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“It must just be the sunset making me all nostalgic,” the man replied.
“It tends to do that to people,” Elise offered.
The ferry arrived minutes later, pulling up to the dock and cranking its walkway down. As the line solidified into one or two people across, Elise found herself shoved up next to this handsome stranger. Her heart pattered in her throat.
He was broad-shouldered with dark-hair that had the lightest salt and pepper sprinkled throughout. Probably six-one or six-two, with tattoos, stretched across his left bicep. Elise had never been so attracted to anyone with tattoos before. Sean had certainly never gone for them, especially when he had fallen deeper into the world of accounting.
Wow. She had been married to an accountant. For twenty years! Why did it seem like someone else’s life now?
“Have you been to the island before?” the stranger asked her as they stepped forward toward the walkway.
“Never,” Elise affirmed. “Have you?”
The man gave her a mischievous grin. “A time or two, yeah.”
“Do you have any tips for me?”
He considered this for a moment. “Just let it take you over,” he said. “Give in to it. It has a lot to offer, even beyond the shopping and the fudge shops, that kind of thing. There’s a magic to the island that I can’t really describe. It’s something that gets in you—especially when you walk around by yourself.”
When Elise and the stranger walked on board, she handed over a ticket while he just high-fived the guy. He then recognized someone on the lower deck, nodded toward Elise, and said, “Good luck over there. You’re going to love it.”
Elise staggered up toward the top level of the ferry. Her legs felt a little weak. She supposed she hadn’t eaten anything since that ice cream cone earlier, and probably needed some kind of healthy sustenance. When she reached the top of the boat, she perched at the edge of one of the plastic chairs and shivered. Despite the August heat, a crisp breeze swept through her mangled curls. Autumn was just around the bend—nothing you could feel in California. Here, the change in seasons was a reality.
It had always seemed so romantic to Elise. The idea of the seasons whipping you in any direction they willed—the leaves changing, the autumn breeze catching your cheek, the promise of another winter, of death and then rebirth.
Whatever awaited her on this island, she knew her life would be changed forever.
