Page 47 of Roar for Me
“Perfect. Have you seen Aurora yet?” Duncan turned to his friend.
“Well, we agreed she’d done enough, and we weren’t going to ask her to come down early.” Mike peered at Duncan. “Did something happen after dinner last night?”
“Um …” Duncan patted his hair. He’d slicked his hair to keep it neat. “Nothing bad. I just wondered if you’d seen her.”
“I saw her.” Jen came up. “It was a while ago. I knocked on her door when she was doing her nails.”
“Her nails? Now?” Britney looked confused.
“No, it was a couple of hours ago. And she brought her gel polish set up with her. Why? What’s wrong?”
“Duncan was wondering if anyone had seen her.”
“Don’t worry. She’ll be down soon. The doors aren’t even open yet.”
Duncan paced the hallways outside of the ballroom. Every so often he’d stop to glance up the stairs before pacing some more.
“Relax, man. Go to the bar and get a drink. You’re stressing me out.” Mike shook his head at him.
“That’s not necessary. The bar won’t serve me yet anyway.”
Emily looked at Mike and crooked her finger at him as Duncan went back to pacing. “Mike, leave him be.”
“I don’t understand why he’s nervous.”
“Can’t you see he’s just anxious to see her again? It’s adorable.” She patted his arm. “You used to get anxious to see me, too. Let him be right now.”
Mike smiled at her. “You’re right,” he said, as Duncan gave up his pacing to stand and fidget instead. “So, what did you do after dinner last night?”
“We went swimming in the hotel pool.” He was casual about it. Mike raised his eyebrows. Duncan cleared his throat. “By the way, what did you say to her about her bathing suit the other night?” He narrowed his eyes at Mike and at Dave, who was walking up.
“Nothing bad, why? Was she upset? Dave just told her she looked great.” Mike said.
“She decided to go out and buy something more ‘appropriate.’” Duncan even put the word in finger-quotes to emphasize Aurora’s words.
Dave shook his head. “Are you serious? I knew she was taking it the wrong way. I should have called her.” His gaze flew to the stairs over Duncan’s shoulder. “In the meantime, you might want to turn around.”
Duncan twisted around, then turned and gawked.
“Go get her, tiger,” Mike whispered, patting him on the back.
Aurora glided down the stairs to the ballroom in a ruby off-the-shoulder gown with a pleated heart-shaped neckline. The pleats wrapped around her breasts and ran down to one hip, where they came to a point at a red sequin flower. The gown flared out at her hips. He could hear his friends’ voices speaking behind him, but didn’t register anything they said. A small rhinestone barrette glimmered from above her right ear, and the rest of her honey-brown hair fell in a gentle wave to the middle of her back. Something about the way the lights hit her made her glow. Duncan’s feet moved toward her of their own accord. She stopped and twirled for an excited photography student, probably her daughter. As he drew closer, he could see Roar’s lips had been painted red to match the gown. She was an old Hollywood film brought to life.
“Oh, Duncan! There you are.” She waved him over, but it wasn’t necessary. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. “Come meet my daughter.”
“Aurora,” he crooned, taking her hand and bringing it to his lips. She suppressed a giggle. He spoke into her ear, his nose filling with her perfume. It smelled earthy and sweet all at once. “You look stunning.”
“Thank you,” she rasped, oblivious to the shutters going off around them. Clearing her throat, she said, “This is Katie, my daughter.”
He turned. One of the photography students grinned ear to ear, her mother’s spitting image, but with dark hair.
“Your daughter, or your clone? It’s like I’m looking at you in high school.”
Katie giggled as he shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Sullivan.”
“Please, call me ‘Duncan’.”
Katie looked at her mom for approval. Aurora threw her hands up. “If that’s what he wants you to call him, you don’t need my permission.”
