Page 84 of Until I Have You

I have never felt so much ecstasy.

16

ABIGAIL

I misshim in my bones.The way I imagine you miss someone who is part of you.I’ve never missed anyone the way I miss him.

The feeling is only made worse by all the holidays I have to spend around my family.Around my father.

Every conversation I have with my dad, no matter how pedantic or simple, Theo is in the back of my mind.I don’t think I’ve looked my father in the eye in the two weeks since I last saw Theo.

Luckily, I suppose, Dad is distracted with the twins’ first Christmas while they’re semi-sentient, his first grandchild, being head over heels in love, and everything else.

But me.

If circumstances were different, I might feel jealous.But right now, I’m glad to have eyes everywhere but on me.

As I look in the mirror, I take out the final curler, watching the lock of hair fall.I reach for my brush but stop when my phone buzzes.I snatch it as quickly as I can when I see his name, even though I’m the only one in the room.

I open our thread of messages.

We tried not to talk while he was gone.We don’t have that kind of relationship.It just happened, though.Well wishes for the holidays, questions about Bonnie, questions about my family, then questions about each other and on and on.

The last text I got was him letting me know that he and Bonnie had landed in New York and were headed down to Key West.

I’ve been here the last couple of days, preparing for the wedding, enjoying the escape from the New York winter, celebrating Bridget and Seth.Trying not to wish Theo was here.

The text is actually a picture of Bonnie from the back.

Her hair is done in a dramatic coil of braids, impressive for anyone, much more impressive work from a single dad.She is facing a mirror, grinning from ear to ear in a pretty green dress with sea turtles patterned all over it.

And in the reflection above her, I get just enough a glimpse of Theo to make my mouth water.The bottom half of his face, smiling proudly, dressed in a linen suit.

They’ve made it in time for the rehearsal dinner.

My wait is almost over.

I heart the picture and text back,Tell Bonnie I wish my hair looked like that.

The dots appear immediately, and a text follows.

You’re in luck.I know her hair stylist.

Before I can reply, there’s a knock on the door to my room.The wedding party is staying at Seth’s beach house while the other guests are at a hotel nearby.“Come in!”‘

Laney peeks her head in the door, her blonde hair pulled up and coiffed with a flower.“You ready to go?”

“Almost,” I say, snagging my brush and running it through my hair.

And the very last touch, before I go, a spritz of the perfume Theo bought for me for Christmas.I’ve already made a dent in it.I have worn it every day since he gave it to me and sometimes, I spritz it in the air just to smell it.

To know that’s how he thinks of me.That he has been all those miles away, imagining me with him.

It does a number on a girl’s heart.

§

The rehearsal dinner is being held at a restaurant high up above the shoreline, a large veranda jutting out, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, the rolling waves a distant thrum.

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