AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Two
Elise rented a carthe following morning, placed her suitcase in the back seat, and then jutted out toward the highway. The process had been fluid, maybe even too easy, and she found herself with her eyes glazed toward that ocean-like pavement horizon, her head back on the seat rest, and her lips buzzing the lyrics to the Alanis Morrissette song that seemed to forever flicker in and out of the radio stations across the continent.
Michigan’s beauty didn’t brew up until mid-way through the state. The change was incredible. The trees became enormous pines, the air seemed crisper, fresher as it seeped through Elise’s open window, and signs for lakes popped up everywhere. When Elise paused just after one in the afternoon, she decided to grab some food at a nearby diner and eat it by the water with a good book. An hour dripped past, then another, and she changed into her swimsuit and raced into the glittering lake. She lay back, floating, her dirty blonde hair encircling her head at the top of the water. She felt completely outside of herself. She struggled to remember: what had been wrong back in Los Angeles? Why had she ached with such fear and inner resentment? Why hadn’t she just swum in a lake to fix it all?
Elise scrubbed herself down with a towel, which she found at the bottom of her suitcase. Her nostrils filled with a smell she admittedly didn’t know well: lake water. She laughed at herself, almost a bit too loudly, and a little kid with an ice cream cone turned his attention toward her from the other side of the lake’s makeshift parking lot. This gave Elise an idea. Within ten minutes, she had tracked down a little ice cream stand and purchased a cone for herself for a whopping two dollars. If there was anything she didn’t miss, it was LA prices.
Elise perched at the edge of the ice cream stand and licked the strawberry ice cream languidly. She had never tasted anything better in her life, maybe—a cheap ice cream near the side of the highway, a few minutes from a lake. Penny wouldn’t have recognized her. “Mom, you know that has carbs in it, right?” Penny would probably ask with a laugh. All the diets Elise had gone through over the years had given her something of a reputation. Now, she blinked down at her still-flat stomach, the thing she had cultivated with countless Pilates and barre classes; the thing that Haley and Mia ogled with jealousy. At that moment, she didn’t care at all. Maybe she would eat all the ice cream she wanted while she was away. As Janice said, she deserved it.
Elise meandered and moseyed across the great state of Michigan over the afternoon and ultimately arrived at Mackinaw City just as the first of a sherbert orange and pink sunset simmered across the horizon. She pulled the rental vehicle into the ferry parking area and swiftly drew out of the driver’s side to gawk at the Mackinac Bridge toward the west, which seemed every bit as beautiful and majestic as the ones back in California. Her breath caught in her chest. This was the view her mother had had at age twenty-four, on the brink of falling in love, and on the edge of motherhood.
It was remarkable to see the same things her mother had seen, in this other life she had lived.
It was almost like looking through a photo album of someone else’s memories.
Elise allowed her rental to be valeted to a separate lot and then purchased a one-way ticket across the Straits of Mackinac. A little line had formed across the dock, with everyone turned back toward the orange sun as it ducked toward the bridge. Elise chuckled inwardly. That was the thing about people, wasn’t it? That no matter how many times they had seen it, they always stopped to look at the sunset once more.
Suddenly, a few groups ahead of her, a young man in his early twenties, dropped down to one knee before the gorgeous girl beside him. The girl spread her hands over her cheeks and opened her lips in shock.
“Paul!”
Everyone on the dock hushed down and turned their eyes from the sun to the young couple. Elise’s heart pumped wildly in her chest as she watched.
“Amanda. Will you make me the happiest man in the world?” he asked. “Will you be my wife?”
Amanda closed her eyes for a long time. A single tear ran down her cheek. Finally, she nodded and gasped, “Yes. Of course, I’ll marry you.”
Paul slipped the ring on her finger and then twirled her in a circle so that her feet swung out behind her. When he dropped her back to the ground, they shared a passionate kiss and everyone on the dock burst into applause, including Elise.
At that moment, Elise realized that she was maybe the only person in line who didn’t have anyone with her. In all her years of “vacationing,” she had always been with Sean, or with the kids, or at least with her mother. Now, watching these beautiful people get engaged, she realized just how alone she was. Her smile flickered down as her eyes scanned right, toward the edge of the dock.
A man stood, watching her.
At first, Elise second-guessed it. There were tons of other people on the dock, loads of others to acknowledge and look at. She blinked away for a moment and then returned her gaze to his to make sure. His cerulean eyes were so mesmerizing, so intoxicating, that she struggled to pull her gaze away.
The man tilted his head toward the young couple, still in the midst of kissing, hugging, and celebrating.
“Nothing like young love, huh?” he said.
Was he speaking to her because she was the only other person alone on the dock?
Elise gave a nervous laugh. “I just got divorced. It shouldn’t affect me so much.”
Why had she said that? And why had his grin widened just a bit afterward?
“What I mean is,” Elise continued hurriedly, “I’ve had enough trauma around romance. My heart should be black by now.”
Wait. That was an even worse thing to say.
Why was she so bad at this?
And why did her knees clunk together? Was she really that nervous?
Oh, god. Why had she swum in a lake and allowed her hair to dry on its own? She probably looked like a mountain man.
“I’ve been out of the game for a long time, too,” the man said. His grin didn’t let up. “But there’s something about their hope, isn’t there? Something that makes you think, hey. Maybe there’s something to all of this love stuff.”
“Ha. I hope you’re right,” Elise said.
