Page 50 of The Space Between
She swam this river.
Alone. Because she needed to take it back.
I just stood there, too locked in my own trauma to follow her in.
What kind of man does that?
By the timethe sun clears the trees, I’ve made a decision.
I call someone I haven’t spoken to in years.
An old friend from my college days—now a PI who still owes me for keeping him out of jail on a drunk and disorderly when we were twenty-two.
He answers groggy. “Gruene. Jesus. Thought you died.”
“Need a favor.”
“Of course, you do.”
I give him what I know: Tyler’s full name. City. Old job. A couple of details Blakelyn let slip when she wasn’t watching her words.
“Find out what he’s doing. Where he is. And how he found her.”
“You serious?”
“Yup.”
There’s a pause on the line. “Alright. I’ll call you when I have something.”
“Soon.”
When I come back inside,she’s up. She’s not dressed. She’s not smiling. She’s just sitting on the edge of the couch with the blanket wrapped around her waist, her hair wild from sleep and her face bare and real and sodamn beautifulit aches.
“You left,” she says, voice quiet.
“I had to make a call.”
She nods but doesn’t press.
That’s the thing about her—she never asks for more than I’m willing to give… which makes me want to give her everything.
“I’m trying,” I say.
She looks up. Meets my eyes. “I know.”
It should scare me, but it doesn’t.
It settles something in my chest I didn’t realize was loose.
We eat breakfast together.We don’t talk about the sex between us. Or the note I left on the pillow when I couldn’t stay beside her. Or the fact that though she’s in my bed, I’m not with her in it. We don’t talk about the way she whimpered my name when I slid inside her without hesitation, like it wasn’t even a question if I belonged there.
We talk about the school year coming up. Supplies. The hallway she hopes she’ll get. Whether the kids call her Miss Walker or Miss Blakelyn.
She blushes when she says it, like she’s afraid it sounds silly.
It doesn’t. It sounds like a life she’s rebuilding one careful brick at a time. And I realize…I want to be part of it.
Later,I walk her across to her cabin.
