Page 39 of The Now in Forever
“No. I thought it would once I got an agent. But it didn’t. Then I thought once I got a book deal.” He shakes his head. “I just keep moving the bar. Maybe someday it’ll feel like I did something right?”
A stray hair falls into my face, and Ed moves it, his closeness making my heart hammer in my chest. The fire crackles. Ed’s hand lingers, moving along my cheek, down to the back of my neck. His touch is electric.
I lean forward, and so does he, the moment stretching like saltwater taffy warmed by the sun. He runs his tongue lightly along the edge of his lips, and a loud crack of thunder startles us both. Ed knocks over his wine on the hardwood floor. “Shit.”
He jumps up and runs toward the kitchen, and I lie back, feeling everything all at once, my heart still beating wildly. I want Ed. I want his lips on mine, but that’s not all. I want him on top of me, inside me—to what end? This is probably just a rainy-day distraction for him. He’ll leave, and I’ll think about it for the next decade. Compare other men to him for years to come.
Ed strides back with a paper towel and wipes up the wine, a few tiny drops splashed on the blanket. I hope they stain. Then every time he uses this blanket, he’ll have to remember this night.
He sits back down, upright this time. I sit up too, taking a sip of my wine, trying not to show how stung I am he didn’t lie down and go right back to where we were.
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.” I grip my wineglass in my hand, the cool surface grounding me.
“Are you and the bartender seeing each other?”
A laugh bubbles out of me, even though it’s not particularly funny. “No, I’m not dating anyone.”
He traces the mouth of his empty glass. “It’s none of my business. It’s not even what I wanted to ask. It just popped out.”
“What do you want to ask?”
Ed looks up, the fire lighting up his green eyes. “Hattie, how long are we going to pretend like we don’t know each other?”
TIME OUTSIDE OF TIME
TEN YEARS AGO
Ed stops in front of a light-blue house with a white picket fence around it and holds open the gate in the fence to the backyard.
I’m confused. I thought we were at his house earlier. “Whose house is this?” I whisper as I wheel my bike into the backyard, smelling a sweet floral scent and cut grass.
“It’s my mom’s.” He points to a window on the second floor. “That was my room. It has her art studio in it now.”
“Is she here?”
“Nah, she works nights.”
He leaves his skateboard by the fence, so I follow suit and lean my bike against it. There’s a large tree in the middle of the yard. It’s too dark for me to tell what kind. Oak, maybe. Porch furniture is arranged on the concrete near the sliding glass doors of the house. Once my eyes adjust, the yard isn’t so dark; the moon is nearly full and casts an eerie light on everything. There are roses planted along the back of the house. I lean my face into a blooming pink rosebud. It smells almost like lemonade. Ed fiddles with something next to the house, and behind me, the tree lights up.
Before, where it was all dark branches and leaves, it’s now a large tree house, the windows lit up from the inside, a ladder nailed into the sturdy trunk.
“It’s amazing.”
Ed smiles. “Thanks. I built it when I was twelve.”
“All by yourself?”
He nods. “Mostly. I’ve made some improvements over the years. Wait until you see inside.” He motions to the tree. “Shall we?”
“Is it safe?”
Ed puts a warm hand on my back. “I wouldn’t take you up there if it wasn’t. Come on. I’ll go first.”
He climbs the rungs of the tree, and it supports his weight fine. Not that he looks like he weighs a lot, but if it will hold him, it’ll hold me, hopefully. I climb up after him. Golden Christmas lights and a pink lamp softly light the small room. There’s a record player on a milk crate in the corner, with another crate next to it filled with albums. Covering the floor is a large carpet with pastel pink flowers that looks like it belongs in a nursery, rather than a skater dude’s tree house. A small bed neatly made with a dark-blue blanket is off to the left side. In the center of the room is a couple of mustard yellow corduroy floor pillows and a dark wood coffee table with gold hair pin legs.
“This is so cool.”
