Page 162 of Mine Again
The breath leaves my lungs like I’ve been punched by a damn bull.
I let out a sound that’s… not my finest. I drop like a stone, arms wrapping around my torso as I hit the grass.
“Oh my God.” She whirls around, panic in her face.
She drops to her knees beside me, hands flying over my body like she’s checking for damage.
“Are you okay?”
I can’t answer, too busy groaning. And not entirely for effect.
Isa looks mortified. But then she starts laughing.
At first, it’s a shocked giggle, but it quickly turns into full-body laughter. She’s doubling over beside me, which might be insulting if it weren’t Isa. And her laugh is impossibly contagious.
“I’m so sorry,” she gasps, grabbing my arm. “I didn’t mean to… I swear. But the sound you made—”
She collapses beside me, laughter bubbling out of her.
I crack one eye open and groan again. “You took out my spleen.”
“You’ll live,” she wheezes, rolling in the grass, clutching her stomach. “But you might never moan the same way again.”
That does it. I laugh too. The kind of laugh that makes it worse. Mystomach tightens, the pain sharper immediately.
Now I’m groaning and laughing, and she’s useless beside me, completely wrecked, gasping, and clutching her ribs.
Neither of us can breathe. Still flat on my back, I pant in pain.
“I have a six-pack,” I manage between breaths, “and I think you shattered all six.”
We exchange a look. And that’s all it takes for both of us to explode into another fit of laughter.
Howling like idiots, we’re rolling in the grass. Isa’s gripping her stomach, tears streaming down her cheeks, her whole body shaking with it.
I haven’t laughed like this in years.
Not since before the silence. Before everything went sideways.
It’s like coming up for air.
A warm rush spreads through my chest. Not just from the laughter, but from her. Fromthis. The easy rhythm, the banter… that thread that always pulls us back, no matter how far we’d been apart.
This is what we were, what we had.
When the laughter finally fades, Isa turns toward me with the first genuine smile I’ve seen from her in a damn long time.
It graces me like sunlight, and a tingle works its way up my body. Her eyes sparkle, crinkling at the corners, and her cheeks bloom with a soft blush.
“Thank you,” she murmurs. “I needed that.”
And I believe her.
Not only the words, but the way she says them. Quiet. Raw.
That laugh wasn’t only release. It was us, finding our way back.
“Are you okay?” I ask, brushing a few blades of grass from my shirt. I lean in and press a gentle kiss to her forehead.
