Page 64 of An Unexpected Everything
“It’s okay, I’ll still like you with whatever wrinkles you get.”
I kissed that spot between her eyebrows, knowing that that was as close as I was going to get to telling her I loved her in that moment. It didn’t feel like the right time yet. Or maybe I was just being a chicken shit. That seemed more likely.
I wasn’t ready to tell her because I didn’t have any answers to what it would mean in the end. Just because you loved somebody didn’t mean it was going to work out. Hell, I had loved her the first time, and I had been forced to leave.
But now the kids were grown, and the only thing holding me back was my home.
A home that seemed to be telling me that I was allowed to leave it. That’s what Ms. Patty and the rest had been saying after all. They might like Bella, but they also kept mentioning the fact that I was going to have an empty house.
And yet I couldn’t help but let my mind wander in a million different directions.
And the reason I had had that scowl on my face in the first place.
“I still can’t believe you fell off a cliff.”
She winced. “Do you realize that I haven’t actually told anyone in my family that?”
I froze. “Seriously?”
“I told Blakely because she knows everything. And I was going to tell Kyler one night at a family dinner. But then I told him about William instead, and I glossed over the whole falling off a cliff thing.”
“Well, you’re not allowed to go hiking alone again.”
“I wasn’t even hiking. I was walking a paved path to a tourist destination. You know me. I don’t hike. It was like that one time I fell down a sand dune and I couldn’t get back up without somebody practically dragging me. I don’t hike.”
My lips twitched at her telling me that story.
“Wasn’t it Kyler that dragged you up?”
“Yes, with Sophie doing her best. She was rail thin at that point, and while she was all muscle from dancing, she couldn’t really lift me and drag me through the sand. The younger girls just laughed and laughed, and I still haven’t forgiven them for that.”
“It’s okay, if we ever roll down a sand dune, I’ll carry you up.”
“The way that you can say that so easily tells me you haven’t been to a real sand dune.”
“I haven’t.” I pause. “I haven’t really seen much outside of Colorado.”
“We used to do road trips as a family. Especially when we were younger, and Dad could sometimes come with us. I didn’t realize it back then that he was using that time as a way to get away from his original family. I still don’t know how he was able to juggle it all. There had to be some people at work that knew about it, because they had covered for him apparently with work trips. Maybe his old team that’s no longer there. And the moms knew about it, so that helps. But he came with us on some road trips. And we got to see the U.S. And I’ve been to a few shows of Kyler’s around the country, and when Sophie went on tour, I got to see her in New York, in Chicago. Once in L.A.”
“Your family is damn talented.”
“I know, right? I was decent at field hockey and can sometimes play piano if I really focus on it, but Kyler’s a genius with his guitar, and drums, and just his voice. And Sophia is still a beautiful dancer even though she doesn’t do it professionally anymore.”
“I’m sad I didn’t get to see it.”
“I’ll show you recordings. And maybe sometime when she does her amateur shows at her dance studio for her older kids, we can go watch. It is quite something.”
“Oh yeah? That could be fun.”
She had tensed as she said it, but I couldn’t help but notice that she was talking about a future. Visiting Denver. That didn’t necessarily mean I’d be leaving Cage Lake forever. But I wasn’t sure where the two of us were going to end up. Because from what I could tell, this was her first panic attack in a long while. Was it because she was back in Denver? Or because of the stress of the wedding? She had come to Cage Lake for a reason. And when would that reason not be enough for her to stay? I had alot of thinking to do. As in planning my entire life once I had an empty nest.
“Again, that furrow between your brows…”
“I’m just thinking about the fact that I can’t fuck you hard into the bed before the alarm goes off.”
She rolled her eyes, and the alarm did indeed go off. She shifted to the side, and I couldn’t help but smack her ass. It was right there in my face.
She let out a little yelp and glared at me over her shoulder. “Really?”
