Page 48 of Take Me Home

“Almost heaven, West Virginia,” her cousin sang. Everyone in her family was on their feet in a gentle stampede to the campfire to make a circle.

“Wait, this is real?” I gawked. I’d heard about West Virginians going fucking bananas for this song and singing it all the time, but in my two years of living there, I’d never actually experienced it.

“Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River,” Darcy sang, nodding in response and beaming as she pulled me next to her in the circle. She looped her arm behind my back and one of her aunts tucked me in on my other side. The group swayed as the song built to the chorus.

My eyes watered. I rarely cried, but God, this shit was touching. Bashful Darcy was gone, belting the shit out of Country Roads along with her family. Everyone had huge smiles, like the Who’s down in Whoville on Christmas morning. Brianna had returned from the bathroom and squeezed in on the other side of Darcy. I took advantage of the time touching Darcy to make it count, stroking her ribs with my fingers as we all sang, or at least, I sang all the words I could remember. I felt her shaking a bit and looked down to find her eyes wet as well. At least I wasn’t the only one.

Everyone clapped when the song ended and the goodbye hugs started. I turned to Darcy, both of our eyes still glistening with tears. I held up my arm, where every hair stood on end with goosebumps. We both laughed.

“Was that your first Country Roads sing-along?” she asked.

“It was,” I said slowly, shaking my head in disbelief. I opened my mouth to say more but couldn’t find the words to express what was going through my mind. She rubbed a hand on my arm to comfort me.

“I get it. It bit me, too,” she said, swiping her fingers under her eyes as a couple of tears leaked down her cheeks. She looked so sad and sweet and perfect and heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once that I couldn’t help myself. I wiped one of her cheeks with my thumb. Darcy gave me a soft smile, an unexpected tenderness settling between us. What a day it had been: holding babies, hugs and overlapping cheek kisses, playing around on the baseball field, holding hands while we talked about home, and then, I was wiping away her tears. She cleared her throat.

“I’m going to see everybody off. You going to bed?”

“I can help you guys clean up,” I offered.

“Nah, it’s dark. Bri and I will get it in the morning. Stay as long as you want, but you said you got up early. I understand if you’re tired,” she said, fidgeting with the sleeves of her sweatshirt, eventually settling on pushing them to her elbows.

“Alright, then. I’ll help out in the morning. Thanks again for having me,” I said, leaning down to give her a hug.

“And by the way, hell of a game you played,” I said in her ear, dropping my voice again to be more like sandpaper. I heard her breath catch before she laughed into my neck.

Darcy went up on tiptoe to whisper back, “I was safe.”

“Like hell you were,” I growled, squeezing her a few times playfully and wrestling her to lift her feet just off the ground. My stomach was a mess of butterflies, wanting to hold onto her forever, to feel her laughter warming my neck, to make her squeak again like she did when I picked her up, to bring her home and tell her how much she meant to me. I loved how it felt to breathe her in, to surround her body with mine, to feel her softness pressed up against me. But we were there, in front of her family, and everything was so fresh. Not the best place for a feelings confession.

As we ended our hug, I glided my hands down her arms, tracing my fingers over her bare forearms. She shivered under my touch, goosebumps blossoming on her skin. I was getting to her and I fucking loved it.

“You cold?” I asked, just like I had when she’d shivered from me touching her hair.

“I guess I am,” she said, looking up at me with bright eyes in the dimming light. A thousand thoughts ran through my mind and a million words were on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to tell her all of them. I settled for running my hands up and down her arms vigorously to warm her up, pulling her sleeves down to cover her forearms. Our hands met for a brief moment and held there, fingers interlaced.

Ask her. Ask her to come over. Do it. Do it.

“Do you—” I started, but she spoke at the same time.

“Goodnight, Jake,” Darcy said. “Oh wait, I’m sorry, what were you going to say?”

Her doe eyes watched me, waiting, her lips parted in a pleasant expression. My brain malfunctioned, losing my nerve by the second.

“Nothing. Never mind. Goodnight, Darcy,” I said softly, giving her hands a squeeze before we broke apart. I backed away from her, not wanting to turn away, wanting to regain the moment we’d lost.

“Night,” she said, her voice sweet and light. She stepped toward her family but kept her eyes trained on mine. I still hadn’t turned away, walking backward and praying I wouldn’t fall into a random hole or something.

“Night,” I called one last time before shoving my hands in my pockets and walking away.

I’d fucked up asking her to come over, but I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. Despite the night washing over, I felt myself glowing.

16

DARCY

Monday morning, Brianna helped me clean up from the party before bidding me a tearful goodbye. I hated to see her go, but knew she had life to get back to. Fortunately, the weekend had done wonders for all the chemicals in my brain. Maybe it was seeing my family and Brianna. Maybe it was all the physical contact with Jake after such a long period of wanting and having literally zero men touch me. Whatever it was, a story was forming inside me.

At first, I was afraid to put pen to paper, thinking if I wrote it down, it might get too real and scare off the idea. But by mid-day Monday, I knew how I’d spend the day off. I jotted down place names, characters, and ideas for scenes. I formed an outline and a vision of where I wanted to go. I lost track of time and before I knew it, it was time to bring in Selena and feed the dogs.