Since You've Been Gone

18 TAKE A CHANCE

We didn’t have the radio on this time, but I didn’t want it. Both our windows were unrolled and the warm air was blowing through the truck ruffling Frank’s hair, which had dried funny, with pieces sticking up here and there. It was all I could do not to reach over and run my hands through it.

He took his eyes off the road and looked over at me, and I didn’t blush or look away. I just looked right back at him. There was tension between us again, but it wasn’t the simmering, angry kind that had been there the day before. This felt like the way you get nervous right before something exciting happens—the moment when you’re balanced on the top of the roller coaster, the hush before the surprise party, the second after the diving board but before the water, when you can close your eyes and imagine, for just a second, that you’re flying. The feeling that good things were coming, almost here, any moment now.

Frank was driving with one hand on the wheel, the other resting on the seat between us. Without knowing I was going to, without thinking about it first, I slid as close to him as my seat belt would allow and rested my hand on his.

He smiled without taking his eyes off the road, turned his palm up, and threaded his fingers through mine. My heart started beating double-time, but it only lasted a moment, as Frank took his hand back, put on his turn signal, and took the next exit off the highway.

I glanced over at him, surprised. “Where are we going?”

He smiled at me. “You’ll see.”

I leaned forward to try and see where he was headed, but we were only off the highway for a few minutes before he turned down a narrow, unmarked dirt path. “How did you even know about this?”  The sun hadn’t yet totally risen, but the path was so dense with trees that it almost looked like we were going into night again as he drove through them.

“Sloane may have mentioned something about one of her favorite spots,” he said, making another turn.

The dense trees opened up and there was a clearing that he pulled the truck into. He put it in park and turned off the engine and, like we’d discussed it beforehand, we both got out. The clearing provided a scenic viewpoint of its own, though this one wasn’t marked for tourists, and we were the only ones seeing it. All around us was the view of a gorgeous valley, slowly being lit up by the rising sun.

Frank turned to look down at me, and he was right there, so close. “Hi,” he said.

I looked up at him. Now that the moment was here, it didn’t feel scary. What would happen would happen, and I couldn’t know or control it. But I was ready for it to begin. “Hey,” I said.

“In a well-ordered universe,” he said, and I could hear how nervous he was, “I’d be able to do this.” He leaned his head down and kissed me softly, then pulled back, making sure this was okay.

I smiled at him. “Then we must be in one,” I said.  And as the sun rose behind us and he bent his head down to kiss me again, I leaned forward.

Toward him, and to whatever came next.