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Faded to only a hint of pink at the edges, the old picnic table creaked underneath his feet as he climbed it. Pointing at it, I shook my head and crept closer. “Un-un. This can’t be the same one.”
Right by his leg where he carved our names a whole other lifetime ago, he rubbed his fingers over the spot where he first kissed me. “Check this out.”
Holding out his hand for me, he gave me a yank so I could climb up next to him. Leaning over to read ‘Dom + Faith 4Ever’, I whimpered as I laid my hand over my chest. “Oh, damn. We were some sweet kids. Weren’t we?”
Rocking into his shoulder slightly, I traced each letter with my fingertips. “Thank you for bringing me here. I almost forgot about this.”
His hands rubbed at each other as he shook his head at them. “Not me. I come here all the time.” One to plow through all the bullshit and just get to the heart of a matter, he took a deep breath and turned up his hands. “So? What happened to us, Faith?”
He’d always be what home was for me. Not a place or a house. It was that feeling I got when I laid my head on his shoulder like that, just a comfortableness I never found with anyone else. “I’m going to be honest. I’m kind of in shock about all this still.” His arm came around me, and I peeked up at him. “I figured I’d have to face Carolyn and Jason, but I never expected to see you again.”
His eyes fell to my mouth to tell me I had a kiss coming, but there were some big things I needed settled before we just picked things up from where we left them. “I’m not trying to start some feud between you and your mother, Dom. But I won’t lie to you either.”
Nodding at me, he jerked his eyebrows. “Tell me everything.”
Rewinding the whole speech in my head, my eyes drifted away for a moment. “She called while you and Jason were away at that auction the day before graduation and asked me over to” — I made quotes with my fingers — “have brunch so we can get to know each other better.” A rush of air blew over me when he chuckled, and I laughed with him. “Yeah. Looking back, I realize that now. But eighteen-year-old me just wanted your mom to like me or at least not hate me.” My hand flipped off of my knee. “But as soon as we sat down, she showed me this acceptance letter for a school in Texas and said your dad just took a job there.” I bounced my finger in front of me. “And if I loved you, I would let you go because once you met girls more like you, you wouldn’t want me anymore.”
An angry sounding ‘shh’ slid through his teeth as his head shake got faster. I could’ve probably stopped right at that point, but I thought he deserved the whole truth. I’d sheltered him from all the ways his mother mistreated me when he wasn’t looking for too long. “That your destiny was to be a rich lawyer, and mine was to work some dead-end job like everyone else here.” My finger circled the air in front of us. “It was like she was right inside my head saying everything I was thinking, and I was so...” Shifting around to face him, I shook my head. “I knew she’d hate me forever — that she’d never give us a minute of peace. And I just lost it, I guess.”
His voice drifted off, getting thinner as his eyes watered over, and he poked his chest. “Why didn’t you come tell me what happened?”
I rubbed my sleeve below my eye as I rushed to save my mascara. “Because she’s your mother. What was I going to do? Ask you to choose me over your mom?”
“Choose?” He slid his hand over my cheek. “My mother is my mother, and I know better than anyone how she is. The two of you were never any kind of rivals.” His thumb moved over my bottom lip as he came closer. “You’re my girl, and you win over everyone every single time. It’s not even something I have to think about.”
The tip of his tongue broke his lips apart as he wet them. “Didn’t I take care of you?” When I nodded at him, he finally pecked my bottom lip. “If you needed something, I made it happen. Didn’t I?” His t-shirt twisted in my fingers as I pulled him to me, and he pushed his lips into mine just enough to make me whimper. “If someone bothered you, I stomped their ass. Didn’t I?” Squeezing me against him to make my head pitch backward, he rubbed his nose against mine. “So, I can’t understand why you thought you couldn’t come to me with all this?”
My cheek puffed back at him, because the answer was just that simple. It was why I left and why I stayed away so long. “Because I was a coward. I was afraid of my own shadow, much less one as big as your mom’s. And the idea of making the wrong choice and you hating me for it someday terrified me.” His eyes closed as he pushed our foreheads together, and I twisted his shirt more so he’d look at me again. “But I’m not a teenager anymore, and the only thing I’m afraid of is leaving here tonight and not seeing you again.”
I don’t know how long it had been since he kissed someone, but he kissed me like the morning I left was the last time. Using my hair to guide me, he tugged his fist against my scalp to pull me closer until I couldn’t take a breath unless it was his.
Drunken laughs coming toward us broke me away from him, but he kept his grip tight on my head so I couldn’t back away. “Please don’t cut me off again. Whatever happens now, you can’t just walk away from me.” A tear slid down his face when he opened his eyes again, and he laid my hand under his right above his belly button. “I can’t be away from you anymore. It hurts so much I can’t stand it.”
Unwrapping his fingers from my hair, I slid his hand down my face and kissed his fingers as they crossed my mouth. “I’m not going anywhere. Your momma’s just going to have to deal with it.” I hopped down from the edge of the table, pulling on his fingers so he’d follow. “Come on. I’m sure Jason’s used up all his conversation skills on Carolyn by now, and I don’t want him to strike out.”
With one jerk, he had me back against his chest with his fingers dug into my arms to keep me there. “This conversation isn’t over, not by a long shot. You understand that, don’t you?”
Inching backward as much as he’d let me, I pulled at the bottom of his t-shirt until he started to move. “My window is always open for you.”
25
Locked Down
Dominic
It was in her nature to be hesitant. Faith came into this world pre-installed with a hundred insecurities that made her second-guess herself to the point that she couldn’t make a move when she got too flustered.
So, I suppose she was always a little slower to catch up to her feelings than me.
Obsessing over her all these years, pouring over every detail the way I did, I never forgot a single thing about how she liked to be touched. I didn’t expect her to remember our life together the way I did, though. I understood the depths of my thoughts weren’t normal.
But when Faith’s fingertips skipped over the center of my back under my shirt the way I liked, every hair on my body stood on end.
Could we actually start right where we stopped like no time passed?
Not that I was going to take no for an answer anyway, but how she didn’t give me any hesitation had me a bit worried, if I’m honest.
Sometimes, I wondered if anything going on around me was even real.
