Her Second Soulmate | Steve Rogers

Chapter Four

~Steve's POV~

"Angie, look at me." Summer crouched down and held her niece by the shoulders so she could look her in the eye. "You cannot tell your Mummy about the tree on Mr America's leg."

I bit back a smile at the nickname her family had given me, as Angie pouted childishly, "Why not?"

"Because it's a grown up thing, okay? You can tell Mummy you saw him but just don't mention the tree." She stresses the last word.

Angie stared at her for a moment, then flicked her eyes to meet mine. "Is Mummy okay?"

I knelt next to Summer, offering her an encouraging smile before turning to Angie. "Your Mum is okay. But sometimes adults have to talk about things-"

"Boring things?" She asked.

"I... Yes, this is a boring thing."

"Oh." She looked a lot happier as she turned to face Summer. "Can I play on the slide now?"

"Yes, darling." Angie darted away, and Summer watched her go, careful not to let her leave her sight. "Do you want to join us?"

I turned my attention away from Angie to look at Summer. "Join you?"

"I'm planning on sitting on that bench over there, and freak out over the fact my baby brothers soulmate's new soulmate is Captain freaking America." She pointed to a bench close to the swings, then turned to give me a smile. "So feel free to join me."

I watched her begin to follow Angie towards the play park, before I decided to follow her. I needed to talk this through with someone, and as Summer actually knew my soulmate, I knew it couldn't hurt to ask a couple of questions to straighten my thoughts.

I sunk onto the bench next to her, and without turning her head, Summer began to talk. "Luke met Noelle back in school."

I watched as Angie politely asked a small girl if she could play with her, before the two climbed up the steps that led to the top of the slide.

"They were soulmates. Their arms grew flowers at the same rate as each other, growing bigger when they spent more time together."

"I remember seeing them. The flowers, I mean." I murmured.

Summer pinched the inside of her left wrist. "He came to me really confused on his first day of school. A teeny tiny flower started growing, right there." She trailed off before turning to look at me. "He died a year after Angie was born."

She sighed, and moved her body so she could look at only me. With her cheek resting in her palm, and her arm folded to sit along the top of the bench, she continued explaining in a soft voice. "That girl misses her Dad, but she didn't know him. She misses the idea of her father."

I gulped, suddenly aware of the direction this conversation was going. "I don't know if-"

"Listen to me." Her voice hardened dramatically and I silenced immediately. "Elle is terrified because she has been raising Angie on her own for three years. And then in a matter of days after meeting you, both her and Angie miss someone terribly, and that someone is not my little brother."

She turned to wave back to Angie who was grinning at us from the top of the slide. Her smile slid off her face to a solemn expression as she looked at me. "Angie already likes you, but I don't know what to tell Noelle. She's convincing herself she doesn't need someone new, but fate is obviously deciding to play its own game. And we don't know the rules."

I flicked my eyes down to stare at the small crack in the path beside my foot. A single, long strand of grass had fought its way through the stone to poke through the other side. "I don't know what to do."