Page 34 of I’ll Paint You a Sunset Someday

October 2045

Dean

“The Sexy Six, together again!” Hudson cheers as Marlowe and Avery walk through the door.

They don’t bother knocking anymore. This place is as much theirs as it is ours. Like a lost puppy, he runs to Avery, slinging his arm over her shoulders. With one wrong move he’d crush her.

“Dean, what are you wearing ?” Marlowe screams, bending over in her signature contagious laughter.

Did they pregame? Alcohol makes her as loud as an air horn, and that was pretty loud.

“Oh, this little old thing?” I tug at the apron. “The pockets are life-changing.”

“You look very nice, Dean,” Avery whispers.

“How much have you all had to drink?”

She always whispers when she’s drunk, as if she could get in trouble somehow.

“What do you mean?” Marlowe asks, blinking rapidly and feigning innocence.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Avery whisper-yells as my sunshine finally lights up the room, skipping over and kissing me on the cheek.

“I’m so sorry. I left the wine in the car, but the driver waved me down before I made it inside.”

Her hands rest on my chest, and I’m a goner before the night has even started. She never shows this much skin without a liquid-courage kickstart.

“Wine before carving pumpkins? Bold move, Hal.”

“Questioning my decisions? Dangerous move, Dean.”

My eyes tap out of the stubborn stare-off as she bites her lower lip. That mouth gives her an unfair advantage. It’s impossible to hold focus around it.

Leaning in, I steal a kiss.

“Wine, sugar, and—”

“Strawberries,” she cuts me off. “Your favorite.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Hal. You are my favorite.”

Her eyes glisten, blinking three times. I believe you, they say. It’s about time, mine blink back.

She spins and dances away, lost in giggle city with her friends, but she’ll come back to me. Can’t stand being too far away, although it’s brave of her to twirl around the island while drunk. She’s the least coordinated of us by far.

Right on cue, her foot slips out from under her. She knocks a pumpkin over and the domino effect begins. One by one, they fall and crack open on the floor. Only the smallest one survives, and a moment of silence fills the room for the fallen fruits. Grief is different for everyone, so no one’s sure how to react.

Avery breaks the silence, bursting out in laughter. From a mile away I’d be able to tell that Hal’s embarrassed. The tip of her nose is bright red and her hands are twisting her hair again as Avery hops around the pumpkin graveyard.

Lifting the lone pumpkin like a champion trophy, she cheers, “Small but mighty!”

Our cascading laughter starts slowly but builds until we each forget why we started laughing in the first place.

“Someone should vote for me as least coordinated,” Hallee jokes.

As we all pass confusion like a frisbee, I try to get a grip on her tone. There was something unrecognizable, but I could swear her eyes blinked, Please understand me.

I love you, I blink back, empty handed. Still haven’t told her, but my eyes do every day.

“Least coordinated. Interesting,” I chuckle, frantically pulling at mental straws to explain her expectant expression.

She’s worked so hard to speak kindly to herself. I’d hate for this to be the final drop that makes the tears fall. Our friends feel it too, so in their silence I shoot around a look of gratitude. Hallee’s too busy getting paper towels to notice.

“Wait!” I yell.

She pauses like a TV screen as I run to the living room and grab the camera. It never fails to come in handy during our dinners.

“Everyone get in!”

While they’re distracted, I check on Hallee. Grab the sides of her arms and sink down on her level.

“You good?”

She nods as tears form in her eyes.

“Everything matters, remember?” I remind her. “Messes too.”

“Messes too.” She kisses my nose, slipping away to join the others, and smiles proudly in front of the chaos as I snap a picture.

Click.

“Because you were such a good sport, you can keep it.”

She’ll probably trash it, but it was worth the sentiment.

Thank you , she mouths, relieved to accept the only piece of proof that this mishap occurred. The oven beeps and time blurs as I picture us kissing, but the second beep interrupts before I can make the vision a reality.

As I check the food, Hudson swoops Avery off her feet, spinning around and tossing her onto the couch. Matt and Marlowe are staring at each other like they want to get a room, and Hallee seems to have snuck off. She hides sometimes when she’s sad, so after five minutes I head to our bedroom.

Catching her carefully placing a book onto the shelf, I ask, “New read?”

“Not new to me, but it could be to you!”

“You practically read a book a day. I could never keep up.”

“How many books is too many books, Dean?”

“Depends on who you ask.”

“It’s fun to escape! You must’ve thought so too at some point. Look at your room.”

“ You are my escape. You are my love story. You are all I want.”

My arms open as she runs to me.

“You’ll get it someday.” She giggles as I spin her around.

“Will I?”

Hudson’s voice interrupts, yelling from the living room, “It’s romantic comedy or bust.”

“For once can we please just watch a show?” Matt begs.

“Time to sway the vote,” I say with a laugh, pulling her out to join them.

“Four against two!” Hallee cheers.

“Every. Single. Time,” Matt complains, his hand flying to his forehead before we pair off into couples like a group of middle school friends.

Hallee falls asleep about thirty minutes in instead of her usual forty-three. Watching her breathe makes me more aware that I’m living in the good ol’ days. I won’t let them fly by without being thankful, especially for my little night light. Somehow, she even shines in her sleep.