Finding What We Lost [SM BOOK 3]

2 • The Night

Song of the chapter: please keep loving me- James tw

After a while of driving the cab driver pulled over onto the side of the road. The sky was starless and not more than a couple of trees and branches were visible in the hazy moonlight.

I tossed him two twenty dollar bills and he whispered where about I need to follow to reach the beautiful place.

I clenched Hannah's small hand in my own and watched as she gulped. I swung the door open and leaped out, keeping Hannah close to me in case any wild bears or loose deer came hurtling at us. really I just wanted to hold her hand, but I wasn't going to say that.

We walked for a while, ducking under branches and climbing through brush and weeds when finally we reached a small opening.

In front of us lay a huge sight, buildings and lakes and stars and small flashing lights scattered everywhere. . There were cars whizzing down freeways and bars and streetlights and dimly lit alleyways. There were people smoking and drinking and laughing, there were arcade lights screaming and cars honking a couple miles away. There was deserted forests and closed up schools, there was even a girl sat on the sidewalk with a bottle in her hand. There was people beneath us, living their own lives with their own perspectives and we were just observing them all sweep by. It was more than stunning, it was picturesque and it is a moment I will never ever let slip my mind. I almost want to paint it over every wall in my house, I want to right songs and albums about it, I want it tattooed all over me,  just so that whenever I see it it will remind me of that moment. It was the calm before the storm, the silence before the screams, it was our night together before I spent every single other night after that desperately trying to find her again, in some hope of falling back in love with her,

Regaining that feeling that I got on that sacred night.Nothing will compare to that, not now,

not ever.

We found a small space on the floor, in front of the stunning view. She tucked her long brown hair behind her ear with a gentle touch of her fingertips.

"You know, when I was really young, me and my mom and dad and brother would go to Italy every year, an aunt of mine lived over there and we'd spend three weeks there each summer and occasionally Christmas. And I had this one cousin, Elizabeth, god we were the bestest of friends. She had this stunning, rich curly ginger hair and dark brown eyes and freckles everywhere. We adored eachother. And my aunt and uncle lived in this breathtaking house. It was made of these huge stones and had ivy running up the front of it, and I remember they had this huge brown front door, with a brass handle that was always polished, and I remember the way that if the day was sunny enough, the light would pass through the tree and hit off the windows and shoot every where."

Her eyes flickered everywhere, everywhere but my eyes.

"My aunt and uncle actually owned a vineyard which was opposite their house, it was called 'La casa della passione nuda.' Which means 'the house of bare passion' in Italian. Me and Elizabeth would play hide and seek for hours in the fields. They also had this basement underneath their house which had beautiful stacks of all sorts of fancy vintage wines. Each night me and elizabeth would get to choose the bottle of wine they'd all share and my aunt and uncle and my parents would all come down into the basement and my uncle would play guitar and my parents would slow dance and laugh. And after everybody calmed down they would tell the story of how my mother and father met and it was so pure and passionate and I think that's what love is." She gulped, not taking her eyes off the scenery as she enclosed her legs into her chest. "You know? Being able to tell the same story and not get sick of it, or the happiness you get from simply picking a bottle of wine or the fun in trying to pronounce the Italian words, or maybe just slow dancing with no particular reason." She turned to look at me, the moon sparkling in her eyes as she squeezed out a smile. I got up.

"Hannah?" I asked her, brushing myself down as she gave me a confused look. "Do you want to slow dance with me?" I held my hand out and she laughed.

"Shawn there's no music." She looked at me, straight into my eyes making me forget about everybody and everything surrounding us, it didn't matter, nothing mattered, she mattered.

"Hannah, I want you to slow dance with me for no particular reason because I am so utterly in love with you and always will be." Except, that's not what I said at all, I said the first bit but I knew I couldn't say the last bit because I didn't have the right to, I lost the right to that a very long time ago.
"Hannah, I want you to slow dance with me for no particular reason." I held my hand closer to her and laughed, slapping hers into my own as I pulled her up to me.

Her arms slipped around my neck and mine around her waist as she rested her head on my shoulder, the both of us swaying side to side.

And we were both so content in that moment, I could feel it. And I swear I heard her whisper:

"God, I'm so sorry I'm going to have to do this..."