His throat cleared, and he moved away from me. We stayed at a distance until the vet brought Zeus out to leave. Tristan wrapped his hands around his dog, who was tired but still managed to wag his tail and give his owner puppy kisses. Tristan smiled, and it was almost impossible to miss this time. It was a big smile of relief. If love was a moment, this would be where it existed.
I didn’t invade their space. Emma took my hand, and we walked a few steps behind Tristan and Zeus as they exited the hospital.
Tristan began to walk away with Zeus in his arms, uninterested in a ride back into town. I wanted to stop him, but I had no real reason to ask him to turn back. I buckled Emma into her seat and as I closed her door, I jumped out of my skin when I saw Tristan standing a few inches from me. His eyes locked in with mine. My eyes wouldn’t look away. My breathing became jagged, and I tried my best to remember the last time I’d stood that close to a man.
He stepped in closer.
I stayed still.
He took a breath.
I took one too.
One breath.
That’s all I could manage.
Our proximity made my stomach knot, and I was already prepared to say ‘you’re welcome’ for the ‘thank you’ I was certain he was going to give me.
“Learn how to drive a fucking car,” he hissed before he walked off.
Not a ‘thank you for picking up the bill’, not a ‘thank you for driving me’, but a ‘learn how to drive a fucking car.’
Well then.
With a small whisper, I responded into the wind that swept against my chilled skin. “You’re welcome, Tick.”
Chapter Three
Elizabeth
“Well, it took long enough for you two to get here!” Kathy smiled, walking out of the front door of the house. I hadn’t a clue that she and Lincoln would be meeting us at the house, but it made complete sense seeing as how they hadn’t seen us in so long, and only lived about five minutes away.
“Grammy!” Emma shouted as I unbuckled her from her car seat. She jumped out of the car and dashed toward her grandmother, happier than ever. Kathy wrapped her arms around Emma and lifted her up for a big hug. “We’re back home, Grammy!”
“I know! And we are so happy to hear that,” Kathy said, giving Emma kisses all over her face.
“Where’s Poppi?” she asked, referring to Lincoln, her grandfather.
“Looking for me?” Lincoln said, walking out of the house. He looked so much younger than his actual age of sixty-five. Kathy and Lincoln would probably never truly grow old—they had the youngest hearts in the world and were more active than most people my age. Once I’d gone on a run with Kathy and died after about thirty minutes—and she said we were only one-fourth of the way into the jog.
Lincoln grabbed Emma from his wife and tossed her up in the air. “Well, well, well, who do we have here?”
“It’s me, Poppi! Emma!” She laughed.
“Emma? No way! You look too big to be my little Emma.”
She shook her head back and forth. “It’s me, Poppi!”
“Well, if that’s so, prove it. My little Emma always gave me special kinds of kisses. Do you know them?” Emma leaned in and wiggled her nose against each of Lincoln’s cheeks before giving him an Eskimo kiss. “Oh my gosh, it is you! Well, what are you waiting for? I’ve got some red, white, and blue popsicles with your name on them. Let’s get inside!” Lincoln turned my way and gave me a welcome-home wink. The two of them hurried toward the house, and I took a second to look around.
The grass was tall, with weeds and wish-makers, as Emma liked to call them. The fence we’d started putting up was only half-finished, a job Steven was never able to complete. We’d wanted to fence in the property to keep Emma from wandering too close to the street, or into the huge forest in our backyard.
The extra white wooden pieces were stacked up against the side of the house, waiting for someone to complete the task. I glanced toward the backyard for a moment. Beyond the half-built fence were the trees that led to the miles of forested land. A part of me wanted to run, get lost in those woods, and stay there for hours.
Kathy walked over and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me into a tight hug. I collapsed against her, holding her closer. “How are you holding up?” she asked.
“Still standing.”