Chapter Twenty-Four
Jett
“No, I didn’t talk to my mom. Just my sister. She was super excited to hear from me. We used to talk almost every day.” Everest explains as we shower off. I let Lance have the day off, and Everest just finished his meeting with Maven.
“I’m glad that you got to talk. I know you’ve been missing her.”
“Yeah…” He nods, his cheeks turning pink. “I sang her happy birthday and reminded her to open the present I left for her. She said she’s going to stay at my house for the weekend. I’m hoping that she doesn’t throw a party and destroy all my stuff.”
“It’s not like you need any of it,” I reply with a chuckle. “Anything else interesting happen during your meeting, or just the usual?”
He glances at me nervously before he shrugs. “Nothing, really. It was boring. There wasn’t much to talk about, honestly.”
I find that a little odd, because Maven usually has plenty to talk about.
The testing and how we’re scoring, how we’re fitting in with the people of our block and if there have been any problems with other inmates, food quality concerns, any special requests, issues with any guards or other employees.
So many questions. All. The. Time. The fact that Everest is saying he didn’t have much to say? It’s unusual.
“Was Maven in a mood or something?”
“No more than usual,” he replies as he turns around to rinse the shampoo from his hair. I don’t know why that doesn’t settle right with me, but I try to shove my uncertainty away and focus on everything else he tells me.
It doesn’t work.
The days start colliding into weeks as Everest and I continue to get closer and closer. Lance hasn’t worked a full shift in almost a month, and I’m never away from Everest for more than a few hours. I’m usually only gone that long on the days that I have appointments with Wilder or Maven.
“Please, please, pleaseeee.“ He begs with his hands clasped together. “Can we please?”
I roll my eyes at his theatrics. “You know I will take you, my love. Just give me a minute to finish my lunch.”
“I wonder what kind of seeds they’ll have. It’s still early spring, so maybe they’ll have a bunch of options.” He says as he bounces his knee impatiently. “I can’t wait to see what the garden looks like. Have you ever been to it before?”
“No, but one of the guards I had told me about it. I asked Roman how to get there and he gave me directions the other day. It’s on the opposite side from the shop, so that’s probably why we’ve never seen it.
” I explain before I take the last bite of my sandwich.
I ball the wrapper up and toss it into the trash can.
Everest is already on his feet, watching my every move.
His eyes trail up and down my body reverently.
I know that he’s trying to be discreet since we’re in the common area with other people, but I can see the heat behind his gaze.
I pull him against my chest, and he tilts his head up to steal a quick kiss.
I reach up and push the hair from his face as I stare down at him, his eyes softening as he looks back up at me. He’s so God dang cute.
“Let’s go, schon. Let’s get you some seeds.”
“These will take a couple weeks to grow, we just gotta make sure the soil stays damp, but not too damp. We don’t want mold to start growing.”
Everest pauses what he’s doing and looks up through the glass ceiling.
The garden area is actually really nice, although it is relatively empty, just as I expected.
There’s no color, only greenery. It doesn’t matter though, because I’m sure that Everest will bring this place to life in no time.
He looks so damn happy working in here. I sit back on my heels and watch him as he gets back to work covering the last few seeds with soil.
“It’s the perfect temperature, too.” He pauses, sitting up to look at me.
“Do you think they have heaters in here? If they do, we might be able to grow some plants that are used to warmer climates during the winter.” He says as he reaches up to wipe the sweat dripping down his face.
His arms and hands are covered with dirt, and he smears some across his face.
I chuckle as I lean forward and try to wipe it away with my thumb.
“Oh, shit. That didn’t help,” I laugh as I look down at my own dirty hands. “I think I just made it worse.”
The next thing I know, his hands are on my face and he’s pushing me back onto the ground. His lips pressing into mine cut off the laughter, but I will never complain about him kissing me. He climbs on top of me, straddling my legs as I sit atop the dirty pavers.
Before I met Everest, I never thought that my life was missing anything, but I was wrong.
So, so, wrong.
I never felt a gaping hole in my life, or the pressure to find meaning for myself.
I was always content doing what I was trained to do.
I was raised to serve the family that adopted me, and that’s what I did.
As Everest leans back, watching me with a smile on his face, I realize just how much I was missing out on.
There’s so much that lives inside of him.
Happiness, pride, sass, anger, sadness, and more importantly… love.
The feeling that doubles, or even triples, in size inside my chest feels cataclysmic, and it takes me a second to realize that’s what I’m feeling.
Love.
It’s such a simple word, but it’s impossible to prepare for the reality of feeling it.
I had never known it before this very moment.
I had never been given the chance to experience the all-consuming rush of realizing someone means the world to you.
I should probably feel like I’ve been robbed of something my entire life, but I don’t.
There’s nothing in the universe that could convince me that I would’ve ever felt this way for anyone other than him.
The ache I feel when we’re apart, the smile I wear when I think of him, the relief I feel when he crawls into my arms at night.
I don’t know how or when it happened, but it’s there.
Loud. Demanding. The need to spit the words out to him is suffocating, but I choke them back because I don’t know if he’s ready yet.
If he’s in the same place I am. It’s easy to see that he cares about me, but love? I can’t chance it being too soon.
He chuckles as he stares back at me, dirty face and all. “I think we’re even now, love.”
“Worth it,” I declare as I grab him by the waist and pull him closer, causing him to lean in for another kiss. He gives in, pressing his lips against mine softly before pulling away again.
“Nu-uh,” he shakes his head as he stands up. “We gotta go get cleaned up for dinner.”
He sticks out his hand, offering to help me up. I reach up to grab it, forcing myself onto wobbly feet.
“Good idea. What are you in the mood for today, E?” I ask as I dust my hands off on my pants.
“You know, as long as I’m with you, I’m not really sure it even matters…
” He says nonchalantly as he wipes his own hands off.
My eyes cut up to him, and I watch as he continues what he was doing as if those words don’t say everything he isn’t willing to.
That he desires my company as much as I desire his.
That our time together is just as important to him.
That whatever this is growing between us is a living breathing thing that’s taken root, blooming and spreading out tendrils.
It’s real, what we have, and it’s just as important to him.
That’s when it hits me… maybe Everest does love me.
“You’ve been staying with me a lot more during the day.” He whispers as his fingers trace my collarbone. I nuzzle my face into his hair, careful to leave enough room between us so that he can keep touching me.
“Ich fühle mich, als würde ich ertrinken, wenn wir getrennt sind.” I know he doesn’t understand what I’m saying, but maybe one day he will. Maybe one day he’ll feel what I’m saying.
“I’m glad. I miss you when you’re gone.” His quiet words overflow my chest with warmth.
“I miss you too, schon. Always.”
His fingers explore my flesh without reserve. Normally our intimate nights are explosive and followed by hard crashes, but tonight… everything about tonight is different. Our words and touches are softer, more tender. Loving.
He scoots his head back and looks up at me, reaching out to brush my hair from my face. “Schon… You always call me that. What does it mean?”
I smirk at him as I palm his lower back and pull him closer to me.
“It means beautiful,” I mumble against his shoulder before I plant kisses up his neck. He just smiles and hums happily as he leans his head to the side for me.