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Switching gears, my focus shifts to Aerin, a deep curiosity igniting within me.“What about you?Tell me something nobody knows about you.”
For a moment, she hesitates, then the words tumble out.“I miss dancing.”
Her admission seems to surprise even her, as if she never expected to speak those words aloud.“I never thought I’d say that out loud,” she murmurs, almost to herself.
Understanding washes over me.Dancing has always been an integral part of Aerin’s identity.The way she expressed herself.“It’s part of who you are,” I gesture to the window that overlooks the dance studio we built for her.“It’s there, waiting for you whenever you’re ready.”
She musters a weak smile, though the spark in her eyes dims slightly.“I wish it was that easy, but there’s a mental block I can’t seem to shake off.I know I should talk to my therapist about it.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
She responds with a simple shrug, her gaze skimming over the lake’s surface, lost in its depth.“There are two things I don’t discuss in therapy.One is my inability to dance again, and the other ...”She turns to me, her expression unreadable.“...is us.”
Her admission strikes me like a bolt out of the blue.“Us?”I repeat, my eyebrow arching inquisitively.“Why?”
She sighs, her voice barely above a whisper.“What was the point if I couldn’t find a way back to you?”
I run a hand through my hair in frustration because there’s nothing I can say about it.
Do I wish she had tried?Yes, of course.
I still want to yell at Mason for not breaking some rules.However, after a long discussion with my team, we all agreed that we could’ve brought danger to our backyard.There’s no right answer to hypothetical scenarios and a past that can’t be changed.
Aerin dismisses the topic with a wave of her hand.“What matters is the future, right?”
I find myself nodding, my gaze drifting to the sun sinking below the horizon.I sneak a glance at Aerin.Her face is illuminated by the soft hues of the setting sun, throwing her worry lines into sharp relief.An irresistible urge to comfort her takes over, and I reach out, my fingers tracing a gentle path over her hand.
Her fingers twirling the fork nervously.
“Are you okay?”I ask.
“I’m concerned that you’re leaving,” she mumbles, her eyes fixed on the dwindling berries in her bowl.“You might be used to being some kind of super-agent, but this is new to me.”
“Will it help if I tell you I’m never in the line of action?”I offer in an attempt to diminish her fears.
But her reaction tells me my attempt at reassurance has fallen flat.Her hand tightens around her fork.“We’re just starting to find our way back, and what if something happens to you?”
I take the fork away from her hand, then close the gap between us.I draw her into a gentle kiss.She tastes of sweet berries, sugar, and unspoken promises.I wish I could tell her that nothing can ever happen to me, but that’s something I can’t guarantee.Among my friends, I carry the fewest scars, but I’m nowhere near unscathed.
We’re one of the best teams in The Organization, but we’re human, and things don’t always go according to plan.
The kiss is meant to reassure her that I’ll get back to her.But it feels more like the kisses I used to give her before a mission when she had no idea where I was going.Each time I tried to remember everything about the moment because I would be gone for a long time.
It dawns on me: I never thought it could be the last.I was young and thought that I had all the time in the world.Today, when I know that time is just like love fleeting, borrowed, and easy to lose, I try to make this not only a kiss, but also a memory.
Our melded mouths become a promise.A vow that I’ll be back so we can find each other again, so we can fall madly in love and have a story worth telling the sun and the stars through our music.I’ll come and be with her while she tries to dance again—and together, we’ll help Grey find his light.
Aerin’s hand moves up to my face, the kiss deepening.Her worry, her fear, they all meld into me, and I respond in kind, my own emotions tangled in the exchange.
Our world narrows down to this moment, this connection.And as the sun finally dips below the horizon, casting us into the evening’s gentle embrace, we lose ourselves in each other, clinging to the promise of our shared tomorrow.
When we finally pull apart, silence swells between us.We’re panting, our foreheads resting against each other, her fingers lingering on my face like anchoring her to the now, to us.
“You better come back, Sanford Bancroft,” she murmurs, eyes staring at me, looking for a promise that she knows I won’t break.
“Of course I will,” I reply, pulling her closer to my chest.“We’ll keep in touch via texts or emails.Once I’m back, we can decide what to do with our lives.We can’t uproot you—but we also have to figure out where we’re going to live so it makes sense to all of us.You and Grey aren’t just students trying to decide your future.”
Her fingers play with the stubble on my face, lost in thought.“I’ll look into applying for a therapist license in Washington State.I could start my own practice or see if any local rehab centers might hire me.”
