Page 14 of The Fate of Us

I only wish I was as good at words as her.

The screen door blows shut behind us as we walk in from the rain. The wind is picking up from the storm causing the shutters on the outside of the house to rattle.

She shivers from the wet cold enveloping her. “I should latch the shutters.”

I wrap my own wet arms around her. “How about you get out of your wet clothes and into the shower. I’ll get the shutters.”

She looks up at me and for the first time since I met her, there isn’t a trace of a ghost in her eyes. I press a kiss to her forehead and walk her down the hall to the bathroom.

I turn on the water before I move closer to Anna. I pull the soaked cardigan off her, followed by her sweats. She grips my forearms as she steps out of them and I fight the urge to fuck her again as my gaze travels to her nipples pressed hard against her wet tank. I pull it over her head and open the door to the shower and guide her in.

“I’ll go close the shutters.”

She bites her lip and I know she wants me with her but she slowly nods and closes the shower door behind her.

I head outside and quickly secure all the windows as the thunderstorm picks up its fury. As I walk back up the steps of the porch, I pick up the umbrella Anna dropped on her way in. As I go to close it, I see the rain-soaked letter stuck in the spines of it. I carefully peel it out before closing the umbrella. I set the letter on the coffee table. I don’t know what Anna wants to do with it, hopefully destroy it.

I walk down the hall, picking up the pictures we knocked down earlier and rehang them on the wall. I smile at a picture of an older woman with graying red hair, her arms wrapped around a young Anna with a guitar in her arms. Her wild red curls blow in the wind, covering half her face but the smile that peeks through is enormous.

There is another picture of Anna and her sister as teens sitting on the porch. Anna once again with a guitar, her sister painting her nails. I place it back on the wall before making my way to the bathroom.

Anna is still in the shower, singing softly in the steam. Her voice is one of the most beautiful I have ever heard. Haunting, melodic, sad.

I strip my jeans and shirt off and step inside the modest shower. Anna jumps and stops singing as I slide in behind her. “You could have kept singing.”

“You scared me.”

“I’ve never heard you sing before.” I step farther into the stream of hot water, my body moving flush against Anna.

“Yes you have,” she says as she places her hands on my chest.

I shake my head. “Only in the recordings. You never sing for me.”

She rests her head against my chest. “I just—I don’t like singing in front of people.”

“Even me?”

She looks up at me, biting her lip. “I—okay, I will.”

I smile down at her. “What were you singing about?”

She shrugs as her arms wrap around my waist. “Just finding words to a melody I came up with this morning.” I run my fingers through her hair as she speaks. “It’s a mess now. The song. But it’s about moving on after regrets.”

I reach for the body wash behind her and raise a brow when I see it’s the kind she left at my place.

“I picked some up on the way here.”

I lather up a sponge and run my hands up and down her body. The movements must relax her because she begins to hum.

As I slide my hand down her back, her fingers trace circles around my chest and that beautiful raspy voice sings the most haunting melody.

I forget I was even washing her as her voice gets louder, echoing off the walls of the enclosed shower.

I’m in a trance. Blown away from not just her sound but the words she sings. A song about lost love and heartache. Fighting for a future without the pain of regret.

My hands wrap around her face as she meets my eyes on the last note of the song.

“I haven’t sung that in years.”

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