Bad Boys Can't Date Persephone: Part 4
Flora learns a few new things about Hayden.
Mum was going to kill me. No – she was going to kill both of us, and then she was never going to let me out of her sight again.
I double checked my phone. The signal would have to come back sooner or later, wouldn’t it?
If the shield was blocking the signal, I wouldn’t be able to contact Mum for a long time.
After shoving the phone back in the jeans pocket, I went back to Hayden and crouched beside the chair again.
He smelled warm, sweet and slightly spicy. The scent was almost intoxicating, and it was also...familiar. Where had I come across it before?
As if sensing me, he opened his eyes. “Hey. Any luck?”
“No.” I wanted to ask him what the Wi-Fi was like here; if a phone call or a text wouldn’t work, perhaps the internet would. I could send a message to Mina on her socials or to Mum on the farm email.
I couldn’t ask him now, not while he was like this.
With a grunt, he sat up a little straighter. “Think I know why I couldn’t open a window. That shield’s not just linked to my magic, it’s made from it.”
All of that came from him? Just how powerful was he?
“And since the wards used your magic to create the shield,” I said slowly as the situation sank in, “there isn’t much left for you.”
“Yeah. It’s gonna stay like that until my family gets out of town – and I don’t think they’re just passing through like you said. Topaz Coast isn’t exactly a place you drive through.”
He was right. Topaz Coast had a lot of visitors in spring, summer and autumn, especially around the beaches.
Grunting, he got to his feet; I quickly moved away to make room for him.
“Don’t know about you,” he said, “but I’m hungry. Like peanut butter sandwiches?”
“Love them.”
Suddenly I shivered.
He frowned. “You OK?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” My wet hair had clung to the borrowed T-shirt and now the fabric was sticking to my back.
“I’ve got a fleece, if you want it.”
It wasn’t a warm house – not that I would tell him that. “Thanks.”
We moved into the kitchen; Hayden switched the light on, immediately brightening the room up.
“Can I help with anything?” I asked.
“I don’t exactly need help with making sandwiches.”
“Yeah, but Mum always said I should offer to help when I’m a guest in someone’s home.”
Hayden scoffed. “That’s not what my parents said to me.” He opened a small cupboard on the wall and took out two plates and two glasses. “My dad always said that since I’m a guest, it’s the host’s job to cater to us.”
OK, he wasn’t wrong, but all the same, wasn’t offering to help just basic manners? Then again, Hayden and I had grown up in very different environments and with very different parents.
“Actually, no. It’s the host’s job to make sure the help cater properly to us.”
There were so many things I wanted to ask him. Why had he come to Topaz Coast? Why did he not want his family to find him?
I knew when to mind my own business. This wasn’t the same as talking to Mina about her home situation; we’d been friends ever since we were little. Hayden and I barely knew each other.
“If you really want to help, cutlery’s in that right drawer. The bread knife’s in the left.”
I went over to the drawer he meant and opened it. Inside was a cutlery rack with two knives, two forks and four spoons.
“Thought Elena was kidding when she said I’d need more than one plate.”
I plucked the knives out of the drawer, the bread knife out of the other one and shut both before realising what he’d said. “Wait, Elena Reyes? Ethan’s mum?”
“She helped me get some things I’d need around here.”
I put the knives on the table. “Things like plates, cups, glasses and bowls?”
He put a paper bag and a jar of peanut butter in the middle of the table, then looked me right in the eye. “Yes.”
Clearly, he hadn’t come to Topaz Coast with much. A feeling of unease started to stir inside me.
Hayden opened the paper bag, taking out a loaf of bread. My mouth started watering: that could only come from Golden Loaves, the best bakery in town. Hayden started sawing away at the loaf, cutting off four slices; he put two on my plate and two on his, then nudged the open jar towards me.
I helped myself to some peanut butter and slathered it on one of the slices. The bread was light and fluffy, almost as good as Mum’s homemade loaves. And…well, I was hungry.
“Can I ask how old you are?” I asked, my speech sticky and thick.
“Eighteen. You know you’re safe here, right? And not just ‘cos I know your dad.”
Dad. Oh, gosh. Dad. He was going to be just as worried as Mum.
All the same, I nodded. I trusted Hayden – which was kind of weird, now I thought about it. I hardly knew him.
When this was over, I’d say nothing but good things about him to my parents. Both were influential people in town: Dad was the head of law enforcement and most of the homegrown food in Topaz Coast came from Greenfields Farm.
Wait.
“How do you know who my dad is?”
“He helped me move here.” Hayden put two more slices of bread on his plate. “Got in touch with the Reyes family and asked them to sort me out with some stuff.”
Yup, that sounded like Dad.
His eyes twinkled mischievously. “He’s got a picture of you on his desk.”
“And you recognised me in the garden centre?”
“Yeah. You’re easy to remember.”
I blinked. Was he saying I was pretty? He hadn’t used those words and maybe it was silly of me to think that he did mean that, but all the same…no boy had ever said I was easy to remember.
“Thank you. So are you.”
But why would Dad help him move here? I knew Dad was well-connected in his own right, which was most likely how he knew Hayden’s family. “I’m guessing Dad didn’t tell your parents you moved here.”
The twinkle in Hayden’s eyes vanished. “No.”
I shifted around on my chair. “Look, maybe it’s not your parents. Maybe it’s a distant cousin or something. How specific were you with the wording?”
“Parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, close cousins. If we have got distant cousins, I haven’t met them – and I don’t want to if they’re anything like my brothers and the Rothbarts.”
“I don’t have siblings – full or half. My best friend is like my sister, though.”
Hayden took a bite of his sandwich. “From what I’ve experienced, you’re not missing out on the whole sibling thing.”
“Let me guess, your brothers are the golden children?”
“Yup. Real chips off Dad’s block.”
The bitterness in his tone stunned me a little. It was as if a curtain had fallen over his face; his jaw was slightly clenched and his eyes hard.