Othello pulls me in closer, his chin resting on top of my head. I settle into him, resting my back against his solid chest.
“You know, I’m glad I came on this trip,” he tells me. “I started not to. I changed my mind a hundred times, but I’mstarting to think I would’ve missed out on something important if I hadn’t come.”
“Oh really?”
I feel him nod.
“I think everything could’ve been simple from the start, Marley. This vacation.Us.”
My breath catches on that last word.
“Us?” I ask, unable to tear my eyes away from the dolphins, but my ears hanging on to Othello’s every word.
“You’ve been bracing yourself since the day I sat next to you on that flight,” he says, and I can hear a smile in his voice. “Trying not to catch feelings.”
A laugh escapes me. Othello grips me tighter, and I sigh, contemplating the emotions I keep close to me.
“I’m immune to keeping my guard up. It’s my way of protecting myself.”
“Protecting yourself from what? Falling in love with someone?”
Love. The word almost feels foreign to me. Unfamiliar on my tongue and even more unfamiliar in my heart.
“Yes,” I finally answer.
“That just sounds like another way of being scared.”
I’m glad that I am not facing him because I don’t want him to see the distress in my eyes. I continue watching the dolphins. Watching them move effortlessly through the water. Disappearing and reappearing.
“Maybe it is. But I didn’t expect to come here feeling like this about someone,” I say. “I was supposed to leave here with memories. That’s it.”
Othello turns me to face him, and suddenly I feel chill. I don’t know if it’s from the sincere look in his eyes or the subtle draft in the air. The wind lifts a strand of hair across my cheek, and before I can move it, Othello reaches and tucks it behind my ear.I close my eyes when he brushes his thumb across my cheek. The simple touch sends warmth blooming through my chest.
“You don’t have to fight so hard with me,” he says quietly.
I swallow.
“You make it sound easy.”
He chuckles. “It is easy. It’s harder when you’re trying to push it away. Don’t fight it.”
“That’s the thing, I’m not fighting it anymore.”
He looks at me in surprise, a smile tugging at his lips.
“You’re not.”
“No. I haven’t been able to fight it for a long time. I’ve tried, but every day I spend with you just gives me another reason to stop trying so hard.”
His grip tightens, and as if we can’t be any closer, he pulls me into him, his eyes scanning mine for sincerity in what I’d just said.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying…” I stretch out the word, trying hard to suppress the grin on my face. “I’ve loosened my grip on the distance I was supposed to keep from you. You matter to me more than you’re supposed to, Othello Kingston.”
This makes him smile brighter, and I can’t fight it; I’m beaming too. Othello closes the space between us, his hands in my hair, and his lips crashing into mine with a sudden, breathtaking intensity.
38
