Page 74 of Effortless

“Want to sit outside? I can start a fire.”

“That sounds great. Is that allowed here in town?”

“Yeah. I have a table that runs on propane for the fire.”

“Awesome. I just need to use your restroom before we go out.”

While she’s using the guest bathroom, I use the one off my bedroom and wait for her at the back door with two more beers.

With her hand in mine, I lead her to the back patio to the chairs and table.

Sitting in front of the fire with Hadley next to me as the sun begins to set at the horizon, I don’t think I’ve ever been so content in my life. I have country music serenading us softly in the background through my speaker system and when Gary LeVox’s voice begins to sing about finding the one after traveling a broken road to get to her, I stand and extend my hand to her.

“Dance with me.”

She gives me a shy smile and joins me, fitting perfectly in my arms as we sway back and forth, dancing under the darkening sky.

With our hands clasped together against my rapidly beating heart, her cheek pressed to my chest, I lean down and kiss the top of her head.

“I shouldn’t have let you go,” I whisper. “Knew it. That morning when I watched you walk to your gate at the airport, something in me said to chase you. I didn’t. I fucked that up for us. I let you walk away from me, and it felt like I was letting go of a part of me.”

She takes a deep breath and nods against my chest. “I didn’t want to leave you. I kept wishing things were different and I didn’t have to go back to Chicago. But, if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have Brooklyn and I don’t have any regrets for that.”

“That’s the only reason I’m okay with making the stupidest decision of my life. I knew you lived in Chicago. Thought a million times I should come find you. Had no idea where I would have started.”

“I thought about it, too.”

I lean back. “You did?”

She looks up at me, her eyes glistening. “Yes. I told you, when I found out Dorothy lived in Tennessee, something was niggling in the back of my mind. I didn’t know if you still even lived here. Didn’t know you lived in Red Oak, but the moment I learned where she lived, I knew I had to come.”

“Spent one night with you and I’ve missed you for sixteen years,” I admit. “You got in my heart and I haven’t been able to get you out. Almost proposed to someone once and knew I couldn’t go through with it. It didn’t feel right for either of us, considering she cheated on me. The kicker was it didn’t bother me like it should have. I broke up with her and haven’t dated anyone since.”

“How long ago was that?”

I hesitate to admit what I’m about to but I do anyway. “Five years.”

Her eyes grow big. “You haven’t dated in five years?”

“Apparently, I’m picky.”

I let my hand resting on her lower back trail up until it’s cupping the back of her neck and dip my head, finally allowing our lips to touch in a whisper of a kiss.

She raises up on her toes, giving me her mouth.

My heart is beating against my chest and I can feel my pulse racing. I want to go fast. I want to go slow. I don’t want to push and I want to pull her so deeply into me that we don’t know where we begin or end. The desire to lift her up, wrap her legs around me, and carry her to my bedroom is so strong I have to root my feet to the floor in order to stop myself from rushing this night.

Testing the waters, I trace her soft lips with my tongue and almost shed a tear of happiness when she opens up for me to taste her.

Hadley’s head tilts to the side for a better angle and our tongues tangle together as the next song in my playlist begins.

A song about looking to the stars and wishing the other one was near. How many times did I wonder about Hadley. How she was and where she was. Too many to count.

“How can it be?” I whisper against her lips.

“What?”

“How can it be that I spent one night with you a lifetime ago and you’re here with me now, and you still take my breath away? How did I never stop wanting you all that time?”

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