A Time for Us - By Amy Knupp Page 0,29
it’d been last week, not two years ago. Noelle had foregone email and text messages—their usual means of communication—and had called Rachel the day Cale had made an offer on the condo. She’d been so excited she could hardly get the news out. She’d always wanted to live right on the beach. Rachel had been thrilled for her sister, honestly. And yet, at the same time, the announcement had been almost as painful as the night Noelle had called to share the news of her engagement. When Cale had bought the condo, he and Noelle had not yet gotten around to setting a wedding date, allowing Rachel to continue to play the denial game. But buying a home, even if Noelle’s name hadn’t been on the mortgage—that had hit Rachel hard, and she’d had to work to bury yet another bout of disappointment. In the end, she had, because she truly wanted her sister to be happy as much as she wanted her own happiness.
“It is,” Cale answered. “Up north of here. It’s a small, older building near Miller Street. I lucked into a fixer-upper unit on the first floor, with sand six feet from our door. Noelle swore she was going to sleep on the patio once she moved in—which we planned for after we got married.” His voice became gravelly with sadness and, without thinking, Rachel reached out and touched his thigh just above his knee where his shorts ended. She relished the texture of his light-colored hair and the warmth of his skin beneath her fingers.
He was quiet for a bit, and neither of them moved, except for Rachel’s continued attempt to consume her ice cream before she wore it.
“The unit I bought has so much potential,” he finally continued, “but it needs a lot of work. I fully intended to do it myself. Even started some of it. And then...”
She didn’t need to ask what the and then was.
Rachel quickly finished her ice cream and licked her fingers clean. The combination of the sea breeze and the ice cream made her shiver, so she scooted toward him, closing the small distance between them.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
He seemed lost in his thoughts as he started running his fingers up and down the back of her hand, still resting on his leg. “I’m going to get back to it. As soon as I finish some projects for my parents.”
“Good for you.”
The movement of his fingers on her hand was mesmerizing. The innocent motion awoke a hunger in her, a yearning she hadn’t felt for...ages. If ever. Not just a physical wanting, but more. She wanted to ease his sadness. Wanted him to ease hers. The strength of her need to become closer to him, emotionally and otherwise, at that moment, was overpowering. She closed her eyes and waited for the intensity to die down before she embarrassed herself.
“Have you been in your condo since she died?” Rachel asked in a voice barely above a whisper, unsure if he could hear her over the continuous roar of the waves.
He sucked in the sea air, his chest expanding up against her side. “Once.” The word was hoarse, croaklike. “About a month afterward. It was still too fresh. Awful. All I could think about as I looked at the partially stripped-out kitchen was the way she’d stood in that room and talked so animatedly about the project. Her excitement about every little decision we had yet to make, because according to her, planning it all out in advance would be too much of a chore. It’d ruin the ‘journey.’”
“She was a seat-of-the-pants girl all the way,” Rachel said with a bittersweet smile.
Cale ceased tracing her fingers and took her hand in his instead.
“Let me guess,” he said. “You’re a planner, one hundred percent.”
“I try to be. Noelle, God love her, used to make me nuts with her inability to even plan the next day in advance.”
“There were downsides,” he agreed. “Like planning a trip or, say, a wedding. I sometimes wondered if she was going to show up one day with some crazy idea of getting married that weekend or something.”
“You never knew with her. When we were seniors in high school, she convinced me to drop everything one weekend and drive to Houston with her to power-shop. No hotel reservations, no idea where we’d end up. She loved it. It freaked me out.”
Cale laughed quietly, a deep rumble in his chest. “At times it was challenging,