Breathless Behaviour

11

She looks, eyes big, that smile faltering a little the longer they watch me, making something inside my chest pulse differently, faster, breaking, just like... her head snaps to the side to look at Elliot, that smile crawling up her lips once more as she sees him.

A different feeling hums inside my chest as she smiles at him. A feeling I won't acknowledge like I haven't acknowledged the feeling of her in my arms, pressed too closely to me, that scent of hers still lingering in my lungs as the feeling of her skin on my fingertips.

Shaking my head, I follow the trail that leads to the deck, my steps unhurried, not bothering to call out for Aldo- I figured if he could, he'd spend all day with her, stay with her, watch her, protect her- as I walk past them all, past her. I walk without looking at her, wrinkling my nose only at the thick smell of her that follows me just like her eyes.

Stepping in the kitchen, Camilla doesn't hear me, doesn't notice me, too busy finishing up dinner. She doesn't see me as I look around, from the table to the entryways, hearing, looking, finding no one that can eavesdrop but still keeping my voice low enough only for her. "Camilla? Can we talk?" I ask as I close the door that leads outside, shutting off the soft voice.

I've been pushing this conversation with both of them, not wanting to do it but with what was going on outside, it was impossible to keep pushing it back, to ignore it.

Stopping what she was doing, the woman who has raised Elliot for years turns around, looking up at me, a wrinkle between her brows. "Is something wrong?" There's a hint of weariness, eyes flickering around as if waiting for something.

Five years and she hasn't done anything wrong. She doesn't meddle in my affairs, only doing what she's supposed to do, what she's paid to do. She doesn't question me but is clear about all she'll do and wont do. Camilla Dunn has never given me a reason not to trust her- to a point, it was hard to trust anyone fully, to tell them all my secrets and fears- to think she'd do something bad.

Flicking my gaze around briefly before looking at her again, I can't pinpoint it but everytime I see her, it's like looking at someone I once saw but I can't tell who. I've seen too many people, in many countries and something tells me I've seen her before but I haven't, I'd know or I'd remember. She looks familiar to me but she never said anything to me.

"Tell your grandson to stay away from the girl."

Camilla and I weren't too different, both of us preferring to be talked bluntly, without rodeos. This town, my father, the military made me who I was but whatever she didn't say molded her- whatever reason that brought her here, to this town, she's never said- its shaped her into the woman she was with everyone except her grandson.

Turning off the stove, she lifts her brow. "The girl?" She sounds confused for a second, not knowing who I'm talking about until her gaze wanders off to the window, seeing her grandson and who he sits with. "Alexandra?"

That name, Alexandra, it was too long on my tongue, too good for all she was. It was a mouthful so I only nodded. "Tell him to keep his distance."

Looking back at me, eyes search mine, that weariness from before is nonexistent but just like her, she won't find anything glazing my stare. I've spent years suppressing all I feel.

"Has my grandson done something to her?" She asks, sounding concerned.

To her? I could scoff.