Chapter Sixty-Eight
Music plays softly over the radio as we drive back to my childhood home. Elise has her forehead smooshed against the glass of her window, unable to take her eyes off of the beauty surrounding us.
“Would you ever want to move back here?” she asks, catching me off guard.
“Uh, I’m not sure. I love it here, but ultimately, I guess it depends on where you are and what kind of opportunities there are for your career and mine,” I answer without much thought, and the sudden weight of the words that just slipped so effortlessly from my mouth has my stomach twisting as I wait for her response.
I hear her shift in her seat and chance a brief glance in her direction. She’s got that full bottom lip sucked between her teeth as she looks at me, her gaze searing my skin as I wait on bated breath for her to say something, anything.
“I like it here, and Argentina does have a fantastic women’s football team,” she says so simply, as if she hadn’t just flipped my whole world upside down.
I reach for her hand, pulling it to my lips, and press a kiss to each of her knuckles. “That’s certainly something to consider,” I murmur against her smooth skin, placing her hand on my thigh.
“It definitely is,” she says with a confidence that calms me so easily.
“Hey, do you mind if we cancel our plans for tomorrow?” she asks, suddenly changing topics, not that that’s out of the ordinary for her.
I’ve seen her at her highest, her lowest, and on an average day, she seems to live somewhere just toeing the line between a little low and a little high.
I never know what each day will bring, but I’m flexible, and getting to be there for her in either is a gift she has no idea she’s given me.
Today it seems she’s riding a bit of a high.
“Sure, you have something else in mind?”
I catch her little smirk in my periphery before she tries to suppress it. “That’s for me to know and you to deal with later,” she says with a chuckle.
“Well, alright then.”