Chapter 88
0088
+15 BONUS
“What is this?” she asked me as we got out of the car and she looked around at our surroundings.
“This is a real working chocolate farm. Hawaii is the only state in the United States that grows chocolate trees, or at least that is what their website claims. The chocolate here has won awards around the world, including even in Paris and Brussels. I thought we could do a tour of the farm while the daylight is still out, and then we can go inside and learn how to make chocolate ourselves. At the end, the owner has agreed to put together a private dinner for us on the balcony overlooking the farm, complete with chocolate raspberry cake.”
The smile on Lily’s face told me that all the strings I had pulled to put this together at the last minute were worth it. “Chocolate raspberry cake? You remembered?”
I smiled. “How could I not? It is my favorite too. Every time your mother would make her famous chocolate raspberry cake, I would find an excuse to eat dinner in the beta suite with your family.”
Lily thought for a moment. “Do you remember that time when I was around 12… my mother made the cake, but I had a school project to do first, and by the time I was done all the cake was gone? You shared
your piece with me…”
I could tell Lily was a little hesitant to bring up the memory, so I decided to finish it for her. “Yes, I remember. Your project was on how humans and werewolves heal and get sick differently. You were excited to show off your project to your dad, and you had created these bizarre drawings to go with it.
You were really disappointed that the cake was gone before you were done with the project. I offered to
share my piece of the cake with you, and you ended up eating almost all of it.”
Lily smiled, so I kept going.
“I want you to know that letting you eat my cake was no small sacrifice by me, typically no one gets
between me and chocolate. Well, no one but you. I have never shared chocolate anything with anyone
else.”
Lily smiled even bigger. “I can’t believe you remember that day. I also can’t believe you thought those
drawings were bizarre. They were of a human and a werewolf.”
“I do remember, and the drawings were so bizarre that I thought they were aliens at first. You had things
coming out of those figures that I do not think have ever come out of any human or werewolf before. I
think the drawings are why I remember that day so well. Of course, I also remember many of the other
days too… do you?”
She looked at me curiously. “What other days?”
+15 BONUS
“Maybe you were too young to remember. Even on the days that you got your own slice of your mother’s chocolate cake… or your own candy bar… or your own chocolate ice cream… or your own chocolate pudding… you would find an excuse to demand a bite of mine. It annoyed me, but I somehow could never tell you no. By the time that day happened with the chocolate raspberry cake, I guess I was just used to having to share with you.”
“I do remember a little bit of that now that you say it…. Wow. How had I forgotten all of that?”
“After all I did to you in the years after that, I cannot blame you for forgetting many of the good memories,” I said sadly. “But I promise you, Lily, I am going to work on making things better between us again, okay?”
Lily nodded, but I could tell she was still unsure and holding back. I decided to let it go. I grabbed her
hand, and we headed to meet our tour guide.
The rest of the evening went exactly as I hoped that it would. Lily and I enjoyed the indoor and outdoor
tours; we got to make our own special chocolate candy bars; and we had a delicious dinner on the patio,
complete with chocolate raspberry cake.
The only thing that we did not do was talk about the serious stuff, but I was grateful for that. I wanted us
to at least have a little bit of time to just be us. Sort–of the us that we could have been had all the crap
not gotten in the way.
We still needed to have more serious conversations, though. I needed to know how serious Lily’s feelings
for Brady were, and I needed to find out if Lily was willing to trying to repair our bond. I also needed more
answers about what had happened back at the pack. I decided that I would push my luck and try for
those conversations later.
Of course, hindsight is 20-20. In retrospect, I wonder if things would have turned out better or worse had I
not pushed.
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