Chapter 5 Happiness in the past

“So much for me being drunk.” She muttered as she laid awake next to John. She continued shifting around and tossing and worried that she would wake him.

. “Thank god he sleeps like the dead.” She muttered to herself as she slid out of the bed and slipped on her robe as she wandered over to the chair across the room. She had to take a minute to get her head around this.

“Somehow, I’m here on our first wedding anniversary.” She mused silently as she watched the shadows play across the wall. “I’m not sure how this happened. “ Anna read her share of romance novels, truly her only escape from reality, but nothing could prepare her for the fact that she really had somehow traveled back in time.

“But is it the worst thing?” She asked herself as she picked at the nude nail polish on her fingers. A lot of mixed emotions ran through her because although their marriage had ended Anna had knowledge now that she didn’t then. Anna was older and somewhat wiser now.

“Wiser?” “I’m not sure about that.” She told her reflection in the mirror across from the chair. “The last five years have been a crapshoot.”

“What do I want? “What can I even have?” The old pain crept back up like a friend you really tried to avoid but weren’t able to. “How do I deal with the fact that I know everything, how do I deal with that?”

Anna thought this over as she watched John sleep. She gave into temptation and walked back and sat on the bed beside John. She’d been drawn to him like a magnet, unable to stay in the chair, she always had been, even as a child. He’d seemed like a bright spot in a dark word. She carefully laid down beside him and studied his beautiful face in the low light. Memories of the past flooded her mind. She saw images of him from childhood to now and her heart hurt.

“What happened to us? She said softly. “I loved you so much, how could we let anything push us apart?” She pushed his long dark hair off his face, realizing that she loved him still, so much that it hurt. His long lashes made fans on his cheek making him look like the boy she’d met when they were children.

They had grown up together in the same small town on the outskirts of Asheville and he had changed her life. “I can’t believe we met in Kindergarten,” she scoffed “Of course then I thought you were gross.”

“I thought you were gross too. Cooties if I remember?” He growled back in a whisper catching her off guard.

“Sh*%!” She shouted as she jerked back “You scared the crap out of me!”

“Serves your right for staring at me like a pervert.” “How do you expect me to sleep when you’re over their muttering to yourself?”

“You jerk!” Anna muttered as she hit him with her pillow.

“Not to mention the fact that you are touching me while I’m trying to sleep.” He chuckled as he grabbed the pillow and tried to wrestle it away from her “That screams pervert.”

“You wish.”

“Absolutely. “I’m always up for a little perversion from my wife.”

Anna stilled as the breath caught in her throat. He looked at her quizzically and she realized that she’d waited too long to answer. His comment had caught her off guard and stolen her breath.

“Are you okay?” He asked quietly” I thought you were sleeping.”

“My mind is racing, I couldn’t sleep.” She replied moving her neck to dispel some of the tension.

“Is there something you want to talk about? I’m a really good listener.”

Anna rubbed her eyes and shook her head. She wanted more than anything to tell John the truth, her mind swam and her head was pounding.

“I guess we should get some sleep then.” He sighed and pulled back. “Just remember you owe me. It’s probably for the best though “We have a long day tomorrow.”

Her head was pounding and she laid back on the pillow arching her eyebrow in confusion.

“You know, we have to help Isabel move the rest of her stuff into the cottage.”

Anna’s eyes shot wide at her cousin’s name. Suddenly the pounding in her head reached migraine level. Isabel had made her life miserable when she was growing up, she was everything Anna wasn’t, tall, blonde, and thin. Anna shuddered as she remembered every time Isabel meddled in her life. How was she supposed to help her without wanting to hit her?

“Do we have to? I’ve been thinking that maybe Isabel shouldn’t move in here.”

“Well it’s too late now,” John said twirling one of her red curls around his finger. “It’s only for a few months, right? I thought you didn’t mind?”

“I guess not,” Anna said uncertainly as John pulled her against him. “She just makes me crazy.”

“Don’t worry about it so much.”

Anna wished turning off her anxiety and worry was that easy. She wasn’t entirely sure what involvement Isabel had at the end of her marriage but she knew one thing for certain, she needed to find a way to get rid of her. She didn’t travel five years into the past to let herself get steamrolled again.

“How was she going to get rid of Isabel?”