Guy and Reason

Chapter 24 (Guy): There She Is

Copyright © 2025 by GroveltoHEA

That water fight was the beginning of getting more laughter from Reason.

As we stood there at the end of it, soaking wet and smiling like idiots, she shook her head at me while she wiped the water from her face. "What brought this on, Guy?"

Taking a calculated risk, I closed the gap between us and put my arm around her waist, pulling us close. Time for honesty; no hiding behind the need to clean her car off and getting a wild hair.

"I needed to hear you laugh again. The way you used to."

Reason smoothed her hands against my chest and wouldn't look at me, but she also didn't pull away.

"I've missed laughing with you," she quietly admitted.

I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "I've missed everything about being with you, Reason, but the laughter especially."

That water fight was the beginning of her allowing me to call her Reason again. I made sure not to use it all the time, even though I wanted to run around chanting Reason! Reason! Reason! ReasonReasonReasonReason!

The water fight was also the beginning of her laughter returning. From that day on, it was the real laughter, the deep-down amusement bursting forth that always made me laugh, too, because it was so beautiful and full of life.

The laughter might not have seemed earth shattering on its own, but to me, it was monumental. It gave me more hope.

Over the next few weeks, that hope mixed with dread. I didn't want to leave for training camp, I didn't want to leave her for the season. I didn't want to have to go away at such a critical juncture in our reestablished...whatevership. Relationship? Friendship?  Whatever we had, I hoped it was leading to more. 

I didn't want to miss seeing her at A Reason every day, watching her eyes dance with delight and excitement at the changes she was implementing, changes that would bring help and care to even more people.

"Good luck at training camp," she told me on our last night together when I was getting ready to leave her place.

"I don't want to go," I admitted, wondering if we could stand in the doorway all night, prolonging our good bye until the literal last possible second. "Actually, if I really want to be precise, Eden, I don't want to leave you."

The years we'd been apart, I'd looked forward to the brutality of camp and the upcoming season. I'd worked out harder and trained harder than everyone else on the team, focusing on nothing but the game and honing my body into an efficient, unbeatable machine. I studied hard, memorizing the playbooks, strategies and teams we'd be facing. I watched game after game, hours and hours of them, searching out their weaknesses, their strategies and their strengths. I lost myself in the job so I didn't have to think about how I'd lost my Reason. 

So much was chasing across her face that I couldn't read the emotions that fast.

"You have to go," she said lightly.

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," I said, my voice so sullen she laughed at me.

"Guy," she said, pressing her hand to my chest. "You'll be fine. Right?"

I knew what she was getting at.

"I will be. My therapist and I will continue our monthly sessions on video calls, and we'll keep on top of how I'm doing like always."

My doctor and I had been working on weaning me off of the anti-depressants over the last year, taking it slowly and with the caveat that I could go back on them if I felt I needed to.