"Just shine like you always do."
Gwenn Davidson has always known she was adopted, but after clearing up her stuff for her first move out of her parent's house, she finds an old blanket gifted to her by her birth mother that triggers an avalanche of...
SILENCE TANGLED THE TWO as they breathed out a sigh in unison once they were locked inside the battered truck. Gwenn pursed her lips, looking out into the parking lot in an attempt to ignore the obvious.
Students weaved around cars, holding onto their school bags and laptops with a slowness that she understood as the midway burnout. No one wanted to trudge to class when their brain was half-fried. But everyone still did-well, most did-like walking zombies. The afternoon sun hung high in the sky, shining down bright yellow rays, making any reflective surface glow blindingly. The usual California warmth dimmed, but was present enough to lull everyone into a sleepy spell.
Gwenn wanted to close her eyes and leave the conscious world.
Ronan went to turn on the ignition, but thought better of it. The keys jangled in his grasp until he tightened his fingers around it. He laid his head back against the headrest, then turned in her direction. A million words flashed through his face, none vocalized.
"You had news?" Gwenn asked before he could form the words. She hoped they could ignore the obvious Wolf interaction and leave it in the past where it belonged. She did not have the time to unpack all the things he said about her and Ronan.
His lips stretched into a small smile, the one that didn't reach his eyes and revealed the cutest dimples. Rather than answering, he dug into his bag, rustling through the mess of bent notebooks and crumpled sticky notes, and pulled out a stapled packet of papers. At first glance, she thought he was giving her one of the study guides she had made him, but when she glanced at the cover page, it was his latest abnormal psychology paper. A big ninety-three was scribbled in blue pen on the top right corner.
"Ronan!" she cried out, holding out the paper higher to fully admire it. "Look at you getting high marks."
The smile she missed appeared then, brightening his features in an instant. "My grade went up. I'm passing with double the percentage I had the last time." Even as he told her, his words came out breathy, like he was still convincing himself of the fact. After failing the class before, he did not think he could get through it, much less with flying colors, in order to graduate in time. But there he was, showing off how much he could learn with enough patience. "It's all because of you."
A bubbly current slithered up her throat, and she laughed. The last bit of tension stuck to her shoulders after their encounter with Wolf flew away from them. Gwenn couldn't contain herself and threw her arms around his neck, flinging her body across the seat. "Ronan, this is amazing," she exclaimed.
After a second of hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her mid-section, bringing her in closer. Gwenn tightened her hold, pressing her chest to his.
"Thank you," he whispered. It was so soft she almost missed it. She squeezed him in response.
"It was mostly you," she reminded him. "You're intelligent, Ronan. You just needed to learn how Professor Franklin worked."
She loosened her grip from him. His hands slid from her back down to her sides, warming her from the top of her head all the way to the tips of her toes. Suddenly, she craved the chilly autumn air from the east coast to refresh her burning skin. But at the same time, she delighted in feeling cooped up in his warmth.
"And without you, I wouldn't have learned how to do just that," he said. Those blue eyes melted into pools of water, and his hand cupped her cheek. Her breaths quickened, pulse racing, as his gaze drooped down to her lips. "You're the only thing keeping me going."
Memories of their break-in came back to mind. They were in his truck then. He had reached over and kissed her out of nowhere. Minutes later, she was straddling his lap.
She stammered. "Well, it's only fair. You're helping me find my biological mother." Her heart skipped a beat, and she tightened her chest to stop from doubling over and coughing. Ronan met her eyes again, then the tips of his lips quirked up for a split second.
"About that." He let his hand fall from her cheek. She missed his warmth immediately. "I found something from the Braunson Valley branch, and you're gonna like it." Her eyebrows shot up. Braunson Valley was the branch of A Chosen Bond that she came from, according to her file. Before she could question further, he continued. "I got a name."
"A name," she echoed. The words seemed foreign in her tongue as the rest of her mouth dried. Surely he didn't mean the name.
"A name," he confirmed, eyes shining. "Ruth Elizabeth Woods."
Gwenn stared at Ronan, her vision tunneling as the rest of the world went in slow circles. The name washed over her like a caress of soft flower petals falling from the open skies, grazing down her cheeks until they piled up in her lap. Bright yellow filled her eyes, the color of the sunflower embroidered onto her blanket. She shook away the imagined scene.
"Is that?" she whispered.
Ronan nodded, casting his gaze to his fidgeting hands. "I believe she's your biological mother. And it matches the R. Woods from the files at A Chosen Bond."
Ever since she found that old baby blanket inside that old, creaky chest, she wondered if she would ever hear her biological mother's name. Sometimes she thought she might have heard it before but would never know it was the one from the woman who brought her into the world. Until that very moment when Ronan gave her the truth. He gave her that piece of her history, one she had yearned to learn.
Ruth Elizabeth Woods.
She couldn't form words. Everything jumbled in her head like she wanted to say a million things, but none of it could get past her tongue. Tangled sentences and questions rang in her head, and she turned away, breathless.
She closed her eyes, breathing in hard. "So what now?" she managed amidst the chaos of her mind.
"I'm working on getting an address," Ronan said, shifting in his seat. "That's why I asked you to come with me actually."
Gwenn peered up at him. "Where are we going?"
His demeanor eased again, and she admired the way he lounged back like he hadn't almost punched the living daylights out of Wolf Lawrence minutes before nor given her the name of her biological mother.
He was showing off so many sides of him, and they were all attractive. Brooding. Annoying. Jokester. Adorable. Protecting. Loyal. The list went on in her head, tackling on more qualities of the man before her. He made her blush fiery red but also made sure she felt safe, even in the riskiest of situations.
Ronan flashed her that grin that sped her heart beat and turned on the ignition to his truck, ignoring the usual loud sputter. "Lockfell Park. Have you ever noticed that working in front of Marshall Lockfell's frozen face makes you work twice as fast?"
She didn't have time to properly react before he was speeding out of campus.
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