Emma gazed out at Oliver’s ship, a stark black figure on the edge of the world, and she resented it for taking him away. Side by side, theytrudged down the beach until the tender became visible in the fading light. When they reached it, they turned to each other.
This was it. The painful parting. But this was Emma’s life. It was the way things were on Sable Island, and she’d accepted long ago that there was nothing she could do to stop the world from turning.
Oliver hesitated, looked toward the high dunes, then back out at his ship. “I wish we could talk more.”
“I wish the same thing.”
“What about the work on the East Light?” he asked. “Do you think your father could use some help?”
Her blood began to race at what he might be suggesting. “I’m sure he could.”
Oliver pondered it for a moment and scratched the back of his head. “What if I bring some crewmen ashore in the morning and provide a few extra hands?”
Her body was now on fire with excitement at the prospect. “But don’t you have to be in New York soon?”
“I’m days ahead of schedule,” he told her.
He turned toward the ocean and stared at the horizon, and Emma admired his profile in the colors of twilight, and how the breeze lifted his thick dark hair. How pensive he looked.
“Who knows,” he said. “Maybe I planned it this way, so that I’d have an excuse to come here.”
The hostility she’d felt on the beach seven years ago, when he’d called her a child and told her to forget him, became hazy. All that mattered was the prospect of seeing him again the next morning.
“If you can delay your departure,” she said, “and lend a hand at East Light, I’m sure my father would be thrilled.”
Oliver faced her, and a faint light twinkled in his eyes. Or perhaps it was just the moon’s reflection as it began its slow rise over the ocean.
“I’ll bring three men with me,” he said. “What time does the work usually begin?”
“They start at nine.”
“Very good,” he said. “Tell your father we’ll meet him there.”
As he turned and dragged the small boat in a circle to face the waves, then dug his boots into the sand, hauling it to the water, happiness charged through Emma’s heart.
“No need to cook us breakfast!” Oliver shouted as he strode into the waves. The water splashed above his knees before he leaped into the boat. “We’ll eat on the ship and bring our own lunches!”
Emma watched him start the motor and pick up speed. The boat bounced over the breaking waves. When it reached the heavy swells beyond, he looked back at her and waved. She waved in return, her body alight with anticipation for the morning.
Moments later, Oliver’s figure grew distant. As he faded into the darkness, she was jolted by the image of Logan’s face in her mind. She saw herself with him—working on their paper night after night, galloping on the beaches at dawn, sneaking away to private hollows in the dunes to be alone together and drown each other in sensation.
God ...Emma had fallen too fast with him, without the slightest hesitation. She’d been swallowed up by the pleasure of her desires after the frustrations of her unrequited love for the captain.
She stood on the beach for another moment, then turned to walk home, shivering the whole way in the chilly north wind.
Chapter 20
The noisy ringing of the circular saw cut through the air as Emma drove the Jeep into the East Station yard. She pulled to a halt, shifted into park, and turned to her father in the passenger seat.
“I promise we won’t get in the way.” She glanced over her shoulder at Matthew in the back seat. “Right?”
“Right!” he replied. It wasn’t every day a new frame was built for the East Light, not to mention a crew of workers arriving from a passing ship.
They all got out of the Jeep, and her father leaned heavily on his cane to make his way toward Kevin, the chief staff man in charge of the repairs. Three other men stood around, waiting for direction.
“Stay with me, Matthew,” Emma said when he made a move toward the table saw. “Let the men talk for a bit. Then we’ll see the equipment.”
While the men discussed what had to be accomplished that day, Emma turned toward the ocean.
