Brayden hands my baby off to Raelynn and Deanna looks a bit sheepish from having been asleep.
“Thanks,” I tell them. “You’re Bree’s favorite babysitters.”
Brayden laughs because he doesn’t believe me, but Deanna smiles. “Any time, EJ,” she says, earning a glare from her boyfriend. “Don’t give me that look, Brayden. You have more fun than I do, and I have a lot of fun.”
Brayden simply shakes his head. “Let me get her diaper bag for you.”
A few minutes later, we’re driving home. Raelynn holds my hand in her lap and stares out the window.
“I wonder if Jackson went on to sleep soon after we talked,” she says quietly. Jackson called her right after our movie ended and he seemed uncertain once more, but admitted he had been having fun with Henry.
“Text Henry and ask,” I suggest.
“Wouldn’t that show I don’t trust him?”
“No, it shows you want to check on your son. I mean, look at how often we’ve talked when I’m on my trips. Ease your mind and text him, Raelynn.”
She releases my hand to grab her phone and do just that. By the time we’re home, she sighs. “He was a little scared, but Henry says he calmed him down and he was asleep within twenty minutes. Instead of sleeping in the room Henry has for him, he decided Jackson might feel more comfortable sleeping in the living room with him under a blanket fort. I feel so much better now.”
I knew she would. I’m also happy that Henry has everything under control over there and is communicating with Raelynn about it. We get Bree settled in for the night and then lay on the couch on our sides. The tips of my fingers walk from Raelynn’s shoulder to as far as I can reach down her leg. I’m happy she’s happy. I’m happy things are working out. That we took the risk and that it’s been worth it. I think the best of us is yet to come.
“Elias?”
“Hmm?” I hum absentmindedly, wondering if she’ll let me have her right here on the couch.
“I started writing after Henry left me,” she says. My fingers pause at her hips and I look down at her since I’m propped up by my elbow. “I’ve always been good in school when it came to writing, but after I told him and my parents about Jackson and everything that happened...” Her voice trails off as she takes a few deep breaths. “I needed an outlet to stay sane.”
Her inhale this time is shaky. “At first, I wrote like an alternate reality. A fictional version of my life that I wished would’ve happened instead of what did. Then, other stories started coming and I wrote those instead. But it was still an outlet, an escape when life got hard, and it was private. I was going to tell you about it eventually. Once I felt like I do now.”
Out of all of that, there’s one thing that interests me the most. “How do you feel now?”
“At peace and secure with who we are and where we’re going, all of which I’m not sure I’ve ever felt before. But once it hit me, I realized this is what I was waiting for.”
I smile. I can’t help it. Raelynn has finally settled in with me and our relationship. She’s finally truly comfortable and believes in us. “About time,” I mumble, teasing her.
She rolls onto her back to show me she’s rolling her eyes at me. She fists my shirt in my hand and a slow smile lights up her face. “Are you done?” She glances toward the TV. “I think we should celebrate the fact that I’m jobless and officially living with my boyfriend.”
I laugh. I want to ask her if she’s settled on what she wants to do about the jobless part, but not right now I don’t. My hand slides back down to her legs and slips underneath the dress she still wears. “How do you want to celebrate?” I ask.
She grabs my neck and pulls me down for a kiss as her answer. I shift us so I’m on my back and she lies on top of me. Just as I’m pulling her dress up, she leans back.
“Quick question.”
“What?”
“Why haven’t you invited me to the charity event? Sylvia said you’re supposed to.”
I stare at her for a moment. “That’s what you’re thinking about right now. Really?”
“It just popped into my head,” she says with a shrug.
“Hadn’t thought about it much with everything going on.” And that’s almost a lie. I haven’t thought about it at all, actually. “Do you want to go with me, Raelynn?”
She slides her hands from my neck to my shoulders, shifts her legs to straddle me, and sighs. “Do I have to? Seems kind of daunting.”
I laugh. She wants to know why I haven’t asked her to an event she isn’t sure she wants to attend in the first place? I lift my head so my lips can meet hers. She’s too cute to not quit talking and start back on the path we were on. A path where my hands lift and lift until she sits up to remove her dress. A path where she smiles as I flip us over, her fingers curl into my hair as I kiss along her collarbone.
“Shirt, Elias,” she whispers her demand.