Chapter 23
Travis
I park my car in the driveway and the phone rings right away. When I see it’s her, I can’t help the way my chest contracts when I see her face. "Hey," I answer after one ring. The smile fills my face as I get out of the car. Pushing my shoulder up to hold the phone, I take out the flowers that I stopped by to get for her.
"Hi," she says and she sounds exhausted. She’s been on call for the last ten days; I look at my watch and see that it’s past 7:00 p.m. "I just got out of surgery." I stop walking midstep when I hear those words.
"Weren’t you supposed to be on your way here?" I ask her. The last text I got from her was, “leaving in an hour” and that was at three.
"I was and then I got an emergency call and I had no time to text you." I close my eyes and then turn to sit on the front steps. "I’m so sorry."
"It’s been over two weeks," I remind her and I’m pissed that our plans have changed yet again. Last week I tried to get out to see her, but then shit came up and I had back-to-back emergencies, so I just couldn’t leave. We’ve been talking about this weekend for the past week. I didn’t even make any plans except to get food in. I was going to lock the door and only open it when she had to leave. I missed her more than I could put into words, and every single day I was getting crabbier and crabbier, to the point where they were scared to talk to me.
"You don’t have to remind me, Travis," she says, and I can hear that she is pissed also. "I know exactly how many days it’s been," she huffs. "Even if I forgot, you would remind me." I drop the flowers on the steps beside me. "I have to go and take a shower. I’m covered in guts and shit."
"Fine," I snap out. "Call me after." I look down at the phone and see my screenshot, which is the picture that she sent me this week. She was sitting in the middle of the field with her hair piled on her head. With one eye closed, she looked more beautiful than she ever did before.
I grab the flowers and head inside, slamming the door behind me. I toss the flowers onto the counter next to my keys and my phone. Pulling open the fridge and grabbing a bottle of beer, I twist open the cap, throwing it into the sink, not even giving a shit. I walk over to the couch and sit down, kicking off my shoes. Grabbing the remote, I turn on the television and just flick the channels while I finish my bottle of beer.
So much is going through my head, it’s like a spinning merry-go-round. I finish the beer in three gulps and get another one. "I really fucked things up," I say to the television, taking another pull of the beer. "Should I have just asked her to come with me?" I look at the bottle in my hand. "I fucking hate this shit." I look at the television, not even knowing what I’m watching.
Playing the scenario in my head over and over again. Asking her to come and then wondering if we would be married by now. For sure we would be, I would be begging her to marry me. Would we even be living in this house? Get up grabbing another beer and then checking to see if she called me, I think about calling her but I’m afraid that she might have fallen asleep and I’ll wake her.
The whole night I drink beer after beer while I make myself almost crazy with questions about what would have been. I lie on the couch sometime after eleven and my eyes close for a second. I hear the soft knock and my eyes flutter open to see the television still on. My head feels all groggy when I pick up my phone to see that it’s just after 2:00 a.m. I see that there isn’t a text from her, nor have I missed a call. My stomach sinks knowing that she is probably mad at me for what happened before. I contemplate getting up and going to sleep in my bed when I hear the knock again. I sit up, looking back at the door and getting up. I take four steps to the door and then hear a soft knock yet again. "What the hell?" I say to myself as I grab the door handle and the phone rings in my hand. I look down seeing Harlow’s name at the same time that my hand opens the door. My hand stops halfway to my ear when I see her standing there in the middle of the porch with the phone to her ear. "Harlow," I whisper, and I wonder if I’m dreaming about her again. I blink a couple of times to make sure that I’m really seeing her.
"Hi." She holds up her hand with the phone in it. "Surprise," she says, opening her arms and my phone falls to the floor and I rush out to her. My arms wrap around her waist as I pick her up. She wraps her legs around my waist at the same time she grabs my face with both hands and lowers her lips to mine. I slide my tongue into her mouth and the both of us moan out. I turn around, walking back into the house, closing the front door with my foot.
She moves her head to the side as the kiss deepens, my heart hammering in my chest. "I can’t believe you are here," I say when I let go of her lips. "Are you really here?"
"I mean, you could be dreaming." She smiles and her index finger traces my lower lip. "I just hope you're real."
I lean forward and bite her neck and then suck in. "Yup, real," I confirm and I just stare at her. She’s everything and more. "I missed you."
"Show me," she says in a whisper. "Show me all the ways you’ve missed me." She reaches for her shirt and pulls it over her head. "Fourteen days." She leans in, biting my lower lip. "Fourteen times," she says, and all I can do is toss her on the bed. It takes a whole twenty seconds to get us both naked. Our hands are frantic to touch each other, our mouths attach and never let go. There is so much I want to do to her but her hand grips my cock and pulls it to her vagina. "I really want to swallow you to the back of my throat," she says, letting go of my lips for a bit. "But I need you inside me more."
She doesn’t have to ask me twice, in one thrust I’m all the way buried in her. Both of us moan out. She arches her back and I fucking swear she was made for me. She wraps her legs around my waist and it doesn’t take me long until I’m roaring out her name at the same time that we both jump over the cliff. I hunch over her, not moving from inside her. "Are you really here?" I bend and kiss her lips.
"I’m really here." She smiles at me. "I didn’t think I would be able to swing it, but I just couldn’t go another weekend." Her hand comes up and cups my face. "Even if it’s for just a little while." She leans up and rubs her nose with mine and she rolls me over for round two.
"Where are you going?" I mumble with my eyes still closed when I feel her try to move away from me.
She chuckles as my hand doesn’t let go of her one boob. "I have to pee." I open one eye when I let go of her and see her slip out of bed and walk to the bathroom. "What time is it?" I turn to look at the clock.
"It’s eleven," I reply and wait for her to walk out of the bathroom. All night we went at it, neither of us wanted to sleep and lose the time we had with each other. We finally drifted off to sleep sometime after eight, after we made an early breakfast. I hear the toilet flush and then the water turn on. She walks out of the bathroom right after and my cock wakes up. "I have to leave by two."
The happiness that I felt not too long ago now turns into anger. "You just got here.”
"And I had to beg someone to take my place, but they can’t do it all weekend, so I took what I could." She puts a knee into the bed and then crawls to me. "Don’t do that face."
"What face?" I try to change my face but she knows me.
"The face." She swings her leg over my hips straddling me and leans down. "When this part right here." She points between my eyes. "Gets all scrunched up." She kisses the spot. "And then this dimple right here." She points at the right side of my cheek. "It droops." She kisses my dimple and my hands go to her hips.
"I don’t want you to leave me yet," I admit to her and flip her on her back. "What if I tied you up and never let you out?" I ask her and her green eyes just light up when she laughs.
"That, my friend, is called kidnapping." I smile at her. "And I think you get arrested and put into jail."
"Ugh, fine," I say, trying not to ruin the last couple of hours I have with her, but the minutes fly by and in the blink of an eye I’m kissing her beside her car. "Are you going to call me when you get home?"
"I sure will." She lays her head on my shoulder. "And then you are going to check and see when you can leave."
"I will," I agree and the wind blows her hair into her face. My hand pushes it back and I kiss her lips one more time before she gets into the car. "Drive safe," I say, closing the car door behind her.
"Bye, Travis." She smiles and I can see that she is blinking away tears and I wish she could stay. She puts her hand to her lips and kisses her fingers and blows me a kiss before driving off. I stand here watching until I don’t see her taillights anymore.
I walk up the steps and sit on the top step, the pain in my chest getting stronger and stronger. I sit out here looking at nothing really, and then my phone rings in my back pocket. "Hello," I answer, not even checking to see who it is.
"Hey," Shelby says. "Don’t forget dinner at Mom’s in ten minutes." I look at the phone seeing that it’s almost five. I spent the last three hours staring at nothing.
"Yeah, I’ll be there." I walk back in the house and slip on socks and shoes, grabbing my keys and wallet. I don’t look at the bed, not willing to just yet.
When I pull up to the house, I see that all three of them are sitting outside on the front steps.
I get out of the car and close the door behind me, turning to walk up the walkway. "Jesus," Clarabella says. "You look like shit."
I shake my head, only my sister doesn’t sugarcoat things. "Oh my God, did an animal die?" Shelby asks and I sit down on the step next to them.
"Nope," I respond and the front door opens and my mother comes out and she smiles until she sees my face.
"What happened?" Her smile fades. "Who died?" She looks at the girls, who try not to laugh at her.
"No one died," I assure them and lean my elbows on my knees. "Why can’t I just look like shit?"
"You don’t just look like shit," Presley replies. "You look like someone kicked your dog and then kicked you in the balls."
"Do you need to be so graphic?" my mother huffs at her and she just smiles at her.
"Harlow was down," I share and everyone just stops even blinking their eyes. Even the animals in the trees sound like they stopped doing everything.
"Wait a second." Shelby holds up her hand and then looks at me. "She came down to see you?"
"I went to see her two weeks ago," I admit to them and my mother walks over to the rocking chair. She grabs the chair by the arm and pulls it closer to us and sits down.
"You went to see her the week after your wedding?" She looks at me. "You said you went to a conference."
"I lied," I confess. "I didn’t want to say anything in case she told me to fuck off."
"You slept with her on your wedding night and she didn’t tell you to fuck off then," Presley reminds me and Shelby puts her hand to her mouth when my mother gasps.
"What?" she shrieks out and I glare at Presley. "You slept with her on your wedding night?" She rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Probably," I admit to her. "Probably. Because now I love her even more than I did before and it’s so fucked up." My sisters look at me with their mouths hanging down. "I broke up with her four years ago for this exact reason."
"You broke up with her four years ago because you’re an asshole," Clarabella tells me and it’s my turn for my mouth to hang open. "Oh, come on, you don’t think that what you did made any sense whatsoever."
"How could I have asked her to choose?" I ask, getting defensive.
"I know how." Shelby puts her hand up like she is in a classroom. "Harlow, I love you and I don’t want you to move back home."
"It’s not that easy," I declare, shaking my head, the pit of my stomach burning.
"But it is that easy. It’s like pick me, choose me, love me," Clarabella says, and my sisters all nod and sigh.
"Four years ago, I let her go because I didn’t want her to choose between going back home and being in this fucking spot."
"And what spot is that?" my mother asks.
"It’s the spot where I miss her so freaking much I’m unbearable at work. It’s the spot where I don’t even sleep properly because all I want to do is dream of her, and when I don’t, I wake up pissed. It’s the spot where everything around me seems dull, almost like it’s in black and white and she is the color in the world." The pain in my chest comes on full force now. "It’s the spot that I didn’t want to fucking be in and I’m here. I want out."
"One," Shelby states, putting up her finger. "If you weren’t my annoying brother, I would barf at all the things you just said. And two, why don’t you just ask her to move here?"
"She has a practice." I throw up my hands. "How much of a dick would I be if I said close down your practice and move here?”
"Well, if you are going to be as chipper and light-hearted as you are right here," Presley says. "Chances are that you are going to make everyone around you want to move away from you."
"You love her," my mother says.
"I do," I admit. "More than I did before, more than I will any other woman in this lifetime."
"I waited to see the light come back into your eyes," my mother says softly, and she uses her thumb to brush away the tear from the corner of her eye. "And when you brought Jennifer home, I was over the moon. I thought my boy is back." My sisters groan out at the same time. "Shut up, you three." She glares at them. "I kept looking at you, hoping to see the same light in your eye that you had with Harlow. I kept waiting for you to laugh like you did with her. I kept waiting for you to be like this." She points at me. "The whole time you were with her, you never had that light. You were dull."
"Jeez, thanks," I say, laughing at her. "Nothing like your mother telling you you're dull to brighten your day."
She gets up. "The answers are right in front of you." She puts her hands on her hips. "You know what the answer is." I just look at her, not sure when she says what my head has been screaming at me to do. "If you want her, go to her."