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“You know, in the midst of all… this”—she gestured to our bodies—“I almost became nose blind to the smell, but now… well, I’m starting to get a whiff of it again.”
I looked from her to the shower and to both of our clothes lying across the floor. I moved over and turned on the water, letting it heat up and steam up the room around us. “Well, I know I said I wasn’t going to take a shower here but…” I raised my eyebrows twice and gestured with my head to the bathtub.
She shrugged. “I mean, we might as well conserve water.”
“That was kind of my idea,” I replied, picking her up and heading to the shower.
The water was warm, flowing down my back and sprinkling onto her face as it jumped off my shoulders. I wiped the droplets away as she blinked, looking up at me.
“You know, I always wondered what it would be like if you came back,” she started. “I wondered how it would feel to see you again. Sometimes, it had felt like such a long time ago, I wondered if I had dreamt the whole thing. I wondered if I would recognize you if I ever saw you again.”
“You definitely recognized me,” I said, a smirk forming on my face as I thought about watching her run out of Green Gables that first night.
She chuckled, running her hands along my bare chest. “Yeah, I recognized you, alright. It was like having all of my past emotions and feelings run me over, and in a split second, I was seventeen again.” She traced her finger along my scar, and it was the first time I hadn’t winced when someone noticed it. “I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss you or hit you.”
“I get that a lot,” I teased.
She laughed. “I’m sure you do, with a face like that.”
“For the record, I’m glad you didn’t hit me,” I said, turning around so her back was in the water.
“Me too,” she replied.
I ran my fingers along her collarbone, following the drops of water flowing down her chest. “You know what I thought when I saw you?”
“What?” she asked, leaning her body closer to mine.
“‘I’m home.’ That’s what I thought when I saw you, Lettie. That I was finally home.”
I wondered if I had been too forward, if I was moving too fast, but the way the rest of the shower with Lettie went, I could only assume that I hadn’t been. The way her body leaned into mine and our hands found parts of each other that we hadn’t explored in so long made me believe that, with Lettie and me, nothing was too soon, and I didn’t want to waste another second hiding the feelings for her that I had never gotten over.
When we’d been teenagers, we’d fallen in love so hard and so fast that we hadn’t even had a moment to think about what it might have entailed, the consequences that could have prevailed from two lives lived so differently. It wouldn’t have changed anything for me though. Had I known that we would be torn apart, I still would have spent every second with her that summer.
After the shower, we aired out the house and plopped down on the couch. She pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them, taking in a deep breath. The room was dark, the sun having set, and a few candles were burning, the reflection of the flames dancing on the walls.
I didn’t want to overstay my welcome or assume that she wanted me to stay, so I rubbed my hands together and began to speak.
“Well, I guess—”
At the same time, she said, “Would you want to—”
And we both laughed uncomfortably.
“You go,” we said simultaneously.
“Ladies first,” I said, gesturing to her.
Lettie ran her hands through her wet hair. “I was just wondering… Would you want to stay with me tonight?”
I felt like fist pumping in the air, like jumping up and doing a tap dance number, but I refrained.
Instead, I replied coolly, “Yeah, if you’re sure you wouldn’t mind.”
“I don’t mind,” she said back. “I have a very comfortable bed. You are going to sleep like a baby.” Her lips turned up into a half smile. “You did plan on sleeping in the same bed as me, right?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so. I was planning on sleeping in the laundry room with Gilbert.”
Lettie pushed me playfully. “Okay, but I have to warn you, Gilbert is a blanket hog, and he farts… a lot.”
