Page 33 of Fourth Base with the Alpha

If she were here now, she’d wipe my tears away with her thumbs and hug me tight. I miss her hugs. I miss her scent. Like lemongrass. It was a scent I knew for as long as I can remember and now I’ll never smell it again.

“Hi Maria,” I say, crouching down in front of the headstone. I pick up the bunch of posies I left here a week ago, now withered and shriveled by the sun, and two other bunches left by friends. I replace them with the box of flowers Hunter sent me. “They’re pretty, right? But I can’t claim credit for them. They’re from my fake-boyfriend. Fake, you say? I know how crazy is that? But you know what’s even more crazy? He’s Hunter Larsson.”

I laugh with tears in my eyes, imagining her face, her brown eyes wide, her mouth open in amazement.

“I kissed him. Last night. Three times. There are probably pictures of it all over the internet. I’ve been too scared to look. Nobody wants to know what they look like when they kiss. What if I look like a dead fish or something? That’s why we close our eyes when we do it, right?”

I sit down on the prickly grass and position myself so I’m leaning against the side of the gravestone, my feet pointing out towards the view.

“Are you ready for the next few chapters? I bet you’ve been on tenterhooks this whole week.” Guilt swims in my belly and I sniffle. I should come here more often. I pull my phone from my pocket and open my Kindle app and the alien romance we’re reading. It’s all over social media right now and Maria would have insisted we read it.

We were always swapping books. At first, we sneakedabuela’s romance books out of her cupboards and read them in secret. Then as we got older, we’d make a day of heading to the bookstore, spending all the dollars we’d saved from part-time jobs on books. When Maria got sicker, when she no longer had the energy to read herself, I’d lie in her bed with her and read to her. At the end she’d often drift off, her frail body curling up against mine, her head resting on my shoulder. But I’d keep reading to her.

I swipe the back of my hand under my nose. “Right, where were we? Oh yes. Our heroine had just met the big, muscular alien. I think this is where it’s going to get good.”

I read the words out loud, even though she’s no longer here to hear them. I read as the shadows shift across the scenery below and the aroma of the flowers seeps into my nose. I read even though the words swim though the tears in my eyes and I hardly know what I’m saying.

I keep reading.

I miss her. I miss my little sister so much.

My heart is so entirely broken. I don’t think I will ever be able to love again.

1 Beautiful flowers

2 Must be in love

3 Do you want to have something for breakfast?

4 I can make you some eggs.

9

Hunter

Monday morning,I’m in the studio running through my part on a new song when Kim calls me. My phone rests on the table to my right and buzzes across the table as Kim’s name streaks across my screen.

I could ignore the call, but it’ll only enrage her and she’ll end up calling me every two minutes for the next hour. After all, she knows I’m home.

I lay my bass down carefully on its stand and pick up the call.

“Kim.”

“Hunter.”

“How can I help you?”

“What do you have sorted for this week’s date?”

“Excuse me?”

“Your date with Isabella. What do you have planned?”

I switch the phone to my other ear with a frown. “What is it you want us to do this time?” Probably something I’m not going to like.

“No, you need to arrange things this time.”

“Why?”