Lila
Come back home and take a nap. I have a site visit for work today but I’ll leave a snack for you.
Slade
Thank you baby
I set the phone down and go to make coffee and try not to read too much into the fact that a three words from this man can make my whole morning.
It’s a perfectly ordinary conversation. Domestic and mundane. And yet, as I read over it, there’s an intimacy there. A genuine familiarity, like we really are husband and wife.
Maybe that’s why I find myself typing:I miss you.
Three words that are perfectly true and completely inadvisable. I delete it before I send it.
I’m pouring my first cup of coffee when my phone buzzes again. I pick it up expecting logistics—what time he’ll be back, whether he needs anything from town.
Instead:
Slade
I miss you.
I blink. Shit. Did I accidentally press send? What just happened?
But no. The words are on the screen because Slade is the one who sent them.I miss you.
A slow smile spreads over my face. My hands are slightly unsteady when I type back:
Lila
I miss you too. I’ll try to get home early.
I put the phone face down on the counter. I stand there for a moment with both hands wrapped around my coffee mug, smiling way too huge.
Then I start on the pumpkin bread I’ll leave waiting for him when he gets home.
The smile stays on my face as I drive to work, Lucky hanging her face out the passenger window like she can’t stop smiling either. It stays on my face through a tough work day with multiple vendor issues, an unhappy client complaining about her wool pillows being too rough, a delivery of the wrong fabric bolts.
At lunch, after I drop off Lucky at home so she can take a nap, I open his photos again just to look at them.
I miss you.
The smile comes back.
Chapter 31
Dream Girl
LILA
At around three o’clock in the afternoon, I get another text from Slade. It’s another photo. This time it’s Lucky in his bed, fully under the covers, only her nose visible.
Slade
What am I supposed to do with this dog?
I laugh and then text back:
