Page 79 of Someday

“Did you come to help or distract?” she teases.

“Both?” If we’d been eight, I’d have saidduh, but as it is, mybothgets the same point across.

She rolls her eyes, but her soft laugh afterward is exactly what has always kept me coming back for more where Sofie Copewell is concerned. She goes back toward the plates she was wrapping, and I enjoy watching the view. Her head turns over her shoulder, and she catches me staring at her ass.

I smirk and she rolls her eyes again, but her smile is still there.

Common sense would mean I’d just stay here in this lighthearted place, but I know how not dealing with something can lead to being completely blindsided later.

“You really okay being in here, doing this?”

She nods, sticking another plate in the box.

“This is the best I’ve been since I came back…”

I kiss her on the forehead and wait to see if she’ll open up more. I need to know what made her shut down so completely before. I’m almost certain she’d been about to tell me something important that night and we’ve never gone back to it. Patience has never come easily for me, but I’m trying to do this at her pace.

Sometimes I wonder if she’ll never be ready to tell me everything.

“What can I do?” I ask, taking a better look at the kitchen.

The countertop next to the stove is piled high with pans and dishes.

“If you see anything you want, put it in one of those boxes and label it.” She holds up a Sharpie and points to the flat boxes leaning against the wall.

“Where’s your stash? I could take those to the truck and get them out of your way.”

She tilts her head for a second and then she lifts a pink mug with white daisies on it and another with a horse and a caption I can’t make out from here.

“This is it,” she says. “Well, from the kitchen anyway. How would you feel about the upright piano?”

Her eyes fly to mine and she looks sheepish, her cheeks turning bright red like she’s embarrassed.

“What?” I ask, moving to her in a flash, my hand landing on her hip.

I turn her toward me, and she sets the mugs down but still won’t look at me.

“Sofie?” I whisper, tilting her chin up to look at me. “What is it?”

She bites the inside of her cheek and sighs. “I just…I’ll find my own place soon, okay? I don’t want you to think I assume staying with you is a given…we have time. I-we…we don’t have to rush any of this. And the barn is a separate thing…you should give it more thought, whether you really want that on your property and if it is what you want, I’m paying for it and paying to board my horses there too.”

She opens her mouth to say more, and I lean in and cut her off with a kiss. She’s stiff at first and then melts into me like hot liquid. Our kiss goes from zero to one hundred in a second, the way it has every other time we’ve kissed since she’s been back.

Knowing what it’s like to lose her without any hope of ever getting her back, and to be given another chance, I don’t believe this desperate need to claim her will ever go away.

I break away from her because I need her to hear this.

“When I asked you to stay, it was for keeps. When I said I’d build a barn for you, it was so you could have a place that’s all yours. I don’t need to go another eight years or eight months or eight days to know that I want to be with you forever. I’ll try to be as patient as you want me to be…if you want time on your own…” I have to swallow hard to choke this next bit out. “Take the time you need. But know that it’s you needing that, not me.”

My fingers are back on her chin again, commanding her attention and hoping that she can see that I mean what I’m saying.

She blinks rapidly and my hand drops to her waist as she leans her forehead against my chest.

“I love you, Theo.” Her voice breaks on my name.

“I love you, Sofie.”

“This is for keeps with me too, I swear it,” she says, still shaky. “I don’t want to waste another minute being away from you.”

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