The rest of the time Trent sat charging his heart, I continued to ask questions about it. In a way, it felt like a bonding moment between us. The only downside to our conversation is that due to my fascination with his mechanical heart, I didn’t learn much about who Trent really was. The only things I knew about him were things I was told and lately that was proving to be mostly false.

Eventually a yawn escaped me making Trent chuckle a little. He unhooked himself from the machine that charged his heart. I learned that it was made when his heart was made. But he had to secretly carry it back to the region and put it together. Trent even joked about how difficult it was to follow my father’s instructions.

“What will happen if we have to move away from this area?” I suddenly asked as I stared at the machine.

Pressing his lips together, he also looked at the machine, “Your father is here to test something out with this machine. If I can run on pre-charged batteries, it would make life a little bit easier for me. Especially when I have to travel to a different region.”

My eyes shifted to him, “Do you think you’ll have to move to a different region someday?”

He made eye contact with me as he answered, “If I have to, I will.”

There was a hidden meaning in that answer. It was his way of saying that if I chose to be with my father, he would follow. But a small part of me tried to reason by telling me that I was thinking too much into it. A lot of shifters get moved to different regions when they need help. That is probably what he truly meant.

“We should go,” Trent suddenly said as he stood up. Pulling me to stand up along with him, “I’m sure your parents would want you home before it’s daylight.”

It was so weird to have the word ‘parent’ in plural. My whole life I had grown up to think it was only my mother. But now that my father has entered the picture, it was a strange feeling. There were still questions in my mind about why my parents didn’t decide to just stay together. They didn’t even bother to get married and that also confused me. My mother only had me, so why not just stay with my father in the first place?

Trent led me through his home and out of the front door. We didn’t say anything for a while. I was pretty sure our conversation had ended for the night, until Trent asked a random question. “What are my chances against the bear shifter who is obsessed with you?”

Rolling my eyes, I answered, “Luke would have better chances if he was obsessed with Em instead of me. She’s the one who is in love with him.”

He stopped and looked at me, “Is he blind or dumb then?”

A small giggle escaped my lips, “I would say both, but I know it’s not true. Luke just grew up thinking he had to protect me from anyone that was against me.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“As you probably guessed, I take after my father a lot. I’m like the female version of him,” I answered, “Growing up, I was bullied by kids and adults always told me that no one would marry me because I looked too fragile. Luke was the only one that fought against the bullies and told the adults that he would marry me.”

“What about Em?” He continued to ask questions.

“Em was an orphan from a young age. People pitied her and treated her like a princess. But she was one of the few who were kind to me growing up. But I think it just has to do with the fact that my mother had taken her in,” I told him honestly, “Her kindness is just an obligation to my mother’s kindness.”

Even though Em was still my best friend, there were still those thoughts that she didn’t care about me as much as I had hoped. Especially when the guy she loves was obsessed with me. She probably cursed me behind my back for it. Even though I’ve been trying for years to tell Luke about Em’s love for him. It wasn’t my fault that the bear was so stubborn.

Silence fell over us once again as we continued our walk to my house. I knew we were getting close by the pace of Trent’s footsteps. He was slowing down with every step. I wasn’t sure if it was so he could be with me longer, or if he didn’t want to be seen with me by my parents yet. It felt so rude to ask him about it and we weren’t close enough for me to joke about it.

I am pretty sure that I was making things more complicated than they have to be. After years of being told that I wasn’t pretty and too different for this region, I wasn’t the outgoing type. The only thing I felt like I really had was my intelligence with medical herbs. My mother even said a family would be lucky to have someone with that knowledge in their family. But I was still curious as to what features I did inherit from her.

Before I knew it, we were just a few feet from my house. Trent had come to a complete stop and shyly stared at the ground. I could tell that he wanted to say something but was too scared to say it. It made me curious as to what it was. He must have decided to say it because he looked at me with a serious look.

“I can’t help but feel like the age difference between us would be the reason you’d reject me,” he took me by surprise. I dug through my thoughts trying to come up with something to say, but I just couldn’t. He instantly apologized, “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I even said that.”

I smiled at him in a comforting way, “I’m glad you did though.” I told him honestly, “Ten years isn’t that big, Trent. You don’t have to worry about me rejecting you just because of that. I just don’t know you enough yet. Also I haven’t decided to accept or reject your proposal.”

The sigh of relief he made was so obvious that I let out a small giggle. I then decided to go inside my home and told him that we can talk tomorrow before going in. A smile was plastered on my face as I closed the door behind me, but it quickly disappeared when I turned around. Luke sat at our dining room table with a dark cloud surrounding him. Something told me that I wasn’t going to be meeting Trent tomorrow like I had promised.