food for thought
In an instant, she was swept to another place, an old daydream that had chased her through adolescence and quickly faded in the early years of marriage. Off in another time and place, she could smell the crisp sea breeze and feel the sand between her toes. Her hair tickled her nose and she pushed it up and away from her vision, swept above the peak of her brows. A hand was placed upon a swelled stomach, her fingers painting a graceful picture across the curvature.
In the reverie, Pippa sighed and leaned back against her low lounge chair. Luckily, she didn't want to get up as the precious weight she carried wouldn't have allowed for it. Eyes closed, she relaxed. Moments drifted away, a smile on her face. The daydream shifted with a trill of childish laughter. A child was spun in the short wading waves, a man's silhouette against the sparkling sunlight of the warm August sunset. In that daydream, she knew whose face she wished to see there.
She watched as he turned with the sun catching in his hair and his face revealed with a swirl of motion. The redhead was feeling as if inside she might burst with emotion, and she wanted to pull him close, keep him safe, live inside this tiny bubble of hope. The glimmer of it softened the edges of her vision, creeping in and keeping her from feeling as if she were seeing the whole truth, but it didn't frighten her, not in the least. Instead, the tiny smile bursting between her lips was stiff with joy.
"I can love you too," she said, leaving it to hang in present or future tense with each passing second.












