AllFreeNovel
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When you find me, please don’t look.
It’s too painful to think about him finding me, or even receiving the news that I’ve been murdered, so I don’t. Photos and memories combine. Leo holding my hands while I walked on chubby legs. Leo at the kitchen table, me hiding underneath. Headphones gliding over my ears. Listen to the whole thing and tell me your favorite song.
My favorite song is what the ocean sounds like from Emerson’s bed. It’s painting with him nearby in the late afternoon. It’s the moment when he hops off his board and comes back to me, his eyes clear, a smile on his face.
I never even asked him if he knew how to drive.
How unfair is that?
I have a million questions for Emerson, and he’d answer every one of them.
I’ve never painted his eyes.
I’d mostly managed to stop sobbing, but that one small thing breaks my heart. I didn’t get to make his blue-green eyes, the color I love more than anything, into the ocean for him. I should have done it before anything else so he’d always have it with him. What was I thinking, being so careless with my life?
What was I thinking, ever spending a minute away from him?
A branch cracks close by, and I startle, my eyes flying open in spite of myself. I wasn’t going to look but I can’t help it. They’re here.
No.
He’s here.
“Daphne.”
Emerson steps out of the shadows and into the moonlight. His voice is hoarse, as if he’s been running and shouting for hours. He’s breathing hard. He doesn’t usually get out of breath, but he’s almost panting. There’s a rip in his wetsuit. I can see a patch of his skin through it. His chest, which is my favorite place to paint.
“Are you real?”
He’s with me in seconds, folding me into his arms. He kisses my face. It hurts. Salt on wounds. I don’t care at all. It’s going to be my life for a minute, those tears stinging the cuts on my face, because I can’t stop crying.
“How are you here?” I have to ask the question directly to his lips, because he won’t pull away. “How did you know I was here?”
“I followed your footprints.” His voice is rough and beautiful and I never need to hear anything else for as long as I live. “And when I lost those, I followed the sound of the ocean. I knew that’s where you’d be.”
