The words are spoken softly and quietly. A little smaller than I expected them to be.
"It's why I called you. I trust you, I love you, you're my person. The person, really. That I want to catch me when I'm about to break down, that I want to be with me when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm nothing at all. Some of my favorite times are just being around you, Dakota. I can't wait to share that with everyone."
"I can't either." I reach over and caress her face. "I hate that I have to do this, but I need to get back to work."
"Yeah," she answers, a wistful tone in her voice. "I need to get back in there. I didn't even tell anyone I was leaving."
"I think they probably understand."
She nods, fixing her clothing. "They do, but they probably expected me to come out here and bum a cigarette off someone. Not have a sexual encounter with you in an official vehicle."
I laugh as I fix my pants. "You're probably right about that. I'll see you soon?" I ask, needing to know we're not going to get awkward around each other.
"Yeah, I'll call you tomorrow. I'm going to be here for a few more hours." She leans in, kissing me softly on the lips. "I promise. I'm not going to ghost you now that I've told you how I feel about you."
"Good, because I plan on having a life with you."
She smiles, and it's bright enough that it makes my chest ache. "I plan on having a life with you, too."
Chapter 18
Molly
D: What are your plans today?
True to my word after last night. I'm not hiding from him. As soon as he texted me this morning, I'm texting him back.
M: Mom called and asked me if I wanted to meet her for breakfast. So I'm heading out here in a few minutes.
D: Funny. I'm meeting my mom for breakfast today too. Maybe we'll see each other.
M: LOL! Maybe we will. Who knows? I'll call you when I get done?
D: Sounds good.
I'm waffling because I don't know if I should say love you, since we did that last night, or not. I wish there was some easy way to do this without it feeling awkward.
M: I miss you.
Instead, I tell him the truth of what I'm feeling this morning.
D: Miss you, too. I'll see you soon, I promise.
M: I'm holding you to that. <3
Instead of saying love you, I hit him with a heart emoji, and hope he realizes what that means. It's hard for me to put myself out there. But I decide not to dwell on it too much, and finish getting ready to go meet my mom.
The Café is an institution in Laurel Springs. Everyone who lives here has been here at least once. My mom has been coming here since before I was born, and when I was little she used to bring me on Saturday mornings and let me get hot chocolate and a biscuit, and I've never outgrown the comfort of walking through that door.
I push it open and the little bell above it rings the way it always does, and I'm already scanning for my mom when I stop.
She's here. She's at our usual booth, the one along the far wall with the window that looks out onto Main Street, and she's got her coffee in front of her and her hair done the way she does it for going out, and she is absolutely not alone.
Patty Keller is sitting across from her.
I stand in the doorway for a full three seconds, annoyed that I walked into this, and that's when I hear the bell ring again behind me and I step to the side and turn, and Dakota is right there, close enough that I almost walked into him, and he's looking at the booth with the same expression I'm probably wearing, which is irritation, because we should’ve seen this coming.
He looks at me. I look at him.