Before the Sunset (Cottonwood Cove, #4)(82)
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Monday evening, there’d been a knock on my door and an enormous vase filled with yellow daffodils and yellow roses was handed to me.
The card read:
There are no citrine flowers, so this is the best I can do. There are 29 daffodils and 29 roses (pending Janine at Cottonwood Blooms counted correctly). One of each flower for every year that I’ve been lucky enough to call you my best friend. You are that and so much more. I will love you forever, Miney.
Xo, Chewy
Tuesday
Chewy
I ate some sort of porridge this morning and got a bad case of the shits on set. Not a good look. I was running to the shitter between scenes. <poop emoji> <head exploding emoji> <fire emoji>
Chewy
It’s beautiful here. I wish you were with me. There is no one that I want by my side other than you. I ache for you, Miney.
Chewy
I’m glad that you keep hearting these texts, so I’ll keep them coming. But I wouldn’t mind hearing from you either. A sign of life. Can you throw me a bone?
I’d laughed at that. And of course, I responded.
I’m giving you time to figure things out. But I miss you so much, Chewy. I’m here, and I’ll continue to be here. Always.
Chewy
That’s all I needed to hear. I’ll keep blowing up your phone because you’re all I think about.
Chewy
Well, I think about your <cat emoji> often, too. About your perfect tits and your gorgeous legs and the way I wish they were wrapped around me.
Only Finn could be comfortable sexting me from Tokyo in a one-sided conversation.
Chewy
Just answer me with one word. Do you think about me and touch yourself?
Yes. No more questions. Keep the texts coming and go be a movie star.
Chewy
That’s easy. I’m lying in bed right now, and I’m thinking about you. Thinking about the sound of your laugh. Do you know it’s my favorite sound in the world?
My chest squeezed at his words. He’d sent a few more photos on Tuesday. One of us on Halloween with me dressed as Hermione and Finn dressed as Chewbacca. We were sitting at his parents’ kitchen table with all our candy between us. I smiled at the memory. He’d always take all the Snickers, and I’d go for the jelly beans. I printed that one, along with the other one he’d sent of us in high school, going to homecoming our junior year. We’d gone to every school dance together up until our senior year, when I started dating Carl, and Finn got to bless a few of the girls in our class that had been dying to go with him to a dance. My pile of pictures was growing, and I’d stopped at the craft store after work on Tuesday to get a new scrapbook to keep them all in.
I’d arrived home to find a package on my doorstep. When I’d opened it up, there was a box inside called the pleasure pleaser, and I’d opened it up to find a hot pink vibrator. I’d laughed so hard, and when I’d pulled out the card inside, it read:
This will hold you over until I get home. Twenty-eight more days, Miney. I hope you still want to move back in with me, even though I was a stubborn ass. I will love you for the rest of my life, just like I always have.
Wednesday
Chewy
Damn. I’m not sleeping well without you. It’s not the kind of lonely where I want to find someone else to keep me company because it’s the kind of lonely where I crave only one person. Only you can make me whole. I don’t want anyone but you.
That had caused me to crack. I’d sat at my desk and sobbed when I’d read it. I couldn’t not respond.
I feel that same kind of lonely. I only want you. Twenty-seven days, Chewy. I’ll see you soon. I love you.
Chewy
Work is hard. The hours are long, but the director is great. My costar, Melanie Starwood, has three kids. They are all on set. Her husband is here, too. They’re really great. This can be a family business, Miney. People make it work. I’ve never craved Hollywood. I craved the creativity of acting. I miss our life in Cottonwood Cove, but I thrive on set. No reason we can’t have both. Together. I want that. We can hire someone to help you at work so you can travel with me when you want to, and when I’m not filming, we’ll be home. I see it, Reese. I see it all with you.
He sent me a photo of him with Melanie’s three kids. Two boys and a little girl. They were all laughing in the photo and looking at Finn like he was their favorite person. I knew that look well because he was my favorite person. I rubbed my belly and squeezed my eyes shut. I already loved this little baby so much, and I knew that Finn would, too.
I see it, too. Go make some magic, Finn Reynolds.
Thursday
Chewy
I brought that shirt of mine that you liked to wear around the house. It smells like you. Violet and amber. I sleep with it on my pillow every night. That’s not creepy, is it?