Dark Shadow (Book 1 in DARKNESS DUOLOGY)

Fifteen: Sweet Family Moments

I sat in the center of the Square, cross legged and just staring at the finally finished mural. The top coating just finished drying, giving it a shine look to it, and to protect the paint.

It got done a lot faster than I expected but that might have been because I wouldn’t allow myself to concentrate on anything else. The whole Friday morning and afternoon, I was working non-stop on the mural—trying to get it done for the party tomorrow.

My brother was with me, sitting off to the side and letting me work. I was grateful he hadn’t bothered me once. I think Wade could sense I wasn’t exactly in a talking kind of mood and thankfully was smart enough to just stay quiet.

Other than interrupting to hand me a sandwich from the local shop nearby, Wade wouldn’t bother me.

With the mural done though, and sitting in the center of the Square, staring at nothing, I couldn’t stop thinking about how bittersweet this moment was. It was finished finally—the mural—but I wasn’t able to enjoy it as much as I thought I would because Ridge wasn’t here.

In the short amount of times we spent together this week, I had really grown to care about Ridge. On a deeper level than I thought I initially had.

It seemed unfair, really, that right when Ridge and I were at a good place, something had to wedge itself between us. That bitterness I felt when first finding out about Molly and Ridge’s relationship started to seep into my chest again. I mustered the strength to push it back because it had been acknowledged that Ridge and Molly were not “together” again. This was just to save face for the sake of the alpha and the pack.

Seemed kind of bizarre, and according to Cece, it was selfish. The alpha shouldn’t have told me to go along with such nonsense. My family seemed to agree. But I was the odd one out; resisting to do anything that would harm the pack or the humans of Carmel.

My dad sat with me outside yesterday after the alpha left. We sat on the porch steps, looking out in the open. There was no words spoken for a good long while and I enjoyed that. Dad eventually did talk to me but he stared out at the scenery when voicing how hard it was to not be frustrated with me with me being so selfless.

“It’s in your nature though,” Dad sighed.

I knew he was referring to the Quail Wolf.

Dad looked at me, grinning as I looked back to him. “I am very proud of you, though, Button. You’ve handled all this with such resilience and it makes me so proud to be your father.”

That made this whole thing a little more bearable.

“Gigi…”

I blinked a few times, turning to see my brother standing next to me. He frowned, staring at me and I raised a brow. “What?”

“I said your name a few times already. You couldn’t hear me?”

My lips formed a tight line, shaking my head and muttered that I hadn’t heard anything. I told him I was sorry but then my brother knelt down, shaking his head and told me to not apologize. My brother placed his hand on my head, sighing that he knew I had a lot on my mind.

Wade paused, letting the silence take over other than the outside noise in town. My brother tilted his head, looking at the mural and mumbled how amazing this was. He followed from one wall to the next to the next and so on. Wade looked at me, grinning how amazing his little sister was.

I smiled, thanking him.

Wade stood up, holding out a hand and nodded for us to go home. That we needed to get some rest before tomorrow morning when Mom would, for sure, have us running around to get everything ready for the party tomorrow night.