“She is. She just turned fifty.”
“Gosh. My mum’s sixty-five.”
He grinned. “Let’s go back to you. How did it really go?”
She sighed. “Good. Like I said, I cried. And we figured out I need to heal my relationship with the ocean.”
“How do you think you’ll do that?”
Alejandra shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“You probably need to becloserto the ocean,” he said softly. “And London’s not exactly close.”
“We’re on an island,” she smiled faintly. “But yeah. I know the rational thing to do would be to get my stuff, go back to Conil, with my family, and continue my therapy online.”
His heart sank.
“But…” she added with a deeper sigh. “I don’t want to. I just got here. I like being around you. And I can’t face my family yet.”
She didn’t look at him. Her gaze was still on the ducks. But she said she liked being around him, and he almost fist-pumped the sky like he’d just won the Six Nations. The same way he wanted to cheer when she agreed to stay with him at the wedding. Being around Alejandra made him want to celebrate.
All the pieces of the puzzle in his mind to make his mam happy, to spend more time with his taid and to allow Alejandra to be closer to the ocean were slowly going into place.
“I might have a solution,” he said, scratching his beard. “But no pressure, it’s not my intention to drag you into a family thing if you’re not up for it. We can always do something else. But… in a couple of days, it’s Calan Mai.” He glanced sideways. She was listening now, eyes fully on him. “Do you know what that is?”
“I mean, it was mentioned in one of my fantasy books. But tell me what it means to you,” she said, that teasing glint back in her eyes.
“Calan Mai is the Welsh celebration of the start of summer. Between April 30thand May 1st. It’s not widely celebrated anymore in Wales, but there’s a small committee that loves to keep the tradition going. We light bonfires on the beach, dance, eat, tell stories, lots of folklore, like the stuff you read. It’s always been a tradition back in Aberystwyth that people don’t want to lose. My taid loves it.” He hesitated, then added, “My mam just called. She asked if I’d come home for it. My taid’s memory is getting worse… Alzheimer’s. She said it’d be good to be there while he still remembers some things.” He paused again to clear his throat. “So, I thought… to kill two birds with one stone, we could go. Celebrate Calan Mai, and maybe get you close to the ocean again.”
A smirk curled her lips. Mischief in her eyes. “We haven’t even gone ona real date and you already want to introduce me to your family?”
He laughed, pulled her into a hug, and kissed her. “You have a very annoying smart mouth, you know that?”
Alejandra burst out laughing.
“So is that a yes?” he asked, a little nervous now.
“Yes. I’d love to. It sounds fun. Road trip?”
“Road trip,” he agreed.
She literally fist-pumped the air with both arms, then winced, remembering her shoulder.
“I love road trips,” she said, massaging the ache.
“Should we make it our first date?”
“The entire road trip?” she raised an eyebrow.
“Why not?”
“That doesn’t sound very normal.”
“Arewenormal, Alejandra?” he asked, brushing her chin with his fingers and whispering against her lips. “We fucked on the first—”
“Second.”
“Second night of meeting. Went into no contact for seven fucking months. Met again in Ericeira. Hit it off too well and I fucked you in a wooden stall. Then you came here, and we couldn’t keep our hands off each other. I want us to be more than just sex.”
