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Her eyes shine in the city lights.
“I mean…” God, what do I mean?
I mean, I need her in ways that I haven’t yet had her. Need her body flush against mine, need to make love to her, kiss her. I need to be the first person she thinks of every day.
Ineedthat. Not just crave.Need. “I’ve still got a long way to go. I’ll use the canes if that’s what you want?”
Laney smiles. “It would make me feel better. But I know you’re stubborn, though.”
“Hey.” I nudge her on the arm.
The moment that passes between us is so big it’s almost unsettling.
I don’t know what she’s thinking. But all I’m thinking about is her.
“We have time,” she whispers, as if reading my mind.
“We do.” And I’m going to make it count. “I want to get out.”
Her forehead screws together. “What do you mean?”
“You know…” I gesture toward the expanse of New York City. “Out in the world.”
Laney nods. “We can start taking more outings.”
“No, I don’t want to just walk around New York. Blech. I hate this place. It’s too crowded.” I take a deep breath.
The idea comes to me before I know what to really do with it. “I want to get out of the house. And out of the city. And somewhere I can actually breathe.”
Laney’s hand grazes my thigh. She tilts her head up toward me, leaning on my leg. “Like where?”
For someone so worried about my walking ability, I have to say she’s pushing me to my limit.
And I don’t mind it one bit.
“We have a cabin. Upstate.”
“Ah, yes. The cabin…”
I furrow my brow. “Have you been?”
“Um, no. Never.” Laney pauses. “I was supposed to go with Mason, actually. For our anniversary. But it never happened because…you know.”
“That’s right…I almost forgot about that.”
Laney sighs. “I didn’t.”
Mason wanted to make their second anniversary perfect since the first one had been a huge clusterfuck when he got the stomach flu before the performance ofLa Traviataat the Met he had brought Laney to.
“You know something funny?” I try to make the moment light-hearted.
Her eyebrows rise.
“I had arranged all these special things for you guys. Meals, boat rides, rose petals on the bed–”
“Youdid?”
Flush creeps onto my cheeks. “Yeah. Mason wanted itto be special, and I wanted to help. Because it meant so much to him.” Now I’m wondering if I had some weird ulterior motive in arranging Mason and Laney’s anniversary.
