Country Mile

FINALLY COME

Adam laid with Anne, blanketed by darkness in their quiet bedroom.

Earlier that morning, he had listened to all that Delilah had to tell, right down to the terribly painful thing she had said to her sister. He sat with the knowledge she had reluctantly shared with him the entirety of the day and was grateful to finally be able to unburden beside Anne.

"She just feels like Genna's always the one muckin' up, but she's the one stuck in the middle," he spoke to the darkness. If Anne's fingers hadn't been methodically running through his hair, he would've thought she were asleep with how quiet she had been while he recounted all that Delilah had confided in him.

"Well," Anne finally said with a soft sigh, "she's right. Genna is often doing things that somewhat forces Delilah to pick between doing what's right by her sister, and what's right morally. It's a terrible place to be, truthfully. I wonder if you told Genna this, if that would help her think before she acts. She's much better at acting accordingly when she thinks of how things would affect others. She's never cared enough about herself, but she's almost always considerate of others."

"Maybe," Adam said thoughtfully. He then scooched down the bed and laid his head against Anne's swollen belly. Her fullness came with a growing beauty he could never put into words. Every inch of her expansion made his heart somehow do the same.

"You best be one extremely well behaved young man," he said sternly, using his pointer finger to poke her as he spoke. "If I survive your sisters, I'll at the very least have a head full of grey hairs. I don't need you comin' up behind 'em bein' some hot shot that makes me go completely bald. Y'hear?"

Kicks and wiggles were his answer and he chuckled as he pressed a kiss to what looked like a little knee pushing out.

"I think he likes the idea of you being bald," Anne laughed.

"Get that idea right outta that head'a yours, boy." A big kick to Adam's cheek made his head pop up. "Oooh, I think he's gettin' a mite ticked at me."

"I'm about to be, too if you don't stop making him bounce on my bladder like that," Anne snapped.

Adam could hear the smile in her voice, but he could also tell she was serious.

"Yes, ma'am," he grinned as he shimmied back up to the top of the bed and adjusted her so her head rest comfortably on his chest.

His hand lazily drew patterns on her skin as a long silence hung comfortably within the room.

"What are you going to do about Rory?" Anne suddenly asked.

Adam had been thinking about that little girl since the moment she came running down the hall of Hastings High, flip flops smacking the floor with a mega-watt smile that looked too big for her face. The way she eased into his daughter's arms. He was still kicking himself that he somehow missed all the signs... how he didn't connect the dots that she was more than just a 'new friend'.

"I dunno honey," he sighed. "What do you think we should do?"

"We?" Anne asked, lifting her head from his chest. She could scarcely make out his blue irises, lambent beneath the faint moonlight, but she searched his face for an answer anyway.

The tone she used when asking that simple question, made something stir deep within Adam. She spoke with an inflection that asked more than just, we?... it asked, me too?

And Adam couldn't think of a moment he didn't want her input on or a problem he wouldn't want to confer with her. He couldn't imagine a future, a life, a single second without her.

He sat up and reached out to pull the curtain back. Light, cascading and luminary in its midnight shades, spilt into the room. It reflected off Anne's skin, making her appear even more angelic; as if she were truly glowing beneath the moonlight. Though he knew she preferred the room dark and cozy, he needed to see her face when he said what he'd been wanting to say for the longest time, but struggled to find the right moment.