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“Yet I still wasn’t someone that you talked about,” she reminded me.
I nodded. “I have never been one who shares my personal life with anyone. Christopher would attest to that.”
“You shared a lot of things with me,” she stated.
“Exactly.” Stepping forward I took her hands in mine and said, “With you, things have always been easy.”
The tension of the moment vanished, and she said, “I felt it too. No one knows the real reason I left school except for you. Well, my parents too, because they would’ve questioned why I was back home.”
“Thank you for trusting me,” I said. “You know things about me that no one else does too. I’ve missed talking with you.”Missed being around you. Holding you in my arms and just watching the stars.
“Mark, if you missed me, why didn’t you ever call?”
“Because when you left, I had a lot of time on my hands to do some thinking. And I realized my life wasn’t heading in the direction that I wanted. It was going the way everyone else wanted it to,” I said. “I needed to make a change and that’s why I’m here. I wanted to talk to you about it.”
“You know you can tell me anything,” she said.
I nodded and was about to voice everything that I had bottled up, but the door opened, and in came her mother. Instantly, I dropped her hands and stepped back.
“Ah, there you are. And look at that tree. It’s magnificent,” she said.
“Thank you, Mom. I was just about to announce the plan to the guests. But I thought maybe you and Dad would like to do it instead.”
She looked at Adilyn with excitement as though she was dying to do so, but then something changed and she said, “No. I think you should do it.”
“Me?” Adilyn asked.
Doreen nodded. “You and Mark. I mean, you two got the tree together, I think you should do the announcement the same way.”
Adilyn turned to me and asked, “What do you think? Want to do this with me too?”
I smiled down at her and said, “I told you, I’m all yours this week. Whatever you need, I’m here.”
Doreen touched my arm and gave it a little squeeze. It was odd, but that was something I was getting used to. When she left, she kept the door open. I no longer cared.
Turning back to Adilyn, I said, “I meant it, Adilyn. I'm here for you.”
“For the week,” she said softly. “After that, you go back to your world, and I’ll still be here in mine.”
I wanted to tell her that we could make it work and I’d come and visit her all the time. But that wasn’t true. I wasn’t going to be able to return any time I wanted.
“Yes, I will, but this time, I promise, I’ll call.”
That wasn’t going to be enough, and we both knew it. But it was all I had to offer.
“You were about to tell me something. What was it?” she asked.
“It can wait. Let's go and tell everyone about the Christmas tree party,” I suggested.
“Are you sure? Because it seemed like it was very important,” she stated.
“I’m sure. We’ll talk about it before I leave. I promise,” I said, kissing her on the top of her head.
She grabbed my hand as I went to turn away and went up on her tippy toes and kissed me on the lips briefly. “That was for the tree.”
I smiled down at her. “I told you it wasreallyheavy.”
Adilyn chuckled and said, “Good try. It was a kiss. No one said what kind.”
