Chapter 1

Aurora

The light did its best to pour in through the dirty bedroom window, reminding me once again that I needed to step up my cleaning game. It was just one thought in a sea of many as I rushed to get dressed, digging through the mess of t-shirts and jeans on the floor.

"Where you going in such a hurry?" my boyfriend, Nolan asked from somewhere behind me.

I answered without turning around. "Work. I've got to open this morning, remember?"

Nolan never remembered any of my obligations. It was almost a defining trait of his. I liked to think it was because he had a bad memory for those sorts of things, but the more time went on the more I was starting to think it was just that he didn't care.

A hand slid around my waist, and he yanked me back against his chest. His erection stabbed at my back, and I had to suppress an eye roll.

"Nolan, I don't have time," I said, pulling at his arm to extricate myself from his grip. "I'm already struggling to find my shoes in this mess." I waved a demonstrative hand toward the mountain of discarded clothing on the floor which, without doubt, was all his.

Nolan didn't release me. He moved his hand down to the front of my jeans and started unbuttoning them. "But I'm horny babe. It'll only take a couple minutes."

Yeah, he would cum in a couple of minutes. Then I'd be left feeling frustrated and unsatisfied. And I'd be late for work too.

I smacked his hand away and jolted away from him, turning back to glare as I continued rooting around for my shoes. "I said I don't have time. Sorry."

I don't know why I tacked on the apology. Maybe it was because I was always apologizing for something with Nolan. We'd been together since high school, which made us the sweethearts of our small town. Bridgefield was one of those backwater upstate New York towns that prided itself on the inability of its citizens to leave. Even the kids who went off to college inevitably came back. I did.

Nolan chewed the inside of his jaw as he watched me finally unearth my shoes and sit down on the bed to put them on. He'd been a jock in high school, more so in attitude than in any real sports talent. I'd fallen over myself to go out with the handsome halfback whose eyes were like summer rain. He’d kept up his physique over the years, but always resisted my suggestion that he get back into football.

"Why are you being such a bitch?" he snarled.

Here we go.

"I'm not being a bitch." I laced up one sneaker and then moved onto the other, deliberately cinching the laces a little tighter than necessary. "I don't have time to have sex right now. I'm constantly late for this job and I know it's starting to piss Marie off."

The day before yesterday I was late because Nolan couldn't find his keys. Last week, it was because he snoozed my alarm in the morning. Evidently, it was annoying him. Sure, some of the times it was my own fault, but I was beginning to see a pattern to my tardiness.

"You're just being frigid because you can," he said. "That's why we haven't fucked in days."

We hadn't fucked in days because he'd been pissing me off lately. I couldn't even say that he was doing anything differently, either, which was why I hadn't brought it up with him. I was beginning to suspect that it was me who was changing, and that I had been for a while. But what was I supposed to do? Nolan was my first and only love. We'd promised to be together for ever. It didn't make sense for me to back out of it because of a few bad weeks.

"If I'm not in the mood, I'm not in the mood, Nolan." I rose to my feet, rounding the bed and stepping past him into the hallway.

He followed on my heels. "Yeah? Well would you be in the mood if I finally agreed to put a baby in you?"

I stilled.

"Oh, I see that got your attention. Why don't you back that ass back up and we can see about getting you knocked up?"

I couldn’t tell whether he was being cruel on purpose or whether he didn't know how deep he was cutting me right now. I didn't want to know, because if it was a case of the former then I would be even more upset.

"Nolan, don't talk to me like that." I turned to look at him. "And since when do you want a baby? I thought we were going to talk about it in a few years. We need to talk more about getting married first."

He snorted. "You can have the baby if you want it, but we're not doing the big white wedding. You're not worth the cost."

I paled. That was, without a doubt, the meanest thing he'd ever said to me. He delivered it so carelessly that I again wondered if he even knew what he was saying. He had to though, didn't he? There was no way he wouldn't see how hurtful that was.

"What's gotten into you?" I asked.

"I'm fucking pissed is what," he snapped back. "We haven't had sex in days and you keep turning me down for stupid fucking reasons. This is how guys get when they haven't fucked in a while. You should know better."

No, this was how Nolan got when he wasn't getting his way. As long as I was doing exactly what he wanted me to, he could be a pretty sweet guy. Lately, as I'd been experiencing feelings of doubt about our relationship and about my place in Bridgefield, I was less and less eager to do his bidding.

"I'm going to work," I said coldly. “If you want to finish this conversation when you get home tonight, fine, but make sure when you do you talk to me like a person and not a piece of garbage."

I grabbed my keys and headed out the door. Happy Tots Daycare was only about a twenty-minute walk away from our little townhouse, but I was going to have to hoof it if I wanted to make it there before people started dropping off their kids. I focused on putting one foot in front of the other, drawing on some of my rage to push me harder.

Even though I fast-walked the whole way, the little argument I had with Nolan had taken its toll. I was sweaty and out of breath by the time I arrived, but I still didn’t managed to beat the first parent.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Badinkis," I huffed, unlocking the front door. "I hope you haven't been waiting long."

The dark-haired woman merely thrust her toddler in my direction and took off back toward the parking lot. Garth Badinkis was a sweet kid, but I knew with a mother like his he wasn't going to be sweet for long. Sweetness erodes over time when faced with a sternness like hers.

"Come on, honey," I said, ushering him into the center. He toddled in front of me, plopping down on one of the bean bag chairs and pulling a book out of his superhero knapsack. I went to work setting everything up for the day, and had only just finished when my boss, Marie Lawson, walked through the door.

"Good morning!" I said cheerfully.

Her returned greeting was less enthusiastic. My heart sank. Did she know that I was late again this morning? Could she tell since I was still putting out chairs?

"I got a call from Mrs. Badinkis this morning," Marie began. "She said she was waiting to drop off Garth for a full ten minutes before anyone showed up."

"Ten minutes?" I shook my head. "I know for a fact it wasn't that long."

"Still." Marie walked around the front desk, standing next to me at the computer. "She wasn't happy. If it was the first time, I wouldn't be so upset. But Aurora, you've been late so many times I've lost count."

Oh no, I didn't like where this was going.

"I'm so sorry, Marie. It won't happen again. I was—"

She put up a hand to stop me, shaking her gray curls. "I don't want to hear the excuse, hon. I'm sorry. You're great with the kids and I love what you've done for our marketing and rebranding, so please don't think that I'm ungrateful. Unfortunately, there's more to running a business than that. I've been thinking about this a lot recently, and it's time I let you go."

The words bounced around my brain, echoing through my ears.

Let you go.

Let you go.

Go.

My heart started racing, anxiously beating against the back of my rib cage as the adrenaline spiked me into overdrive. I couldn't lose my job. This job was everything to me. These kids were everything to me.

"Marie, please."

Her hazel eyes filled with sadness, but the sternness of her expression told me she wouldn't be changing her mind.

"I wish I didn't have to. Believe me when I say that. If you need a reference in the future, please don't hesitate to use me. I've gotta do what's best for my business. Lettie-May's opening a daycare next month and I'm already struggling to compete with all the home sitters. Not to mention the insurance nightmare it would be if something happened one of the times you were late."

The bell on the front door tinkled, and we both shifted our attention to the mother and child walking through the door. Marie plastered on a smile to greet them, and I had the distinct feeling I was being dismissed.

I grabbed my stuff from behind the desk and walked out the front door without so much as a goodbye wave. This had to be one of the worst mornings in history. Well, maybe not world history, but at least the history of Aurora Frayser. I was having serious doubts about the relationship I'd been building a life around for years, and now I was jobless to boot?

How could this day get any worse?

The moment I stepped outside, it started to rain. That was how it could get worse.

I cursed and held my arm over my head as I walked along Bridgefield's high street, staying close to the buildings so I could steal some respite under their awnings. It wasn't very cold out at least, which was to be expected considering it was going to be summer in a couple weeks. At least summer was a good time to find a job, though I had no idea what I was going to do. I didn't have enough savings to get by on, and the thought of asking Nolan for money made my skin itch.

Not how a girl's supposed to feel about her boyfriend. Then again, boyfriends weren't supposed to use everything in their power to keep their girlfriends in their debt.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Nolan’s and my days were over. They had been for some time, but this morning’s little blow out proved that to me more than anything else could. Well, almost anything else. I'd heard some rumors around town that he'd been seen with another girl here and there, but I attributed it to small town gossip. If that turned out to be true, then nothing could stop me from jetting out of our house and as far away from him as possible.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I nearly ran into a tall, willowy girl with a polka-dot umbrella. I stopped just in time, and when our eyes met I didn't recognize her immediately.

Her inky black hair was longer now than it was the last time I saw it, almost down to her waist. She wore it straight, though it was curling a little at the bottom in the humidity, a reminder of her natural bouncy curls. I couldn't even imagine how long it took her to straighten it all.

But what made me realize that I'd just run into my long lost best friend from high school were the impossibly pale blue eyes that fixed on me with surprise, and then with delight.

"Oh my god! Aurora is that really you?" Amy squealed. "It's been so freaking long! What are you up to these days? You have to let me take you for a drink."

"Amy, it's great to see you too!" I said, letting her envelope me in a huge hug.

My 5'4" and her 5'10" had always made us an odd-looking pair. Right now, I imagined it must've looked like she was taking an elf in for shelter from the rain.

"I think it's a little early for a drink though, don't you?" I said into her rain coat, words muffled by the expensive material.

"Nonsense." She released me. "It's never too early for a drink when your parents own the only bar in town." Her eyes twinkled with mischief. "Unless you're busy that is?"

I was, as of ten minutes ago, incredibly not busy. And if I were being honest, I could do with a drink. Especially since if I went home now, I'd only just be going back to Nolan which was the furthest place from where I wanted to be.

"Yes," I said. "Let's go for a drink."