No Strings Attached

Chapter Nine

Without saying a word, she ran her fingers through Shannon’s short dark hair, pulling the longer strands at the front away from the salty tears that they were clinging to, and started a French braid in a halo around her head.

“Is this the dress?” she whispered, not stopping the movements of her hands as Shannon began to melt into the sensation – she’d always loved to have her hair played with. For obvious reasons, though, there were very few people she allowed to do it.

Shannon nodded, her fingers smoothing out the silk on the bed. “It looks so empty lying there,” she whispered, after a while in silence, “Like it meant nothing – it’s just a dress.”

“It’s an N and an S,” Tori murmured quietly, “I never realised the significance before, I just thought it was a doodle you’d done one day. I couldn’t see the letters.”

Clearing her throat, Shannon reached for the box of tissues Tori handed her over her shoulder.

“It meant everything to me, once,” she whispered, her voice creaking on her tears, “I had so much planned for her. The venue was already booked you know, I paid for it a few weeks before I went into labour. I didn’t even have anyone to attend – just me, her and the priest. It didn’t matter to me that we had nobody, I never felt like we’d ever need it. I was just so ... content to have a part of him.”

“I wish you’d have let me be there for you. I wish I’d have known.”

Tori’s hands rested on her slight shoulders, the braid unravelling softly without any bindings, and Shannon caught her best friend’s fingers in her own, “Wouldn’t have changed a thing,” she murmured quietly.

                                 *************************************

Two days later, and Shannon still hadn’t seen Nate again, even if he’d plagued her every thought.

Jayden had mentioned he’d gone away to attend to a little business while they were at dinner the night before, and Shannon hadn’t missed the shifting, wary look in his icy blue eyes. But Tori had changed the subject, and Shannon decided not to let on how very important the answers would be to her by asking any more questions.

But while Nate stood at the edge of her consciousness, a tantalising combination of threat and salvation, she couldn’t help the overwhelming waves of sadness that had them caught up in their throes since she’d pulled that christening gown out of its safekeeping.

So she packed her bags again – once again surveying the small piles of clothes over her bed and her floor with an uninterested eye. She seriously didn’t belong here anymore, Nate’s consistent reappearance was leaving her restless and completely unsettled. Packing her bags over and over was becoming more routine than staying at home recently, and she kept finding excuses to disappear.

Grabbing her iPhone off the dressing table, she pulled up Rory’s number and touched to call.

“Hey baby girl,” he cheered, after a couple of rings, “What’s up?”

She smiled at his voice, he always sounded like a cheerleader when he answered the call!