~~Young~~

Chapter Seventeen

   He hated to see a little of that light fade, but to her credit she didn’t spit out an answer- whether yay or nay- just to placate him, she thought it over. Again her eyes fell to the plains of his chest as she traced the shallow line between his pecs, a slight frown knitting her brow for a moment, one corner of her mouth scrunching up the next.

   Eventually she sighed and looked up to him, “Honestly I…I just don’t know.”

   And he was okay with that because at least it was the truth.

   His own mouth curled in a smile and he picked his head up to give her a quick kiss, “there’s a lot still troubling you isn’t there?” he asked as he pulled away.

   “You have no idea,” she shook her head.

    “Oh I think I do,” he mused, “but you tell me what’s bothering you the most.”

   This she didn’t hesitate for, “Mama,” she looked purposely to him, “I don’t understand how a person can just…vanish like that, like she’s never existed to anyone but me.”

   Surprised that even she would have any memories of her Gage had to make sure they were thinking of the same woman, “The bag woman with the street kids?”

   “Yes,” Sera’s face twisted into something close to skepticism, “but how do you know who she is?”

   “I’ve been following you since we parted on the train platform,” he confessed, “Not the whole time, I didn’t catch up to you till you were pushing that cart towards the mill. But I was there when you, eh, had that talk with her.”

   “You…you what?” she pushed off of him, “how much did you hear?”

   “Um,” Gage said sheepishly, “all of it…”

   She turned from him with a flush blooming fresh on her cheeks, “so?”

   “So what?”

   “So are you going to tell me what you heard, what you…what your thoughts are on it?”

   “But Sera it was your conversation, you know what was said-”

   “Gage just tell me,” she blurted, “please?”

   With a sigh he shook his head, “fine,” he thought back to…was it really only last night? It felt like it was a lifetime ago… “Well I’ll start by saying I like the way she thinks.”

   “How so?”

   “I dunno,” he shrugged playfully, “maybe because she insisted you not push me away.”

   She bit on her lip and nodded slowly as she raised off him the rest of the way, “so then that means you know why I was afraid to let you in?”

   “I do,” he said simply, “and all the reasons behind it.”

   “And?”

   “And you’re right, I was after you.”

   Sera paled, her whole body sagging in defeat, “oh god,” she whispered as her body began to sway, “I…I was right.”

   Her pain was tangible, and had it not been completely unwarranted then maybe Gage would feel it too.

   He grabbed her arm before she could fall off the bed, tugging her back to him, “no, not completely. The key word in that sentence is ‘was’ Sera. I was after you, I mean I still am, but for a completely different reason.”