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She’s quiet for a minute, and right when I think she’s going to laugh at me and say thanks but no thanks, she smiles and nods. “That would be nice. And you didn’t keep me. It was quite pleasant kicking your ass for hours and hours, game after game, where you just sucked so badly it was almost painful to watch, and now the entire island knows you can’t find the hole,” she quips, paying me back for that hole comment I made a little bit ago.
“Okay, that’s pushing it,” I grumble.
“I said what I said.” She shrugs in complete seriousness, making it impossible for me to hold back a smile of amusement as she scoops up her flip-flops from where she tossed them in the sand a while ago and starts walking backward away from me.
My long-term rental is a few cottages down back behind me, and Birdie has about a fifteen-minute walk through the sand in the opposite direction to her place. I’d ask to walk her home to make sure she gets there safely, but I’ve been punched in the arm enough times over the years when I’ve asked that question that I don’t even bother. I’ll just sneak up into the cottage yards when she’s far enough away and follow at a safe distance off the beach so she doesn’t see me, like I’ve done for fifteen years.
“You better bring donuts tomorrow morning,” Birdie warns me, raising her voice as I start walking backward in the sand, giving her the illusion I’m going home as well.
“Wouldn’t dream of showing up empty-handed!” I shout, continuing to back away and waiting to turn around until she does with a final wave goodbye to me.
My heart sinks right down into my feet as they trudge through the sand to walk a little way before I can feel like it’s safe enough to turn around and sneak up into a yard to follow her, and my arms feeling empty as hell that another day has gone by without feeling Birdie in them. The last two years of going without her suddenly feel like two million years.
“Campbell!”
My feet jerk to a stop in the sand, and I pull my hands out of my pockets as I turn around when I hear Birdie shout my name. She’s made it about twenty yards away from me down the shore, but I can still make her out in the darkness with a few of the beach lights in front of the cottages. It feels like it happens in slow motion, and everything else around us halts. The waves stop crashing to the shore, seagulls stop squawking as they fly overhead, the ocean breeze stops rustling my T-shirt, and my heart stops beating as I watch Birdie start slowly walking back in my direction, her feet sluggishly dragging through the sand and her flip-flips dropping from her hand as she moves.
And then she’s walking faster…
And then she’s jogging…
And then she’s full-on sprinting, and time speeds back up. The waves start crashing, the wind blows Birdie’s hair out behind her, my heart starts thundering rapidly in my chest, and I have just enough time to plant my feet into the sand and brace myself before she’s flying into my arms and her legs are wrapping around my waist. I hear a sob come out of her when she drapes herself around me like an octopus, my arms immediately going right where they belong, binding securely around her body and holding her as tightly to me as possible. Her long legs squeeze tightly around my waist and lock together at the ankles against my lower back, and my hat falls off my head as Birdie’s arms cling to my shoulders, her hands clutching onto whatever short strands of hair on top of my head she can grab as she holds my face against the side of hers. Not one millimeter of space separates us as I hold onto her for dear life, feeling the rapid beat of her heart against my own with our chests mashed together.
“I missed you so fucking much.” My words are low and gravelly, muttered against her cheek and filled with emotion I didn’t expect to come bursting out of me as soon as I had her in my arms again.
Keeping one arm secure around her waist, I slide my other arm up her spine and grab a fistful of her hair in my other hand, keeping the windblown strands out of the way as I bury my face into the side of her neck and breathe in the smell of home. I close my eyes, memorizing the feel of every inch of her body plastered to mine and wrapped around me, her arms and her thighs squeezing me tighter as I rock us from side to side in the sand.
