Ford is stirring so many emotions inside of me, more than average.
“I’m torturing you? Because of this morning?” he dares to ask, his hands hanging at his sides.
I throw my hands up in the air, completely helpless. “Tricking me, getting us alone, a ring. A ring, Ford? Who is their right mind does that? Then this morning, and I…” Didn’t want to hear what deep down I knew he probably thought long ago.
My head falls in sorrow.
He steps forward, but I’m quick to hold my hands up to stop him. “Do not step closer to me,” I warn.
His head dips down, and his sight tips up to grab my attention. “You feel it too.”
“I need you to look away with your luscious puppy eyes because they will not make me fall into your arms.”
A total lie.
He knows it too because he smirks. “We can’t change the past, but we can write the future, and I’ll be damned if it’s anything except waking up to you.”
My brow slides up. “You’re so sure of us.”
“Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m imagining that you and I can’t let go of one another. Just tell me and I’ll give this up… but you can’t.”
“You didn’t give me a chance to tell you.” I tip my hip out with my hand on my waist.
He grins sheepishly. “Please, go ahead.” He doesn’t sound convinced.
“I…” Have no clue what I’m doing, that’s what. I look up at him and my heart is fully his, and it scares me. Ford has the key, and I know he’ll hide it so nobody will ever have it but him. “I’m so angry,” I admit softly.
“I gathered.” He doesn’t seem fazed.
The lids of my eyes slowly close then open but no calm hits me. Instead, a hurricane passes over my heart and moves through my throat on full windspeed because everything rolls off my tongue in a wave.
“I can’t tell you that you’re wrong. Okay? Happy? Is that what you wanted to hear?” I raise my voice, my chest thumping with emotional fury. “I couldn’t sleep last night because I’m stuck in this beautiful house on a lake that has some mystical powers to get me pregnant and engaged in the span of a decade. I laid awake last night on a soft mattress wishing that for one night I had the ability to let go and be in the moment. With you.” Ford looks at me, mute, that I’m at last breaking. Our eyes lock in recognition. “Because yeah… you, Ford, I want more than anything, but we share a son who doesn’t deserve a clusterfuck of epic proportions if we get this wrong.”
We both seem taken aback by my little monologue.
But before either one of us can say something, a spray of hard cold water comes up from the grass. I shriek from the sudden surprise, my mouth gaping open as I try to understand. Instantly I’m getting soaked through, and the shock has me frozen as I take in what is happening.
I don’t realize until Ford begins to laugh. It’s only then that I connect that it’s the sprinkler, and Ford by chance just missed the brunt of the water. I’m standing in front of him wet, and my dress is now a second skin.
“Are you kidding me?”
He tries to hide his laugh. “You’re standing on the grass. It’s on a timer.”
“Is this my luck? What other stunts will happen on this property?” My hair is now soaked, and I wipe away water from eyes that probably have mascara running.
“You’re cold.”
“It’s summer,” I reply.
“And you’re cold.” Ford steps into the stream of water, and I realize he is repeating what we said last night because my nipples are clearly peaked, and his eyes have noticed.
“It’s cold because you keep the air-conditioning high and get me trapped in sprinklers,” I argue back, one-toned and unsure what is happening.
The sound of the water becomes a backdrop or it’s my ears ringing as my heart beats fast. That’s the reason the world seems to be going silent around us. Ford is now drenched in water and so very close, his eyes hungry.
“You’re in the moment,” he highlights. “With me.”
A smile tugs on my lips, because this moment feels like relief and perfection rolled into one. The setting for a memory, and I know it will be one that I’ll smile about for years to come.
