“I think we should go to Grizzly’s,” she says.
I lower my voice, wanting to avoid a scandal. “You don’t like the pizza here?”
She smiles at me, but it’s not the full-throated laugh I expect. “I think we should stop not talking about what we’re both thinking. We need to go and eat some wings, play some pool and maybe even dance. I think there’s a band there tonight.”
“A band?” I ask. “I’m not sure I’m a guy who really chases after a band.”
“I’m not suggesting we chase after anyone.” She pushes her seat away from the table. “But I want to get out of here.”
I get it. She doesn’t want to face the inevitable, the cold hard truth—there isn’t any magic formula that will mean we can be together. There just isn’t.
We’re living on borrowed time. We both know it.
But for now I’m holding on for a miracle that will change both our paths.
The music leaksout of Grizzly’s like it can’t be contained, a bubbling-over pot of guitar and a woman’s vocals.
I open the door and Iris turns her head and grins at me, like she’s so pleased we came. The jury’s out for me. I just want to be with Iris and block the rest of the world out. I don’t want to think about tomorrow or this time next year. I don’t want to think about my mother and the hotel. I want everything to just disappear and leave Iris and me. And maybe Grizzly’s wings.
Iris slips her hand into mine and pulls me inside and toward the back of the bar. Anyone would think an entire band was playing from outside, but it’s just a piano player, a guitar player, and a singer on a stool.
“I can’t believe it,” Iris says. “She hasn’t done this song in forever.”
I refocus and realize the singer is the waitress from Grizzly’s. My cell buzzes, and when I check it, the caller ID shows it’s one of the trustees from the trust board. I silence the call and slip it back into my pocket. I don’t want my worlds bleeding together. I just want to be here.
In Star Falls.
With Iris.
The singer has switched gears and she’s singing a ballad. Something aboutsnow-covered hillsandgetting older. Her voice is incredible. Husky and powerful but so pure. A bit like the mountains that surround us.
Iris stands in front of me and wraps my arms around her, then hooks her arms around me. She feels warm, like she’s a part of the earth or something, and I’m aware of how happy I am right now. In this moment. I wish I could make it last.
I try to commit everything to memory. Every note of the song. Iris’s fingers wrapped around me. The way she smells of wildflowers. And most of all, this feeling of contentment I have deep down inside, which I realize I’ve never experienced until I met Iris.
Then the music stops and Iris turns in my arms.
“Wings?” she asks.
I hold her gaze, wanting to tell her how much she means to me. How much being with her makes me feel like I’m exactly where I should be. But I keep my confession bottled up. There’s no point, is there? There’s no point getting in deeper. Not if there’s no possibility that we can get our happy ending.
“Dance with me,” I say instead.
“I thought you couldn’t dance.”
“I said I didn’t dance.” A smile tugs at the corners of my mouth. “There’s a difference.”
Her tongue darts out and wets her lips. “Show me what you got.”
I circle my arm around her back and pull her against me. Any space between us has gone. Our legs intermingle as she slides her hands up my chest and around my neck.
The heat from her is dizzying. The look in her eye that tells me she’s giving me everything. That she’ddoanything for me. It’s almost too much.
Almost.
I start to move, bringing her with me like we’re one person. We sway in time to the music. At least I think it’s in time. Now that we’re like this, I’m not sure I’m capable of focusing on anything but Iris. Anything but us.
My phone vibrates in my jeans pocket, but I ignore it. Nothing can get between us in this moment.
