Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Faye
“Ithink I’m in love,” I whisper as I watch him lying on the bed, completely tuckered out.
Owen steps beside me and watches him too.
“I was certainly wrong about dogs,” he says as we watch Newton sleep. As soon as we got him into our room, he jumped on the bed and fell into a coma. He’s been sound asleep ever since.
Owen turns to me and I feel my cheeks getting hot with those devastating blue eyes fixated on mine. “I think I was wrong about a lot of things,” he says softly.
Something has definitely changed between us. I’m not sure there’s a whole lot of pretending going on anymore. There isn’t with me anyway. My fake feelings have inconveniently turned real.
“Are you tired?” I ask.
“No, are you?”
I shake my head. “No. Come. I want to show you something.”
I take his warm, strong hand and guide him into the house. It’s after midnight and all the lights are off. The house is dark and quiet with everyone in bed, except for the two of us tiptoeing up the stairs in our pajamas.
I feel like a naughty teenager sneaking her crush into the house while her parents sleep upstairs. It’s dangerous and sneaky and exhilarating all at the same time.
“Where are we going?” Owen whispers as we tiptoe through the dark living room.
“It’s a surprise,” I whisper back.
This house is so big that I almost get lost. But I eventually find my way and bring Owen into the attic where the giant telescope is pointed up at the retractable skylight.
I turn to watch his face as he walks in. His eyes widen in awe when he sees it.
“Wow,” he whispers. “That’s a PlaneWave CDK24.”
I love that he knows the name of it. He rushes over and examines it carefully as I walk over to the wall and hit the button for the skylight. The huge slab of glass slowly moves to the side, revealing an infinite universe of glimmering planets and twinkling stars. It’s spectacular.
The warm summer night air wafts in, exhilarating every nerve in my body.
He starts adjusting dials and flicking levers. He knows how it works. Of course he does.
I just watch him with a sense of wonder and admiration rippling through me. He must be the smartest person I’ve ever met.
“Want to see Europa?” he asks, looking at me with a big happy grin. “It’s one of Jupiter’s moons. Easily the most fascinating moon in our solar system.”
I feel my heart rate picking up as I walk over. I’d rather watch him, but I oblige and bend over, looking into the eyepiece.
Europa is in crisp focus—much clearer than anything Tristan showed me. It’s beautiful.
“Europa is so fascinating because it’s caught between the gravitational pulls of Jupiter and some other larger moons.
It’s a massive ball of ice that gets squeezed and pulled over and over, like beating and pulling dough with your hands.
That friction creates heat from within the core and melts the ice underneath the surface.
A whole moon-wide ocean is under that solid ice crust, and for all we know, there could be alien life down there.
Intelligent life maybe. Full civilizations… ”
It’s crazy to think there’s another world up there. All of these far-off distant places in our universe and if I could pick any place to be, I’d choose right here, beside Owen, watching him in his element.
He leans over and looks again. “It’s awe-inspiring. It makes me sad that I’ll probably die before we have all the answers, but these unanswered questions are also what makes life so fascinating to live. Don’t you agree?”
I don’t know about all that, but he is certainly making my life fascinating to live right now.
“I’ve never met a real genius before,” I say as I watch him. “You really are one.”
He laughs and shakes his head as he looks at me. “There’s only one genius in this room and it’s not me.”
“I’m a genius?” I say with a scoff. “Are you making fun of me or something?”
“No,” he says in a serious tone. “Not at all, Faye. What I do is just chemistry. It can all be found in a textbook. You learn the equations and properties and that’s it.
You’re a genius with people. That is far more difficult.
I’ve never seen anyone navigate social interactions like you.
You’re extraordinary. It’s truly dazzling to watch. ”
I snap my head back in shock. I thought he was messing with me at first, but he’s not. He’s serious.
“What do you mean?”
“Well,” he says, thinking about it. “That barista in the coffee shop off the highway. She didn’t seem to like me.”
I laugh when I remember the way Vivian was looking at him like he was from Europa or some other distant planet. “Nope. She did not.”
“But after talking to her for about twenty seconds,” he goes on, “you talked your way behind the counter and had her opening up about her relationship and teaching us the most important lessons she’s learned in life.”
“Okay.”
“And in your coffee shop. The frantic woman.”
“Monica.”
“Yes. Monica. You took her from being broken-hearted after a canceled date to finding her the love of her life with that rock climber after only one conversation.”
“I don’t know if she was broken-hearted…”
“And with Edward and Amber,” he says. “They seem like they’ve been butting heads and arguing for years.
But twenty-four hours with you, and they’re making up and sharing a nice moment on the boat.
Socially, you’re a genius, Faye. I wish I had a tenth of the social skills you have. You’re incredible.”
He says it so simply. Like it’s just a fact. I know to him, it is. He’s blunt and exceptionally honest and never minces words. Owen is an open book. A truth teller to his core. Which means he actually believes that about me.
I swallow hard as my eyes water. It’s just… I’ve never had anyone make me feel smart or capable the way he does.
With Alex, I was always doing something wrong. With my family, I’m just the daughter who isn’t a rich, high-powered lawyer.
I just… I never thought anyone would look at me the way he does.
“Thank you,” I whisper, trying not to let the tears slide out.
He just smiles and shrugs his shoulders like he’s stating facts and not rocking my whole world.
I want to kiss him. I want to grab his shirt and press my mouth to his and not stop until the sun comes out.
I take a deep breath instead. “Show me more cool space shit.”
He turns back to the telescope and fiddles around with it as my mind wanders.
“I’ll try to find Titan,” he says, looking into the eyepiece. “It’s one of Saturn’s moons and the only place in the solar system other than Earth that has liquid lakes, rivers, and seas on its surface. Only instead of water, they’re filled with liquid methane and ethane.”
“What’s liquid methane?” I ask, leaning on the telescope, admiring his ears. It’s weird to say, but he has nice ears.
“It’s a crystal-clear liquid,” he explains, getting all animated with his hands. He’s so cute when he’s like this, explaining something sciencey and fascinating. “It behaves remarkably like water but is less dense and boils immediately if exposed to normal room temperature.”
“So, Titan has beaches like we do?”
“Yes,” he says, nodding with excitement. “Although I wouldn’t let you swim in it. You would immediately freeze and sink to the bottom.”
“I’m glad I have you as my intergalactic lifeguard.”
He smiles.
“What do you find most mind-boggling about space?”
“The sheer number of stars in the galaxy,” he says.
“Just in the Milky Way alone, there could be up to four hundred billion stars. If you counted one star per second, it would take over twelve thousand, six hundred years to count them all. If you include the observable universe, at one star per second, counting every star would take approximately thirty-one quadrillion years. It’s incomprehensible.
Literally. Our human brains weren’t programmed to handle such large numbers.
There are more stars in the observable universe than there are grains of sand on every beach and desert on Earth.
It doesn't feel real, but it’s true. It’s been mathematically verified numerous times. I’ve done the calculations myself.”
“Can I ask you more questions? Rapid-fire?”
He grins. “Of course.”
“What’s your favorite planet?”
“Saturn. It’s probably every chemist’s favorite.”
“Favorite star?”
“Sirius.”
“From Harry Potter?”
“What?”
“Never mind. Meteorites or asteroids?”
“Asteroids.”
“Sun or moon?”
“Sun.”
“Do you like me?”
He takes a deep breath as those soft blue eyes settle on my face with a warm gaze.
“More than all the stars in the universe.”
This time, I can’t hold myself back.
I step up to him, slide my arms around his neck and step on my toes. He meets me halfway, holding my hips as he leans down with a moan.
Our lips connect, but I feel it everywhere. Everywhere.
Every nerve ending in my body comes alive as I feel his warm mouth on mine.
He kisses me slowly, carefully, like he’s been thinking about how to do this correctly and has arrived at the exact right method. His hands tighten on my hips. I pull him closer by the back of his neck and he makes a low sound in his throat that I feel more than hear.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think the best kiss I’ve ever had would be with this man.
This man who frustrated me with impossible coffee orders and made me cringe with his bluntness, but who’s also made me smile and laugh more in one weekend than I have in the past few years combined.
This man who’s made me feel more complete and confident and appreciated and wanted than I think I’ve ever felt in my whole life.
I open my mouth and deepen the kiss, feeling his warm tongue on mine. I moan as my body aches with need and want. My hands turn into fists as I grip his shirt, holding him against me.
When we finally pull apart, his forehead drops to mine and we stand in the dark with the stars shining above us, hearts pounding and heads spinning, neither of us ready to let go.
I keep my eyes closed for a moment.
Just breathing him in.
Breathing this wonderful moment in.
I’ll never forget it.
It’s the most romantic moment of my life.
And I’m not ready for it to end.