Everything Has Changed

An hour and a half later we were back at the farm, my hand freshly stitched up. Parker roared over to see it, and oohed and aahed over the sutures in my palm, even going so far as to ask if he could touch it. Levi just stared, not sure what to think of the whole thing, before Pascal distracted him with some toys. Jordan came over then to get the whole story, and decided that the doctor had done a good job – as if he was the expert. But he has had his fair share of stitches, so I didn’t say anything about his smart-ass comments.

After Parker and Levi had gone to bed we sat around the bonfire, everybody talking and having had a beer or two. I was quiet, and jumped when my phone went off. Cheyenne had texted me, apologizing for the late hour but hoping I’d had a good weekend. Immediately I replied, as well as I could for having an awkward hand to deal with, asking about hers. She’d been busy rehearsing for a show she was playing, and admitted to not having done much else. I kept the conversation going, glad to finally talk to her after so long of absolutely nothing. The thought of what my brothers and mom had said kept picking at me, and finally I asked if she had any real time off this summer. She had some time after this big show and then a solid week in July, and I deflated slightly, thinking that was too long to wait to go out and surprise her. I considered asking her to come out here, but knew she’d refuse.

Nearly a half-hour later she apologized again, that she had to get some sleep because she had another rehearsal in the morning. I wished her a goodnight, and slipped my phone back into my pocket, relaxing back into my chair. I purposely ignored the looks from my brothers, knowing that it would be killing Jordan to not know what was going on. It had been unexpected, because we hadn’t talked in a couple of weeks, but I’d be in an incredible mood for a couple of days because she’d taken the initiative to contact me. It had to count for something, as far as I was concerned.

“What was that? Booty-call?” Marc teased as we went into the house. I swatted at him before flipping him off, earning a shove from him.

“Screw you Marc,”

“Hey! That was uncalled for – just curious as to why the sudden good mood,”

“It’s obvious that she texted him,” Jordan rolled his eyes as he trailed in behind, Heather, Eric, Tanya and Brett all on his heels.

“So, what’s new in her world?” Brett asked. I shrugged, not wanting to share, mostly because it would drive my brothers mad.

“Not much. Lots of rehearsing for this couple of shows she’s got coming up, that’s about it,”

“That’s all you talked about?” Eric asked, and I nodded.

“Yeah, so?”

“Well shit, here I thought maybe you two had been talking about something a little more… personal… for how you’ve been acting,” he admitted. Tanya swatted his arm before grumbling something the rest of us couldn’t hear, and soon the girls had poured themselves each a glass of wine and headed to the living room, apparently sick and tired of us guys for a bit.

“So really, that’s it? Just the obvious, ‘hey how’s it going?’ kind of conversation?” Eric pushed.

“Yes, that’s it. That’s all we ever talk about,” I told him, leaving out the part that bringing anything more up usually got messy. It crossed the lines of the whole just being friends and talking occasionally thing when we brought our feelings back into it.

“And you’re this hung up over it?” Marc inquired, still not quite understanding the whole situation. He wouldn’t understand it anyway, so I didn’t bother to go into details.

“I’m going to bed – see you all in the morning,” I waved as I headed toward the stairs, only to get pulled into the living room – forcibly – by my sisters-in-law.

“So you talked to her?” Lindsay asked, looking excited, and more than a little intoxicated.

“Yeah, she texted me when we were all sitting around the bonfire,” I sighed, and she giggled.

“Jare that’s awesome! D’you think this means you two will start figuring stuff out?” she pushed.

“Probably not. Look, we agreed before she left that this is what we’d do. We’d stay friends, talk once in a while. And it sucks ass, but that’s what we do – this doesn’t mean that anything is going to change,” I explained, and saw her start to pout.

“She definitely missed you Jared,” Heather piped up from the couch, and I raised an eyebrow.

“It’s obvious. You guys didn’t talk in weeks, right? Now she texts you, late so that it doesn’t seem too eager or obvious, because she misses you and maybe doesn’t want to admit it to you or to herself,” she told me, brightening my spirits considerably. Maybe she did miss me.

“I like your theory – I’m gonna stick with that,” I agreed, before standing up.

“I’m going to bed – you three need to lay off the liquor,” I teased, and dodged the three pillows that came at me as I ducked up the stairs. The girls were so easy to tease, especially when they’d had a few drinks and got like this. It was never a dull moment with the three of them around and together.

I closed my bedroom door and stripped down to my boxers before crawling into bed and trying to get comfortable. Nothing seemed right without Cheyenne next to me, something that had irritated me since she’d left. I’d never had a problem sleeping alone before, so I hated feeling this damn needy that I couldn’t sleep by myself without her. I’d tried twice while I was in Charlotte to fill the spot – random, drunken one night stands – and both times I’d tossed and turned, and woken up feeling like shit and like a complete asshole. So that had been the end of that, and instead I tried to find other ways to get myself to sleep. Eric had woken me up once to work out, and still teased me about cuddling with my spare pillow, but in my dream it had been her, and when I woke up I’d had both arms wrapped around it and my face buried into the pillow.

For the first time in a long time it didn’t take forever for me to fall asleep; but it was only because I had Cheyenne on the brain in a major way.