“You’d have work in Marysburg,” she said slowly.
He inclined his head. “I’d have work in Marysburg. I could line up clients ahead of time, before the end of my contract here.” Ducking down, he made direct eye contact, because this was important. “Let me be clear, though. Whatever you decide tonight or next week or next month, I’m leaving this island at the end of the year. When that happens, I’d like to move to where you are. If you object, I won’t. But I’ll still leave here, even if you don’t want a life together. I’ll still adopt a school, even if it’s not yours. I’ll still find work I love in a community where I can set down roots, even if it’s not Marysburg.”
Her hands weren’t trembling anymore, or cold. When she intertwined his fingers with hers, their warmth felt like a benediction.
Maybe this time, he’d aimed true.
Maybe this time, he was winning more than a point.
“All this”—he pointed to the laptop screen—“is about you. I won’t deny that. But it’s also about me and the kind of future I want. I’m not simply drifting passively in your wake, Tess. I want to be your partner. In every sense of the word.”
He leaned forward. Another two taps on the touchpad, and the e-mail he’d written the resort’s recreation supervisor appeared on screen. “No matter what, I’m taking several weeks off this fall. If necessary, I could spend that time looking for work and housing outside Marysburg, but I’d rather spend it with you instead.” When her forehead creased anew, and her lips parted, he held up a staying hand. “I know you can’t take that amount of vacation during the school year, and I don’t want you to. My goal is for us to experience a few weeks of your normal schedule together.”
This time, she didn’t even try to interrupt. Instead, she appeared to be waiting patiently until he was done, her eyes wet, her lush mouth tipped at the corners with the beginnings of a smile.
“Consider it a test run. I can stay at a hotel, or I can stay with you. Either way, I’ll volunteer with Sasha, nail down plans with the players’ association, and look at rental housing while you’re at work. Maybe I’ll even schedule a few lessons with potential clients. The evenings and weekends, we can spend together, and if you need to work at home or decide to have dinner with your friends instead of me some nights, so be it. I want a real taste of what our life together would be like.”
One by one, he was anticipating her objections and fears. Controlling as many of the variables as possible, so she could take a risk and give them what they both wanted.
“The visit might be disastrous.” He smiled at her. “But I doubt it. Either way, we’ll know more than we do now.”
Lifting their joined hands, he pressed them over his heart.
It wasn’t really his, though. Not anymore. Not for almost two weeks now.
“One more thing.” Softly, he rubbed the tip of his nose against hers. “I love you. You can tell me it’s too fast, too much, but that won’t change anything. It’s a fact. A scientific truth. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, the tides come and go, we’ll eventually grow old and die, and Lucas Karlsson loves Tess Dunn.”
Her cheeks were damp now, her voice thick. “I think we need to work on your grasp of scientific theory.”
“I want to be at your side for all of it. Every sunset, every low tide, every day of your life, as long as I’m alive and breathing on this earth.” His own voice was a pleading croak now, equally choked, and he didn’t care. “Give me a chance to prove it to you, älskling. Please.”
When she drew back from him and stood, his muffled sound of grief should have humiliated him, but he was too bereft for pride. Too bereft to keep speaking, keep arguing.
Instead, numb with misery, he simply watched her reach for her purse.
He’d missed his shot. Lost the point, the game, the set, the match.
He’d lost everything.
Rather than taking her purse and leaving, though, she unzipped it and dug inside.
“I’ll forward the e-mail confirmations to you later, but I printed these at the resort business center this morning. I wanted some sort of concrete physical documentation to show you. Feel free to call me old. I can take it.” She handed him a folded sheaf of papers, and he fumbled to hold them. Struggled to read them through wet eyes. “I need to be at school as much as possible this year, but I can take several long weekends if I prepare far enough ahead of time.”
When he simply stared at her, too overwhelmed to piece together what she was saying, what she’d handed him, she stroked his cheek. “The plane tickets are nonrefundable. I’m coming to see you at least three times this fall, whether you want me or not.”
“I do.” It was barely a sound, and as much as he could articulate. “You know I do.”
Another stroke of his cheek, tender and warm. “I know.”
After more digging in her purse, she produced something small. Removing the papers from his grasp, she laid them on the coffee table and deposited a key in his palm.
When he closed his fist over that silver key, the movement sudden and fierce, she bit her lip. “I’m not ready to say you can move in. But I went to a hardware store on the mainland today and made you an extra key for my house, because you’re welcome there, and I want you with me, and I want us to figure out how a daily life together could work. Because I love you.”
He bowed his head and fought for control.
“This isn’t practical, you know.” Her palms cupping his face tipped it upward, until she could meet his blurry gaze. “Not something a reasonable forty-year-old woman would do.”
He nuzzled into her hands. Rested there, content. “But?”
