Cassidy
We spent the rest of the day dancing around the fact that it would be our last night together before I went back to my farmhouse.
Whatever Hall was feeling, he didn’t tell me. And… I didn’t tell him how I felt either. Somehow I wasn’t quite brave enough to say what I was hoping would happen.
But we spoke with our bodies, making love twice more. This time in his bed.
The first time had been fierce and desperate, like we were both trying to memorize each other before time ran out. The second time had been different, his hands moving over my body with such tender reverence that I cried afterward, overwhelmed by an emotion I couldn’t name.
And then we slept, our heartbeats synchronized as we clutched each other tightly through the night.
I woke tangled in his arms, my cheek resting on his shoulder. Morning light crept through the curtains, and reality settled heavy on my chest.
Today I was leaving.
I slipped out of bed quietly, not wanting to wake him. My borrowed clothes were scattered across the floor, and I gathered them slowly, each item feeling like a goodbye as I packed up my stuff.
When he woke, he reached for my side of the bed, finding it empty. Then his eyes scanned the room, finding me packing. He didn’t say anything. He just watched me with a tiny frown on his lips.
After I packed, Hall drove me home and waited for the RV to be delivered. It now sat in my front yard, small but serviceable.
He walked around it, examining the leveling blocks they’d placed beneath the wheels, making sure they were sturdy.
“Never heard of such a thing,” he muttered. “Insurance providing a whole RV.”
“They said it was a provision in my policy.” I shrugged. “My parents signed up for it years ago. Evidently they decided to pay for the Cadillac version of coverage.”
Hall turned to me then, his big hands cupping my face. The kiss he gave me was slow and loving, filled with everything neither of us seemed able to say.
“Are you going to be okay out here?”
The property felt different now, lonely in a way I hadn’t recognized before. But I put on a brave face and told him I’d be fine.
The mistake I’d made with Rodney was coming on too strong. I’d latched onto him as if no other men existed in the world.
I didn’t want to make that same mistake with Hall, smothering our love before it could ever get started.
If the man wanted me in his life, he was going to have to tell me that himself.
“Call me if you need anything,” Hall said, his voice rough. “Anything at all.”
“I will.”
Then I watched as he drove away untillongafter the dust had settled on the road again and silence swallowed the valley.
Three lonely days later, I sat in the cramped RV with my phone pressed to my ear. I’d gone back to work. So had Hall. And he hadn’t called me once.
I hadn’t called him either, but Ineededhim to make this first move. Couldn’t he see that?
“Is it crazy to fall in love so fast?” I asked my mom.
She laughed softly, her voice crackling over the phone line. “Honey, let me tell you about your Great Aunt Ida. She met her husband at the county fair, and they married in less than a week.”
“A week?”
She gave me the gentle affirmation I needed. “And together for fifty-three years after that. Sometimes you justknow.”
After we hung up, I stared at my phone, wondering if Hall knew. If he felt it too. Or if this was a one-sided love affair. I mean, I’d practically thrown myself at the man.
