Page 39 of Aryan
“Upstate New York,”
“From New York to Mississippi?”
“Yes, desperation will make you do anything to keep the people you love safe,” she says, and we all agree with that.
“Well, you’re here now, and we are going to help. You and Salove can head on over to the pool house, take a shower, and get some rest. There isn’t much more we can do tonight.
“I am going to head to bed myself. Tonight has taken a lot out of me,” I say, and the sisters hug me before I walk off with Aryan at my side.
“You have some clothes still here. I will put them on the bed if you want to take a shower. Did you eat enough?”
“Thank you, and yes, I did, but um,” I start before trailing off.
“What is it?”
“McKinley wants Cajun-boiled eggs and pistachio ice cream,” I say.
“McKinley, huh?”
“Yes. Are you trying to act like I’m lying?”
“No! Not at all,” he says quickly. “Go shower, and let me see what I can do about McKinley’s cravings,” he says, leaving me at the nursery door. The shower was everything I needed. It put me in the mood to sleep. Just like he promised me, there were clothes on the bed for me to sleep in, and I waddled over to the bed, taking a seat to lotion myself and get dressed. This belly is entirely out of control, and I can’t seem to reach my feet, which is crazy because I was able to lotion my feet this morning. I put my foot up on the bed and try to lean to the side and lotion them. I broke out in a sweat, and I barely reached my feet.There is no way I will let my feet look like I’ve been skipping through flour,I think as I think of another way to get this cocoa butter on my feet when the knock at the door startles me.
“Yes,” I yell out.
“Are you decent?” Aryan asks, making me smile.
“Yep,” I say, not that it would matter. The man has seen me naked in more ways than I can count. He walks in carrying a tray with a bowl of half a dozen Cajun-boiled eggs and another bowl of pistachio ice cream. I do not know where he got both of them from, and I don’t care. I watch the tray like a hawk watches a chicken until Aryan places it on the bed beside me. It doesn’t sit on the bed for a second before I pop an egg in my mouth, and I moan from the flavors. I can hear Aryan’s chuckle as I enjoy my eggs. A few seconds later, I let out another moan, and it has nothing to do with the eggs or ice cream and everything to do with the massage Aryan is giving me as he rubs the shea butter into my feet. He stops for a few seconds to put the pillows behind me and returns to the massage.
“Brooklyn,”
“Hmm,”
“I want you to look in the box. I gave it to you earlier, but you weren’t ready to then. Are you now? I don’t think we can move forward until we finally put the past to rest.”
“Alright,” I say and watch him retrieve the box from where I left it and bring it back to me.
“Open it,” he tells me, handing me the key. Using the key, I open the box. He sits on the bed, watching me intently as the top flips open to reveal a past life I am sure he hoped to never talk about again.
“Aryan,” I whisper as I pull the pictures out of the box of a younger Aryan as a soldier. “I can see why Sophia scooped you up, although I will say you are aging better than fine wine. But you are very handsome in your uniform.” The only sound in the room is the soft shuffle of the pictures, and she looks through them until she stops on a picture. “I obviously knew what Sophia looked like since her twin is downstairs, but seeing you and her together in this picture is a little disconcerting.” There is a ring which I am assuming is her wedding ring, necklace, a hand-carved baby rattle, and two tufts of hair, one Sophia’s and the other is obviously little A.J’s. There are various other trinkets of another lifetime. “I didn’t even know where to find her family, whether they were on the island or the mainland, she did a fabulous job keeping me a secret, so I used my field shovel and buried her and my son that night. I searched for her family, put the word out for her sister or father, who I was and where to find me, but no one ever showed up, and soon after, I was sent someplace else, and I never looked back,” he tells me. We sit in silence until,
“Oh shit,” I yell out, causing Aryan to jump.
“D?” he asks, alarmed.
“She just stretched her big ass in my belly like she is doing Pilates in there.”
“Brooklyn, can I,” he asks, his eyes trained on me, and I remember that he has not felt the baby or even watched me grow bigger with his abnormally large child.
“Yes,” the whisper floats to him. He takes me by surprise when his hand travels up my legs and up under my tee shirt to touch my bare stomach. And just like a typical daddy’s girl, she acts a fool in my stomach as soon as his hands touch me.
“Is she always this active?”
“No, I guess she’s showing out for her daddy,” I tell him and watch the smile bloom across his face. I ignore them both as I take another egg and dip it in the ice cream before I pop it in my mouth. I am seriously in hog heaven right now, and Aryan is too. I finish the eggs and ice cream and set the bowl on the tray before I lean back further into the pillows. Next thing I know, I am falling asleep.
CHAPTER21
Aryan