Adaline (The Wallflower Series Book 3)

by Fletcher, R. J.

  When the cab finally stopped, he was so deep within his thoughts, he hadn’t noticed. It took Adaline tugging on his muscular arm for him to finally return to the present. Shaking his head to get rid of his muddled thoughts, he paid for the cab before she could delve into her purse and exited the vehicle. When they stood on the sidewalk, he looked up and faced a large portrait of a green lizard. It was on a brick building with the headline ‘The Lizard Lounge.’

  Adaline led him inside to a small, intimate room with a stage at the back. There was a good amount of people lounging around, socializing and drinking. They both took a seat at the bar as a man walked to the microphone at the center stage and announced that the microphone was open to any brave performer. As soon as the words passed the man’s lips, Dominic knew why Adaline had taken him here.

  Watching the awareness cross his features, Adaline smiled warmly. “They have Open Mic Night the same time every week. If you can’t talk about it…maybe you should sing. It was always your way of…letting go of things.”

  It had been a secret. Still was. The only person he had ever told of his personal therapeutic methods was sitting beside him. For a moment, he was shocked she even remembered the day he had told her. Then, he had always hidden himself away in the empty garden of his home to write, sing, and play his guitar. No one had ever found out about his habit because his future had already been set. There was no need to let anyone know.

  But he had told her.

  Turning back to the stage, he realized he wasn’t angry with Adaline. He had no need to be. It’s not like he suffered from stage fright. In fact, Dominic felt a splurge of energy course through him at the thought of singing his sorrows away. And he eagerly stood up and gave the pianist a title.

  Clearing his throat he took center stage and his eyes immediately landed on her. She sat with a large smile on her face, giving him a nod of approval. Dominic sat down causally on the stool they provided, one leg stretched out comfortably as the keys from the piano immediately changed the ambience of the intimate lounge.

  Loving can hurt

  Loving can hurt sometimes

  But it's the only thing

  That I know

  Adaline felt her breath catch at the song he chose to sing. She watched him- his eyes closed in deep thought as he effortlessly sang the proper notes to Ed Sheeran’s “Photograph,” but the sheer emotional turmoil was also displayed in his furrowed brow. She felt goosebumps cover her skin as his deep voice washed over her. And her heart began to flutter. She wished the words he spoke were for her. There was so much want oozing from him for this mysterious woman. Adaline found herself angry that anyone would ever hurt him. While she yearned to be the object of his desire, more than that, she wanted him to be happy again.

  We keep this love in a photograph

  We made these memories for ourselves

  Where our eyes are never closing

  Hearts are never broken

  And times are forever frozen still

  There was a stunned silence in the Lizard Lounge as everyone took in Dominic’s words. They were simultaneously comforted and heartbroken for him. The song became more than just lyrics as it passed through his lips, but a message. And people wondered to whom it was directed. Women, like Adaline, wished it were for them. He was a dark, handsome stranger who had obviously had his heartbroken. And every woman within the radius of his voice wanted to be the one to heal him.

  And if you hurt me

  Well that's ok baby only words bleed

  Inside these pages you just hold me

  And I won't ever let you go

  When I'm away

  I will remember how you kissed me

  Under the lamppost

  Back on 6th street

  Hearing you whisper through the phone

  Wait for me to come home

  As the song came to its conclusion, Dominic finally opened his eyes and, once again, his gaze landed directly on her. Adaline couldn’t look away despite her best efforts. She didn’t want him to see the yearning in her eyes for him. She couldn’t possibly destroy the friendship they were beginning to rebuild. And so she blinked and looked away. It was then, when her senses were not overcome by his presence that she began to notice the soft pain beginning to escalate across her scalp. She grimaced slightly but refused to leave. She needed to keep listening. Automatically, she switched the processor in her cochlear implant to reduce the loud noises coming from the speakers.

  When Dominic finished and stood, the audience’s exuberant applause made her smile. She could tell that there was a new skip in his step and the light in his eyes was genuine once again. As he came to her seat, their eyes connected over the heads of the audience. She couldn’t help the blush that spread to her cheeks despite the darkness of her skin because of the intensity in his gaze. It was as if he only saw her in the sea of the crowd, but she knew not to get her hopes up. He had just been singing about another woman, after all!

  “Thank you for this, Addy,” he said as soon as he had returned to his seat. He leaned over and placed his hand gently on her forearm. “You have no idea how much this means.”

  She smiled cheekily and shrugged her shoulders, “I think I have an idea. So…do you think you’ll ever feel up to talking about it?”

  Dominic opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by a young woman who came to stand beside them. He turned to her with a raised brow and couldn’t help the cursory glance he gave of her many attributes. She stood tall in high stilettos and a white midi bandeau dress that classily accentuated the curve of her hips and her ample cleavage. In fact, Dominic felt as if he could fall right into the soft, creamy skin of her bosom from how close she stood to him.

  Adaline watched on in a mixture of shock, outrage, and curiosity as the woman steadfastly ignored her existence and placed a well-manicured hand on Dominic’s enticing bicep.

  “You have an amazing voice. I thought I’d come over and let you know,” she whispered airily, flicking her platinum blonde hair over her shoulder.

  Adaline flinched as the obvious weave hit her in the face. It was a literal slap in the face that the woman would be so blatantly rude to her. Not once did her glance acknowledge Adaline’s existence sitting beside the man she hunted for. And that was the perfect word for her, a huntress. And she had found her prey.

  “Well, thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It was actually my friend’s idea that I even make it up there,” he waved a hand to Adaline sitting beside him.

  The blonde woman turned her head to Adaline and nodded. Addy could physically feel the way the woman judged her; the green gaze took in her clothes, the cochlear implant partially hidden by her hair, and her overall look dismissively.

  “How sweet of your friend.” The sweetness in the woman’s voice was clearly an insincere platitude to Adaline’s ears.

  Either Dominic wanted to ignore the faux compliment or was completely ignorant of it, but he merely smiled with a nod to Addy. The space between them was suddenly interrupted however as the blonde huntress leaned onto the bar to form a barrier between the two of them, sufficiently blocking their view of one another.

  “Well, if you ever want something a friend can’t help you with, I’m your girl,” she supplied seductively, leaning forward to reveal her breasts to him once more.

  With a bored expression on his face at her blatant behavior, Dominic stood from his chair and reached a hand out to Adaline. He put on a forced smile as he leaned down to whisper into her ear, “While I greatly appreciate your interest in me honey, I’m not in the market for a girl. I’m looking for a woman who can respect the company that I’m with. Now, if you ever reach that- trust me, I know it’s hard for a girl like you- then and only then can you approach me like you own shit.”

  With a soft tug on her arm, Dominic led Adaline away from the bar and the blonde who stood with her mouth gaped open in shock that her seductive wiles didn’t work. When they were safely on the sidewalk once again, he settled he
r down against the brick wall and clasped her face in his palms so that she would look directly at him.

  “I’m sorry about that. Are you okay?” he spoke slowly just in case she needed time to transition to the new sounds surrounding her.

  Adaline was slightly taken aback by the sequence of events. She hadn’t heard what Dominic had whispered in the young woman’s ear but could tell from the redness of her cheeks that he hadn’t taken her up on the offer. Adaline wanted to throw a smug smile back at the woman as they made their way out but had found enough strength to refrain from the petty behavior. After all, his rejection of one woman was not suddenly an admittance of his attraction to her.

  “Yes, I’m fine. I sort of expect something like that to happen when I’m with you.”

  His brow furrowed at her comment and he looked slightly offended. “What do you mean by that?”

  Adaline shrugged her shoulders and chose her words carefully so as not to upset him further. She didn’t mean for it to be insulting. “I just mean that you grab a lot of women’s attention. Probably even more so when they hear you sing. It just comes with the territory.”

  Immediately, Dominic shook his head furiously. “That sort of behavior was still not okay. Had she approached me differently, maybe I would have taken her up on the offer. I am single now after all and she wasn’t too bad on the eyes,” he laughed to himself.

  Though Adaline laughed along with him, she was disappointed by his response. If he was attracted to a woman like that, there was roughly no chance he was attracted to her. They were on two totally different spectrums in how they carried themselves.

  Dominic had inadvertently leaned closer to her as he chuckled at his own joke, but when their laughter had finally settled, he realized how close they actually were. For a moment, a silence settled between them. Dominic was drawn into her wide-set eyes. Before, he had always dismissed them as merely a dark brown. But looking down into her face and only being a few inches apart, he finally noticed their complexity. There was a striking mixture of all shades there. It was beautiful. And it made him take a look at her more appreciatively. Though Adaline was more covered up, he could tell that her figure was much more exaggerated than the woman in the bar. Though her breasts were smaller than the giant orbs he had nearly fallen into a few moments earlier (which he suspected may have been implants), Adaline more than made up for it with her hips and bottom. In fact, he had gotten glimpses at the wedding and as she had exited the taxi from earlier, forcing him to make a purposeful effort at looking away.

  As those thoughts crossed his mind, he startlingly let her go and took a giant step back. With a nervous chuckle, he rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “Yeah, well…I think we should probably call it a night.”

  Adaline felt the brightness on her face dim at his words. She didn’t want the night to end. But instead of voicing her complaint, she forced a small smile on her face and nodded. “You’re probably right. I know you’ve had a pretty rough day. I hope this made it even mildly better.”

  “It did, Addy. Thank you,” he said sincerely.

  In a slight rush after the awkwardness that had developed between them, he hailed her a cab and saw her off. As he watched the taillights become dimmer further and further down the street, Dominic released a pent up sigh.

  ~~~~

  Dina entered her apartment and settled her purse on the arm of the couch. She noticed the light still on in the backroom. With anxious steps, she made her way down the hallway. Just as she began to open the door, the knob was ripped out of her grasp from the other side and she came face to face with the older woman. With a guilty smile, she stepped back so the woman could enter the hallway.

  “I’m sorry I’m so late.”

  The older woman shook her head, chastising her. “It’s fine. Starting a business is time-consuming.” Her voice turned serious. “But you have to warn me earlier next time if you need me to stay longer.”

  “Of course! This won’t happen again, Flora. I promise.”

  Flora nodded her head, hearing the sincerity in the younger woman’s voice. “Good. I shall see you tomorrow morning. Make sure you get some rest now. You need to be healthy. This job is hard enough as it is without you walking around like the dead.”

  Dina saw the woman out with a goodnight. After locking up, she took off her shoes and walked back down the hallway. Quietly, she opened the door and looked in. A blue nightlight lit the room so that it wasn’t completely shrouded in darkness. Looking down at the ground to make sure she didn’t accidently step on any leftover toys, Dina tiptoed to the side of the miniature bed. She looked down with a proud smile at the set of bright eyes that looked up at her. Despite Flora’s best efforts, the young one refused to go to sleep unless she was in the presence of her mother. And given her increasing absence, it warmed Dina’s heart. She didn’t want her daughter to feel abandoned.

  Gently, she reached out and caressed the soft dusking of curly hair. It was as tame-less as hers despite the looser curls. But her daughter did not only mirror her in looks. Every time Dina looked into her daughter’s eyes, she saw her father. There was no denying how much of a mixture she was between the two of them. Dina leaned over the side of the bed and took the little one into her arms. There was a mumbled protest that quickly quieted as she settled herself comfortably into her mother’s familiar hold.

  “You shouldn’t be up this late, Sofia. But Mommy is here now, okay?”

  Dina took a seat into the rocking chair near the window. Rubbing her child’s lower back soothingly, she began to hum a lullaby from her own childhood. She waited until Sofia’s breath became even in deep sleep before setting her back down into her own bed.

  “Goodnight, baby,” she said, but as the words escaped her, she felt the same stirring of guilt overcome her. She had never imagined herself as a single parent but, then again, no one ever did.

  She would get it right, Dina promised herself. She had to, for her child’s sake.

  Chapter Five

  When Adaline returned home from her evening with Dominic, she was greeted by a loud commotion as she opened the front door with her new key. She was still slightly recovering from her disappointment at the abrupt end to the evening, but the squeals of laughter that soon resounded through the loft caught her attention and curiosity. She made her way to the living room and spotted Sasha speaking animatedly to her new roommate Teagan. After their initial meeting at the wedding, Sasha had been quite aggressive in keeping contact with Adaline; while she had first been taken aback, Adaline soon warmed up to the idea of a new friendship. In Dover, for the majority of her life she had felt alone. Friends were few and far between, not wanting to be seen with the weird deaf kid. Dominic had been the first to truly break that barrier. But now…

  “Oh, Adaline! You made it!” Sasha scurried over and gave her a warm hug. “When did you move in?”

  “Just today actually. Teagan was a great help!”

  “She better be.” Sasha gave a playfully stern look in Teagan’s direction. Her friend merely shrugged, feigning innocence. “It’s a good thing you came today though. Tonight’s our girls’ night in. And…” she reached into her purse, “I brought candy and movies! Teagan get the wine.”

  Adaline and Teagan stared pointedly at Sasha’s still growing tummy.

  “Oh, geez! I’m not going to be drinking!” She grumbled before waddling into the living room and settling comfortably on the couch.

  Adaline grinned at the humor of her tilted walking. She settled her things in her room and freshened up in the bathroom before joining them once more. She was excited to be around Sasha again having grown quite fond of her. She did follow her advice after all and used Sasha’s contacts to get a place to stay in Boston.

  After several glasses of wine and enough romantic comedies to almost make her sick with love, Adaline relaxed into the cushions of the couch with Teagan and Sasha lying next to her. Sasha had her feet propped on Teagan’s lap, her hands running contin
ually over her rotund belly. Sasha sighed in contentment as if she had just had the most satisfying meal. “Oh, I miss the romance sometimes.” At their curious glances, she rolled her eyes, “What love life? Don’t you see this big round protrusion from my body? Romance is so out of the question when gas escapes you like a faucet.” She groaned. “It’s so embarrassing.”

  Teagan couldn’t help her snort of laughter at the confession. “I’m sure Dmitri doesn’t mind. He practically kisses the ground you walk on.”

  She shrugged. “Yeah, but…it’s not the same. I’m pretty limited by what we can do even when we are in the mood.”

  To Adaline’s surprise, Teagan’s laughter got even louder. Assuming there was something she simply didn’t know she said nothing and waited for an explanation.

  “Yeah, with the way you two go at it, I’m not surprised.”

  Sasha playfully looked appalled. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  Teagan gave her a condescending smile. “It means, my dear, that when I stayed with you those few days while I was apartment searching, I was beyond proud of just how freaky you are, Sasha. The walls could talk. And boy did they have juicy stories for me.”

  “Teagan!” Sasha buried her head in her hands in an effort to hide the blush spreading across her cheeks. “Now, Adaline is going to think I’m some sort…”

  “It’s perfectly natural, Sasha. Everyone has a little kink in them, don’t they Adaline?”

  At Teagan’s question, it was her turn to be embarrassed. She stumbled over her words, trying desperately to recover before they figured it out. But no intelligible words fell from her lips.

  “Oh, I’m sorry!” Teagan apologized, realizing why exactly Adaline wasn’t able to answer. “I had no idea. And here we are talking about…I hope we didn’t make you uncomfortable.”

  Adaline felt like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her at the look of sympathy she received from her new roommate, while Sasha seemed oblivious. No, it had never happened and now she was nearing thirty. It was something she preferred not to think about. While she certainly had romantic prospects before, any potential for closeness was usually halted by her disability and family life. Many didn’t understand how traumatizing the assault was on her psyche and her ability to live on her own. Finally moving out was one thing but venturing into the realm of sex was just not a priority for her at the moment.