“Yesterday, I would have told you I killed her.”
She gasped for a second in shock. “No!”
My nose grazed against hers. “But tonight, I know that she died in a horrific car accident. A freak thing, random. We had a big fight over my work schedule. I howled at her that I had no time for a family. She grabbed her keys and stormed out. In the rain on the desolate interstate, the semi couldn’t stop in time and she died in an instant.”
Tears streamed down Hannah’s perfectly freckled cheeks. “It wasn’t your fault!”
“No, it wasn’t. If I had it all to do over again, I’d make so many changes. I’d put her first; I’d cherish her every second. But no, I realize now that her death was not my fault.”
“I don’t know where to go from here, Jonah.”
“Let’s start here,” I said, pulling her in for a kiss so deep, so true, that neither of us questioned our connection.
4
Well, we didn’t question it that night, anyway. Until sunrise, we were able to cast away the doubts and become one. Our connection was so intense, so spiritual, that I was sure nothing would ever come between us.
But, of course, real life is often different than movies.
“I just…it’s too soon, Jonah.” She sat at the end of her bed as the morning sun streamed in.
“Too soon for what, Hannah?” I waved my hands across the sheets we’d rolled in for hours in ecstasy. “This?”
She shook her head. “No! I don’t feel bad about the physical stuff… But us. The emotion – it’s too much too soon. Let’s just slow it down a little.”
I took a deep breath. “No, it’s all or nothing with me. I don’t do slow. I nearly killed myself the other day, and today, I’ve found love again. I’m sorry, Hannah, I have no intention of not going all in.”
“I need time…”
I crawled across the bed and took her in my arms – where she belonged. “One thing I’ve learned from all of this – we’re not guaranteed time. Today, now, that’s all we can be sure of.”
Our bodies fell together once more, forgetting our doubts and the world outside her door.
We awoke to the buzz of her phone on the nightstand.
“Oh my God, yeah, I’ll be right there,” she said to the caller.
I reached for my jeans, still on the floor from our frenzy to get skin-to-skin the night before. “Where are we going?”
“Oh, no, I’ll…I need to do this alone.”
“You’ll never be alone again.” I meant it.
She sighed and nodded. “Okay, it’s Rachel, she’s missing again.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Again? Missing?”
“They don’t watch her well enough. I was going to put an alarm on her door, but I didn’t quite have the money yet.”
I hopped up and grabbed my shirt from a chair. “Where do we start looking?”
She paused for a moment, as if to argue, then gave in. She was already learning how obstinate I can be. “Uh, she usually escapes down to a nearby gas station for cigarettes.”
“Let’s start there. I’ll drive.”
“Good, because I don’t have a car,” she said from behind me.
As we rolled out of her parking lot, I asked, “No car? Isn’t that rough?”