Page 15 of Lady Sings the Blues

And it’s at this point when we’re at the deepest, darkest spot in the cave, when we’re completely without light. When I can’t see her face, but can only feel her, she says, “You keep coming to my rescue. Just like him.” Then she pauses and I think she’s finished so I give her a reassuring squeeze. But she’s not finished and what she says floors me. “Don’t leave me like he did.”

I can hear water dripping. I can hear her breathing. What I can’t hear are my own breaths. I think I’ve stopped altogether. The only way I know I’m still alive is from the feel of my heart pounding out of control against my ribcage. Two days. I’ve had her back in my life for only two short days, and she feels it again, this thing between us. She feels it again, already.

After taking a beat to find my words, I pull her until she’s flush against me, front to front, and have her locked securely with both arms around her.

This is it. Here in the dark, I feel safe to tell her how she’s never getting’ rid of me. How it’s always been her and always will be her. Only, she don’t let me get it out.

“I’m here for the week. I need your strength until I go home. Please be my strength.”

Then she pushes up on her tiptoes using her finger to swipe over my face to find my lips in the darkness, and brushes a kiss over my lips. It’s soft and relatively quick, but not remotely satisfying for me. I have to find a way to convince her to stay.

The urge to talk becomes obsolete after that kiss. She’s mine. And maybe if I can get the rest of Thornbriar to know it, she’ll know it and want to stay. Elise belongs in Thornbriar. And what Thornbriar don’t know, they get in my way, try to come between me and her again, they will not like the end result.

If we could only return to living as cave dwellers. Because being here in this spot with Elise, it feels like we’re the only two people left in the world. Yet as has been known to happen, we’re interrupted by the world descending down on us.

Chatter ofothercave dwellers bounce off the cavern walls. Like I said, unwelcome interruptions.

I run my hand down her shoulder, then her arm ‘til my fingers lace with hers and pull her along next to me. As we walk, the light from outside begins to filter in around us giving peeks of stone and stalagmites.

She sucks in a long, filled with awe kind of breath when we hit the cave opening. We step outside into a lush wooded area complete with a deep, clear pond, which only became a pond thanks to a fallen tree and beaver damn. It’s not quiet here like in the caves, but full of nature sounds, peaceful nature sounds.

With the temperature difference between the caves and the outside it’s like steppin’ out of a refrigerator right into a damn oven, but the smile on Elise’s face never wavers. So neither does mine.

We leave just at the right time. More people have shown up crowding the parking lot and ticket window. And the distinct rumble of engines rip through the chatter of people and squawking of birds. Definitely time to go. I usher her by the arm up into my truck. Once I’m in, we take off without looking back.

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