Clawen • What comes next

|| CHAPTER 78 ||

"Claire, loosen up" Owen told his nervous looking wife, as he reached a hand over to hold her twitching ones. She sighed loudly and nodded, before looking up at him with a forced smile on her face. "What are you so nervous about?" He asked her, to which she just sighed again and looked away, letting the smile fade instantly. "I don't know" Claire said and bit her lower lip while looking out of the car window. "We haven't had a night away from Charlie, since she was born" Claire managed to say through a shaky voice. Owen squeezed her hands, making her look down at them before looking up at him. "I get it" He said with a shrug. "But we had to at some point, you know that" Owen said and tilted his head, as he started to examine Claire's expression. Mouth to the side, she asked "Why though?". All Owen could do was chuckle slightly, squeezing her hands again. "Claire..." He said, feeling how scared she was deep down. He knew it wasn't because she didn't want to spend the night away from everything. To spend it with him. But there was no space in her brain for that at the moment. Too many worries were taking over. So, he put an arm around her shoulders, making her scoot closer, as he whispered "Come here" and kissed her temple before leaning his head against hers.

Meanwhile, back at the house.

"So, Maisie, where do you want to sleep?" Karen asked. Maisie looked up at her aunt with confusion. "What...do you mean?" She asked her carefully. "Well there's the guest bedroom that you stayed in last time, which of course you are welcome to sleep in but its down here. My room is upstairs, so is Gray's. Zach's old room has a pull-out couch in it, if you prefer sleeping upstairs with us. There's of course also the option of sleeping next to me in my bed, if that's what you feel most comfortable with" Karen said with a smile. Maisie nodded with an 'oh' face, taking a few seconds to think about her options. "I'll take Zach's old room then" She said. Karen smiled down at the girl and grabbed her suitcase to take upstairs. "Auntie I can do that" Maisie said on her way over to take the suitcase from her aunt, successfully as well. Maisie continued up the stairs to Zach's room which thankfully, she remembered where was. What she didn't notice, was how her aunt completely stopped all her movements, hence why she was able to take the suitcase from her hands in the first place. It took Karen a few seconds to get back on earth again.

At the hotel

"Oh, wow this is nice" Claire said, as they both walked through the entrance of the hotel. "It really is" Owen said while looking around the lobby. They both walked over to the front desk to check in, which went by flawlessly, resulting in them being on their way up to their room no more than 10 minutes after entering, Claire pulled out the keycard to the room and opened the door. She took a hold of her suitcase and made her way through the small entrance and into the rest of the room. Owen followed suit and placed his suitcase at the end of the bed. It wasn't the biggest room, but it looked new and clean. With the usual hotel room furniture. Claire was clutching the keycard to her chest, as she slowly spun around, taking in the whole room. Owen didn't need much time to look around. He was much more interesting in the beautiful woman that was currently standing in front of him, totally oblivious to the fact that he was looking at her and not the room. After her eyes finally landed on his, she couldn't help the smile that crept its way onto the cheeks. She bit both her lips together and tilted her head at him. She recognized the look in his eyes, the look of longing. She could feel it crawling its way into her heart just from looking at him. She walked over to him in a slow stride, not wanting to hurry anything. Owen was quick to wrap his arms around her middle, when she got close enough. Was quick to bent down at kiss her lips, when he felt her stand up on her toes to reach him. It was slow and careful. Tender and filled with emotion. Everything they hadn't always been able to show, because of them not being alone. Claire was lost in his touch, in his strong arms and before she knew it, Owen had lifted her up in one quick sweep and laid her down on the bed.

Back at the house

Karen was cooking downstairs, with Charlie in the boys' old chair that she had found in the attic. Gray was upstairs doing homework he had said, but Karen highly doubted that. Not that Gray was lazy or didn't care about school, he cared very much. But the boy had a hard time concentrating when there were guests and especially family. Him being such a people person and the need he had to socialize all the time, had his brain anywhere but in his studies. Maisie had asked if it was okay that she went upstairs to draw a bit and relax, which of course Karen had given her the all clear to do.

Maisie heard a knock on her door and expected Karen on the other side, making her know that dinner was ready. After she called out for the person to come in. The door opened and Gray's head popped up. She smiled up at him out of surprise and gestured for him to come in. He looked around the room nervously, before closing the door. "Hey Gray" Maisie said, putting her pen down on her notepad. He smiled back at her from where he was standing, in the middle of the room. "You can sit if you want" Maisie then told him, having noticed that he seemed a bit off, maybe nervous, maybe something else. She wasn't sure. He walked over and sat down on the pull-out couch, facing Maisie with one leg bent under the other that was hanging over the edge. "Hey" He said and smiled back at her. "You okay Gray?" She asked him. "Oh, yea I'm...I'm good" He said and bit his bottom lip. "Well...sort of..." He then added and looked up at Maisie with his vulnerable puppy eyes. "Sort of" Maisie repeated and tilted her head at him.

I take too long writing these...I'm sorry

I'm also pretty sure that I have apologized for one thing or the other, in almost every chapter in the last couple of months.

Well anyways – The next couple of chapters will be connected and will be written like this one.

Let me hear your guesses, on what you think is going on with Gray!