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SYLVIE
CHAPTER ONE
Gritting my teeth,I leaned against the suitcase on the bed, squishing it down as best I could while struggling to move the zipper.
“Damn it,” I grumbled, leaning more weight onto it, hoping to close the bulging gap.
“Need some help, baby?” Tom asked, his deep voice sending a familiar flutter through my body. I wondered if the way he made me feel would ever go away.
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw my husband leaning on the doorframe. The flutters increased as I soaked in the sight of him. Little butterflies took flight, dancing and twirling inside my stomach. Memories slammed back into me. I’d experienced the same feeling the first time I’d seen him at that bar over forty years earlier. The same feeling I got every single time I looked at him.
No. The feelings he invoked in me would never fade. Of that, I was certain.
My husband. My one true love was no longer a dream I clung to ... A youthful memory of a brief period in my life that I would revisit time and time again, remembering what it felt like in his arms. The feeling of his breath on my lips just before he’d kiss me. How my skin would tingle everywhere his fingers drifted. Those weren’t only cherished memories anymore. After forty years apart, he was mine.
His crooked smile lifted, and he pushed off the doorway, moving toward me with slow, steady steps.
“I can’t get it to zip,” I answered, my attention returning from my handsome husband to the bag putting up a championship fight.
Tom stopped beside me, planted his hands on his hips, and looked at my overstuffed bag. His eyebrows lifted. “Are you surprised? It looks like you’re trying to fit your entire closet in there.”
Blowing a puff of air that lifted the hair around my face, I collapsed on the bed beside it. “Well, it’s hard to pack for the Wilder Widows adventures. I have absolutely no idea what I’m going to need. I know how to pack for my wish, but what about the others? Do I need a swimsuit? Parka? Elegant dress? High heels? Hiking boots? It’s all completely up in the air since we have no idea what the wishes are until we draw them. All I know is what my wish is.”
“And you won’t tell me?”
I grinned. “Nope. No one but me can know until we pull it out of the knitting basket.”
He frowned. “Just a hint.”
I shook my head back and forth. “Nope.”
“Grr.”
“It’s tradition.” I ignored his sour face. “We don’t know what we’re doing until we’re out there. So, that means I need to pack for anything, and I don’t want to be lugging multiple suitcases with me if I don’t have to. So, I’m trying to fit it all in here.” I tapped on the suitcase that had popped back open without my weight on it.
Tom stepped in front of it, and when he leaned his much larger, muscular frame on it, the gap closed up.
“Oh! Stay there! It’s working!” I grabbed ahold of the zipper and tugged. After a slight struggle, the familiarzipaccompanied the closing of my overstuffed bag. “Ha! It worked! Thank you!” I flopped back on the bed with a sigh.
Tom moved around and stood above me. “Happy to help. But what will you do without me around to close it later? You’d better not find some young, strong man to help you close it each time you move. I don’t want some other guy filling my shoes.”
I looked up at his arched eyebrow and playful smile. Those butterflies took off again.
“Never,” I answered, reaching up and grabbing the bottom of his t-shirt and pulling him on top of me. “You’re irreplaceable.”
Even though he easily could have resisted my gentle tug, he went with it, landing softly on top of me and placing his lips on mine in one of those deep, soul-bending kisses I never wanted to end.
“I’m going to miss you,” he whispered against my lips.
“I’m going to miss you, too,” I whispered back, pressing my forehead to his.
He rolled onto his side and pulled me into the nook of his arm. “How long will you be gone?”
I snuggled my head onto his chest, breathing in the familiar scent of him, committing it to memory so I could try to remember it while we were apart. “At least a few weeks. Maybe a month. It’s impossible to say.”
He grumbled a little and squeezed me tighter. “It’s gonna feel so empty without you around.”
“I know. But we have a pact, and as much as I’m going to miss you, you have to part with me each year so the Widows and I can keep up on the wishes that brought us together ... and brought me back to you.”
