Buttons and Grace by Penelope Sky

Author:Penelope Sky
Language: eng
Format: epub

* * *

When my parents went to sleep, I called him from my bedroom. I was under the covers, wearing one of the t-shirts I stole from his drawer. It was a million sizes too big, but it still held his scent. It was faint, probably because it’d been smothered against all my other clothes during the journey underneath the plane.

He answered immediately. “Bellissima.”

I closed my eyes as his voice swept over me like a gentle breeze in summer. “Yes.”

“Where are you?” he asked.

“I’m in my old bedroom.”

“You’re staying with your parents?”

“Yeah…I was living here during college. I wanted to save money while I went to school since it’s right down the road. It’s a free place to live with free food.”

He chuckled. “That’s cute.”

“And…I kinda like living here. I’ve always been close with my parents.”

“That’s cute too,” he said. “You know I don’t like to be more than five miles away from Crow at any given time…even though I don’t admit it.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I figured that out.”

He fell quiet, staying on the phone in silence.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m sitting on the couch.”

“Where?”

“In our bedroom.” He sighed when he realized the error of his words. “My bedroom…”

I felt his pain seep through the phone. I could feel his misery surround me. I used to sleep in this bed every single night, but now I couldn’t sleep well without him beside me. The mattress felt foreign. “I haven’t been sleeping well. It’s not the same without you.”

“No, it’s not,” he whispered.

“Are you looking at the fireplace?”

“Yeah.”

“What time is it there?”

“Early.”

“Are you going to the winery?”

“No.” He didn’t elaborate, like he didn’t want to share any aspect of his life. “How are things there? I’ve seen you on the news a lot.”

“You’ve been watching?”

“Yeah. You look beautiful in that red top, by the way.”

“Thanks…” It was one of the first things Cane had bought for me. “It’s been chaotic lately. I’m sure, in another week, everyone will move on to the next news cycle. I told Lizzie’s parents…they were heartbroken.”

“It must have killed them, but now they know what happened. They can make their peace with it.”

“Yeah…”

“Your parents seem happy.”

“They’re…” There were no words. “I can tell it’s been hard for them.”

“I can only imagine. I only knew you for a few months, and I fell head over heels… Imagine how they feel when they’ve known you since the day you were born.”

Every time he said those sweet things, I wanted to get on a plane and head back to him.

“What’s next for you?” he asked. “Are you going to keep living there?”

“No, after living with you, it hasn’t been easy going back to this. I’m gonna find an apartment soon. I just want to give my parents a little more time to have me in the house.”

“You should be able to buy a nice house with the money I gave you. A good investment.”

“Yeah…I’ll think about it.” I didn’t want to buy anything when I didn’t know where I would be living.

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