Page 99 of Other Side Of Never
I jogged down the back stairs, bypassing the laughter and sweet scent of vanilla seeping under the door leading to Mary Lou’s.
It hurt my heart to give up the opportunity for my own chocolatier, but leaving Kian and Isaiah would shatter it.
Isaiah climbing into bed between us that morning, his eyes lighting up as soon as he saw me, solidified my choice.
Bridge!I didn’t know we were having a sleepover!
I laughed to myself as I let myself out the exterior door leading to the street and locked that as well, happy I opted for rolled up khakis instead of shorts as the morning breeze skirted around my ankles.
Squinting against the sudden brightness, I lifted my face to the sun and breathed deep.I probably looked like one of those women in a tampon commercial, but I couldn’t deny myself this small pleasure.There was peace in this place.
Space to breathe.
A door opened across the street, the chime and welcome easily reaching me.A young mother pushed an enormous stroller holding tiny twins and a babbling toddler past me on the sidewalk.A car drove past on the street, and if I listened really hard, I imagined I could hear the waves calling my name on the breeze.
“You’re happy.”
The world slowed.
Or maybe it was my heart that stopped.
The teeter-totter of hope and fear rocked wildly as I slowly turned toward the sound of his voice, his name on my lips.
“It’s Jake, now,” he corrected, offering me a lopsided smile.“You look like you used to in the old photographs of us.”
“How’s that?”I whispered, struggling to process the sight before me never mind the words coming from his mouth.
He had scruff on his face and his hair reached his shoulders.Long, lean, and lanky, only his eyes betrayed his ill-found maturity.
You look like you used to in the old photographs.
Jakey had the old photographs of us.
They flashed through my mind like an old-fashioned rolodex.I’d wondered what happened to them but refused to give Gary the satisfaction of asking.
Jakey.
Jakey was here.
Leaning against an old beat-up car, his hands in his pockets, feet planted on the sidewalk not five feet away from me.
“Happy.”
He was taller than the last time I saw him, but his sweet eyes, his lopsided smile, and the tentative tilt to his head when he wasn’t sure where he fit, those were the same.
And he was here.
Reaching out my arms, I ran, stopping short just as I reached him, suddenly unsure of my welcome.
He straightened and dipped his chin.After a moment, he opened his arms, and I sank inside them.
Willing myself not to ruin the moment by crying, I held him tight, equally as delighted as I was horrified that I fit so neatly under his chin.I closed my eyes to block out everything but him and the pounding of his tender heart beneath my ear.
He was nervous.God, how sickening was that?With me, he should never be nervous.
He drew back long before I was ready, but I released him immediately.“Jakey, it’s so good to see you?What are you doing here?”
I snapped my mouth shut and laid my hand on his arm.“Not that I’m not happy to see you, I’m ecstatic, but how are you here?They let you come?”I asked doubtfully.
