Honor and Desire (Gold Sky #3) - Rebel Carter Page 0,4
time that she was there with him. “I, ah, I know,” he sputtered.
She raised an eyebrow. “Do you?”
“They are the law men...sheriffs can’t kill people right?” he asked after a moment and Seylah laughed.
“August…”
He cracked a smile then and relaxed slightly against her. “I know they aren’t going to kill me.”
She nodded, patting his arm. “Good, then it—”
“Maim me? Possibly. Rough me up? More than likely, as they both informed me they would without your mother or you knowing.”
Her mouth dropped open. “They did not.”
“They did, but,” he held up a finger when she went to protest, “I know it’s because they love you. I understand.”
She drew back, looking at him in confusion. “You do?”
He nodded. “Of course, I do. You’re family. They’d do anything for family.”
“But you’re family too,” she protested.
August smiled thinly. “Not like you, Seylah.” There was a note of such moroseness in his voice that she nearly stopped walking.
“August,” she put a hand on his arm and moved to stop him. “August, what do you mean?”
“Don’t worry about it, Seylah.”
“But—”
“We will be late for the first dance. We can’t have that. Not with how pretty you look tonight.”
Her eyes widened at August’s words. He had never said that to her, not ever. She hadn’t even thought that he had noticed what she looked like with how little he commented on her appearance. And now, now she was pretty.
“You think I’m pretty?” She asked, a hand going up to her pat her hair.
He nodded and cleared his throat. “Prettiest in town.”
Seylah felt simultaneously as if the air had been punched out of her lungs and that she was floating. It was on unsteady feet that she made it to the dance that was being held in their school, a favorite site for festivities. Tonight, the building she saw every day was magical. Lit up and sparkling like a jewel box, ribbons and garlands hung from the trees nearby, making it a picture of romantic perfection. This is where all of her wishful daydreaming would be made reality, she could feel it in her bones.
Tonight things would change between she and August. For the better, she knew it. The strained nature of their relationship would be understood, feelings would be communicated, there would be no lingering awkward nature to their friendship. Not tonight. There couldn’t be. Not when he’d called her the prettiest girl in town.
She preened and simpered at August’s side. The lingering looks they received were no longer covert, but out right. No one was surprised to find them together. After all, they were always together, were they not?
The only difference was that tonight, it wasn’t just the grown ups commenting and noticing. No, tonight the girls in their grade had taken equal interest. Seylah tried not notice as they danced their first dance, or again when August excused himself to get them refreshments. But, it was plain to see that the girls had finally taken notice of August, and had also, like Seylah, realized that he was no longer a boy.
Their eyes followed his every move, but Seylah could not begrudge them, as she found that her eyes followed a similar path. It was hard not to stare at August when he was the tallest and broadest of their year, when he was the only boy that could properly keep step in a waltz, or had the forethought to offer a drink after a spirited dance. August was attentive and kind, listening to her and laughing along with her jokes, rather than sticking to the walls in sullen silence as the other boys did.
Given this, Seylah understood why the other girls in attendance had noticed August and wasn’t surprised to hear him the topic of conversation when she excused herself to freshen up. But, what she didn’t anticipate was August’s voice joining in the din of girlish chatter. She was standing at the back side of the schoolhouse, about to round the corner to return to where she had left August waiting. It seemed he hadn’t been alone long in her absence.
“She’s just a friend,” August was saying. The tone was unlike the soft, warm voice he had complimented her with, when he had said that she was the prettiest girl in town. This was nearly a scoff, so unlike her best friend in any nature that she stopped short as if she had been slapped.
Something was going on. Something big.
“Doesn’t look like just a friend,” a girl laughed. “Looks like you’re her beau.”