Longing For You by Dana Alden

Author:Dana Alden [Alden, Dana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

“Claire, Layla? Are you awake?” Jared’s low voice woke Layla.

She lay there a moment, hovering in that confused state that lay between wake and sleep.

“Anyone?” he whisper-called.

Layla sat up, pushing her covers off. She wrapped her biggest shawl around her shoulders, crossing it in front, and pulled her long braid out from under the fabric, letting it fall down her back. She opened her door and peeked out.

Jared waved her out of her room, the white teeth of an excited smile shining brightly in the dark room. His hair was disheveled, his shirt untucked, and he was barefoot.

“I heard a chicken-ruckus and feared the fox or coyote was in the coop. I chased off whatever was there, but--,” he rocked on his feet, “Come on. You’ve got to see this.”

Layla hesitated. She was in her nightgown. She glanced at Claire’s door. Jared opened the door. From the light of the moon, it appeared Claire was sleeping soundly. Regardless, he called her name. She didn’t stir.

He closed the door gently.

“Come on.” He grabbed the blanket that sat folded on the back of a chair, wrapping it around Layla. Her hands were full, holding onto the shawl and blanket. He shuffled her out the door.

The moon was a sliver in the distance. The dark outline of the barn was visible, along with the straight lines of the fence on the far side of the yard and the curved neck of the water pump. It was bright enough to see the shapes of the rise and fall of the hills, the clumps of grasses and bushes, all backed by the black mountains.

Jared stood silently beside Layla, his head tipped back, an expression of awe on his face. “Look!”

She looked up to see thousands and thousands of stars shining in a midnight blue sky. A series of shooting stars raced through the night, appearing and disappearing like threads of embroidery. The sky was lit up from horizon to horizon and shone all the more brightly against the dark mountain backdrop to the south.

She tipped her head further back, looking around, trying to see the entire night sky at once. It was too big. She felt tiny. What were her cares and fears, hopes and dreams in a world this enormous?

She looked at Jared. He still had his face tipped to the sky. He looked like someone who was enjoying the heat of the sun on their face, but now it was starlight warming his skin. The line of his profile, the cut of his jaw—they were a series of contrasts in light and dark. For once, his brow wasn’t creased with worry, his lips not compressed in repressed emotion. Layla felt the strangest urge to reach out, to run her finger over his face.

Jared, as though feeling her attention, looked at her. However bright the night, she couldn’t read anything in the dark pools of his eyes. She became aware of his breathing and the stillness of his body, except for the rise and fall of his chest.

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