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“I know. Iknow.”But just in case.I don’t want him playing video games alone all day. He needs to move and do PT. Stefan believes he can keep progressing, and I believe in him too.
We meet my dad in the parking lot, where he hugs me and shakes Harvey’s hand. We’re walking side by side while Harv takes the ramp before Athena runs to see him.
“Well don’t you look dashing, Dad.” Gia tells him, patting his charcoal wool coat, as I greet her, then my brother-in-law, James. Despite being at a farm lodge, the event is black tie and the venue is decorated in gold and midnight blue, accented with green plants.
I catch up to Harvey once we’re all inside and I’ve removed my coat. He’s talking with Athena about what Santa brought her for Christmas this year. It’s adorable seeing her think her gifts through as she uses each finger as reference.
“Ummm... doll... because me nice.” She beams at him, and he laughs, patting her head. The sound shoots both to my groin and my heart. Like an arrow directed straight at me.
I want this with him. I want kids with him. I want it all.
The future, the fights, the fire-hot passion we used to have until the accident two and a half years ago.
How can I, though, when he refuses to touch me? To love me?
He stares at me for a few seconds while my niece asks him what he got for Christmas. She has to repeat her question again since he’s busy staring at me.
“Mommy and daddy ’old hands. You ’old hands?” Athena looks between us with eager, curious brown eyes.
“We do. Like this.” He takes my hand in his, and the warmth hits me as if I’m being transported to a summer beach house.
He’s lying. We never hold hands anymore.
Harvey always loved to take walks at night. He was a night owl, my artist. He’d hold me from behind, and we’d stroll around town like that when we weren’t walking with locked hands.
Two young adults deeply in love. Blissfully ignorant of the storm ahead.
I squeeze his hand and nearly combust when his thumb grazes mine.
“There you are,” my sister tells Athena while James and Harv start talking about a video game they play against each other. “Wow, you play silly games while I can barely brush my teeth!” Gia chips in.
I tune them out—too busy appreciating the touch of Harvey’s left hand that’s still wrapped in mine.
I feel elevated. Liberated. Like I’ve been dusted with magic.
“Gem, I’m talking to you. You okay?”
I return from my own world, my head snapping toward her fast, when I hear Harvey chuckle. He kisses my hand.
“Can’t blame her if I’m distracting, now can you, Gia?” he winks.
Winks.
And just like that, the old Harvey comes back. Why now? Is it my new job that brought this on?
I want to freeze this moment and never let it go. James takesa jab at us, about needing a room, yet all I can do is stare at the beautiful blond man next to me.
Is this because of Claire?
“Gia told me you got a job in your field. That’s amazing. Congrats,” James tells me.
I thank James as I feel the drop of Harvey’s hand before my dad approaches us with Mr. and Mrs. Beckon, an elderly couple that used to babysit my sister and me.
“Gemma... Harvey, it’s so good to see both of you looking beautiful in your Sunday suits,” Mrs. Beckon says, palming my hand, a gentle smile across her lips.
I greet them both.
She’s being modest. What I’m wearing isn’t Sunday church attire. The dress itself is short, a sort of personal slap to Harv for rejecting me and getting closer to Claire in the meantime.
