Page 27 of Chasing After You
“Couldn’t sleep.” A silky warm breeze moves through, and she lifts her face, closing her eyes and leaning into it with a smile.
“Wanna talk about it?” Nessa’s never had trouble falling asleep. Or waking up, all cylinders running. It’s both fascinating and annoying, but she dozes off the second her head hits the pillow and wakes fully the moment she swings her feet out of bed and onto the floor. So, if she can’t sleep, something is up.
“Not yet.” She sighs, closing her eyes again as another balmy gust of night air rolls over her skin. Only after it passes does she return her attention to me. “Tell me why you’re out here first.”
“Oh, you’ll love this. It’s another weird coincidence.”
She smirks. “You couldn’t sleep.”
“I couldn’t sleep.” I grab ahold of the board with both hands and stretch out my arms, leaning back, feet anchored into the dirt, swaying slightly back and forth with nervous energy. I don’t think I’ve felt like this since I was fourteen. “Tried calling the kids but their cousins are apparently way more interesting than I am.” I roll my eyes and make a face. “My bruised ego was very tempted to remind them that people usually pay for the pleasure of being entertained by me.”
Nessa laughs. “But you didn’t.”
I laugh too. “No, I didn’t.”
“If it helps, I barely got three minutes out of each of them myself.”
“You know, that does help a little.”
She pretends to gasp as if suddenly offended. “Rude.”
“Our children?” I deflect. “Yes, very.”
“Someone should do something about that.”
“I agree.” I nod, cracking up. “I’ll call my sister. We’re letting her have the pleasure of their company all week. It’s the least she can do.”
“Oh, I like this idea. Let her do the dirty work.”
Quiet laughter settles between us for a moment, adding beautiful contentment to the already present peace of this night.
“I’ve missed this,” Nessa whispers when we’ve both been quiet for a while.
“Me too.”
NESSA
It’s a bittersweet thing being with someone who knows your thoughts so intimately, someone you keep closer to your heart than any other, but who now exists at a distance from you, moving through life as if in some sort of parallel dimension.
He’s here with me, close enough to touch... and still entirely out of reach.
We did this to ourselves.Idid this to us.
“Think we’ll ever have what we had again?”
He shakes his head, keeping his gaze straight ahead. “No.” Then he sighs and starts to turn toward me, a tender curve on his mouth. “But I think that’s a good thing. What we had was amazing, but it didn’t last.”
I’m not so sure it ended either. “So, this thing with Kenley, it’s different?” I hate that the words came out of my mouth almost as much as I hate how much I want to hear his answer. Even if it has the potential to crush me.
“Actually,” he says, chuckling softly – already my heart pounds a little harder, “I think this thing with Kenley is probably a lot like what we had. As close to perfect as one could hope to find.” He turns toward me, smiling. It’s all I can do to hold onto the board I’m perched on and not fall into the ground, hoping it swallows me whole. “For Knox.”
I’ve missed a step. “What now?”
He laughs, harder this time. “Kenley is with Knox. What, you thought I brought a date on this trip too?”
“Well, I certainly didn’t think it was married-to-music-man Knox!” I laugh as well, but I think for me it’s more relief than amusement. “I can’t believe he’s so serious about someone.” I shake my head, still not quite convinced it’s true. “Craziness.”
“That it is for sure. Wait until you hear how they met.”
