Page 13 of Take Me Slowly, Part 1 (Aurora Hollow duet #1)

LEAH

I barely got home and closed the door behind me when someone knocked. I turned around and opened it again.

Connor and Riley stood on the other side, both puffing as though they'd run here.

"Is something wrong?" I asked. I couldn't think of any other reason why they'd be out of breath.

"You were talking to Lachance." Connor stepped past me, into the cottage. Riley gave me a glance before following him in.

"Josiah. Yes I was, so what?" I put the bag containing the chair and the cup, on the dining table and stood with my hands crossed under my breasts.

"Why?" Riley demanded.

"Why, what? Why was I having a conversation on the main street of town with someone?" I lifted my chin and stared him down. "Why do you care? How do you even know?"

"It doesn't matter how we know," Connor said.

"Of course it does." I turned my gaze to him. "Are you stalking me? Is someone stalking me on your behalf?" Whichever one it was, I didn't appreciate it.

"I saw you," Connor said. "I was coming out of the Frosty Brew as Riley's dad chased him away."

"No chasing took place," I said evenly. "Riley's father barely said a word to him."

"Enough to make him leave." Riley seemed pleased at that.

"I haven't had enough caffeine for this conversation." Giving them both the side eye, I stepped over to the kitchen to turn on the coffee maker. "What is your problem with Josiah anyway? You both seem to have it in for him."

"It's a long story," Connor said.

I leaned my back against the counter and spread my hands. "Seems like we have time right now. Why don't you enlighten me?"

"You should stay away from him," Riley said, his voice low.

I rounded on him. "Why? You can't say that and not explain it." If they wouldn't explain, I might seek him out and spend time with him to spite them.

They exchanged looks.

"If you don't tell me, I'm going to assume you don't like him because his cock is bigger than both of yours put together," I said.

Hell, that might be accurate for all I knew, but I didn't think so. Judging by the bulges I'd seen in the front of their pants, they could hold their own. I tried not to think too hard about holding them for myself.

I totally wasn't curious about seeing them naked. Okay, yes I was, I was only human. But now wasn't the time.

Connor barked a laugh. "He wishes."

"Maybe we should tell her." Riley scrubbed his face with his hand. "If we don't, someone else will."

I didn't bother to tell him I'd asked and no one else would explain. They might decide to never tell me.

"Yes, you should tell me." I gave them an 'out with it' gesture with my fingers.

"You do it." Connor stalked away, rubbing his temples with his fingers.

Riley scowled after him, but let out a breath of acceptance.

"You saw Gavin Clarke at the market the other day," he started slowly. "The guy with the walking stick and the broken eyes."

That was more poetic than I expected from him, but I nodded. The description was an accurate one.

"I saw him. He was on the street today. Josiah was watching him walk away. Did something happen between them?"

"I guess you could say that." Riley glanced over his shoulder to Connor before looking back at me. "Josiah was supposed to be watching Gavin's daughter, Coral."

"The daughter who died." Something scratched at the back of my mind.

I must have seen something about it on the Internet.

Judging by what Whitney said, I was too young to remember the incident myself, if it was on the news.

Tragic things like that had a way of lingering in people's memories and being talked about long after they happened.

"Yeah," Riley said. "I don't remember, but we used to have play dates and shit. Me, Connor, Coral, our sisters and friends. Dash— Josiah was her neighbour. He watched out for her when her dad was working. He was supposed to keep an eye on her. They used to live by the creek. Above the falls."

He paused, his expression solemn.

"When he wasn't looking, she fell in."

My heart bottomed out.

"She drowned?" I whispered. I could only begin to imagine how everyone must have felt. Her father must have been beside himself. What about her mother?

Riley shrugged one shoulder. "The river took her and she was never found."

"But Josiah ," Connor spat his name like it was an insult, "refused to admit what happened.

He said someone took her. Said he ran after her.

Dashed , that's why we call him Dash. Cops never found any sign that anyone was there.

He made it all up so he wouldn't look bad for what happened to her.

But it's his fault she died. That's why we don't want him around here.

She should have grown up with the rest of us. "

"That's really sad," I said softly.

"Yeah, tell that to her dad," Riley said bitterly.

"He trusted Josiah. When Coral died, he fell apart.

Her mother left. He broke into a million pieces.

No one around here can forget what happened.

We take care of him as much as we can, but you can't mend the kind of brokenness that happened to him. "

His lips twisted to the side, his emotions barely contained.

Anger, pity, and the sadness that lingered after something horribly tragic happened.

The whole town must have been in mourning for a long time.

Years. Terrible things didn't happen in small towns without touching every single person who lived there. Everyone's heart breaks.

"I understand, but it was a long time ago," I said carefully. "What happened to her was a tragic accident. Unless you're suggesting Josiah pushed her in."

Was that what they were trying to explain? If that was the case, he belonged in prison, not walking around Aurora Hollow like a bruised soul.

"No," Riley admitted. "But he might as well have."

"He still lives there?" I guessed. "Above the falls?"

It was Connor who said, "He's the caretaker for Aurora Lodge.

It's a ski resort at the top of the mountain.

Popular with the hipster crowd." He didn't seem to have a particularly high opinion of the place.

No doubt he and Riley had plenty of customers who stayed there though.

I didn't suppose he had any problem taking their money, despite their choice of accommodation.

"What about the rest of the year?" I asked. "When it's not snowing?"

Connor shrugged. "He's up there alone. That's his fucking problem."

"How old was he?" I asked. "When she died?"

"Thirteen or fourteen," Riley said. "We were about four."

Around the same age I would have been back then. Fiona too. She didn't seem to have the same hatred of Josiah these two did, but she didn't seem interested in welcoming him to town either. The whole town had closed ranks against him.

In some ways, he was more of an outsider than I was.

"That's a long time to hold a grudge against a teenage boy," I said. "Especially for an accident." No wonder Josiah was defensive. He probably spent the better part of the year alone on the top of the mountain, being hated for something that wasn’t his fault. He was still a kid himself at the time.

"It wouldn't be so bad if he admitted he looked away, or was taking a piss," Connor said.

"He's stuck to the story about someone abducting her all this time.

He won't take any responsibility for what happened because he's chickenshit.

" He all but spat out the last three words. His hazel eyes burned with raw hate.

Hate he was probably taught by his father, because he had to have been too young to make the connection himself.

Hate that must have been taught to Riley by Henry, in spite of how mild he appeared.

Unless Henry had mellowed over the years.

It certainly hadn't mellowed the way they felt about Josiah.

"Is there any chance he's telling the truth?" I couldn't help asking.

They must have considered that possibility, right? I understood holding on to a grudge like it was a comfortable blanket, but it wasn't healthy for anyone involved. If they weren't careful, it could eat them alive from the inside out. Without doubt, it was doing the same to Josiah.

Silence fell, except for the sound of coffee dripping into the pot. The smell was starting to waft through the room. Any other time it would have been welcome, but today it turned my stomach. The whole story was both sad and sickening. What must that poor girl have gone through?

"The police said no one was there," Riley said finally. "The whole town searched for her, but nothing was ever found. No sign of any strangers or a car either. Nothing to say anything happened except her falling into the water."

"She wouldn't have survived going over the falls," Connor said. "She was long gone before anyone knew anything happened. That's why we blame him. All he had to do was admit what happened and we would have… I don't know, started to forgive him."

It didn't seem like full forgiveness was ever on the cards, but maybe they could have dialled it down to mild hostility.

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to think. Josiah didn't seem like the sort of person who would be anything other than bluntly honest. On the other hand, if he panicked, he might have said almost anything. He must be stubborn as hell to stick to that story for what must have been at least twenty years.

Either way, I felt sorry for him for being ostracised by the whole town, even if it was because of a lie. What difference would the truth have made? What difference would it make now? It wouldn't bring Coral Clarke back. It wouldn't put the pieces of her father's heart back together.

"Don't feel sorry for him," Connor said. "He's had plenty of opportunities to fix this."

"Has he?" I asked. "Or do you chase him out of town the first moment you see him? Would you even listen to him if he told you he wanted to explain?"

They both grunt-laughed.

"We don't want to hear anything he has to say," Connor said. "Chances are, he'd try to spin some other story. More bullshit. Some reason why they didn't find any sign of a kidnapper."

"Aliens," Riley said ominously. "Or a giant Kraken, rising up out of the river to snatch her."

"Or maybe she was eaten by a moose," Connor said dryly. "Or a beaver."

"Or disappeared into a magic book." Riley seemed to be enjoying this a bit too much.

"Have you tried giving him a chance?" I asked, trying to get the conversation back on topic.

"What for?" Connor shrugged one shoulder. "The damage is done. Nothing he says is going to change anything. Besides, he's an asshole. He belongs up there on the mountain, not down here in the hollow."

"And that's why you should stay away from him." Riley stepped closer to me. "If he tries to come near you, I'm personally going to see he ends the way Coral Clarke did."

"Only if you get to him first," Connor said darkly.

"We can do it together," Riley told him. "It'll be more satisfying that way."

"You did not just threaten to murder someone," I said.

If I thought they were serious, I'd be more worried. But these two were more bark than they were bite. I suspected the same could be said of Josiah Lachance.

"You don't get to decide who I spend time with and who I don't."

"Don't we?" Riley placed his hands on the counter, to either side of me.