She held on to the railing and shook it. “See? It holds together just fine.”
He groaned. “My nerves are shot right now.”
“You worry too much.” She tapped the tip of his nose and then rested her elbows on the railing and her chin on her palms while she stared out toward the lake. The water glistened with a prism of bright colors as the sun began to set. Frogs croaked with delight and cicadas chittered while fireflies sparkled in the air.
For a moment, Jake basked in the beautiful late-summer evening. He was sitting in his fort with Emily nearly seventeen years after the last time they’d perched themselves in this tree. He longed to freeze time.
“Sometimes I wish I could go back to when all we did was play in the orchard and sit in our fort. Things were much simpler then,” she said softly.
“I was just thinking the same thing.” He leaned back on his hands.
A few moments stretched out between them as they watched a sailboat pass on the distant lake.
Emily turned toward him. “Tell me about your conversation with Claire.”
He sat forward and crossed his arms. “It’s not worth repeating.”
“Jake...”
“I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“Too bad.” She poked him in the middle of his chest. “You’re going to tell me what happened whether you want to or not, because I said so.”
He growled out his annoyance. “Fine, but it was the same conversation Claire and I have been having for more than a month.” He stared out toward the lights glowing on the other side of the lake. “She asked me to come out to Nashville. She says we can have a life there. She told me she still loves me, and she begged me not to give up on our relationship.”
Emily nodded slowly and licked her lips. “Do you... love her?” Her question was soft, almost hesitant.
He scrubbed his hand over his jaw. “I mean... I care about her. I always will.” He looked down at the ground. “But my life is here, and she knows that.”
“Did you tell her it was time to let go?”
He sighed. “No.”
Emily was quiet for a long moment, but he could almost feel her working through something in her mind. “Why are you so afraid of letting her go?” Her voice was uncertain, which wasn’t something he heard from her often.
He considered her question, and he couldn’t come up with an answer. “It’s complicated.”
“Okay.” She angled her body toward his. “I’m ready to listen.”
He chuckled.
“I’m serious. You told me that you broke up with her, but you’re allowing her to hound you and beg you to try again. Why don’t you stop answering her calls?”
“Because I’ve known her since we were sixteen. We grew up together. I can’t just shut her out.”
Emily pivoted back toward the water and focused on the dock.
They sat in silence for several moments before he turned toward Emily’s childhood home and focused on her. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“Okay.” She brightened.
“Why haven’t you spent any of the money you made on the sale of the house? I thought you were going to use it to start a new life.”
Her mouth opened and then closed. “I don’t want to talk about it.” She shook her head, wiggled out from under the railing, and pushed herself toward the hole in the floor that led to the rope ladder. “Let’s go for a night swim before it gets too cold.”
“Oh no you don’t.” He gently rested his hands on her forearms, and she stilled. “You’re not going to escape.”
Her eyes searched his. “Please let me go.” Her expression pleaded with him, and the pain he found there sucked the air out of his lungs.
