The Crying Bridge

The Crying Bridge--Chapter 16

 When she woke the next morning she was surprised to find it was 7:30 a.m. already. She rarely slept past 6:15. It felt good, though, like she'd needed the extra sleep. She shifted her position slightly and looked over at Evan.

He was awake, smiling at her. "Good morning," he said. "Did you sleep okay?" His concern was genuine and Del was touched.

"Actually, I did," she told him. "I thought I'd be awake for hours, but I fell asleep shortly after you. I had a dream, too."

Evan raised his eyebrows. "Another Emma and Caleb dream?'

"No...well, I don't know for sure," she quickly told him what she could remember about the dream.

"Find it?" he asked. "Find what? The book?"

"That would be my first guess."

"Why would Emma or anyone else want you to find an old book?"

"Maybe it was journal?" Del suggested. "I can't really say. But at least it was just a mostly normal dream. Nothing weird or creepy."

"So you're feeling better than last night?"

She scooted over and kissed his cheek. "Thanks to you," she said. "Being here with me, for me, it means the world to me. Thank you for not thinking I'm totally fucking nuts."

Evan stroked her hair. "I've experienced a little of it, too, remember?" he reminded her. "If you're fucking nuts then so am I."

"Well, that makes us quite a pair, don't you think?"

"I do," he said, wrapping her in his arms. He held her like that for several moments then groaned softly. "Okay, I need to get away from you."

"What?" Del asked.

He looked at her apologetically. "In my head I know you're not into anything physical happening right now, and that's fine, really. But there's a part of me that doesn't think so well and it's becoming interested. Very interested."

Del slid away from him. "Sorry," she said, smiling. "But I'd be lying if I didn't say I love knowing I affect you like that."

"You are a very bad girl," he said.

She slipped out of bed. "Evan, you really haven't seen anything yet," she informed him as she headed for the bathroom. "I'm going to shower. You do what you need to do, if you need to do it," she said laughing.

Evan considered her suggestion, sighed and thought about baseball for a few minutes until all was back to normal. He got up and went to the kitchen and by the time Del had emerged from the steamy little bathroom, he had coffee brewing and croissants and fresh fruit on the little table.

Del came into the kitchen in her bathrobe, toweling her hair dry, squeezing out the moisture. "What's all this?" she asked.

"Hope you don't mind," Evan replied. "I thought I'd make myself useful."

"Very sweet," she said. "Do you want to shower now, or should we eat first?"

"I'll shower first," Evan said.

While he took his turn in the old claw-foot tub, Del got dressed. She put on a pair of khaki shorts and a white, billowy short sleeve blouse. She pulled her hair into her usual twist and dabbed mascara on her lashes and gloss on her lips.

Evan finished in the bathroom, dressed and they both sat down to breakfast. Del marveled again at how very natural their routine seemed and how easily (and soon) they'd fallen into it.