Page 34 of What Maple Heard

A beam of light came through the window and landed on the hallway.

Maple was standing over me, holding a large flower vase above her head like she was prepared to use it, squinting into the dark.

She squinted at me.

She looked at the tutu.

She started laughing.

It was a full laugh. Real, completely silent and completely uncontrolled. It was the kind of laugh I had been trying to get back for three weeks. One hand over her mouth, the other hysterically swirling the vase, shoulders shaking, the kind of laughing that takes over your whole body like a spasm.

I started laughing too. Partly because it was objectively funny, and partly because I would have fallen down a hundred hallways in a tutu if that laugh was the result.

She reached down and gave me her hand. I took it. She pulled and I got up. We stood in the dark hallway both still laughing.

There she was. There was my Maple.

I straightened the tutu. Dignity first.

“Sorry,” I said. “I was just practicing my lines.”

She squinted at me. The laughing had settled into something quieter but her eyes were still bright with it.

“What are you doing here?” she said.

“Practicing my twirls. And my voice.”

“Yeah, the Voice. I heard. The Voice.” she smiled.

“Yeah, it still needs some work.”

Please don’t ask me to make the voice again. Please.

She looked at me for a moment. “Do you come this early every morning?”

“Yeah.” I shrugged. “I like to squeeze in some practice before I start the floors.”

She was quiet for a second. “You don’t need to do all of this, Cade.”

“I know I don’t need to,” I said. “I want to. I want to be there for you, Maple. I want to be on your side. I want to make myself worthy of your worries, your problems, your responsibilities.” I paused. “And I’m not going to stop until you can see that.”

She let out a long, tired breath. “Just go and live your life,” she said. “Your real life. The one outside this studio, outside the glitter and the tutu and the kids.”

“I don’t want that life,” I said. “Not if it doesn’t have you and River in it.” I looked at her. “It took me too long to understand that. It took me some time, and a foul mouth full of hurtful words to realize it. But now I know, Maple. I know I had to pay a very heavy price for that realization, but now that I’ve realized it, I’m never ever stopping to try to have you and River back.”

She looked at me. “Then you’ll be trying for the rest of your life, Cade.”

“That,” I said, “is exactly my intention.”

I took one step toward her.

She didn’t step back.

We were close. Close enough that I could see her eyes in the thin morning light coming through the window, and she was scanning my eyes — searching my face for honesty, or probably the assurance that everything she had just heard was true. And I knew for sure that she saw what she was searching for. Because probably for the first time since I had met her, I had meant every single word I said.

My eyes landed on her lips. Her lips were parted ever so slightly in a small smile.

I wanted to kiss her. Oh, I wanted to kiss her so very badly.