Page 71 of Severed Rivalry
Cian: *You’re* pretty to look at. Actually, that’s an understatement. You’re captivating. You’re hard to look away from.
Cian: This last week has been hard. I finally got you back only to not be able to see you or hold you. You’re so close, and I feel impotent.
Me: When I needed you most you were certainly not impotent. You rallied the troops. You can’t know how much I think about that.
Cian: But *I* wasn’t able to do anything.
Me: I get that. I wasn’t either. Feeling helpless isn’t my thing.
Cian: You get it. But it’s my job. To protect you.
Me: You sure you want that job?
Cian: I’ve wanted that job since I was a junior in college, Angel.
Me: You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted to protect me.
Cian: We’re *this close* to being there. Tuesday will be one hurdle out of the way. The jaw is two weeks after that. The idea that everything is conspiring against us only makes me want to fight harder.
Me: I know you’d rather talk than text. I would too, but the faster you heal…
Cian: The faster we can be together. I was never one of those pass notes in high school guys, but this kind of feels like that.
Me: I wasn’t either.
Me: But I have to say, I love getting to reread these. You’re easy to fall in love with, Cian Murphy. You lay it all out there.
Cian: You’re falling in love with me, Angel? Don’t say that over text. I want to hear it.
What am I supposed to say to that?Never mind? Orokay?
I could dial him right now and tell him, but I don’t want that either.
Me: Okay then… Liam reached out. He’s going to wire us starting tomorrow. He may need a couple of days, but he thinks he can do it in one and be out of here before Renée and Rosie are home from work and school.
Cian: No additional seizures or health issues for Rosie?
Me: Nothing. I think we’re all waiting on the other shoe to drop when it took fifty-one years for the first one. It could never happen again, but we seem to be holding our breath like they’ll be back-to-back.
Cian: One time my GPS said “Object on road ahead.” It’s said that one hundred times in my life probably. There’s always something. Roadkill, shredded tire bits, a wrench. This one time, it was a refrigerator. A full-size, full-on fridge in the middle of I-25 near DTC. I’d never seen one before and I’ve never seen one since, but every time I get that warning, I wonder if it will be an appliance to navigate in rush hour traffic.
Cian: The point is a one percent chance is still my first thought. We remember the things that surprise us, and we hold onto the things that frighten us. It might never happen again. Stop looking for it, Angel. What are the statistical chances of another fridge on the highway?
Me: Statistically? Zero.
Cian: My point exactly.
Me: But seizures…
Cian: Without epilepsy can be any number of things. And those things can exist without a seizure.
Cian: You could spend the next fifty-one years waiting on a shoe that will never drop, but missing all the fun along the way because worry outweighs it.
Me: How did you get so wise?
Cian: See, there was this fridge on I-25…
Me: Hush.
