"This is what she had become."
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Cleopatra Banks' last week in the small town of New Chelsea is nothing like she would have imagined it, but nothing could have prepared her for the stinging betrayal she's faced with and suddenly the prospect of...
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"You don't seem too upset about being here," Ethan says.
My hand is firmly clutched in his larger, warmer one and I have an arm coiled tightly around his in the hopes of drawing some extra heat from him. We're back in one of our favorite places in the whole world, our own little world really –the hidden springs in the woods where so many beautiful memories have been created.
I was never a nature girl before Ethan but being here now, with him, it feels like home and I can only wonder why I hated it in the first place when there's never been anything to hate. Maybe it has something to do with all the inner peace and the beautiful transitions taking place in my life that I can finally be in one accord with the evergreens and the soft sounds of water, the still quiet air and even the cold weather that's all a part of it.
"Why would I be upset? I get to use you for your body and spend time with you...alone, far from everyone else," I inform him.
He chuckles and the sound reverberates through me, making me smile even wider.
"So you're just using me for my body then? I'm so hurt," he replies sarcastically. "Don't act like you don't like it," I say, giving his arm an extra squeeze.
"Trust me, I absolutely hate it," he continues. "Fine then, I'm going to let go of you," I say, stopping in my tracks. He also stops and looks at me, a mischievous grin on his face.
"You wouldn't, because I would never let you. I will hold onto you for as long as I have to," he says, brushing his nose against mine.
"You say the cheesiest things sometimes you know that?" I can't help but ask as I run my hands over his smooth jaw, looking deep into his eyes.
"What was the question? I'm sorry I got lost in your eyes again," he says and my heart thumps just that much louder.
I don't think I'll ever stop falling for Ethan. With each day that goes by I wonder just how I managed to survive all these years without him. It's one thing to love someone and an entirely different thing to be loved by someone and to feel that love constantly.
But I won't lie. Just as much as it makes me happy, it also terrifies me. For once in my life everything's going perfectly, better than it should, better than it has been. I have people I can call friends, who have learned from me as much as I have learned from them, things are going extremely great in my parents' careers and they trust me more. After so many years, mom is finally living out her dreams, dad made it and all without the help of his parents, I have Ethan who looks at me the way he does, who treats me like a queen and I'm finally in a place where I'm okay with my little sister looking up to me.
I'm scared that something's going to happen to mess it all up. There's this nagging feeling in the back of my head that there's still something that's not quite right.
"Cleopatra, what's wrong?" Ethan asks, searching my eyes with all the confusion in his.
"I don't know, I'm just scared that something bad will happen. Life's just going too well at the moment," I reply.
