Chapter 6
"Photo album on the counter, your cheeks were turning red.
You used to be a little kid with glasses in a twin sized bed
And your mother's telling stories about you on a tee ball team
You taught me 'bout your past, thinking your future was me."
C.C. sat down at the end of the long wooden dining table. Her fingers itched to draw patterns in the high gloss finish like she used to do as a child; she had a feeling Niles' mother would be much more forgiving of her childishness than her own mother had ever been.
A sense of peace flooded into C.C.'s chest as a cool autumn breeze lazily tugged and blew at the tall cream cotton gauze curtains covering the open windows to her left. She felt no sense of urgency as she waited patiently as Niles' mother busied herself with finding something in an old writing desk in the corner of the room.
"Ah," she heard the older woman almost whisper as she cradled a large dusty photo album in her arms. "Look familiar?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye as she opened the album to the first page and placed it in front of C.C.
A smile played at C.C.'s lips as she traced her fingertips over the faded photograph. The boy in the picture was probably 10 years old. His blue eyes sparkled with mischief behind thick framed glasses as he had made a funny face for the camera.
"Hasn't changed much, has he?" C.C. observed. They laughed together.
C.C. flipped pensively through the photo album, marveling to herself as she watched the silly young boy grow to a handsome young man in the pictures. A photo of Niles in a suit and tie caught her attention, as she realized it must have been taken just before she had met him for the first time. She remembered her first glance of that sly grin, sandy hair, and bright blue eyes like it was yesterday…
"This one was taken just before Niles first left for the States," his mother confirmed, as if she knew the reason C.C. lingered over this particular photograph.
C.C. nodded, in awe with the realization that he couldn't have known in this frozen moment in time what would lie ahead for him in the years following. It was as if she was seeing him for the first time all over again.
C.C. turned the page, her thoughts still whirring from the cascade of memories. She would have gasped at the next photograph had it not felt as if her breath had instantly been sucked from her lungs.
"You have a picture of me in here?" she asked.
Niles' mother gave a small chuckle as she too observed the photograph that had been taken years ago, not long after Niles had arrived at the Sheffields' residence.
"Niles sent it to me," she explained. "He always said he wanted me to know you, but it took him several years to admit why…"
"You're not showing her embarrassing pictures of me already, are you?" came Niles' booming voice.
C.C. carefully closed the photo album and turned to face him.
"She was just showing me how dapper you looked in your bunny pajamas," C.C. teased.
She smirked, delighting in the crimson blush that crept up from his collar and washed across his cheekbones.
"From bunny pajamas to rubber gloves, hmm?" he mumbled. "Guess I've come a long way…"
C.C. frowned. Although he meant it to be self-degrading, she somehow felt the cut herself. She had always secretly hated it when he made it sound like he had been a failure at life.
C.C. felt goosebumps rise on her skin as Niles kissed the tender flesh of her neck, breathed in the smell of her hair, and spoke low into her ear.
"But I think I must've done something right."