Getting Real by Paton Ainslie

Author:Paton, Ainslie [Paton, Ainslie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2013-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

28. Intervention

Lying on his side, Rand watched Harry. Curled beside him, warm and soft, abandoned to her dreams. He dared not move in case he woke her. He wanted this moment to be a long-play track, to stretch heroically forever. After two nights, he couldn’t imagine not wanting to wake beside her. Not that either of them had slept much.

He’d only dozed and then woke with music in his head—creeping out of the rumpled sheets to scribble in the filtered light of early dawn. Something fresh and gentle, not Ice Queen style. Beautiful instead of punchy, lyrical instead of throbbing, older and wiser and full of secret intentions.

This thing with Harry was almost enough to make him believe in minor miracles. She had swum out of his near forgotten longings and punctured his sense of the future with new meaning. Now there was a choice. A life with Harry or a life without. A life without her was a black pit of despair—inconceivable that he should have to attempt to live it. A life with her needed her permission.

Until the day claimed her, he had every glorious possibility open to him, so he wanted her to rest, long and tender, while he fantasised his way through the building blocks of loving her.

He saw her smiling at him across a dinner table, home cooked food on the plates. He saw her working, coming home to him with stories of her day. He saw her opening presents on Christmas morning, and annoyed at him about spending too long in his studio. He saw her in his arms by firelight in winter, and splashing him in the sea in summer. He saw her in jeans and evening dresses and nothing at all. He saw her happy and sad, excited and quiet, delighted and angry, and he saw himself with her in every mood and motion. She was home.

But the longer she slept the more nervous he became. He climbed back into bed to be nearer her. What if she didn’t feel the same? What if this whole romance was a just a flash flood, out of nowhere, quick, deadly and done with, leaving him impossibly, inadequately prepared to go on alone?

He checked himself. His runaway passions and dire self predictions made for good song writing, but poor life management. If growing up with Rielle had taught him anything, it was that few situations were ever as bad or as complex as you thought they’d be, and there was always a way to make things better. He’d take whatever Harry would give him and make a life that worked.

While he watched her chest rise and fall with even breaths, and her eyelids twitch with the deep pull of sleep, his thoughts skipped to Rielle. It was a bad time to leave her alone. The closer they got to Sydney, the worse it was for her. Growing up had taught Rie life hurt and the only way you could survive it was to fight against it and pretend you didn’t care.

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