Page 76 of Rain Delay

“Well, it worked, didn’t it? I have you back in my life. Due to things I did to myself. Isolation is good for the soul sometimes.”

“Yeah, not for five years,” she states. “You could’ve dated anyone in these last five years. Maybe find someone who made you happy and brought you out of that dark and scary place.”

I shake my head, kissing her jaw lightly. “I didn’t want to date anyone else, Eliana. I only wanted you. I was willing to go through hell and back if it meant one day I would be brought back to you. No other girl compares in my eyes.”

Her cheeks red, tears welling up in her eyes. “Don’t make me cry,” she laughs.

“You’d be surprised at how much I actually found myself keeping tabs on you,” I admit. “I am not much of a social media guy, I kept it mainly for the fact I’m A) a professional baseball player, and B), I wanted to know how you were doing.”

She smiles at me. “What other secrets about you are you keeping from me?”

I shrug, moving off her and laid back next to her. “I’m a man of many talents, baby. A magician never reveals his secrets.” I say before pointing at my shoulder where I had a scar. “I ran into a pole that had a nail in it and had to get stitches.”

“I was wondering where that came from,” she looks at my shoulder, then at my arms. “What’s the significance of the tattoos?”

I glance down at my arms, watching as her fingers trace over the outline of one of them – a baseball with thorns around it. “I just liked the look of this one,” I shrug. “I saw it online and thought it would look good on the sleeve.”

“And you’re still just doing the one arm?” Ellie asks.

I nodded. “Yeah, just the one side. I think it looks the best on me. I don’t think I could picture myself as a fully tatted man.”

“It would be hot,” she says. “Not that this isn’t hot, because this is.” She blushes more, and then moves her fingers to another tattoo. “What about this one?” The daisy. The one I got for her.

“This, uh,” I stammer. “That’s your favorite flower…”

She looks up at me, eyes wide. “You got a daisy tattooed for me? When?”

“Not too long after the break up, actually.” I told her. “I was going through it and tattoos helped distract my mind for a little bit.”

Eliana leans over, pressing her lips on my bicep where the tattoo was. “Just another secret you kept from me.”

I smile back at her, kissing the top of her head. “It also went really well with the floral design I was working on at the time.”

“I wanna get a tattoo, it’s just the thought of a needle continuously beating on my skin doesn’t sound ideal. I don’t know how you endure it.”

“You get used to the pain after a while. I think the most painful piece was near my collarbone,” I pointed to the linework there. “That was probably the most painful shit I’ve ever felt. Like, comparable to getting a fucking splitter to the face.”

“Wy, I think you and I can agree getting a splitter to your face is the most pain you’ve felt.”

I chuckle, nodding in agreement. “Yeah, that was pretty fucking painful.” I put my arm behind my head, watching as she laid her head against my chest. “Y’know, I never thought a couple of months ago when I saw you in my hallway, we would be laying here in bed together.”

“It definitely wasn’t in my cards for the year, I thought I was going to be kicked to the streets.”

I shook my head. “It was dramatic, and I think it was more of a harsh reaction.”

“I much rather prefer having a roof over my head compared to living in the streets.” Eliana laughs.

“The last place I would let you go is the streets, El.” I let out a quiet laugh. “This is your home as much as it’s mine. It’s our home.”

Chapter 27

Eliana

AS I SAT OUTSIDE BY THE POOL, I looked through my phone at some videos I had taken of Wyatt at his physical therapy appointment earlier in the week.

I glanced over at the back door as it slid open, Maggie bolting outside toward me. On the contrary, it wasn’t Maggie that caught my eye, it was the person walking behind the dog.

“Well, well, if it isn’t trouble!” Wyatt’s sister, Willa declares as she makes her way toward me.