Love, Emma

Chapter Fifty-Six: 4 Years Later

Nathan has to duck to get through the doorway, and only once he's through it do I realize how small I still am in comparison. Feeling grown up, in my teaching job, in my teaching clothes, has done nothing in terms of physical growth. My head still just barely reaches his chest, if that, and my arm would still have to be bent up to hold his hand.

"You look b-beautiful. You always have." He smiles down at me, eyes never straying from my own, seeming content to just look.

"Thank you, Nathan." It's my turn to blush, glancing self consciously down at my knit sweater and jeans, smoothing the fabric down across my waist for no particular reason at all, other than to have something to do with my hands.

"You look beautiful too, that hasn't changed."

The boyish smile he sends me is so comforting, that I can't help but relax, leaning back to sit on the desk behind me. "Thank you," he murmurs as he mimics my actions, leaning back on the row of desks behind him.

"How are you, Nathan?"

His hands pull together in front of him, fingers fumbling over each other slowly, as he shyly smiles at the ground.

"I'm good. Actually, really good. I guess that's why I came, I was j-just-" His lips freezes, eyes catching hold of my neck as I push my hair away from my face.

In two small, slow steps, he's right in front of me, so close, that I could reach my fingers out and touch the fabric of the old high school sweatshirt he's wearing. It's a closeness that feels so familiar it hurts.

His arm reaches out slowly, eyes locked on mine, as if asking for silent permission. When I don't resist, he draws them closer, the skin of his fingers just barely brushing my neck as he picks up the sun shaped medallion laying in the slope of my collarbones.

"You still wear it?" He brushes a thumb over the face, eyes wide with surprise, seemingly mesmerized by the worn metal.

There's something so intimate about the moment, something so soft and quiet, that I whisper my reply.

"Everyday. I never took it off."

His eyes flicker up to mine, wide and wondrous, and everything I remember from what feels like a lifetime ago.

"You never took it off?" The words are a gasp, just barely hiding the surprise he feels. The shock. And yet there it is, flickering in his pupils, twitching in the corner of his lips as he tries to fight an ear to ear grin; hope.

"I never took it off," I repeat, sharing the smile that breaks out across his face.

He drops the medallion, backing up as he clears his throat, obviously realizing how close we are. He's smiling at the ground in this shy, adorable way that brings back a thousand memories all at once, each one stronger than the last.

"Do you want to join me, f-for a walk?"

"I'd love that."

.               .                .                .                 .

"And then I got the teaching job at North Ridge, thanks to your brother Enzo, where I've been ever since, so yeah, that's pretty much it." I place one foot over the other, arms out at my sides, watching my footing as I make my way, slowly, across the half wall dividing the rolling hills of the park from the paved path. Nathan keeps close to my side on the ground below, never straying too far, but not hovering either; just close enough that if I fall, I won't be in danger for long.

"That's amazing, good for you, those kids a-are lucky to have you as a t-teacher. Say congratulations to AJ for me by the way, I wish him and Kate all the best." He laughs lightly, "And who knows, maybe I'll pay Luke, Parker and Beau a visit at their gym."