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“I’m gonna go. This is a bad idea.” He stepped away, shuffling his feet through the sand as pain swirled in her eyes.
“Austin! Please...” she begged, rising from her seat. Her arms wrapped around her body, her signature self-hug deflating the courage fueling his words.
His heart caved, wringing itself dry, squeezing from the center the love that lay hidden beneath lock and key.
Dammit, Mavis.
“Why?” he whispered, stuffing his hands into his pockets.
A sob fell from her lips as her body shook, the warm rays of the sun losing the battle to the shivers wracking her skin. “I need to apologize to you.”
The wind whipped at his face, the dry heat beating against his cheeks. He shook his head and pressed his lips together. “We’ve already had this conversation.”
“We haven’t though. Not face-to-face.” She ran her fingers beneath her eyes as they filled with tears, trickling down her cheeks with the same intensity hammering in his chest.
The broken teenage girl from his dorm room fought free from his memories, piercing his brain with the emotional upheaval her words caused the night she reappeared in his life—the start of all the secrets and the catalyst for love in all the wrong places.
I can’t help myself.
Austin heaved out a breath and stepped forward, pulling her into him. His arms squeezed and wrapped her shaking form into the warmth of his body. “Please no tears, Mavs,” he whispered in her ear. “Come on, not today.”
She sniffled and pressed her face into his chest. “That’s just it, Austin. It has to be today.”
Huh?
Austin dragged his hand along her back, his fingers catching in the lace of her white sundress as her words swirled in his mind. He frowned, breathing out the never-ending complexity of the woman in his arms.
“I’m sorry for the way things are between us. I ruined everything we used to share,” she choked out between sobs. “I’m so stupid, Austin. And I’m just so sorry—for every part that I played.”
Her apology impaled his heart, her words biting into his soul. He sighed and closed his eyes, letting his face fall to the top of her head. He nuzzled his nose in her hair and the scent of coconuts settled in his nostrils, the smell breathing life into the past. Austin inhaled, ready to dance with the echo of heartache only Mavis could cause, but a field of lilacs bloomed in his brain instead.
Casey.
She smiled at him in his mind, falling into his arms in the stairwell with a lost shoe. Her laughter bubbled, captivating his heart, relieving the pressure of sorrow, and releasing the residual feelings left in his soul... placed there by the woman in his arms.
Austin exhaled and his grip loosened, each finger clinging to Mavis’s body slowly releasing. He pulled away as her gaze lifted to meet his.
“Austin?”
He stared into the depths of green, into the pools of the past, into the days the dragon reigned, standing tall and proud in the tree fort atop the imaginary Lonely Mountain, the princess hidden amidst his treasure.
“The road goes ever on and on...” he whispered, dropping his gaze from hers. A grin tugged at his lips, and his heart softened, the weight of the past beginning to melt with dragon fire.
She frowned and wrinkled her nose. “Tolkien, Austin? Really?” She snorted and stalked away, dropping back into her seat at the picnic table. “I’m laying my heart out bare here, and you quote me some garbage fromThe Lord of the Rings.”
He grinned as his cheeks flushed.It’s from the Hobbit too.“Don’t insult Bilbo Baggins, Princess.”
She rolled her eyes as he sank to the seat beside her, draping his arm over her shoulder and scooting his butt away from the gouge in the wooden bench. His fingers raked along her skin as she leaned into him and heaved out a heavy sigh.
The pressure in his chest lessened, the memories of the past lifting from the fog that had endlessly clouded his heart. The childhood fairytale crumbled in his mind, each piece of the memory fracturing as understanding slowly seeped through the cracks.
I loved you yesterday, Princess. But today...
He turned and pressed his lips to the top of her head. “Why all this now? In like forty-five minutes, you’re supposed to practice walking down an aisle to my brother.”
Her hand fell to his knee, her fingernails grazing over the material of his pants. She sat in silence, her eyes staring outward toward the ocean as her breathing returned to a normal rhythm.
“Why now?” he whispered again.
