She listened and said she had him. That she’d be there for him.
And this morning when he was getting ready for work, she pretended like their conversation in the middle of the night had never happened.
It was what he needed. It was her being the one for him to lean on.
He kissed her and walked out the door, then told her to take her time before she left for work. He’d lock up after she left.
Someone would replace her window today, and she would return home after he checked it.
They’d go back to their separate beds.
He needed the space. She might too.
It was unspoken, and best left that way.
He didn’t know the last time he spent four nights in a row with a woman. Then the full weekend on top of it.
Getting up together again this morning with her leaving for work after him, it felt kind of... right.
And when things felt right in his mind, it was time to take a few steps back and reevaluate.
Getting comfortable with anything made him drop his guard.
He wouldn’t miss what was in front of his face ever again and that meant what he was feeling.
Anything that made him uneasy, he had to recalibrate.
“Why the face?”
He turned to look at his father from where he was waiting for the tractor trailer to pull in and dump his apples into the cellar below the mill. He’d found it easier to have the doors open up, the apples dropped where it’d be dark and cool and they’d last longer there.
“What?”
“You’re standing there scowling at thin air,” his father said. “You always did that when you had something on your mind you couldn’t process.”
Guess not much had changed.
“Just a lot going on.”
“Meredith?”
“Among other things,” he said.
His father came to stand next to him, the two of them with their hands in their pockets, staring at the mountains in the distance.
For years he couldn’t wait to escape this place, but it always pulled him back.
He didn’t know why he wanted to run so much from what was rooted in his blood.
Maybe it had more to do with him wanting things his way.
Now he had it.
So why wasn’t he happy?
Or was he and couldn’t recognize the feeling?
“Everything appears to be going strong here,” his father said. “Or is there something I don’t know about?”
