Chapter Seventeen
Emery
My wife had four different laughs. There was the one that was just a giggle, her way of being kind, letting you know she was paying attention.
And she was.
That woman was always listening.
Then, there was the sound she made when she was entertained. It was a few chuckles, nothing more, with a faint smile.
There were also the times when she actually found something funny. Her giggle would still be on the gentler side, but it would be fulfilling. Her eyes would squint and there would be a sparkle to them. A glow. She’d turn her head to the side, showing you a glimpse of her nose, the slender slope as she scrunched it. Her already high cheeks would arch even more. Those stunning lips would spread wider.
If my wife were a design, I wouldn’t change a single feature.
She was gorgeous. I’d thought that since the moment I met her. It was even truer now. Not because she gave me two of the most incredible kids. Not because we made it through some dark times when we weren’t even sure there was another side to reach. Not because at night, she gave me her body and let me ravish it relentlessly.
Those things had nothing to do with why I thought my wife was even more gorgeous now than when I met her our freshman year in college.
That reason was because I saw the woman she started off being and the wife and mother she had grown into. Her journey was as beautiful as she was.
She had one more laugh and it was my favorite.
It was reserved for times when she found something so funny, she lost herself. She would take the deepest breath and her mouth would open wide and as she laughed, she would look up toward the sky. What came out was the most cheerful, hilarious, addictive sound I ever heard.
When she was empty of air, she would take a large breath, recharge her lungs, and the same sound would come out again. Sometimes it would last up to a minute. She wouldn’t be able to stop. You wouldn’t want her to. She was that pretty to watch, that mesmerizing.
Jesse drew people in.
It didn’t matter where we were, they constantly looked at my wife. But when they had the chance to talk to her was when they got to experience her strongest quality. And that was her ability to really listen, giving a type of attention you never had before. She didn’t rush you, she didn’t interrupt or cut you off. She just stared into your eyes and heard every word.
It was a quality I’d never seen in anyone else.
Until I met Charlotte.