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“I know,” Elise agreed. “That’s one thing that’s become increasingly clear as the days on Mackinac Island have gone by.”
Wayne stretched his large hands over the railing. He stood only an inch to the left of Elise, where he could inhale the beautiful scent of her perfume and the smell of her hair.
He wanted to kiss her more than he had ever wanted to kiss another woman in the previous three years.
“I’ve really struggled to let anyone into my life,” Wayne whispered. “And I know there’s a lot you don’t know—about your life in California, about your relationship to the Swartz family, about what you’re going to do next. I guess all I can say is...”
He trailed off as a phone began to vibrate.
Elise turned her eyes toward his as he pressed a hand on his phone, which was still and silent.
“I guess it’s you,” he said. He could feel a crooked grin play out between his cheeks.
“I guess so,” she said. “Bad timing.”
“We don’t have the timing thing down at all, do we?”
Elise lifted her phone so that they both read: Officer Cutler.
“I better get it, I guess,” she said, sounding disappointed.
“Officer?”
Elise was silent for a long time, while Wayne’s eyes found the water’s edge. Everything in his life felt up in the air, as though it had been lifted up on stilts, without rhyme or reason, poised to fall to the ground and erupt.
“Thank you again, Officer. I’ll see you soon,” Elise said, finishing the call.
When she turned back up to face him, she said, “Apparently, they’ve finished the investigation into the bed and breakfast fire. They want me to come to the station quickly. Do you mind?”
“Not at all. I love a casual trip to the police station,” Wayne said.
Fear permeated behind Elise’s eyes. Against his better judgment, he reached out, grabbed her hand, and said, “I’m sure he just wants to tell you the insurance will cover all the things you lost.”
Elise’s eyes scanned his hand over hers. Her eyes were difficult to read.
Did I actually just tell her how I’ve struggled letting people into my life?
Did I really just insinuate that I would bring her into my life if she wanted that?
Wayne was suddenly overwhelmed with panic and nausea.
He couldn’t just assume Elise wanted anything to do with him, especially now.
He slipped his fingers through his hair again and said, “Shall we?”
Elise watched him with those eyes that seemed to catch everything. She reached a tender hand toward one of his curls and slipped it around his ear—an act so intimate, it nearly broke Wayne’s heart.
“You always mess with your hair,” she whispered. “But it always looks perfect.”
