The pain in his voice makes my heart ache. I’d fallen asleep so quickly last night—too fast for me to even reach for him. I’d wanted to hold him all night.
I wrap an arm around his back and lean in to kiss his temple. Fletcher audibly sighs in relief. “I saw a hawk,” he says.
“Oh yeah?”
“Landed not too far from here. I think there’s a nest. We’ll have to go look for it later.”
“Sounds good.”
We drink in silence. The tension is still lingering between us, held captive by too many questions and not enough answers. We need to talk—reallytalk—about our future. But I’m not sure how to start that conversation. I’m even less sure of what I’m going to say. So I stare at a knot in the wood while Fletcher tells me about the herd of deer he usually sees around here and the telescope he wants to buy for the cabin.
None of it matters, and somehow, all of it does. He’s painting a picture of a place I want to come back to.
After a while, he pulls the bagels and cream cheese from the cooler, along with a carton of fruit. While he slices and smothers the bagels in creamy goodness, I reach into the side pocket ofmy duffel bag and pull out a deck of cards. They’re worn around the edges, the box torn in one corner. But they’re familiar in my hands.
Fletcher grins. “You brought cards?”
I shrug. “Wasn’t sure what the plan was, so I thought they might be useful.”
He reaches inside his coat pocket, revealing a deck he brought too.
I laugh. “Great minds think alike, I guess.”
My fingers know what to do even when my head doesn’t. The rhythm of shuffling settles me. Pulling a knee up, I turn to face Fletcher, then do a simple trick, one I’ve done a few times for him already. He watches carefully, as if trying to figure it out. When I reveal his card, he gapes.
“Seriously! How do you do that?”
I shrug like a man with all the secrets.
“Teach me.”
I snort. “But then it loses its charm.”
“So? I still want to learn.”
I show him, starting with some of the easier tricks. Fletcher fumbles and drops half the deck before his big reveal. I laugh before I can stop myself, the sound sharp and surprised, like it didn’t come from me at all.
Fletcher grins like he won something. “How about speed? Do you know speed?”
“Of course.”
We sit cross-legged on the bed, knees bumping, cards scattered everywhere as we rush to get rid of our stacks. The tension melts easily through the laughter and playful jabs, pulling us back into an easy rhythm.
Eventually, the air in the cabin changes, becoming warm and still. Fletcher gets up. “Want to go for a walk?”
“Sure.”
Outside, the cool air fills my lungs, clean and crisp. The frozen ground crunches beneath our feet. We don’t go far before my body forces me to slow down. Fletcher slows without comment, matching my pace like it’s nothing.
At some point, our hands find each other, threading together.
We don’t find the hawk’s nest, but I count two mule deer and a fox darting between the trees.
“It’s so pretty here,” I say dreamily.
“Isn’t it?” Fletcher sucks in a deep breath. “I love coming here.”
“You said you and Darren were going to redo the cabin?”
