Page 47 of Forever Fallen

Alarmed, she heard the front door shut and her car start up in the distance. Not much she could do about that now.

If he was mad… ‘he could just get glad again’, as Grammy would say. That single thought made her heart hurt and was a reminder of today’s events.

Drawing in a shaky breath, she started reading again, fully intent on losing herself in the book and maybe getting past the normal stopping point where the idiotic damsel-in-distress just flagrantly went on-and-on about how she hated the main character, yet loved him at the same…

Oh.

Sophie flipped the book over on her lap, opened to the page she was on, and stared at the wall in front of her in shock and disbelief.

Wasshethe idiotic damsel?

Why were emotions so stupidly confusing?

Hearing an extremely loud bang… Sophie realized it was the front door slamming shut. She heard footsteps thudding in the house, someone moving about in the kitchen, and angrily cursing below.

Ryan.

She almost went downstairs to see what was wrong – and then decided that she really didn’t want to know.

If he wrecked her car, there was no changing it. If he was in a bad mood because she bailed on him, then she didn’t want to be on the receiving end of his vitriolic temper.

Nope, it was safer to stay tucked where she was peacefully.

Hearing steps on the stairs, she looked up from her book, waiting – for what, she didn’t know. She heard silence at the top of the landing and knew deep in her heart he was standing on the other side of the door.

Waiting.

Sophie held her breath.

To her absolute horror and disbelief, the knob turned slowly like out of some frightening movie… and thelockedbedroom door opened.

“What…?” she screeched, stunned.

“All the stupid locks in this place are either broken or too easily manipulated to break in,” Ryan volunteered angrily, walking boldly into her room like he owned the place. “It’s on my list of things to fix.”

“Get out of my room!” she blurted out angrily. “The door was locked for a reason!”

“Yeah well, I don’t really agree with spouses having locked doors between them or going to bed angry, so this isn’t happening. Okay?” he snapped, walking towards her bed – only for Sophie to draw up the covers higher as he sat down on the edge of her bed.

“Guess I’m old-fashioned, stupid, or gullible like that…”

Ryan was carrying a plastic grocery bag in his hands, watching her.

“Here’s the part where you interject and say, ‘No Ryan, you aren’t old-fashioned, stupid, or gullible… I think you are a wonderful guy,’ he said pointedly, looking upset.

Sophie just sat there still processing how he got in here and what he was saying… when he sighed heavily, looking so…

Alone.

“Fudge ripple or chocolate chip cookie dough?”

His voice was quiet, and it took her a minute to realize that he wasn’t speaking gibberish, but waiting expectantly… and had two spoons in his hands.

“Ryan, what is going on?” she asked quietly, feeling very confused.

“I tease you because this is all so new to me,” he replied, his voice hushed as he stared blindly at the book on her bed, blinked, and then handed her a spoon.

“You are the one person in the world that I will miss more than anything and it scares me.”

---