The Way Back to You
Chapter 22
Fiona rolled over, her arm falling onto Adam's side of the bed. He was gone. She opened her eyes as she ran her hand over the cool, slightly wrinkled sheet.
She moved onto his side of the bed, laying against his pillow. She inhaled deeply, savoring the smell of Adam's Axe bodyspray and peppermint on the pillow.
She slowly got out of his bed and went to his closet, where her suitcase was. She hadn't started packing yet, she had planned to be in town for one more day and wanted to put off packing until she absolutely had to, but now she wasn't so sure she wanted to stay.
She and Adam had gone to sleep early. Neither of them apologized after their fight and instead of kissing goodnight as they normally did, they kept their backs to each other all night.
She put her suitcase on the bed and began packing her clothes. She sighed, Holly J's flight to Connecticut was leaving in a few hours, but Fiona would have to catch a connecting flight from New Haven to New York. She would be on a plane all day and that was the last thing she wanted.
She didn't want to call her father to send the jet for her. She'd have to explain to her parents why she was home early.
She wondered if Brandon and Nate were back from visiting Nate's family in Wisconsin. She picked up her cell phone and dialed Nate's number, holding it to her ear as it rang.
Adam walked into the room, Fiona's back was to him as she waited for Nate to answer. He glanced at her suitcase, then back to her. "Going somewhere?"
She jumped when she heard his voice. She turned around, hanging up her phone as it went to voicemail. "Yeah, I was calling to see if Brandon could send his plane to come get me."
"You want to leave?"
"You don't want me to?"
He shook his head and moved toward her, reaching out to touch her, but stopped just before he did and let his arm fall back to his side. "Don't," he said simply.
She sighed. "Adam, every time we're together lately, we end up fighting."
He opened his mouth then closed it again before shaking his head. She was right, but he didn't want them to break up. Not again. "Fiona, please. Can we just talk about it?"
"Oh, now you want to talk?" she said, more bitterly than she intended.
He looked down and sighed. "Please," he whispered. "I know I was a jerk last night but… I love you, Fi."
She smiled, slowly closing the distance between them. "I love you too. You know I do. And you know I want to marry you, right?"
He nodded. "Some day."
"Adam, if I could, I'd be your wife right now."
He smiled. "Really?"
"Really. I can't wait to marry you."
"Then why do you want to?" he asked, his voice low.
"Because, there's gonna be at least a thousand guests at our wedding. I'd like your parents to be among them."
"A thousand? Really?"
She nodded. "It's kind of a big deal. There's gonna be dignitaries from almost every country in the world there."
He sighed, sitting down on his bed. "Here I was thinking our wedding would be about us."
"It will be," she told him, quickly sitting next to him. "There's just gonna be a lot of people watching."
He rubbed his eyes, getting a head ache just thinking about it. He was never one to enjoy being in front of an audience, especially on what should be the best day of his life. "We can't just… elope?"
"Alright, would you like to tell my mother that?"
He groaned. "Perfect."
She took his hand, a tiny smile on her lips. "When we're up there saying our vows, nothing else in the world will matter. Everyone will disappear, except us."
He smiled. "Yeah, until Eli farts. His smell is omnipresent."
"It doesn't matter," she declared. "All that matters is us."
He looked at her. She often baffled him, how she ignored mean comments said right to her face and never seemed to let anything faze her. How she could so easily forgive him when he'd been a jerk just hours before.
How she could so easily calm him.
"I love you," he whispered softly.
She smiled and kissed him gently. "Do me a favor?"
"Anything."
"Grow your hair back out before the wedding," she told him, touching his short hair.
He ran one hand through his hair. He'd cut it off shortly after their breakup and he was surprised it took her this long to bring it up. "Don't like it?" he teased.
"No, you look good. I just miss your adorable bedhead." He smiled and rolled his eyes. "And I miss running my hands through it."
To be continued…
AN: Adam's new hair cut was mentioned briefly back in chapter 15, for those confused about what they were talking about at the end because it was kind of a blink and miss it reference. I meant to mention it in an earlier chapter, but there was so much fighting going on between chapters 16 and 21, there was really no place to throw this conversation in.