Page 22 of Say Something
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I laughed giddily as he pushed me on the swing, my legs straight out in front of me.
Instead of partying at the lake with our friends to celebrate the end of our final year of high school, we were at the old park. It was one of our most favorite places, since it was mostly abandoned. Just me and Danny against the world.
“We’re getting ready to start chapter two,” Danny said as I swung. “You ready?”
“I’m ready for anything with you,” I told him truthfully.
I was a little apprehensive about the future, about finally leaving our small town and heading off into the real world—or at least to a college campus—but I was ready for it anyway. It didn’t matter what life threw at us, as long as we were together.
He took hold of the chains as I swung back and slowed the swing. I leaned back to look up at him. His piercing brown eyes gazed at me adoringly, and I smiled back. I loved him so much.
“I love you, Jessica Lynn Price.”
“I love you, Daniel Andrew Thompson.”
He leaned forward and took me in an upside-down kiss. It was a weird sensation, a backwards feeling, but just as amazing and tingle-inducing as every other kiss we’d shared. When we broke apart, he rested his forehead against mine for a moment.
“I’m going to marry you one day,” he whispered, before righting himself and giving me another push.
My answering grin was brighter than the sun as the warm spring air brushed my flushed cheeks.
“Shh,” he said as I let out a sob. His presence and the memory...it was too much. He stepped around the front of the swing and wrapped me in his arms. “Just let it out, Jessie,” he urged me.
I did. I cried more tears on that swing than I did during the last year and a half of our marriage. I let down all my walls, all my barriers…I let it all spill out on Danny.
Pressed against his warm chest, I felt the hard ridges of muscle under his t-shirt. They were familiar—he was familiar—and safe. I felt so incredibly safe in his arms…safe and loved. After all these years, I still felt it. His body still emanated that same heat towards me that it had when we were teenagers in love.
I stiffened at that thought.Love. We weren’t in love anymore. Our love story had ended. Danny must have felt the shift in my body because he let me go and stepped back.
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, turning away from him and wiping the wetness from my cheeks.
“You don’t ever have to be sorry with me, Jess.”
“Don’t I, though?” I asked, glancing at him over my shoulder. I pushed him away at a time when we’d both been grieving, essentially. Maybe we hadn’t lost a child, exactly, but we’d lost hope...and opportunity and normalcy.
He took a step towards me. “Never,” he said with such finality that I couldn’t argue.
He’d been like that in the end…firm and confident in his love for me. He truly believed we could weather whatever storm was sent our way. On this playground years ago, I’d believed that, too. I wish I’d remained that confident. I wish I’d trusted in him. I wish I hadn’t been so stuck in my own head—my own misery—that I could have let him in.
Maybe things would have ended up differently.
Maybe…
“I didn’t know you were planning to come back to Oak River,” he said after a few quiet moments.
Honestly, how would he have known? It’s not like we’d spoken recently, or at all. Our divorce was handled through lawyers. I went through my lawyer anyway, I didn’t know if Danny was an active participant. I was not present, mentally or physically.
“Me neither,” I admitted, crossing my arms over my chest and running my hands up and down my arms. I wasn’t cold, but I felt as though I needed to hold myself together. “It just sort of happened…the opportunity to buy Mr. Smith’s practice.”
“Yeah…same here. Coach Murray called me and told me he was retiring.”
Maybe it was fate intervening. Maybe the world was giving us a second chance.
I had worked part-time filing at Mr. Smith’s office throughout high school, it was where my interest in law was born. I loved the idea of law and order. And Danny had always idolized his high school football coach. He aspired to be just like him. And there we both were…following directly in our mentors’ footsteps.
“It’s funny how things work out,” Danny added, seeming to follow my train of thought.
