Six months later...

Oxford, England

I really shouldn't be here.

I had a thin red scarf wrapped tightly around my hair and my chunkiest pair of non-prescription glasses on. Plus, I had a shapeless black sweater dress which should hide enough of my curves. I shouldn't be easy to detect.

But then, college guys make a big wedge of my market pie. They would buy or click on anything that had my scantily-dressed body plastered on it. So they might just recognize me.

And that's part of the fun.

I suppressed a smile as I scooted lower in my seat in the back row of the lecture hall.

I bit the end of my pen and wondered at the variety of ways I was going to put my mouth on Stellan's body later.

Unfortunately, it was all properly covered up in his usual tweedy jacket-sweater-glasses ensemble. Kinda had to be for anyone to pay attention to his talk on data science—I think that's what he's talking about anyway. I usually paid attention when he would talk science-y to me but I have to admit, I barely glanced at the description of his Oxford headliner. For the most part, all of this stuff still just goes over my head. And Stellan knows it. And whether he cares one way or another, he hasn't shown it.

It's probably the sex. It's still too good.

The sex just keeps getting better actually. My cheeks warmed at the reminder of the last time we were together—about three weeks ago, for three nights in a hotel by the Niagara area. I had work in Toronto and he had a conference in New York. He detoured on his way back just as my week was wrapping up and we left separately on Monday morning.

Maybe it's all this sneaking around like you're a pair of secret lovers.

Well, we were technically that. And it definitely kept things fresh. We survived the last six months on hastily planned meet-ups, squeezing time where we could between his work trips and the handful of modelling projects I was still doing. We spent more time together when we were both back in Cobalt Bay but it was all very much under the radar.

It was never a black-and-white decision from the beginning. And even though Stellan is definitely the kind of person who likes things to add up, he hadn't pressed me to define anything. He was there when I needed him and when he needed me, he let me know.

And sometimes, I surprise him with what he didn't know he needed.

As if he somehow heard that, Stellan tilted his head up in my direction and even from across the hall, I could see his gaze lock in on me mid-sentence. He trailed off, his jaw shifting slightly as he took in what he could see of me. It wasn't more than ten seconds maybe but it was long enough to feel that tingle down my spine. Then he swallowed hard before turning with a grin across the room, apologizing for losing his train of thought.

I inwardly sighed and then thought I must've done it out loud.

No, wait.

I glanced sideways and the woman next to me had a dreamy look on her face. She had her hands tucked under her chin, making moony eyes at Stellan. I hadn't noticed her at all when I slipped in halfway into the talk.

"Are you okay?" I asked in a low voice because I just couldn't help it. I was annoyed but couldn't really come out and tell her to stop looking at him.

She turned to me as if just realizing I was there, and paired her blush with an apologetic smile. "Yes, sorry. He's just... He's brilliant. And a lovely person. He honestly can't be more perfect."

I resisted rolling my eyes, not because I disagreed with her but because he was mine. Kind of.

"I don't think he's into dating students," I said even though I was pretty sure this woman was at least a few years older than me. I wasn't that much older than most undergrads.

The woman focused her pretty blue eyes on me and I realized quickly that despite her moment of weakness there, she was not some airhead. She had the air of someone who was intelligent and attractive and knew it well. And she knew my comment had a little bite in it.

"That's fortunate then since I'm not one," she said just before sliding out of her seat and walking behind me and down the centre aisle that split the room. Just then, I heard the room erupt to into clapping.

Apparently, Stellan was done talking and he just stood there now, smiling and enduring the attention. He actually didn't like being in the spotlight. He'd admitted that to me. But it's part of how he gets things done so he puts up with it.

"Thank you so much, Dr. Cartwright," the woman who'd been sitting next to me was saying out loud and over the fading applause as she stepped down towards him. "It's always a pleasure and a privilege to have you visit and..."

I didn't hear the rest of her words as she was too far down and already too handsy with Stellan who'd walked around the podium to greet her. He had a stupid-wide grin on his face.

I got up and groaned in my head when I could see that Stellan was about to get swarmed. I didn't anticipate that. Who knew the dignified academia could get just as starstruck?

Not wanting to risk being discovered, I put on my camel-coloured wool coat and slipped out of the lecture theatre. I pulled the scarf off my hair and tugged on the black beret I had in my large coat pocket. Then I loosely wrapped the scarf around my neck, popped off the glasses and swiped on a light layer of matte red lipstick, smacking my lips a few times to blur the possibly uneven edges. It made me look different enough from the girl I was during the lecture and still played down my most defining features. Well, except the hair which was wild and springy and definitely nowhere to be seen earlier. There was nothing else to do but loiter outside the hall, studying everything on the walls so I didn't look like a total loser. I was pretty sure it was a century later—or maybe twenty minutes—but Stellan was still nowhere in sight.

Then my phone vibrated: Don't go yet. I'm trying to get out as quickly as I can.

I wanted to text back and say that it was unlikely if that woman was still latched on to him like nipple pasties. But I didn't really want to head back to the hotel where I knew Stellan was staying. I'd booked my own room there but I just dumped my bags and took off.

Finally, after fending off a guy who'd come up and tried to get me to attend a poetry-reading night, Stellan emerged from the lecture theatre.

He looked a little rumpled as if he really had been swarmed by a few dozen people and I wanted nothing more than to reach up and fix his disheveled hair.

I cleared my throat delicately to draw his attention and his eyes warmed the moment they found me.

"Hey," he murmured, reaching out to put a hand on my waist as he slowly drew me close. The hallway was busy but we were a couple doors down the lecture theatre exit and off to the side, partially blocked by the bulky display case we were standing next to. After three weeks, I probably wouldn't have minded being shoved against a wall and kissed thoroughly but Stellan didn't do more than that smallest of touch and the light bump of his forehead against mine.

My heart drummed in my chest as I smiled up at him. "I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to surprise you in the middle of a campus the size of an African jungle but we have to get out of here, ASAP. I'm starving!"

I grabbed his hand to try and slip in with the crowd but he didn't budge.

I looked at him, confused. "What? Can we go?"

"I can't. I've already got dinner plans," he said with a slight wince. "I had no idea you were arriving a day early so when Lily suggested an early dinner right after the session, I said yes."

I blinked. "Who's Lily?"

"Lily Brant—she's a professor of Bioinformatics here and a friend of mine. She's usually the one who gets me on this seminar series that the Department of Statistics regularly hosts."

"Stellan!"

We both looked up at his name and I instantly spotted the same woman who'd been sitting next to me earlier during the lecture. She was distractedly trying to talk to someone while waving a hand in our direction. She didn't seem to recognize me from this distance.

Ugly, unpleasant jealousy churned in my gut.

Of course she had to be young, attractive and apparently very booksmart.

"Can't she take a rain check?" I asked.

"Not without a plausible excuse," Stellan said, his eyes intent on me. "She's an old friend. We always go out to dinner when I'm here visiting. There'd never been a reason for it to seem inappropriate before."

I raised a brow. "What, she won't let you off for having a headache or something? Maybe diarrhea if you want it to be that bad."

Stellan's lips quirked in a corner but his eyes remained serious. "I can tell her I can't go because you're here."

I rolled my eyes. "But she's going to think that you and I are—"

"Exactly," Stellan interrupted softly, the hand he had on my waist tightening just a little.

It was tempting. It was already getting harder to be around Stellan in public and not be with him but next to this chick, I was going to look completely unsuitable for him.

And the world is going to know and they're going to fucking say something about it and I'm going to have to go fucking hit someone and get thrown in jail for it.

"Fine. Have your dinner," I said stiffly, moving away from him. "I'm going to be in my hotel room with room service and I'm flying out first thing in the morning. Catch you on the flip side."

I stalked away, mad as hell. More at myself than him, really.

In the last six months, we haven't had to talk about doing more than this—whatever you call what we're doing. We were both busy and every chance we got to spend time together, we spent, well, being together, if you know what I mean. There was never enough time and timing was always a little crazy. There was no opportunity nor also any kind of urgency, to slow down.

There was going to be more of it in my future at the very least since I've taken on less modelling jobs. The townhouse flip was soon going to hit the market along with the small company I've started. Jamie already has another property lined up for us and I was ready to go at it. If Stellan was still interested then, when he wasn't trying to catch me on his or my way out of the city, then the talk would have to happen.

It took about a half hour but I finally made it to my hotel room. I showered after calling for room service and was happily wrapped in the thick white hotel robe when the food came in.

I was biting into a beef and mustard sandwich when it hit me how exhausted and hungry I was.

I had planned on meeting Stellan tomorrow morning but when the mixer I was supposed to be attending tonight became optional, I caught the earliest train I could after my shoot in Paris wrapped up just before lunch. All of this was after a long night at a perfume launch party I had to go to. Then on the train ride, I went on an hour-long conference call with a New York-based cosmetics company who was interested in doing a campaign with me. After that, I reviewed the old engineering plans that Jamie had sent over for the new property. It was an old fire station and no, I couldn't even nod off for a power nap because my brain had been buzzing with ideas. I thought maybe by the time I made it to the lecture, it would be almost over and I could go climb Stellan but I had the time wrong so I sat there for the full remaining hour, telling myself it was going to be worth it.

"But here you are, stuffing your face all by your lonesome while the lovely Lily Brant devours Stellan for dinner," I semi-yelled out to no one in particular before chugging down a mouthful of the bottle of red wine I'd ordered. "And you can't even be mad about it! Well, you are mad about it but you just don't have a right to be."

Maybe I should just go hunt them down.

Maybe I should just plunk myself down on his lap and tell Lily Brant to back the fuck off with a mock-British accent.

I was just getting inspired with that idea when someone knocked on my door. It was a tiny room and the bed was practically flush against the wall. But there was no guessing who was on the other side. Stellan knew the alias I often used for hotels. We've met in secret in a handful of them the past six months, after all.

"It's me."

I swallowed whatever I was chewing and glared at the door. "So?"

"So we need to talk," Stellan said. "You didn't pick up any of my calls."

"Maybe because I didn't want to talk to you?" I said with a snort, annoyed again at our earlier conversation. "Where's Lily Brant? Did she make it a late dinner date instead and you're here to shower and put on a nice shirt?"

He didn't respond right away.

"Speaking through a closed door is ridiculous," he finally said.

"It's the only way to talk if I don't want to see you or answer your calls," I retorted.

"Please let me in," he tried again.

"I'm not ready," I replied before wolfing down the last of my sandwich.

"Can you be ready in two minutes?"

"I'm not wearing anything." Well, that was kind of a lie because I had the robe on but it doesn't really count, does it?

He paused. "Even more reason for you to let me in."

I couldn't help breaking into a grin. This guy, sometimes.

"You didn't have to skip out on Lily Brant because you feel sorry for me," I said, setting aside my plate and getting up from the bed. "Maybe I shouldn't do any more off-schedule appearances. I'll send you a meeting invite and we stick to that appointment. That way, I won't hijack yours and Lily Brant's post-sesh dinner block."

I grabbed the bottle again and took an aggressive swig of wine. It was almost empty.

"You don't have to keep saying her full name, you know?" he said with a low sigh that I could still hear in the room. "It's not her fault either. She was just being nice."

I set the bottle down and yanked the door open with a raised a brow. "You honestly can't tell if a woman is just being nice or actually trying to sleep with you?"

He raised his brow back at me. "I usually only ever assume the former with any woman. It takes some time for me to even start thinking about the latter."

I crossed my arms over my chest, genuinely intrigued. "So you didn't want to hit the sack with me the first time we met? Because I definitely did with you."

Stellan's slightly annoyed expression lightened up with a wry smile. "You proved to be an exception. And you continue to do so. Hence why I've been talking through a door and getting weird looks from people in the last two minutes."

"Don't be ridiculous. It's dinnertime. No one's around," I said as I leaned out to glance at the hallway, just in time to catch a head pull back behind a closing door. "Ugh. You're right. Get inside."

As soon as I pushed the door shut, Stellan pulled me into his arms.

"Before we argue, let me kiss you properly," he said as his fingers gripped around my waist and his lips brushed my jawline.

I put a hand up and leaned back. "No. I've got mustard breath."

"I happen to love mustard," he said before swooping in to give me a toe-curling kiss.

He let me push his jacket off and I was just tugging up his sweater and wrangling his shirt along with it when he caught my hands in his.

"We're not going to get into that just yet," he said against my lips just as we broke off for some air. Ignoring his own words, he easily lifted me up by my ass until my legs were wrapped around his waist.

I was completely naked under the robe and pressed up against him at my most sensitive points but before I could grind away, he walked the two steps to the bed and unceremoniously dropped us on it.

"Am I that heavy?" I asked, looking up at him, wondering if my lips had doubled in size with how swollen they felt. "Because I was thinking we should totally try it standing. Against the wall doesn't count."

Stellan choked out a laugh and shook his head. "I'm trying to talk to you right now."

"And I'm trying to distract you from it," I admitted even as I dropped my head back in surrender. He was going to have this talk even I was spread-eagled on this bed. "Fine. Talk away."

I propped my arms up behind my head and the motion caused the robe to gape open by my chest, clearing the way for one hefty boob to slide out into Stellan's view.

My breath caught when he dipped his head down to catch a puckered nipple in his mouth, teasing relentlessly with his tongue and contrasting it with the gentle kneading of his hand.

I groaned, my eyes closing and my throat going dry, as a gnawing ache thrummed through my body. My teeth caught my bottom lip in a barely suppressed gasp as he uncovered my other breast to give it equal worship.

Sometimes, I do push us to just get lost in the sex because it was easier than talking about things I wasn't ready for. But for the most part, the sex—rushed into or not by my not-so-subtle agenda—was just so damn good. Stellan was extremely generous in bed. He would always insist on taking his satisfaction after I've had mine—even at times when I wanted it to be about him.

"Let me finish this," he rasped as he looked up at me with a hooded gaze behind his glasses. "Then we'll talk."

I reached out to take his glasses off, folding them carefully and setting them aside. Then I slipped my fingers through his hair, clutching them there slightly until he was too far down between my legs to hold on to.

"God, Stellan," I whispered as I closed my eyes and gave up to the torment.

Turns out he had plans to do the same because as soon as I saw stars behind my eyes, tremors still barreling through my body, Stellan was there, somehow out of his clothes already, plunging home into me. He brought me to another quick, soul-shattering climax just before he rode out his own.

"I can never seem to keep my head screwed on straight when I'm around you," Stellan muttered under his breath before bracing himself on his elbows to look at me.

That statement stung because I knew it as an actual fact even if Stellan would argue against it. He wouldn't have been hooking up with me in the last six months if he didn't lose his good judgement where I was concerned. But I was too selfish to keep reminding him of that. I tried in the beginning but he wouldn't listen and I didn't really want to give up what I could have with him.

"I'm not going to deny that," I said with a loud exhale, regretting how quickly I lost that warm, fuzzy feeling with one comment. "Which is probably why it's best you take me in very small, infrequent doses."

The change in Stellan's soft, smiling expression was instant. His eyes narrowed slightly as he frowned, as if he was a little mad about something. Probably me. And probably the things we were going to have to say next.

"That's exactly the opposite of what I want from you, Kady," he said. "And you know it."

"Let me guess. You want a good and proper relationship. A girlfriend you can bring to family dinners. You want to do a Christmas proposal and a romantic engagement photoshoot. A big dream wedding," I recited from somewhere nasty in my heart where these things were secret fantasies I couldn't have. "You want a pretty and polite wife and a passel of clean, tidy-haired children who say please and thank you. You want to read bedtime stories and help make science projects. You want to join walking groups with your wife when you're both retired and bored. You want to die with her like they die in The Notebook and—"

"Okay, that's taking it a little bit too far,"Stellan said, rolling his eyes. "I'm not saying those things are—wait, what's the notebook?"

I raised a brow. "The Notebook. You know, the movie? Well, it was a book, but the movie is called The Notebook although I can't seem to remember why. I'd call it more like The Letters but then I've only seen the movie."

When Stellan still look vaguely confused, I blabbered on, not like I could stop anyway. "They go for a boat ride with the swans and they kiss on the dock in the storm. It's like the most painful puppy-love-but-ten-years later-and-she's marrying-a-different-man kind of shit."

My cheeks started to burn as Stellan stared at me, his lips curving into a faint smile. "I didn't know you liked those kinds of movies. Are you a romantic, Kady?"

I made a face. "No, I'm a realist and the reason I watch shit like that is to remind myself of the glaring difference between fiction and reality. Fiction's there to make reality more palatable; to give people some lame reassurance that they're just waiting for their turn at a happy ending so they don't lose their fucking minds in the meantime."

"Well, you've just made my suspicion exponentially more difficult to prove with that statement but I still bet that you're a romantic deep inside your cold, evil, man-hating heart. One who's decided to already lose her fucking mind now so she doesn't have to nervously wait around for the happy ending she hates admitting she believes in."

I glared, and glared some more. Then I shoved weakly at Stellan's shoulder.

"Get off me, you smartass."

He rolled off me and to his side, propping up one arm to support his head. "I never understood why anyone would ever consider the backside in any kind of intellectual light."

"It's just as much of a mystery to me as your taking the time to actually wonder about it," I retorted, getting up the bed and slipping off the robe since it was now sticky in some parts. I balled it up and threw it to a corner of the room to deal with later.

"I mean... There is nothing intellectual about this moment right now. It's just all base need," he said in a slightly husky tone and I looked over my shoulder to catch him openly admiring my rear view.

He glanced up and grinned without the slightest hint of guilt. "What? You're just absolutely stunning everywhere."

"I'm glad that what I lack in degrees and PHDs, I make up for with a substantial ass," I said, I rolling my eyes and heading into the bathroom, leaving the door open. The bathroom was so small and so thinly-walled that I could keep talking with him as if we were in the same room anyway.

"Sadly, while people can sing praises about the first, they can't even refer to the second in polite company," I continued as I went about cleaning myself up where I was out of the view from the bed. "And this is why I prefer impolite circles where at least I'm measured by what I have in great supply rather than what I don't. I like to be the glass-half-full version of that statement."

I went back into the room and saw Stellan stretched out in the middle of the bed now, naked and comfortable with his arms crossed behind his head. His glasses were back on. But his brows were furrowing as if he'd just run into some kind of mathematical anomaly.

"Firstly, the glass is neither half-full nor half-empty—it's just an inappropriate size container for the amount of liquid present," he said with a perfectly straight face. "Secondly, I never cared about your academic accomplishments or lack thereof. I don't expect people to take the same path I did in life. I certainly don't think less of them for not pursuing the same things that I find important. Part of what makes the world and society work is the diversity of people that make them up. You can't build a basic machine if all you have are the same parts. We all each have a purpose and that purpose designs our size, shape and capabilities. We each have a place in the final schematics and that's the great equalizer at the end of it all."

Oh, he was pissed at me.

Pissed. And passionate about his point. And pissed that he had to make it—which he did in a very Stellan way, I've learned in the last six months.

I've started to understand where a lot of his convictions come from but with that came the realization that the world did not have enough Stellans in it. And I'm not sure if he always remembers that. And I was his self-appointed dose of reality.

"You see the world differently, Stellan. And the way you see it is what allows you do the kind of things you do for it," I said as I pulled out a slinky little night dress from my suitcase to throw on. The few philosophic conversations I won't be able to avoid having in my life, I'd like to do not butt-naked.

"But not everyone's like you. Not everyone can see and understand at the level that you do," I continued, finding his boxers and throwing them at him to pull on. My brain couldn't handle him naked. "For most people, the world is very small and they're the center of it. You see so far beyond what everyone can and because of that, you realize your small part in it. And that keeps you from getting it in your head that it's about you. Whereas everyone else lives their lives like it's only about them. And I'm one of those people, except when you take my hand and shake my head clear every now and again."

Stellan studied me for a while as I half-sat on the edge of the small desk opposite the bed. Then he finally let out a long, loud exhale, his face softening with a smile. "If I have such an enlightening effect on you, why don't you let me hold your hand—for longer than a weekend and maybe occasionally out in public?"

My heart clenched at seeming simplicity of that ask. It would be so easy in the beginning. And then things would get complicated.

"Didn't I just go the long way of somewhat explaining to you why it's not a good idea?"

He shrugged. "You pointed out that people will judge you because you're different but don't you always say that people will judge anyway?"

"They will and good people like you care about that shit, no matter what you say," I argued. "It will bother you to hear that criticism because one, you're not used to it, and two, you'll have a hard time understanding how others could be so narrow-minded. People who have thick skin have it because it was the only way to get by. It's scar after scar on top of old ones. Eventually, it would've covered you enough to become armor. It sometimes pulls and hurts and looks fucking ugly but it works well enough in protecting you."

I bit the inside of my cheek immediately after that.

I didn't like talking about this stuff but with Stellan, it just bursts out of me. And I beat myself up after for it because I sound cynical, even to my own ears. But I've always lived life with this edginess that I find hard to settle. Like I'm ready for a fight, if someone would just try something. And even after someone does, it's still there. Just waiting for the next thing to have a go at it.

"I know you don't want to get hurt but this, what we have, isn't guaranteed to fail, Kady, as much as you believe it will," Stellan said quietly. "But it can only work if we're both on the same page."

"And we're not." My words were flat, my heart resigned to a reality I often let myself forget around him. "Because I believe it will fail, Stellan. You will want more than this eventually. And I can't give you that. I don't want to get married ever again and live at the mercy of a man. I don't want children and everything they'll ask for which I'm not capable of giving. I don't know if I can change. I don't know if I want to."

Stellan sat up in bed and edged to the foot of it until he was practically in front of me.

He gathered my hands in his and pressed his lips against them as he looked up to me with big brown eyes.

"So if I want to be with you, all we can have is this. What we have now."

I swallowed hard, my eyes stinging. "It's a shitty bargain, I know."

His eyes crinkled at the corners. "You're right, you know? That I see more than others can. It allows me to do what others may not be able to."

My brain started short-circuiting when he pulled himself up to his feet and wrapped his arms around me. "Yeah, what's that?"

He lowered his head and smiled against my lips. "To persist in the possibilities."

Then he kissed me properly, even as dread churned with reckless excitement in my gut.

I've said my piece, laid out my cards.

And he's staying in the game against all odds.

Only nothing about it has ever felt like a game.

And winning might only be guaranteed by losing him.

*****

Ninya's Notes:

Hi everyone! Sorry, this was a little later in the day than my usual schedule. I had something to do in the afternoon and then I had a monster migraine that puts me out for a good few hours.

So anyway... here we are. Six months later.

As it's probably becoming obvious, these two are secret lovers. They're hooking up. I think those who understand Stellan will know that he is not a hook-up kind of guy. But he's doing it because it's all that Kady would allow. I know some people will find this infuriating about Kady. I've noticed a pattern that almost everyone gets really frustrated when a character, especially a female lead, makes it difficult for themselves and tries to go down a complicated route when the man of their dreams is just there for the taking. But I always think that it's harder to see the big picture when you're part of it. You're boxed in by the situation and you often lack the perspective of a spectator who can logically look at something and possibly act more reasonably. So I hope you ride this out with Kady. I'll be honest, this isn't the difficult part yet. 

I hope you enjoyed it somewhat. Through Kady's struggle, we get to fully see how Stellan rises to the occasion. It's part of his growth. I don't expect we'll see Stellan do a 180 here because he's on firm footing with where he wants to go. But we'll see him being put through the wringer by the one woman he can't walk away from, even when he can probably reason himself out of what seems like not the healthiest relationship at first glance.

As for the song.. I know this isn't a perfect fit because it's about someone coming home to their hometown and reconnecting with an old flame but I love the phrase 'you could call me babe for the weekend' because it captures what Kady and Stellan are going through right now. I know it's supposed to be a somewhat of a holiday song but it just doesn't sound that way to me. 

I hope no one's sick and tired of Taylor songs because there are going to be more of them. I probably wrote a solid ten chapters listening through Folklore on repeat. I'm like that.

See you here next week!

I hope you're all keeping safe. I know it's the new year but unfortunately, this COVID nightmare has continued to dog us. I miss doing the normal stuff but I just try to look at the bright side that I've been able to read so much during this time, sitting at home and doing my small part of fighting it. I also hope things settle down and that peace and reason will prevail over all the violence and unrest. We all want a better world, don't we? I just feel like people need to get their shit together, look at facts, uphold the social contracts that keep our civilization going, do our small share of helping out where we can, and try to be decent human beings. Sigh. Okay, rant over.

Take care and I adore you all!

Ninya

♪♪♪ Chapter Soundtrack: Tis The Damn Season by Taylor Swift ♪♪♪

https://youtu.be/WuvhOD-mP8M

If I wanted to know
Who you were hanging with
While I was gone, I would've asked you
It's the kind of cold
Fogs up windshield glass
But I felt it when I passed you
There's an ache in you
Put there by the ache in me
But if it's all the same to you
It's the same to me

So we could call it even
You could call me "babe" for the weekend
'Tis the damn season, write this down
I'm staying at my parents' house
And the road not taken looks real good now
And it always leads to you and my hometown

I parked my car
Right between the Methodist and the school that used to be ours
The holidays linger like bad perfume
You can run but only so far
I escaped it too
Remember how you watched me leave
But if it's okay with you
It's okay with me

We could call it even
You could call me "babe" for the weekend
'Tis the damn season, write this down
I'm staying at my parents' house
And the road not taken looks real good now
Time flies
Messy as the mud on your truck tires
Now I'm missing your smile, hear me out
We could just ride around
And the road not taken looks real good now
And it always leads to you and my hometown