Page 109 of Lake
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Bridget
“Merry Christmas,” Lake said with a sweet smile as I answered the video call.
The heaviness that I’d sensed from him recently was still there, but I could tell he was trying his hardest to push it away for me.
There was something going on with the club. I didn’t ask and he didn’t tell me. That wasn’t to say that I couldn’t see how it was wearing him down. I made a silent promise a little while ago to always try to make him laugh whenever he called me. I wanted to be the light in his life, not another thing that stressed him out. And I thought I was doing a pretty good job so far.
“Merry Christmas,” I said back with a huge smile.
It sucked that we were so far apart. And it really blew that the last two weeks he’d had a lot going on and only seemed like he had time to call me either really late at night or super early in the morning. It wasn’t that it bothered me that he woke me up because, come on, I could always go back to sleep after we ended the call. It wasn’t like I had a job or anything to do. And in truth, I was desperate to hear his voice. But it also would have been nice to talk to him when I didn’t feel half-asleep.
I had nothing to do but catch up on the things in the world that I’d missed while I was working so hard to keep the PI firm open. I should have been actively looking for a job or at least trying to figure out some kind of direction for my life. But I just hadn’t. I’d come to realize that I had nothing holding me here and maybe somewhere deep in the smart part of my brain, I was trying to avoid anything that might keep me here. Anything I could use as an attachment.
But why?
I had a tiny idea how to answer that.
That idea grew bigger and bigger each day and when Lake pretty much confessed that he was feeling the same as I was, it was all I could do not to tell him I was moving up there.
Actually, I was about to open my mouth two weeks ago and dive into that serious conversation when he had to rush off. I was a little disappointed but I knew he wasn’t brushing me off and that there was really something going on.
Then the days— and weeks— that followed there just never seemed like the right time to say something.
If I did know one thing, it was that eventually, the time was going to come. I didn’t avoid things and I wasn’t one of those people that hid their feelings because someone else might not like it or feel the same way. If you wanted to figure things out, then you had to lay it all down.
That wasn’t to say that I was an overly emotional person. I didn’t need to say how much I liked, or loved, someone over and over again. I wasn’t one to constantly tell you that I missed you and all that stuff. I would say it when it was there, hanging in my face. Or maybe even when I felt it needed to be heard.
It wasn’t an easy thing to open up and let someone see all the little parts of you. It wasn’t easy facing something that might not ever get to be. But it had to be done.
Okay, fine. I had a pretty good idea that Lake and I were on the same page here. Now fate was just fucking with us by not giving us the time to figure things out.
And even now, as he called me first thing on Christmas morning, I had a feeling that we wouldn’t be able to have a long conversation. I couldn’t remember the last time we talked for longer than twenty minutes at a time.
I would take what I could get and bide my time. He was worth it and my heart agreed.
Maybe I had a tiny spark of hope that he’d show up at my door this morning and that the gift he sent me wouldn’t be the only one that I received this year.
In my head, it played out like some horrible, low budget women’s channel movie.
He would show up and I’d look at the closed door like I didn’t have the first clue who was knocking. I’d answer with an overly shocked expression on my face and he’d be standing there wearing a stupid Santa hat. One of those ones with the mistletoe on it, because, you know.
That would be the moment you would wonder if it was going to turn into a porno. But that would come later.
So, yeah, he’d be there and he’d wish me Merry Christmas in person. And that would be the beginning of it all or some shit.
Clearly, I needed more coffee and my mind was drifting again.
“Did you open it?” he asked pulling me out of my movie fantasy.
“No,” I said narrowing my eyes at him playfully. “Unlikesomepeople, I wait to open my Christmas gift on the designated day.”
“You think you’re funny.”
“Don’t think. Know.” I flashed him a smug smile.
“Open it,” he said quickly like an excited kid on, well, Christmas morning. How appropriate, right?
