Later that Night...

Everyone in the house was practically fast asleep, but I kept tossing and turning. Emma never left Jack's side until Ellen told her that it was time to go right before we all got ready for bed. Emilie and I have the guest room for ourselves and she's currently one kick away from making me sleep on the floor. I decide that my tossing and turning isn't doing anything so I decide that maybe all I need is a little fresh air and some water.

Opening the door to the room and walking out, I make sure I'm careful to not make a single noise that could disturb everyone in the house. Despite how dark it is inside the house, the light coming in through a couple of windows makes it easier for me to see where the stairs are. I tip-toed down the stairs, making a beeline for the kitchen. Grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, I take a huge chug of water, hoping it'll calm down whatever it is that's not letting me sleep.

Heading towards the sliding door on the back patio, I quickly unlock and open the door, stepping outside and going straight to the porch swing. A light summer breeze hits my face causing me to smile at the feeling. Distracted staring out into the lake I don't hear the footsteps approaching me. "It's pretty peaceful out here right?" Slightly jumping at the familiar voice, I turn to find Jack standing next to the swing, looking out into the lake. "Y-yeah it is." My eyes move from him and right back out to the lake.

Sensing hesitation from Jack on whether or not he should sit next to me, I pat the space encouraging him to sit down. He takes me up on my offer, sitting down. "Lottie I'm sorry for everything. I swore I'd never hurt you, but that's exactly what I did that night." Jack's words come out in almost a whisper as if someone other than me would hear him if he'd spoken any louder. "I think we should talk about everything while you're here." We both look at each other knowing that it's something we'd have to do eventually. But for right now, I just wanted to enjoy this peace and Jack's presence.

"I agree, but for tonight can we just enjoy this?" His eyes offer a warmth that tells me that he's okay with us not talking right now and just enjoying this moment. "Of course. We can do anything you'd like." Turning our heads back to the lake, I lay my head on his shoulder and he wraps his arm around me.

~

melissa speaks

Ahhh long time no talk lovely humans! Happy New Year!! As I'm writing this and publishing this it's around 12:40 am for me. This is just a little filler chapter and in the next one, you'll, hopefully, be finding out the fate of Jack and Lottie's relationship. When I wrote chapter 30 a few months back I thanked you guys for 30k and now I want to thank you for over 35.3k reads! It's an insane milestone that I truly never thought I'd hit when I first started writing this story a little over a year ago. I hope to wrap up this story soon and sometime before my next semester starts to avoid going as long as I have without a proper update.

thank you so much again for reading! 🤍