Serendipity Strikes

37

Shawn

I sat back against my pillows and smiled at my phone. Em and I had been texting for over an hour, and it was pretty fucking great. When we started messaging, I'd suggested we talk, but she'd said Jax might hear her since his room was so close. I didn't mind, because there was something special about communicating through texts. I liked to imagine her tone and her expressions for each message and predict how she'd reply to mine.

I was staying in a fantastic oceanfront house in East Hampton, New York that Andrew had rented for the band and my team for a three day retreat, since I was performing at the Summer Jam 2024 festival in Wantagh the following afternoon. I'd done several festivals in Europe in early June and was now doing a string of them in North America before heading back to Europe again. Between gigs I'd pop home to Toronto, but while I was on the road I missed Emmaline and Jax terribly.

Em and I were still in just friends mode, but there was palpable chemistry between us. We never talked about it, but sometimes our knees would touch, or she'd put a hand on my shoulder, or I'd push her hair out of her eyes, and you could practically hear the crackle of electricity.

One night between festivals I'd gone over to her place for dinner. She'd made fajitas which were surprisingly delicious, and I'd spent hours playing with Jax. He was really into building things with the set of oversized cardboard blocks my parents had given him for his birthday, so while she cooked, we sat on the floor constructing towers that he'd then knock down.

"Gain Shawn! Gain!" he'd said each time the tower was destroyed. We'd then build another one that was even taller.

"Let's see if we can build one as tall as you!" I suggested.

He stood still as I stacked the blocks until they were over three feet high. Jax clapped when I was done.

"You gonna knock 'em down, buddy?" I asked.

"No!" he'd responded, shaking his little head.

"Then let's leaving the Jaxon Radley Building up. Or maybe it's a monument. What do you think?"

"Me! Jax!" he said.

"Building it is. Stand next to it and I'll take a picture."

Em had observed all this as she'd chopped the onions and bell peppers. After Jax had gone to bed, we sat on the couch, as close as we could get without actually touching.

"I love watching you play with Jax. You've always been a natural, maybe because you have a younger sister."

"That's probably part of it, but I enjoy it as much as he does. I had no idea 2 year olds were so fun," I'd said.

"Thanks for coming back into his life," she whispered as she leaned her head against my shoulder, making my heart beat faster.

"And yours?"

"Mmhmm. I'm glad I have you back, too. I felt incomplete without you."

"That's exactly how I felt, too. Nothing was right when we were broken up."

She was so close that I could smell the heady scent of her perfume mixed with her natural essence. I looked down at her collarbone and imagined running my tongue along it. Would she let me or would she push me away?