To Breathe Again

Chapter 18 - A Heart Laid Bare

This chapter is dedicated to mickey02699 and 1BoredHuman!  Thank you guys for reading and voting on my book!  Thank you also to my all my silent readers.  As a reader, sometimes I forget to comment as well even though I know how much that means to authors so I appreciate you all! (Image above is from my property on a nearby lake.  This is mentioned in the chapter below and is where I met and fell in love with my Fiance)

Trigger warning:  Suicide is mentioned in this Chapter.

Longer chapter than normal but this one tells you all about Michelle's (my) history and kind of explains why she is the way she is for later in the story.

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Trent's POV

I'm captivated. I'm mesmerized. I'm entranced. I never knew a woman who could possess my mind and heart the way Michelle does. It's like she's put a spell on me. Is that possible? I inwardly laugh at myself. I want more. I need more. I feel like we've been chatting for hours but it's only been about 20 minutes. She seems to have relaxed now, which is great. At first, she looked uneasy as I drove to this little restaurant. It's a small Italian place I've enjoyed for a while now. It's more for couples; lights low with candles shimmering on the tables. I never appreciated the atmosphere as much as I do right now.

I feel like I can press her a little more about her past at this point so I shoot my shot. "... and when Chester saw the mess we all died laughing." She wipes her eyes from the laughter tears that have brimmed. I laugh along with her. Her laughter is so contagious.

"So, I want to know more about you Michelle." She lifts her eyes from her plate to look into mine and it almost knocks the breath out of my lungs. How does she do that?

"Um, w-what would you like to know?" She asks, somewhat apprehensively.

"Tell me about your childhood and your past. What was it like growing up around here? Did you have family around?  Tell me what makes you, you." I watch as her shoulders dip down and she takes a deep breath.

"I really don't want to mess up the mood Trent. You are so sweet to want to know but my past is not a happy story, for the most part." She says looking back down at her fingers where she is rubbing her forefingers and her thumbs together nervously.

"Michelle, I'd like to be honest with you." I start and she lifts her eyes back up to mine and raises her eyebrows slightly. I take a deep breath. I'm somewhat scared that this is too soon or that I will scare her off, but she needs to know that I want more. "I really like you Michelle. You aren't like any woman I've ever known and I would like to know you more. I don't care if the mood flies down into the abyss or if we're flying high on the clouds, if it's your past, it's important and if you are comfortable enough to share, I would love nothing more than to listen." I watch as she seems to process my words blushing somewhat hearing about my interest in her.

Taking another long deep breath, she says "I'm not one to hide my past and it really doesn't bother me to talk about it anymore but I just didn't want to be a killjoy. If you really want to know..." she stops and waits for my response to which I nod my head again enthusiastically, "...then I will tell you. It's kinda long. You gotta work tomorrow?" She asks with a little giggle to which I reply with a small laugh of my own.

"Beautiful, if your story takes 8 hours, I will listen for 9. I'm not going anywhere. Would you like to go somewhere more private to chat?" I ask hoping she will take me up on the offer. I have the perfect spot.

"T-that, that would be nice, yeah." She responds. I promptly pay the bill ignoring her argument to split it, since it wasn't supposed to be "a date or anything," her words, and lead her out to my car. We drive for about 20 minutes while I make small talk about business and the area until we reach a little piece of heaven. This is actually Grant's land but we all find solace in it from time to time. It's near the lake and full of Cypress trees covered in Spanish Moss. It could be creepy but to me, it's breathtaking. We have a canal dug from the lake back into the property with a boat launch built in. I drive near the lake where you can see the sun setting through the Cypress Trees. We get out and walk down to my old broken down pier that was damaged in the last flood. We haven't gotten around to fixing it yet, but it's a good place to just sit and listen to the sounds of the Bayou.