AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Something on your mind?” he asked, though he thought he knew the answer.
She’d spent most of the day working alongside him in silence, glancing up only once every half hour or so to take a swift glance at the driveway before ducking her head to sort oysters again. No doubt she’d been looking for some sign of her sister. Viv hadn’t shown all day. But that wasn’t all that had been on Kit’s mind. Something was bothering her today—something much beyond Viv’s absence or the previous night’s storm and resulting damage.
A heavy breath escaped her, and she looked up, a wary look in her dark eyes. “I think we need to have that talk, if now’s a good time?”
He motioned toward the sky, the beauty of the sunset doing little to still the nervous apprehension coursing through him. “There are a few cages that need to be put back on the creek. Feel like riding out with me? We can talk on the way.”
She nodded and walked around the culling table, releasing her ponytail and smoothing out her hair around her shoulders. Her fingers caught in a tangle, and she winced.
“Come on.” Smiling, he reached out and took her hand in his, leading her in the direction of the storage shed. “There’s a restroom connected to the shed. We can clean up there before we leave, and I’ll let Nate and Cal know where we’re going.”
It took several minutes for them both to clean themselves up in the restroom—Beau stole an extra minute or two to dunk his head beneath the faucet in the sink and rinse his hair with cool water. After telling Nate and Cal he’d handle setting the rest of the cages back in the water, he and Kit boarded Nate’s sporty hybrid and cast off, then cruised out onto the creek and glided along the smooth water as the colorful hues of the sunset spilled over and around them.
The humid air had cooled slightly, and a soft breeze swept over the boat, ruffling Beau’s hair against his forehead and slipping through Kit’s long brown strands. He smiled as he glanced at her, admiring the gentle expression on her face.
Warm hues of the sunset tinged her face and neck in soft shades of pink and lavender, and her hair, wet when she left the restroom earlier, had dried nicely in the breeze, rippling gently over her shoulders and back.
“Hard to believe a storm just tore through here, isn’t it?” he called out over the hum of the boat’s engine.
She looked at him, her soft mouth parting and a hesitant smile lifting her lips briefly. “Yes, it is.” She turned away from him again, her gaze returning to the creek curving in front of them. “But it did.”
They continued on, and Beau sped up, the sun dipping a bit lower with each passing minute, until they reached the long lines of floating cages. He stopped the boat by an empty stretch of line, grabbed the first of four cages that rested in the bottom of the boat, and started tethering it to the line. Kit pitched in, and after a few minutes, the task had been completed and the sun had set, taking its burst of color along with it.
A chorus of crickets, tree frogs, and toads took over, throbbing in a soothing rhythm along the banks of the creek, as the moon—not quite full anymore—rose high in the sky and the stars began to shine.
“Did you ever find anything as beautiful as this in Highlands?” Beau asked softly, sitting beside Kit on the large deck at the bow of the boat.
She bit her lip, eyes still trained on the sky above her, and managed a small smile. “No. It was gorgeous, for sure, but nothing will ever compare to this.” She glanced over at him, then looked away, avoiding his eyes. “That’s one reason I’ve decided to stay.”
His hands moved by his sides, and he curled them around the gunwale to keep from reaching for her, to keep from pulling her close and holding her tight. Her words were exactly what he wanted to hear, but there was something underlying them—a hint of sadness or regret—that made him pause.
“I just . . .” Her throat moved on a hard swallow, and her expression softened in the glow of the starlight. “I don’t understand how I could love this place so much again. How I could find happiness again in a place where my mother was so sad.”
He allowed himself to touch her then, to curl his hand around her knee and squeeze gently. “She wasn’t sad all the time,” he said softly. “You told me yourself on the shrimp boat that you have good memories. That there were times she was happy. That is true, isn’t it?”
She nodded silently.
“When Evelyn died,” he said, “I didn’t think I’d ever smile again, much less be happy. But then, when I thought about where to go . . . where to start over, this was the first and only place I could imagine finding happiness again.” He turned to her, smoothed his finger along her cheek. “It wasn’t Hope Creek so much that called to me. It was you. The memory of you and your family. How close you and your family were at one time. How happy you were sashaying up that dock of yours, carrying those oysters and shrimp.”
She laughed. He’d never heard a more beautiful sound.
“I never sashayed,” she said.
“Oh, yeah, you did.” He smiled. “And I loved it. I loved how happy you were. How happy all of you were.”
Her laughter died, and her smile dimmed. “But then I left. I left my mother when she needed me most. I left Viv, too.”
“Because you needed to. Leaving was what you need to do at the time.” A breeze swept over them, lifting a strand of her hair over her cheek. He smoothed it back and tilted her face up to his. “But now you’re here. You came back, and whatever the problems are, you’re working through them as best you can because you still love each other. Viv will come around. There’s no chance she won’t. Because your family’s love is—and always has been—the greatest treasure on this island. It’s part of what brought me back. What led me to bring Cal here and hope for the same. You can’t give up on that.”
She studied his face and leaned closer, her gaze dipping to his mouth, but then she turned away again and returned her attention to the sky. “It really is beautiful.”
Beau stood, retrieved a soft blanket from a storage bin beneath the bench seat, and returned, holding it up. “Hop up,” he said. “There’s a better way to appreciate it.”
She hesitated, glancing from him to the blanket, then back, but slowly stood and watched as he spread the blanket out over the large deck, lay down, and held out his hand.
“Here.” He patted the space beside him with his free hand. “I’ll show you. Free admission to the heavens, right here.”
Kit smiled. “You think you’re smooth, huh? I’m pretty sure I’ve heard that line somewhere before . . .”
