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#52 in the Introvert category | #60 in the Talent category | #94 in the Discovery category |
#406 in the Siblings category | #880 in the Young Adult category | #961 in the Billionaire category
Getting there slowly....
Happy reading!
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Clarisa Knight. Those two words meant more to Declan than anyone would ever know. She was a part of him, deeply embedded into his soul. To the world, they were best friends. To each other, they were so much more. They weren't in love, not yet anyway, but she was that part of him that no one knew, not even Alicia, the keeper of his secrets. With Clarisa, there were no secrets. She knew everything about him, things he didn't know himself. It was hard to explain their relationship. They didn't know how to. 'Friends' was not enough, 'lovers' seemed tainting, and 'soulmates' seemed obscure; How can you be soulmates when your soul was just one?
How he missed her right now. If only he had tried harder to convince her to go back to California with him. But her own story prevented her from doing so. But, that is a story for another time. All he could hope for now is that he survives the week. Declan pondered over the number of times he had prayed, 'let me survive this week, unharmed and untainted'. It unnerved him, and Declan Blake was not one to be rattled easily.
It was Clarisa who had told him, 'you will come back unharmed and untainted'. He didn't quite understand what she meant by 'untainted', but repeating her words allowed him some respite from his nerves. 'This is stupid,' he thought. 'I'm just going to see my family'. But his blood included more than just his parents, brother and niece. He had 5 sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins, all of whom would be at the wedding, none of whom he had seen in 7 years.
Declan liked his life uncomplicated, as uncomplicated as his life could be. But there were more variables now, far more than he could control, far more than he knew how to manage. A tiny little slip, and everything he worked so hard to achieve in the last few years would unbundle and fall fasted than domino picks.
"Breathe," he heard a voice. Declan liked to think it was Clarisa's, but he knew it was Alicia willing him to calm down beside her. They would touch down soon, and his own anxiety would be his undoing. Looking for a distraction, Declan leaned over his sister-in-law in hopes that Aria would be awake. To his luck, she was beginning to stir, probably uncomfortable and stiff from being splayed over her father. She was going to be cranky.
'Good' thought Declan. Distracting aria from throwing a cranky tantrum was Declan's specialty, and the effort it took in keeping her from crying was enough to distract him from his own anxiety.
He quickly unbuckled his seat belt and motioned his brother to switch seats with him. 'You two need the alone time,' he mumbled.
Not waiting for a response, he quickly captured his brother's seat even before Derek was fully out of it. His niece was a weird specimen. Although usually up for anything, she hated change when she was cranky. She preferred the comfort of consistency or a tantrum would soon follow.
Throwing a tantrum on a flight, even if they were seated in first class wasn't going to bode well for anyone. So, it was important that he swapped seats with his brother before Aria could register what was happening. Declan quickly buckled his seat belt, flailing around a little to create the illusion that he had been in the same seat for 4 hours. He then looked over to his niece who quickly cuddled into his side. 'Success!' He screamed in his mind.
'Oh, Ari!' He whispered in a sing song voice, reserved only for playtime with Aria. No one else had the privilege of experiencing this side of Declan. Maybe, perhaps, Clarissa. Once or twice. A day! But it was different with Aria. Her reaction was different to Clarissa. Where Clarissa ran as far away from Declan as she could to avoid the 'tickle monster' as Aria called it, his niece simple squirmed and giggled, enjoying the playful side of her uncle.
YOU ARE READING
Surviving Home | Completed
General Fiction"There is great power in being the calm at the centre of a storm." These were words that Declan Blake lived by, when he was bullied as a child and when he was shipped off to live with his brother on the other side of the country. Now, seven years l...
