to your locker,” I reply dryly. “But alas, we all have those days.” Something twitches near the region of my heart. I ignore it. Now is not the time to be thinking about the way Jennings has seemed to have pulled back in the last few days.
Sure he’s said the right things, including “I love you,” but I haven’t seen his face in five days. And I feel like I’m moving in a fog. Frantically, I try to concentrate on the planner in front of me, but all I want to remember is the feel of Jennings’s lips on mine. “Why does this have to be so hard?” I say out loud.
Then everything stills: my body, my heart, certainly time and space. Because there’s no way Jennings answers me, “I don’t know. What kind of ridiculous torture are you dreaming up for your students over there, Owl?”
And I don’t just mean Jennings appearing in front of me wearing a T-shirt clinging lovingly to his body and a pair of worn jeans. I mean the fact I’m obviously hallucinating and I’m still standing. “How is this possible?” I wonder aloud.
“Dad!” Kevin shouts. Seconds later, my son is crashing into his father with such force, he knocks Jennings back a step. “You made it!”
You made it. Kevin’s words ricochet inside my head, fueling my legs to move. “You’re here. You’re really here.” My voice is breaking, but I don’t care. All I care about is becoming a part of the circle of love Jennings is opening his arm to welcome me to.
I crash into them both with the same amount of force, feeling everything wrong slide out of me the minute Jennings’s arm wraps around my waist. But everything perfect happens the moment Kevin’s arm slides over his and squeezes me tighter into both of them.
“I can’t believe you’re here. How did you get into the building?” I babble. Laying my head on Jennings’s chest, there’s nothing but peace when I hear the perfect cadence of his heart. I hear him chuckle, and the first real smile I’ve had in days lifts my lips. Tipping my head back, I wait for his answer.
I’m shocked when he nods to our son. “I had a little inside help.”
I gently accuse, “A missing textbook?” I’m confused about why Jennings is here weeks early, but in no way am I upset.
Kevin shrugs but gives me an unrepentant grin. “It was a good surprise though, right?”
Squeezing my guys, I answer, “The best. The absolute best.”
Jennings clears his throat. “Actually, I think I have one that’s going to top it.” Pulling back, he reaches for his back pocket before pulling something out. “Son, how about giving your mom and me a little space?”
Kevin quickly scoots a few feet away. Jennings wraps his arms around me fully and pulls my body flush against him. “What’s with the big eyes, Owl?”
“I can’t believe you’re here in front of me.” I touch his chest, his jaw, his hair to make sure he’s still real.
He chuckles. “I’d have been here days ago, but I had to fly to Montana over the weekend, and that delayed me getting here.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain everything when we get home.” I shiver when he says that word. I know it doesn’t go unnoticed when his arms tighten around me. But instead of kissing me like I’m aching for him to do, he continues. “After all—” He reaches up behind his neck and pulls my right wrist down. “—I wasn’t coming here without it. No matter what it cost me.”
His head bends as something warm from the heat of his body is wrapped over my wrist. Something impossibly familiar. My other hand drops from his shoulder and rises to my mouth to muffle a sob. “No. It’s impossible,” I manage to get out.
Jennings finishes clasping my grandmother’s bracelet back on before he gathers me close to his body again. “Now, everything’s the way it should be. Oh, except for this.” Jennings lowers his head and captures my lips with his.
I absorb the pure emotion that Jennings sends through every brush of his lips against mine. My trembling arms slide back up his chest and around his neck as his head slants, his tongue briefly licking at mine before he pulls back. “Kevin,” he mutters, regret and amusement in those two syllables.
But if the fire in his eyes and the hitch in his breathing is any indication, I can expect more later. Rising up, I brush a kiss