Inadvertently in Love

Inadvertently in Love 07

Inadvertently in Love 07

Blake

We settled back into our previous routines. Miles was the only one missing at the moment. He still went to look for information about Leah. I wonder what took him so long, making me nervous. He usually worked really fast, so this was unusual for him. Was it really hard to find any new information about her?

Leah captivated me even more. I didn't just talking about her look. No. It was the fact that she works very hard every day, really trying to do her jobs carefully. She took care of Mary-Jane really well. There was no one that taught her how to behave like a lady; she is a tomboy. How could she not? She lived with three men, and one of them is a bad influence. You knew which one of us.

Lily always took care of her, but somehow it was different. The scary thing was the way Mary-Jane looked at me lately. She kept smiling and wiggling her eyebrows at me, then at Leah. What was wrong with her? If I didn’t know her, I bet she tried to set us up. Nah! She was too small to understand that. Maybe . . . she was just in a phase. I tried to convince myself.

But if she really tried to set us up, she did nothing until now. Well . . . maybe I just a bit paranoid and erased the idea from my head, but I should be careful around her. If she planned something, she always successfully did that and I didn’t want to be her next victim.

The second change that I could see was that she brought a good effect for Lily. The tiredness that I usually saw in Lily was gone. She said that Leah would shoo her to rest, when she saw that Lily started to get tired.

I felt a bit guilty. Did she really that tired? I should have seen it and hired a maid to help her. She is under my care for God's sake. When I told Lily about my thought, she just shrugged it off. "No worries about it, boy. I know that you want to take care of me, but this is what I want to do. Yes, she really pampers me, but it bothers me at the same time." She rolled her eyes to show me her annoyance, even though I knew that she was actually glad.

"Why?" I asked her, feeling confused with the contradictory sentences that she just said.

"I used to work hard, Blake, and without doing anything, this old lady feels lost and bored." She sighed heavily to add the dramatic effect.

I laughed at her and kissed her cheeks lovingly. "You are not old, Lily. Look at your face! Shining like a beautiful star in the sky, your beauty reaches heaven, and . . ." Before I finished what I wanted to say, she smacked the back of my head, making me laughing cheerily at her.

"Young boy! Save your sugary bullshit to the young women, okay?" She said that, and yet I knew that she was happy from her pink-tinted cheeks. Lily blushed, making me grin at her.

"Did you just say bullshit, Lily?" I pretended to be angry at her. Mary-Jane wasn't around her, so she could cuss whenever she wanted. Lily is a gentle woman, even though sometimes she could cuss out of nowhere. But never once she did it in front of Mary-Jane. She said that Mary-Jane has the quality for becoming a great lady, unlike her. She always underestimates herself like that, no matter how many times I try to say that she's a perfect mother figure for us, and no matter how she's always be a lady in our hearts.

I remember the first day I met her, replaying the memories of my past in my head.

Our mother just died and we didn't have any money. When we ran away, mother just brought any cashes that she could find. It was only enough for a month, even though we carefully used them. There was simply nothing left for us to survive.

We buried her by ourselves. We dug the ground with our bare hands, taking us a long time to finish it. It wasn't a proper burial, but we still made a grave for her. That was the least we could do. Later, we made the proper ones for father and mother.

We were kids ourselves, and after the burial, I had to learn hunting and stealing in order to find some foods for us. I was ashamed of that fact, but there was nothing else I could do. I tried to find work, but they always rejected us due to our dirty appearances. No one accepted us.

We just wanted to survive.

At one time, I stole foods from the villagers, because I couldn't find anything in the forest or maybe it was fate. I didn't realize that someone followed me. I went back to my brothers; we slept in a cave right outside the village where I stole from. They welcomed me warmly and quickly devoured the foods. I looked at them sadly. I'm their big brother; I should have done something better for them. That's when I heard the scrunching sound of the dry leaves, making me scare.

I tried to act as their protectors, asking them to be quiet. What was that sound? When I carefully went out of the cave, I saw her for the first time. She stood there wearing a simple shirt and long flowy skirt. Her hair was long and wavy, blown by the wind, making her look like an angel. I couldn’t see her face clearly because of the ray.

At that time, she was only twenty-nine. If she was a man, I would definitely try to punch him and runaway. But . . . She was a woman. I didn't know what I should do. Should I run? I am certainly not going to man-handle any women. My parents raised us better than that.

I was petrified. For the first time in my life, I really wished that she would be our angel. Our savior. And she really was . . . .

She really looked at me and then stared at the cave behind me. I knew that she could see a glimpse of my brothers and I tried to block her view, but I knew it was too late. She saw them as clearly as day.

She looked at me in awe, not in pity that I thought she would. Why would she look at me like that? Shouldn't she look at me in hatred? A thief? Whatever the reasons, I was still doing a bad thing. I could see a mix of emotions on her face, but not once I saw hatred.

I looked away from her, feeling ashamed. I was caught. I just hoped that she wouldn't take me to the authority, not because of myself, but what would happen to Sean and Miles? I couldn’t leave them.

I wanted to cry, but I tried to harden myself. Father used to say that a man shouldn't cry, because it showed people his weakness. I did just like that. I tried to prevent the tears to flow down.

I almost successfully did that, if she didn't hug me. She whispered to me how brave I am, how it was time to move on, and how she was going to take care of us. She said the most selfless thing that I've ever heard. ”I was going to become your mother.”

What she said made me cry and hugged her back. She is our angel. Sean and Miles seemed to hear my cry and ran outside. Their eyes were widened, when they looked at me. I never cried in front of them. Not once. They were confused, but I knew that they didn't understand anything. They did what little kids would do, copying their big brothers. They came to us and hugged us tightly, crying together.

After a few minutes, Lily stood up and wiped her tears. She looked at us one by one and said the things that I would always remember, "My name is Lily and from now on the three of you is my kids." We just gaped at her, making her laugh. "Come on. Let's go home."

She took our hands and took us to her home. That was how she became our mother figure - until now. She didn't want to be called Mom though, saying that would make her look old. Shaking my head, I would never understand women. She is so pretty inside and outside, but she just didn't realize it.

"Yeah. It just slipped out." She talked loudly, making me come back to the present.

"I know." I looked at her softly and hugged her. "I love you, Mom." She seemed surprised with my sudden affection, but I could see that she was actually happy.

Lily wasn't the kind of woman that liked to show her emotions, so she smacked me once again and said, "I told you not to call me Mom, making me feel so ancient."

I rolled my eyes at her, but nodded nonetheless. "I know Lily, but in my heart you will always be our mother."

She turned around, but I could see a glimpse of her tears. She softly said, "I know." After that, she said in a louder voice, "Go! Do your job, boy!"

I knew that she needed a time for herself, so I did what she wanted to do – leave her alone. I tried to lightened up the mood and mock-saluted her, "Yes, Madam!" Then I went out, followed by the sound of her laughter.

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