Falling for Mr Innocent

Daddy

Evanna

As I walk inside the doors of my house, I smell lasagna and.. donouts! I love Marie. I throw my bag on the couch as I always do and run to kitchen.

I did not expect to see a red head in my kitchen. Aura swirls her spoon in a pan of I suppose spaghetti. I jump and sit on the counter.

Aura's eyes shift to me and she shrieks. She placed a hand on her heart when she realises it's me. "You scared me."

I chuckle. "An old habit. I used to place a knife near Marie's neck just to scare her. She always fell in my trap." I laugh thinking about Marie's various reactions.

Unluckily Aura doesn't find it as amusing as I do. She makes a face and raises her eyebrow at me. "That's mean." She finally says.

"But it's fun!" I exclaim.

She sighs. "I guess your dad is right. You are kind of reckless and bad ass." I did not expect her to say something like this. She does not look like a woman who cusses. "What? I can't cuss? Come on I'm not that old. I'm just 37." She says when she sees my reaction.

"This means you are 10 years younger than dad... Woah. This means you were in first grade when he was in sophomore." I imagine.

"Really creative imagination. Good." She murmurs.

"Am I in some kind of psychiatry session?" I ask.

"Let's have lunch. It'll get cold." She changes the topic. I decide to let it go.

I and Aura spend the next hour together. She is pretty cool, she even told me about her ex lovers and how funnily her relationships ended. But she said it was all worth it since dad is the best thing that could ever happen to her. Her words not mine.

She also told me that Marie has gone to meet her son and will be back after a month, till then she will only cook. It was okay with me since she is a really good cook. When I asked about Luke, she said that he is sleeping in his room which is luckily next to mine.

Aura is really nice. It would not be too hard to love her but I still want time to adjust to all this.

"I see you both are bonding really nicely." I turn my head and see dad standing near the couch. His jacket in his hand and his shirt rolled up, showing his muscles. Despite being in his mid forties, he is so damn handsome.

I turn my head away from him. I do not want to face him yet. He lied to me and made me feel like the bad one in our story.

"How could we not when Katherine here is such a nice and intelligent girl." Aura saves me the grace.

Dad walks to the dining table and to Aura's chair. He gives her a quick kiss on lips. This small moment ignited a number of memories within me. Dad and mom used to kiss whenever he left for office and came back. Now someone else took mom's place.

It's been seven years, I know, but I still can't see him with anyone else but mom. I should be the one to encourage him to move on but I couldn't. I'm way too selfish for that.

Tears welled up in my eyes. I abruptly get up from my chair, recieving a worried look from dad and Aura. "Excuse me." I say as I turn around and rub my watery eyes with the back of my hand.

I then run upstairs to my room and shut it. I slide down against the door and bury my head in my knees and weep.

"Katherine." Dad says as he knocks on the door.

"Yes?" I say with a cracking voice because I know he hates it when I don't reply even after listening.

"Can we talk? Just for some time. Just you and me." He pleads. I get up, wipe my tears and open the door. Dad smiles at me. "Come with me." He grabs my hand and leads me downstairs.