Page 43 of The Lover
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Jake
Iwokeup to the sound of the shower running. I reached for my phone on the table next to the bed and saw it was almost six. Ellie must be working the morning shift today, so she had to be at the diner by six thirty.
I got up and stretched. Then found my boxer briefs and put them on. I needed to drive back to the ranch, finish packing, then head to the airport. My flight wasn’t until later, which made the trip into town doable last night.
Still, all this back and forth between town and the ranch was starting to get old. When I got back we were going to have to sit down and talk about living together. It only made sense. I had been worried about changing things, and it was true it would be a big change, but this was about practicality. Ellie had a ranch to run. Frank needed to find a replacement for her, which was going to take time.
We would have to see if Ellie thought I had done enough wooing of her, and if we had balance, whatever the hell that meant.
Which also meant a conversation with Rich and his future at Long Valley. I supposed I could keep him on full time, but then Javier and Gomez would be out of work. Although with those two it was never certain if they would come back year in and year out.
I pulled on my jeans and threw on my t-shirt. Then I sat on the bed to pull on my boots. The shower stopped and I gave her another few minutes to dry herself. Then I knocked on the door.
“Ellie, hurry. I want to get in there and take a piss before I have to get on the road.”
The door opened and she came out with a towel around her head and a towel around her body. Except she had this weird look on her face. Like something had shocked her.
“You okay?”
“Huh?”
“Ellie, you look like you saw a ghost.”
“Oh no. Nothing. No, I’m just… You need to hurry. I still need to finish my hair and I don’t want to be late.”
I did my business and when I came out she was already dressed (not going to lie, a little disappointed I wasn’t going to get to watch the show).
I walked over to her and cupped her chin in my hand. “Seriously, did something upset you?”
She smiled. “No, I’m fine. Really. Have fun on your trip.”
I bent down to kiss her, a quick taste because neither one of us had time for anything else.
“I’ll be back on Wednesday.”
“Yep.”
“This is the part where you tell me how much you’ll miss me.”
“But you’ve already said you won’t miss me, so I can’t tell you that I’ll miss you. Because that would be unbalanced.”
“Right. I keep forgetting,” I said even as I rolled my eyes. I pecked her lips again, because I could, and then left her to her hair.
“Balance,” I muttered to myself even as I made my way down the steps that ran along the side of the building. I seriously didn’t even know what that meant.
Still, I was pretty sure she was going to miss me.
Twelve
Ellie
That same morning
Don’t panic. It was the first thing I told myself.
Dontpanicdontpanicdontpanic.
