To that, he laughed and kissed her once more. “I think so too.”
CHAPTER 41
She lay nuzzled against Kallias’s side. His left arm was around her, his thumb absently tracing circles against her skin as they stared up through their porthole to the stars. It was beautiful, a million dazzling lights dancing in swirls of purples and oranges, and with only the crash of the waves beside them, it was as though it belonged all to them.
And when a star shot across the sky, Kallias lit up. “A shooting star! Didn’t you say that means we get a wish?”
“Yeah, and I also said I don’t believe a star can determine my fate.”
The corner of his lip puckered. “Don’t ruin it. Let’s wish to be together forever.”
She laughed. “You’re not supposed to say your wish out loud.”
“Well, I didn’t know that, but really, I think I just gave a suggestion.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.”
She turned her head to look at him, and the intensity of his devious smile caused her heart to hammer away in her chest. “I wished for a lot more than that,” he said.
“Oh?” she couldn’t help but ask. “Well, now you have to tell me.”
“Can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t.”
“Can’t. It needs to come true.”
Laughing, she rolled her eyes, not at all hating how silly he was being.
And when she saw a shooting star herself, well, she figured it didn’t hurt to follow his suggestion.
CHAPTER 42
She did—somehow—manage to fall asleep in his arms. It was surprisingly soothing to fall asleep near the waves, but all too soon, her pebbles were falling on the gong and jolting her awake.
“You weren’t exaggerating; that is obnoxious,” Kallias teased, sleepily nestling against her. Was this his awake-but-not-fully-awake state?
She stroked some of his hair out of his face to behind his ear. It was her first time seeing it dry, and it wasn’t the perfectly straight hair it had always been when wet. No, it was wavy and chaotic like the sea.
She kissed his forehead. “Are you going to be alright to swim me back?” If he wasn’t, she really had a problem because she wasn’t sure she had that swim in her in the dark, but he easily answered, “Yes,” and they were in the water.
Back and forth, back and forth, three times throughout the night, and though she expected their little cove to fill up with the tide, it never really did, and when she mentioned it, he said he had picked that one specifically.
When dawn came and the sun shone brightly down on them, she knew she wasn’t getting any more sleep.
“How was getting up every few hours?” she asked him.
He shook his head and turned on his side to fully hug her. “I can’t believe you do that every night.”
“The other option is to do what my dad did, which is to stay awake all night and sleep during the day. But I like the day.”
“That would be lonely,” he said. “Or…lonely is not the right word.” But he couldn’t seem to come up with another.
“It would definitely be something,” she agreed, loving how itfelt to snuggle into his chest.
“Daria, why do you want to take care of the lighthouse? Do you have to because your father did?”
