Free Stakeout (Aurora Sky by Nikki Jefford

She offered no comfort or encouragement of any
kind—the perfect companion to fit my hollow mood.
    I must have zoned out because I hadn’t
expected to see Aurora again for at least a couple hours, but it
felt more like a couple minutes when her reflection joined mine in
the window.
    “Noel?”
    Slowly, I looked up.
    “Oh, hi.”
    “What’s the matter?” Aurora asked, taking a
seat beside me.
    Normally I wouldn’t discuss Gavin with
anyone, but his weird behavior was making me nuts. “I don’t know
what’s going on with Gavin. He’s being so cold to me tonight.”
    Aurora raised a brow. “He’s a vampire.”
    “Ha, ha.” That’s what I got for sharing my
feelings. “What about Fane?” I asked. “Is it true he broke up with
Valerie?”
    Aurora was so easy to distract. “He says they
were only together a day.” She slumped forward. “He was rather
cold, too.”
    I felt a twinge of pity. It had been easy for
me to place judgment on Aurora for not wanting to break up with
Fane and obsessing about him and Valerie after she did. If she felt
the way I did about Gavin, I could begin to sympathize.
    I sighed. “Why can’t we like normal
guys?”
    “Because we’re not normal girls.”
    We gazed into the blackness beyond our
reflections in the window pane.
    Aurora cleared her throat. “A boy from school
followed me here.”
    “What?” I said, turning away from the
window.
    “Well, actually he followed us here after he
saw me get into your car at school.”
    “Why would he do that?” I never realized
February was National Stalk Someone Month.
    Aurora rolled her eyes. “I guess he likes me.
Annoying, right?”
    “And stupid,” I added. “Did he see
anything?”
    Aurora scrunched up her nose. “No, I got him
out of here right away and told him to never come back.”
    “Let’s just hope he doesn’t.” And that was
hoping a lot from a high school boy who’d already followed Aurora
to a party.
    “I was very clear,” Aurora said. She sighed.
“So much for a quiet evening out. Ready to get out of here?”
    Was she serious? We’d barely arrived. Then
again, maybe it was better if Aurora left before she attracted any
more trouble. I stood and led the way out of the living room.
    I caught Henry’s eye in the kitchen as I
passed. I wondered if he knew what was up with Gavin.
    I tapped my fingers on the steering wheel as
I drove across town. When we reached Aurora’s home, she said,
“That’s weird. All the lights are on.”
    I vaguely remembered her saying her dad had
split. I wish mine had taken off. If he’d left, I wouldn’t have had
to. Aurora didn’t know how lucky she was. Not only that, but
obviously her mother was up worrying about her. Mine couldn’t even
muster up the guts to protect her own children. I thought that was
supposed to be a basic animal instinct. We had the capacity to
reason and communicate verbally, but all it had done was corrupt
us. All hail the human race. If any creature deserved eternal life,
it was dolphins or elephants, not humans. People were a plague on
earth.
    Aurora stepped out of the car and wished me a
good night, but I wasn’t calling it a night. My roommates were out
for the evening. Even Eric couldn’t get away with staying in on
Valentine’s. Clive would never allow a Hallmark holiday to dictate
his dinner plans. He likely assumed that no guy wanted to be with
me and could very well be stalking the entrance of my building.
    Screw that.
    I was going back to the palace. Maybe Gavin
had finished texting or whatever the hell he was doing and
lightened up. He’d made moves on me before. I hadn’t imagined it.
Obviously he was interested. He must have been distracted by some
important news. He wasn’t the most open guy. Probably didn’t want
to bother me with whatever it was.
    I zipped through downtown, only vaguely aware
of traffic and street lights.
    Finding a parking spot proved challenging,
especially later in the evening, but my luck improved when a