SWNOVELS Whose Bed Have Your Claws Been Under: Chapter 6
“Like you listened to me?” Paige said sharply, her breasts heaving.
I shouldn’t be noticing anything like that, but jeez, she’d grown into a gorgeous woman. I might’ve been angry with her before, but even then, I’d noticed.
She grabbed my sleeves and yanked. “Let me up.”
“I’m sorry.” I sucked in a breath and pushed it out. “Stay here just a second, would ya?” If I had to pin her in place to get her to listen, it would be worth it.
Everything was at stake here. All the dreams I’d had, the ones I’d learned to stomp on until they’d sunk deep beneath the ground, were finally coming true.
She narrowed her gaze on my face. “Okay, talk. I’ll listen.”
“See, if I could take it back, I would. You must know what a shock it was for me to see you in the church.”
“For me too. I thought you were dead, Darrow. Dead!” The emotion in her voice was real, and it stabbed through me. I thought she left me, but she’d been told I had died. How would I have handled something like that if our positions were reversed?
And I knew why they’d taken her. I’d done something horrible. Who knows what I might’ve . . .
Shoving aside the thought, I held eye contact with Paige. My thick bands of hair had come loose from their binding. They wove around my head, mirroring the agitation churning through me. “The moment I saw you standing at the end of the aisle, I was struck by lightning. I could barely think. Speak. Function. I couldn’t believe you’d returned to Petrified Woods after running away.”
“You know I didn’t run.” Defeat came through in her voice. Did she think I was still mad at her? I’d heard what her mom said, the inflection in her words. They’d fuckin’ lied to her.
“I knee-jerk reacted because I was afraid,” I said softly.
What if she wouldn’t believe me? I got a taste of how she must’ve felt when I rejected her on the altar, and I didn’t like it. She’d been quite gracious, all things considered. “I fell back on the anger that had spiked through me when you left. I thought you’d abandoned me, but now I see your parents abandoned both of us.”
She slumped. “It was horrible, but I imagine you felt just as bad.”
“You were alive. I had that, even if I was mad at you for leaving and never reaching out.”
“It took me years to start moving forward. I kept turning, expecting to find you beside me. I’d start to tell you something or ask you to help me with my homework, but you wouldn’t be there. The empty silence of the place you took at my side haunted me.”
“We’ve both been hurt by their actions, but we were innocent.” I levered myself up and off her, then reached down to help her stand. She accepted my help; I was grateful for that, but she scooted away from me. She strode around the fountain and sunk down on the bench she’d taken before.
I walked over and joined her, smoothing my hair out of my face. They had minds of their own, mostly, though they thankfully didn’t voice any opinions. Nope, they just flung themselves around at the most inconvenient times, drawing attention I did my best to ignore.
“You’re a gorgon,” she said, studying my hair. “I’ve only read about medusas.” When her finger got close, one of the strands looped around her finger. It stroked her fingertip, and she laughed. “It tickles.”
My hair was more than happy to show feelings I didn’t dare give voice to.
“I’ve met lots of monsters, but never a gorgon,” she said.
“I don’t know if gorgons exist outside of myth.”
“Well, there’s you. You’re not a myth.”
I shrugged. “I was twisted by that scientist, not born this way, as you know.” I lifted my chin, daring her to reject me, this time for real. “I’m the full package.” My words came out with a touch of the shock I’d felt right after I was changed. “It was horrible at first.” I lifted my hand, tapping beside my left eye. “I . . .”
Do not tell her what happened.
She gazed at me with only sympathy, something no one gave me at first and with good reason.
“I eventually learned to accept this body.” And to control my eyes. If I hadn’t, my fellow townsfolk would’ve killed me, incarcerated me, or driven me from Petrified Woods.
“It must’ve been scary.”
“I eventually figured things out.” That was as close as I wanted to come to telling her about what happened back then.
Her head tilted. “What do you mean?”
“I run a statuary.”
Her breath jerked inward. “That’s . . .”
“Funny, right? A gorgon selling statues for people to place in their gardens. I buy wood carvings from a woman in town and turn them into stone. You’d be surprised what I can do with plastic.”
“That sounds amazing.”
“And I also do stone carving.” I was gushing, but I didn’t care. This was Paige, my best friend, sitting beside me as if she’d never left, as if we’d ended one conversation then begun another. “The stone speaks to me, telling me what it wants to be.”
“What do you do with your art?”
“I sell some of it. Others I place in gardens around town. Everyone seems to enjoy them, and that makes me happy.” I didn’t mention that I’d made my fortune already. My statues had gained a reputation no one could match, and celebrities were willing to pay a fortune to have just the right statue carved in their honor.
“I’m glad you’ve taken something some would find a challenge and turned it into a thriving career.”
“What about you, Paige? What have you been up to?”
“I’m a lawyer. I finished school a few years ago. I have a ton of debt, but you know how it is. Mom and Dad have helped, though I plan to take over the payments soon.”
“Where do you work?”
“In Monsterville.”
I’d heard of the town where many monsters had settled, including Gunner and Rylee. They’d moved from Petrified Woods months ago.
“Most of the monsters there are real,” Paige said.
Even I hadn’t known there truly were monsters. They’d lived a parallel life from humans, some adopting human ways, others sticking strictly to their own cultures.
When monsters crept out of the woods and from beneath the ground, humans reacted with shock and dismay, feelings I well understood since I felt them about myself for a very long time. A treaty was formed, and now they lived all over the world, though a large portion of them resided in and around Monsterville. I heard they felt welcome there. I hadn’t visited the town.
“I joined a practice there,” Paige said.
We watched the fountain for a long while, but the silence between us felt healing, not upsetting.
“Where do we go from here, Darrow?” she asked softly.
“Where would you like to go next, Paige?” When I was sixteen, I was in love with her. I’d grown up since then, and my goals were different. If she’d remained in town, I could easily see us still together. But now?
“I don’t know.” She turned to face me. “Ten years ago, I knew what I wanted.”
“Me.” I didn’t need to ask. She’d felt the same as I had.
“Now everything’s changed. I’m glad you’re alive.” Reaching out, she took my hand.
I wanted her back in my life for always. I’d accept friendship, but my heart . . . How could I still be half in love with this woman? It could be the dream of who she’d been back when we were young. My entire life had formed around her.
But if she felt differently than me, I’d have to let her go. Although, I was never one to give up easily.
“Tell you what,” I said, my voice husky with emotion, “give me this weekend to convince you we deserve a second chance.”
“At what? What do you want from me, Darrow?”
Naming it could break the tiny thread still stretching between us. I couldn’t risk losing her again.
“We’ve changed a lot since you left town,” I said. Hopefully for the better, though some might argue about that now that I was a gorgon.
“We’re older. Maybe we’re not who we were back then.”
“We can put what happened behind us and begin anew.”
“I live in Monsterville. You live here.”
“It’s less than an hour’s drive away.” Other people made long-distance relationships work.
Would I consider leaving the town I’d lived in since I was changed into this cursed gorgon form? I never thought I’d be able to leave, that no one outside of this town would accept me. But monsters were everywhere now. I could fit in almost anywhere.
“What are you asking for?” she asked, her voice shining with the hope blooming inside my heart.
“Let’s get to know each other again. Maybe by Monday, we’ll be able to tell if we have something worth fighting for.”
Biting her lower lip, she pinched her eyes shut, though only for a moment.
When she opened them again, they glistened with tears. “Alright, Darrow. Let’s see where this goes over the weekend.”