“Do you have any idea what you’re signing up for?” Cole asked cautiously, eyes narrowing as he looked at her. “How hard that will be?”
Georgia straightened her shoulders and set her chin. “No,” she replied honestly. “But I know I don’t want to lose another minute with her. I’m not afraid of hard things.”
Cole raised an eyebrow. “I believe you. But how are you going to make it work?” He pulled a wooden chair over from the table and straddled it, facing her.
At that question, Georgia faltered. “I don’t know,” she confessed, shoulders slumping. “I was hoping you’d have some bright ideas. I’ll need a place for us to live, and I’ll need to get a job.” Georgia bit her lip. It was daunting. She glanced out the window at the cottage. “I just wish I’d gotten here before Star agreed to sell,” she said regretfully. “I know how much this place means to her. I’ll miss it too. It started to feel like home.”
Cole chose the most burnt piece of bacon from the plate. “I know, it’s hard to let it go,” he admitted. “I volunteered to help her with whatever she needed if she wanted to stay here and not sell, but Star insisted she was going to need a lot more care than just I could give her as her disease progresses. She arranged everything so she’d have what she needed when the time came. But I’m sad to see this place go. It feels like home to me too.” He took a bite of the bacon and looked resigned.
Georgia cleared her throat. “I guess I’d better start checkinginto job opportunities and available housing then. Have any hot leads?”
“The seafood shack in town always has an opening on the fry line,” Cole deadpanned, his mouth twitching slightly.
She leaned forward and slapped his arm lightly. “That will be the day.” She reached around him and took another strip of bacon, noticing as she did so a duffel bag open on the table, a stack of neatly folded clothes beside it. “Are you going somewhere?”
“Ah, yes, actually.” He rubbed the back of his neck and looked a little chagrined. “I’m heading down to San Francisco this week to... see about a job offer.”
She stared at him in shock. “You’re leaving the island?” Her heart plummeted straight down to the rough pine floor.
He looked uncomfortable. “After our last conversation, I had some time to think,” he admitted. “And I realized that you were right. I was letting shame over what I did to Amy stop me from moving on in my life. And that seemed like a waste. I figured it was better to put my efforts toward trying to make amends, trying to make the world a better place, than just hiding out here farming mollusks. I enjoy shellfish farming. It’s a sustainable and ecologically sound business, but I always aimed to do something on a larger scale, with global ecology and tech, the things I was pursuing before. So I poked around, made some calls, and an old buddy of mine knew about a research project that was just starting up. It’s right up my alley. Seaweed, actually.”
Georgia gazed at him in astonishment. “Cole, that’s incredible,” she exclaimed at last. “I’m so happy for you.” But the thought of his absence filled her with a cold, sick feeling of loss. She had not envisioned a future on the island without him here too. Suddenly, life here felt a lot more lonely.
“So is it time to start calling you Dr.Cabot Montgomery again?” she asked, covering her dismay with a touch of flirtation.
“Sort of.” He looked a little sheepish. “I’m Dr.Cabot Montgomery in professional circles, but personally, here on the island, I still prefer Cole.”
“Well, Cole, I’m glad you found your way,” she said, cocking her head and gazing at him. “But I can’t believe you’re leaving the island,” she said softly.
“After Star moved to Lopez, I didn’t think there was anything to keep me here,” he said frankly. His eyes on her were searching.
“Were you hoping for something to keep you here?” she asked. It was a bold question. She wasn’t even quite sure what she was asking, and she had no idea what he was thinking. So they had shared a kiss. More than one. A dozen kisses then. Each had been glorious—an earth wobbling on its axis kind of kiss—but a lot had changed since then. Had it meant anything to him too or had it just been an enjoyable evening, a little footnote in the story of his life?
“I guess that would depend on what that something was,” he said, his gaze boring steadily into hers. It felt like a question.
For a minute, she considered blurting out the truth. That she liked him... so very much. That she thought about him constantly. That when she pictured the future with her and Star, somehow he was always in it. That she didn’t want him to go. She wanted him to stay. She wantedhim. Period.
But when she thought of him pursuing his dream, not living like a penitent monk out here in this little cabin... she swallowed all those words. It was the right next step for him. She couldn’t keep him here just because she was falling in love with him. Maybe they could have had something special if circumstanceswere different, but she could not ask him to stay, not at the expense of this opportunity. She had to let him find his purpose in life again. She had to let him go.
“You should go,” she said lightly, looking away. “This is your second chance. You can’t let anything or anyone get in the way of that, no matter what.”
She felt him rise swiftly from the chair. A second later, he sat down beside her on the bed, the springs groaning under his weight as his shoulder brushed hers.
“There’s just one problem,” he said, his tone serious. Caught off guard, she glanced up and met his eyes. They were surprisingly warm for such an icy blue. “Someone’s already gotten in my way,” he murmured. “Quite a lot, actually.”
“Oh, who?” She was having trouble remembering how to breathe normally.
“Georgia, when I saw you the other night...” Cole stopped, his mouth tugging up in a reluctant grin. “You wear a shower curtain surprisingly well, by the way.”
She swallowed hard, trying to maintain her composure. “Thank you.”
Where was this going? And why was he sitting so close to her? She was tipping toward him as his weight pulled down the mattress. She felt a little light-headed.
“Seeing you again made me realize something,” he said.
“What’s that?” she asked faintly.
“That I want to be wherever you are.”
