While I Was Away(80)

“I'm not scared of them, Adele. I yelled at them all the time. I'm just ... nervous.”

She blinked her eyes rapidly in surprise. Jones? Nervous?

“Why?”

“Because I believe this is happening, and you believe it,” he said, looking at her again as he gestured between them. “But that doesn't mean everyone else will. I don't want them giving you a hard time about us.”

“I'll be fine, you're the one who's going to get the third-degree,” she teased.

“I'm not worried about me. But if they give you any shit, I don't think I'll handle it very well.”

“Awwww,” she laughed. “Playing Prince Charming once again, I see. I promise, nobody can handle my brothers better than I can, and while one – or all – of them will most definitely put their foot in their mouth, they never mean any harm. They're great guys, and you're the best guy, and I think when we all get together, you'll fall in love with them, too.”

“That would be awkward,” he chuckled, then he abruptly rolled her to the side, startling a shriek out of her. “Alright, okay, fine. It's a good idea, and I do want to meet them all, in a non-I'm just the nurse way. We'll go home. But can I shower first, princess?”

While Jones got ready, Adele danced around the cabin, cleaning things up and packing their stuff away.

Life between them wasn't going to be like her dream world, nothing could ever be like that again, she knew. But her life wouldn't go back to varying shades of depression, either. No more feeling lost and alone in the universe, cast adrift without his soul as a tether.

She smiled to herself while she took his clothes out of the small closet and folded them up. No, they'd be somewhere between awake and asleep. She could have her head in the clouds, and his feet would be firmly planted on earth, and they would always meet in the middle in a beautiful harmony.

“It was meant to be,” she sighed as she sat down and looked at the painting she'd drawn the night before. “If I hadn't almost died, I wouldn't be having this perfect morning, in this perfect place.”

“What?”

Jones' voice sounded through the door, startling her. She hadn't realized he'd shut off the water. Laughing to herself, she shook herself out of her daydreams and got back to work.

Even when I'm awake, I'm dreaming.

Adele decided to forego her shower, and while he got dressed and packed up his clothing, she went about filling the cooler with the items from his fridge. He eventually carried it out to car, and when he came back inside, she was standing and staring at the back of his painting.

“Are you gonna leave it?” she asked.

“It's all done, you can see it, if you want,” he offered.

He acted aloof and casual as he handed her the canvas, but Adele could tell he was nervous. Very nervous. And when she looked down at the painting, she could understand why.

“Oh wow,” she breathed. He cleared his throat.

“I painted that before my dream, I'd like to point out.”

It was their poppy field in almost perfect detail, as it had been during their last time together. A horizon painted in sunset tones sat on the cliff, with poppies filling the foreground of the painting. She stroked her fingers across the brush strokes and she could feel the memories in the paint.

“It's beautiful, Jones,” she finally said. “It's ... perfect. Absolutely perfect.”

“It is, isn't it?” he agreed. “I was trying to paint from your description. But now I think I was doing it from your memory.”

“I think so, too. Can I keep it? Or do you want it?”

“I made it for you, so whichever you want.”

“Maybe you should hold on to it,” she said at first, and then she thought about it. “Or I'll take it, and then after we move in together, it'll belong to both of us.”

Move in together,” Jones echoed with a laugh, but he didn't argue with her. Just wrapped a large pillow case around the canvas and hauled it out to the car.

Smiling to herself, Adele grabbed her small painting of the clearing off the windowsill and she moved it to the empty easel.

Leave reality in this dream like place, and take a piece of the dream back to reality with us.

After throwing her bag into the backseat, she wandered around the wildflowers while he took the last of his stuff out of the cabin. She soaked up the sunshine and the smell of fresh flora as she waded through the brush, letting her hands trail through the flower petals.

If I close my eyes, it's almost like I'm touching poppies in an endless field under a perfect sky, but better.

“It looks different.”

Adele turned around to find Jones standing at the foot of the porch and looking up at his home away from home. She glanced at the front of the cabin, then moved to stand next to him.

“How do you mean?” she asked, leaning against his side.

“No, it looks ...” he mumbled, his arm gently wrapping around her waist. “Different. Like something got added to it, or it got a new coat of paint.”

“Really? Looks like it did when we first got here, to me.”

“I spent so much time here growing up. My grandpa gave it to my dad, and my dad gave it to me when I turned twenty-five, and I come here at least once a year. You'd think it'd be burned into my brain by now.”