Summa Alpha Prophecy

Chapter Five

RAYLEE POV

When I get back inside, I’m even more confused than before. I shake it off and find Maz in the lounge with the kids. She gives me a ‘you good’ look and I just shake my head in a ‘don’t want to talk about’ way. She nods and looks back at her computer screen. I tell Jada it’s time to get ready for bed and she follows me without any fuss. Once she’s bathed, read to and in bed, I head back out and plonk down on the couch. Maz turns around again.

“Hey, so I have to head into town tomorrow for a few things. Do you want to come with us and check it out?”

“Yes, that’d be great!” I said without hesitation “Hey, so I’m tired. I might just head to bed. Goodnight.” I got up to leave.

“Are you going to be OK? I’m here if you want to talk about anything.” I stopped, turned towards her and just stared at her for a few minutes.

Finally, I say, “Thanks, but for now, I just have to process. I’ll see you in the morning.”

She smiled sadly. “OK darl, hope you get a decent sleep and things look brighter tomorrow.” I just nodded and walked away.

Back in the room, I can’t help but think about the irony of the fact I came all this way to get away from crap and now I seem to have landed myself in more.

I honestly don’t understand why I feel so drawn to this guy. I'd told myself I was not ever getting into another relationship and then here comes this completely from left field.

I’m so damn confused. I even started to wonder if I should head home early but decided that wasn’t going to happen as I waited so long to take a trip like this. Hopefully, going into town tomorrow will be a good distraction. After a few hours of tossing and turning, I eventually fell asleep.

Once again, I wake up to a happily bouncing Jada. I noticed it was 7 am. I slept late. I dragged myself out of bed and headed out to the kitchen to get us breakfast.

There is no one in the dining room. In fact, the whole house sounds quiet. I found a note pinned to the fridge. You guys were sound asleep, so we left you to it. We’ve all eaten, so help yourself. I took the kids outside with me to play. Head out when you’re ready to head to town -Maz.

I’m kind of relieved I don’t have to see the guys this morning. I made us both some breakfast. After we’ve finished and I’ve washed up, we both get dressed and get ready to go out. I find Maz in the yard with the kids playing with several dogs.

“Good morning, guys…Sorry we missed breakfast.” Jada stands closely by my side, still a little nervous around dogs.

“That’s fine, I figured you could use the rest, so are you guys ready to head off into town?” Maz asked, walking over to us.

“Yep, looking forward to it.” I said enthusiastically.

My gaze quickly drifts to the barn where movement catches my eye. Corey is standing there, shovel in hand, staring right at me. He nods and gives me a small smile; I do the same in acknowledgement before turning back to Maz.

“Let's head out.” she says with a grin. The drive to town took around an hour and a half and we finally arrived in a decent-sized town. Maz had a few jobs to do so she dropped me and Jada off in the main street to have a look around and told us to meet her at the big grocery store in about an hour.

Jada and I wandered around looking at different stores, buying a few bits and bobs as we did and, after an hour, made our way to the grocery store. Maz was standing at the entrance.

“Hey, did you wanna grab an early lunch before we shop? I gotta get some frozen stuff so, can’t really do so after we shop.” Maz asks after she sees us heading towards her.

“Sure, sounds good. Where did you wanna go? I wasn’t really paying attention to food places.” Maz grins

“There is this great all-you-can-eat BBQ place around the corner that has a kid's play area. sounds OK?”

“Sure, as long as they make chips, at least for Jada, we are good.”

We are so stuffed by the time we get back to the grocery store, I feel like I’m waddling. We decide to chuck all three kids into a trolley so they can’t run amok and we have a second trolley for food.

“OK, so is there anything, in particular, you guys wanna eat?” Maz asks me.

“Hmmm, it’s weird but I have a craving for Blueberry Pie and I’d like to try making it, if your cool with me taking over your kitchen for it?”

“Hey, I’ll never turn down blueberry pie. Actually, why don’t we make sweet making your job?” Now it’s my turn to grin.

“Now you’re talking my language, Deal!” I Google a few recipes on my phone, and we grab all the ingredients along with everything else we’ll need for the week. The trip home was a quiet one, the kids were worn out and I was thinking about what I'd be making.

We arrived home by mid-afternoon, and I decided I wanted to make the blueberry pie for tonight, so after unloading all the stuff and setting up the kids with some quiet activities, I get started on the pie while Maz gets a head start on dinner.

Close to 2 messy hours later, I pulled the pie out of the oven. It turned out pretty good. I’m just finishing off cleaning up my mess when we hear a knock on the back door. “Come in.” Maz yells from the kitchen.

“I’m gonna quickly go get cleaned up.” I said as I raced out the door, hoping not to get sprung, looking like I had a fight with a flour monster.

“Hey, Ray…looking good.” I heard behind me. I stop still and turn to see both Tate and Corey grinning at me. Tate chuckles at his own comment.

“Um, hi…ah so yeah I was baking…I’m just gonna go get cleaned up.” I took off up the hall before they could respond, more chuckles could be heard from them both.

When I’m finally all cleaned up, I head back out. Maz had already served up and the plates were on the table, so I sat down and got straight to eating.

“So Ray, what on earth did you cook to make you look like you'd lost a snow fight?” Tate asked me as I shovelled some food in my mouth. Swallowing my bite, I smiled at him.

“Well, actually I made Blueberry Pie. I had a sudden craving for it and I decided to have a go at making it…Maz has put me on sweets duty whilst we are here.” As per usual, the word just spilt out of me like a fountain.

“Nice…” Tate looks at Corey. “Hey Cor, didn’t you tell me blueberry pie was your favourite?”

COREY POV

“Hey Cor, didn’t you tell me blueberry pie was your favourite?” I could not believe he just said that in front of everyone, sure it was the truth. But I only told him that because I told him that is what Raylee smells like to me.

“Um yeah, it is actually.” I said, making eye contact with Ray for the first time since we came in. She looked shocked.

“Oh wow, so no pressure hey.” she says, looking back down at her food. A smile and a blush washed over her face. Goddess, she is cute.

“I look forward to trying it. I’m sure it’ll be fantastic” I said, trying to make her more comfortable. She just smiles again. We finished our meal in relative silence.

“Um, are you guys ready for pie now?” Ray asks as she starts collecting the dishes.

“Yeah that’d be great, how about I give you a hand while Tate fills Maz in on work stuff?” I asked, hoping to get a minute alone with her.

“Uh, yeah sure, OK” she stutters. I helped her grab the rest of the dishes off the table and followed her into the kitchen. She starts cutting up the pie before asking if I could grab the bowls for her. She wouldn’t look at me.

“Hey Ray…can you look at me a minute?” I asked, desperate to see those beautiful grey eyes. She slowly looked up at me.

“Thanks, so I was wondering if we could just start all over? Forget about everything else and just be friends?” I saw her thinking it over.

“You know what, yes…” she comes around the bench to stand in front of me, extends her hand and smiles “Hi, I’m Raylee.” I chuckle but play along.

“Hi Raylee, nice to meet you, I’m Corey but you can call me Cor.”

“Well, it’s great to meet you Cor.” she suddenly burst out laughing and all the tension between us was gone.

I helped her carry the bowls of pie and cream out to the others. I see Maz give Ray an ‘everything OK look’, to which Ray smiles and nods. After we finished dessert, we all made our way out onto the porch to watch the sunset and chat. Everything is back to being easy between us all and the conversation flows naturally.

After the sun is down, Tate excuses himself stating he is tired and Maz leaves too, claiming to have paperwork, leaving just Ray and me alone. We sat in comfortable silence for a while before she spoke “So what did you think of my Blueberry pie?”

I’m glad she broke the silence. “Oh man, it was epic, one of the best I’ve ever had!” I said honestly.

“Are you just saying that so you don’t hurt my feelings?” she gave me a suspicious look. I burst out laughing at her.

“No seriously, it really is one of the best I’ve eaten. I think the only one to beat it would be Mrs James from the orphanage. That woman was the pie queen, that’s where my love of blueberry pie came from” She smiles at me, she looks at her hands then back up into my eyes. I can see she wants to ask something but isn’t sure.

“It's OK, you can ask me anything.” I told her. She hesitates a minute longer before finally asking.

“What was it like, growing up in an orphanage? I mean, in all the books and movies they make it seem horrible…was it? You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, I’ll understand if it’s hard to talk about…” I stop her with my hand, damn this woman and her running mouth.

“It’s totally fine, I told you, you could ask anything…Look, it wasn’t always fun and it’s hard not knowing your parents, but they treated us well. We had all our needs met and we did schooling and all that normal stuff. I got into trouble here and there, mostly because I was always bigger than everyone and didn’t know my own strength. Sometimes when we were playing, I would accidentally hurt someone. But otherwise, it was OK.”

She nods and looks contemplative. “Well, I’m glad to hear it wasn’t horrible, I honestly couldn’t imagine how different life would have been for you. I had both my parents and life still wasn’t all cupcakes and roses…Do you know what happened to your parents?”

I shook my head. “Nar, I don’t even know their names or where they were from, for all I know they could both be dead.”

“I’m sorry.”, she whispers.

“It’s fine, I’ve had thirty years to come to terms with it all.” There is a long uncomfortable silence and I realise I need to lighten the mood. “So what are the chances of me snagging some more of that pie?” She breaks out into a grin.

“Of course, I’ll grab us both some. Do you want a coffee or something to drink too?”

“Coffee would be great. Do you want a hand?”

“No no, I got it. You just sit and relax, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” She hops up and disappears through the back door.

“Mate likes us again, tell her what we are now, I want mate.” Conri says in my mind. I think about what he has said but decide it's not the right time yet. He huffs at me before settling back into the darkness.