AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tackett:Yes.
That’s what he comes up with. I’m used to losing to Tackett. Memories pass through my mind like a movie trailer. The Race. The Card Games. The Water Balloon Fight. This time, I’m not losing.
Me:Driving.
Tackett:Damn Talynn, that’s not safe.
Me:But it feels…oh.
Tackett:Feels what?
Me:Not like you.
Tackett: *Surprise face emoji*
Me:Be there in twenty.
Tackett:Okay.
All the way to his house, I think about him living somewhere other than our apartment. How Hurricane Serena brought us under one roof and deeper into each other’s lives. I want that again.
“Towles, I’m here.” I see him standing on the patio through the wall of light. He doesn’t have a shirt on. His arms are above his head with hands clasped, stretching. Mesmerized, I watch how the muscles, both large and small, move and ripple. I admire how hard he works to make the beautiful sculpture of his body.
I step out on the new patio deck. “Hey. I knocked.” He doesn’t turn to face me, just stares out at the ocean. My hands are like magnets to his body. When I lay my palms on his back, he shudders. “I saw you stretching. Your back is a work of art.” Still nothing. Not a single movement. “Have I ever I told you about my favorite piece of art?”
I curl my fingers over his shoulders and begin giving him a boyfriend massage. He remains stoic. I feel tears welling up from deep behind my eyes. My inside voice says, “Whatever it takes.”
“I went to a museum, and there was this photograph of a sculpture called ‘Standing Wave’ by Naum Gabo. He sculpted it in the early 1900’s. It looked like a twisted ribbon to me,” I pause continuing with deep short strokes. “In reality, the sculpture rotated. It was made of steel and rose up out of the acrylic base. But even in the two-dimensional picture, it moved me. Like you move me.”
Finally, he turns, and I let my hands skate from the back of his shoulder to the front. A single tear is trapped between his lashes. Unable to control my own tears a second longer, they fall and keep falling. His hands cup my face, and his thumbs wipe the tears away but it’s raining hard. He needs to have a faster speed to wash them all away.
“I love you, Tackett.”
His hands grip my face a little tighter like he’s going to kiss me. God how I want him to kiss me. “And I love you…” His words come out so broken they skip across my heart, and I know he’s not finished, “But I can’t be crushed and destroyed like this again. When Jayson called me, I couldn’t breathe. My heart fucking stopped. I’m sure of it.”
This time, it’s me who wraps my fingers around his thick wrists and rake my hands over his forearms. “I didn’t leave you for another man. No boy or man has ever meant to me what you do. I made a mistake when I was a rebellious teenager.”
I press on my toes and kiss him. At first, he doesn’t kiss me back, but when he does, more tears fall because it’s not aI’m-never-letting-you-go kiss,it’s the opposite. It’s goodbye.
ChapterTwenty-Seven
TACKETT
Diving into the ocean, I wade out until the water is up to my chest. I want to loosen my muscles before the game. I can’t believe I let Talynn walk out those doors again. I hate that it’s over.
Those damn flirty texts.
Those magnificent hands.
Those beautiful, artful, intelligent words.
Those never-ending tears.
Those whispering lips. “Whatever it takes.” And then I let her go—again.
As an enormous wave swells, and I scream louder than I’ve ever screamed. Longer than I’ve ever shouted, so much so that it knocks me on my ass.
* * *
