"We have to get going." He got hold of Kayla's hand and the two walked out of the store. Kayla didn't flinch but played along; it wasn't her nature. She wasn't comfortable around people, especially strangers.
Something was wrong with her; in such a situation where a stranger touched her, she would have yanked her hand away. But Ethan, well, he was a stranger to her, but he didn't feel like one. Even though she'd known him for only about an hour, she felt at peace around him.
The two walked closely behind Fionn and Kiara and watched them as they drove off. "My car is in the parking lot." Kayla muttered to the guy who was completely oblivious of her as he looked on as Fionn's car zoomed off.
Kayla and Ethan walked to the shopping mall parking lot holding hands they could be mistaken for a couple. The two had gotten acquitted in a short time behaving like they'd known each other for years.
"Is that your car." Ethan asked his excitement piqued as they stopped at one of the cars. "Yeah." Kayla replied innocently. "I'm driving." He muttered not giving room for any arguments. His brother had beaten him earlier but he wasn't going to let Kayla beat him. He definitely had to drive, her car being a discovery his favourite car.
They got onto the car and drove out of the parking lot to the busy streets. They had spent a lot of time inside the mall and the sun was already setting.
The journey was a silent one, no one talked. Kayla was completely oblivious of the guy, however, Ethan failed to concentrate on the road as he stole glances at the girl from time to time.
If he had given Kiara a nine, then Kayla deserved a ten. Her soft heart shaped gentle face, high graceful cheekbones lifted and smooth, her expressive doe-like eyes, her plump well defined lips. He couldn't get enough of her, she was just flawless.
She sat quietly playing with her phone completely ignorant of what she was doing to the man. The journey remained silent as before until she broke the silence. The thought of the Clarkson brothers hadn't left her mind.
She'd tried to connect the dots, but nothing was making sense. Her aunt Deborah was the only Clarkson she knew who could be that famous. But she never once knew that she had sons.
"How many Clarkson Brothers are there. And how are you connected to Deborah Clarkson?" She asked without breaking the focus on her phone.
"Four of us. Deborah Clarkson is our mother. That's our relation to her. Silas, Thomas, Fionn, and lastly, I, in the order of birth." He replied.
Kayla listened in silence, for once breaking her focus on her phone as she stared at the guy's side profile. No wonder she had never heard of the brothers. She was never an outgoing person. And her parents had made a great deal of keeping them from the public eye.
Her parents were famous, but Beat, Saddie, Kiara and her weren't. Maybe they would also be famous if their parents had brought them up otherwise.
_____________
Kiara sat at the passenger seat, her eyes glued on Fionn as she studied his features. His kind of handsomeness was different, not like any other man she'd seen. His facial features, yes, they looked more masculine, but had a subtle feminine depth to them.
His jawline, though delicately strong, was softly contoured. His cheekbones, high and graceful, slightly chiselled with a smooth lifted appearance.
She couldn't get enough of him, his beauty just didn't make sense. As in how could his somewhat feminine face blend in so well with his towering, fully masculine body?
A slow soft laughter escaped her lips. "Fio.." she couldn't bring herself to say the name.
Fionn's gaze darted at the girl for a moment before focusing back on the road. He wondered why she was laughing all of a sudden. "What's wrong? Why are you laughing?" He asked, his curiosity piqued.
"You are just so handsome, I can't take it anymore." She replied as she wiped the tears that had escaped her eyes.
"Yes, I know I'm handsome. But does it have to get to that?" He huffed.
"Yeah, you are," Kiara muttered with teary eyes as she couldn't stop herself from laughing.
"Stop it, you're making me feel like a woman of sorts." He muttered under his breath, but audible enough for Kiara to hear.
"Yeah, indeed. You could pass for a woman. Cute. Cute. Cute. You really are cute." She said, shaking her head in excitement amidst giggles.
"Anyway, putting that aside. I guess you hate me, not so. Anyway, that's not why I want to talk. The lawsuit, just yesterday, I remembered it's something we haven't resolved." He said in a serious tone.
"I don't hate you," Kiara said casually, her giggles reducing to softer ones.
"Then why did you file a lawsuit?" He asked softly, glancing at her for a moment before focusing back on the road.
"I just wanted my house back, that's all." She said softly, the sincerity in her tone undeniable.
"That moment when I gave you the document, I regretted everything. Filing the lawsuit, but the damage had been done already. "
"I remember telling you that we could talk about it, but you only left completely not ready to talk. And yesterday you only brushed it off." Fionn said.
A soft smile appeared on Kiara's face. If only he knew what she felt that day. Even up to now, she couldn't explain the feeling. There's no way she could have talked at the time. And the previous day, the timing was just wrong.
"It's just that you are so annoying." She said. "But at that time, I couldn't talk. I was..." She paused; she didn't know what to tell him.
"You were what, and why couldn't you talk?" He asked almost impatiently.
"I just don't know how to explain." She whispered.
"No worries. So what's next about the lawsuit?" Fionn asked, changing the topic of discussion.
Kiara gave a deep, quiet sigh, relieved that he didn't press on for answers, or else how would she start to explain to him something she couldn't even explain to herself. She was literally having an arrhythmia at that time, and she didn't know what had caused it.
"I'll just withdraw it." She replied.
"No, don't withdraw it. Finally, I get to have my brother Tom out of his comfort zone." Fionn said with a chuckle before continuing to speak.
"With or without the lawsuit, I already decided on vacating the moment I found out the house belonged to you. And I apologise for treating you that way back then. I'd never gotten a chance to apologise. No, I had all the chances but never cared to do so. I'm really sorry." He sounded genuinely sincere.
Kiara's heart skipped as she took in Fionn's words. They sounded like a rhythm in her ears.
"It's ok. I don't hold a grudge against you." She said.
The car came to a stop in a small parking space in front of Kim Chicken Cafe. It was already late, and it was starting to get dark.
"We will wait for the others here," Fionn said as he switched off the car engine.