Page 29 of Johnathan

“I know, John. I’m not going to. I just need to, and you said to call. So here I am.”

“You needed to run, but you called me instead?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you, Abby.”

“For waking you up in the middle of the night because I had a stupid dream and can’t cope with the memories?”

“Yes. I’m so proud of you.”

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. She choked on the familiar ache building in her throat. The tears wouldn’t fall. They never did anymore. But that didn’t stop the ache.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked.

“I… I do. But not yet,” she admitted. “Will you tell me about your dinner with your family?”

He laughed. “Well, Jackson and Grace apparently have differing opinions on whether they want to start putting Jackin daycare. Her real estate stuff seems to be really taking off, especially everything she’s doing with Sebastian, so she needs to free up her schedule more. My mom was campaigning for grandparent daycare.”

“That’s nice that she wants to be so involved.”

John’s laugh was bright as it came across the line. “She would take the kids in a heartbeat and never give them back. I swear, especially with Jordan now in college, my mom is grandchild obsessed.”

“I’m sure she’s just feeling the change now that Jordan isn’t home. Will he be coming back for Thanksgiving?”

“Oh yeah, Mom and Dad wouldn’t have it any other way. I think they’re heading up to his school a few days early and then they’ll come home with him. He has his own car so I’m not sure why they’d bother driving all that way when he can just make his way home on his own.”

“They miss him. It’s actually really sweet.”

“Just what every eighteen year old guy wants… his parents showing up to his dorm being sweet.”

Abby laughed.

“Are you ready to talk about it now?”

“I’ve never told anyone about the dreams,” she whispered as she laid back against the sofa.

“I was there that night, though. I already know what happened. Maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to tell me.”

That made so much sense. Her mind screamed at her time and time again to not talk about it with anyone because she didn’t want to dump her trauma on them. But John already knew.

“I… yeah, I think maybe you’re right.” Her laugh sounded emotionless, but she was smiling.

“Okay, so walk me through it. Is there something that brought this dream on tonight?”

“No. Sometimes I know it’s going to happen. But I fell asleep thinking about you. That shouldn’t have triggered it.”

“You fell asleep thinking of me?” She could almost hear the look of surprise on his face.

“Well, yeah. I mean, we’ve been together a lot lately and you did send me that text checking in.”

“Maybe if I give you some happy memories of the two of us together, you’ll start having some good dreams with me in them.”

“I’d like that.”

“Which part? More memories with me, or good dreams?”

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, finding the courage to tell him the truth. “Both.”

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