "You know this is totally insane, right? I have a sixteen-year-old daughter. You're only five years older than her."

He glanced around the coffee shop as though confused. His eyebrows crushed together, and, with his glasses, it looked like he was attempting to solve a complex math problem. "What are we doing wrong? We're just having coffee."

My nerves felt on high alert. Was I reading too deeply into this interaction? Or was Elijah playing the slow game? "As long as we're clear what's going on."

He cocked his head to the side. His chiseled jawline was as sharp as granite. "You're very preoccupied with this age thing."

I shrugged. "I'm eleven years older than you."

His blue eyes studied my face, trying to figure me out. "It's just a number."

"An important one."

He sat back in his chair. Waving his hand in front of him, he made his argument. "What does it really tell us? How many years you've lived? It doesn't consider our lives. What we've experienced and the obstacles we've overcome." Sitting forward in his chair, he leaned toward me. His hair moved on either side of his head beneath his hat. His eyes glowed with determination at his argument. He spoke with fervor about this, and it made me wonder for one pleasurable and inappropriate moment how passionate he would be in bed. "You wouldn't believe how many entitled people I've met who are years older than me and have no idea not everyone is handed everything on a silver fucking platter."

His curse word caught me off guard. It put an edge to his words. Something was hitting close to home for him. "You didn't have your life handed to you?"

His jaw ticked to the side. There was a past that clouded his beautiful blue eyes. It was obvious he'd experienced trauma in his youth and, despite hardly knowing him, that pulled at my heartstrings. This mysterious pain drifting over his face somehow affected me, too. I felt his hurt without him ever explaining it. "No. Not one speck of it." He sat back in his seat and released a deep sigh, as though freeing the suffering. "I've lived through a lot, Riley. Don't dismiss experience."

I fumbled for words. It wasn't my intention to offend him or cause him pain. I was desperate for another argument. Another reason we had to tread carefully. "I'm coming out of a fourteen-year marriage. I devoted my life to one man for eighteen years."

Elijah regarded me for a moment, his eyes flickering over me. "High school sweethearts?"

"Yeah, kind of. It's a bit more complicated than that." I took a sip of my coffee. Setting my cup down, I bit my bottom lip. Why did I feel compelled to tell him everything? "More like knocked me up at fifteen and had our first child at sixteen."