She stared down at the last text he’d sent, the picture of his all-time favorite build, his phone’s wallpaper. The oak tree. She’d asked him to send it. She wanted to be able to study it, appreciate it, any time.
His phone would be on silent right now anyway. She could tell him, say it “out loud,” and then maybe go to sleep. She began thumb-typing.
Willow:Saffron wasn’t as receptive as I hoped. In fact she told me I’m not thinking clearly. About you. We had to agree to disagree for now. I’ll keep trying, of course. I’ll keep looking for whatever info I can, to persuade her. She knows I don’t make factual claims lightly. She knows I do my own research. So I’m disappointed, I guess. That she’ll trust me to know what I’m talking about with other subjects, but not when it comes to wolves.
Her chest opened little by little as she poured out the paragraph and hit Send. Then she reread it. Oh, shoot. She always reread a text before she sent it. Why hadn’t she this time? She began typing again. Thank goodness his phone was on silent, because she couldn’t leave that text by itself for him to wake up to.
Willow:That came out of my fingers wrong. I don’t mean I actually know what I’m talking about. I don’t know anything really, especially not from your perspective. I was trying to say I haven’t been ruled by emotions instead of knowledge. You’ve given me a lot of new knowledge in the last four days, and I’m not taking it lightly.
This time she did reread the outpouring paragraph. It wasn’t perfect, wasn’t exactly what she wanted to say, but it worked. She hit Send again.
Below her two texts, in the tiny notification font, the wordDeliveredflipped toRead.
Willow’s heart lost a beat. Her fingers spasmed around her phone. Oh no. If he’d forgotten to silence his phone, she’d just woke him up. On a week night. Spewing her feelings. Oh no.
He was typing.
Ezra:I knew what you meant.
A long sigh poured out of her. Her pacing feet slowed, and she leaned against the wall and typed again.
Willow:Oh good. And I’m so sorry if I woke you up!
Ezra:You didn’t. Was building.
Willow:At almost midnight on a Tuesday?
Ezra:I get up in my head sometimes and can’t sleep.
Did his brief responses mean he didn’t want to talk right now? Oh, wait. He was typing again.
Ezra:Been like this since I was a pup. It’s not anxiety, not all the time anyway, it’s more like too many thoughts in my head, too many things I want to figure out, and sometimes I can’t shut it off.
Her heart seemed to squish inside her, fluffy as marshmallow, when she read the first sentence. When she read the rest, it stayed that way. He didn’t keep typing, so she did.
Willow:Sounds frustrating. Most of the time, when I want to sleep, I just sort of…do.
Ezra:Yeah, I’ve heard that’s the typical experience.
He didn’t include an emoji, but she felt the wink regardless, heard the low rumble of amusement in his chest. She pictured him pressing colorful bricks together in the dead of night, trying to quiet the questions in his head. She typed, backspaced, typed it again, backspaced it again, typed it a third time and hit Send.
Willow:So you weren’t a kid? You were a pup?
Ezra:Oh. Yeah, a wolf’s children are referred to as pups. As is any young wolf once he begins to change, even if both his parents are human. Don’t have much in common with baby goats, obviously.
Willow:Lol! I guess not. I wonder when people started using “kid” for children?
Ezra:Dunno.
She wanted to stay awake all night. She wanted this conversation to go on forever, to ask him questions, to read his growly humor between the deadpan lines. Better yet, she wanted not to have to read anything, instead to sit beside him while he built, to see his hands at work, to hear his voice and his low rumbles. If she knew which cabin on Lunar Lane belonged to Ezra Sterling, she’d get in her car right now and surprise him.
Whoa. No. No, she would not do that.
While she wrestled the longing for his nearness, he typed.
Ezra:About Saffron. I know you thought you could convince her in one try, but she doesn’t know me. I figured she’d tell you to break up with me on the spot.
Heat flooded her face. She shut her eyes, shook her head. She didn’t want to tell him and hurt him, but…he didn’t sound hurt about this.
