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Handsome and tall, he cut a fine figure among the sand dunes. In a weathered old shirt and a pair of jeans, he looked different. Thinner, maybe. And his features, though still unbearably handsome, were drawn. Like he hadn’t been sleeping.
I ran to him. Sprinted, my feet thumping softly in the sand. The wind was in my hair and the taste of salt was in my mouth.
His eyes, dark and brown, widened as I approached. Eric seemed to freeze for a moment.
Then, as I ran into him, he pulled me into his arms. I felt him embrace me, felt my hands reach for his muscly abs and his broad back, traveling up his body to rest. I felt like I was blind, and I was searching for him in the dark, even though it was clear as day. As though I had to remind myself that it was him, really him.
My love.
My one and only.
I looked up into his eyes.
“Eric,” I said, the tears coming fresh. “Is it really you? Is it?”
“It’s me,” he growled softly. “I’m here,” he said.
He hugged me tight. And I knew then that there was nothing in the world that was ever going to make me let go of the man I was going to marry.
Epilogue
Jamie
I’llneverforgetthatday.
How we talked, how we walked in the shade of the sandy beach, and discussed our lives. The curious series of events that had led us to our first meeting. The years that had passed.
We never talked about Boston, not until much later. It was still too raw.
But a few months later, Eric revealed to me that he couldn’t be satisfied unless we were married. The darkness that had driven him to hurt me, to hurt those around him, was still there. But slowly the shadows lifted during that day, and they carried on lifting into the brilliant, blinding light of a day that followed six months later.
It started like this. I woke up as Jamie Reed. But by the night I was Jamie Slade. Eric’s wife.
I put on my dress, which Eric had gotten handmade for me in Italy. He never told me when they’d started making it, but I knew as I slipped into it that it looked perfect. More than perfect, it was everything I’d ever wanted.
I went down from the Hiltman Hotel to the old white Rolls-Royce parked outside. My dad was waiting for me in a gray morning suit. He looked younger these days. And since I didn’t have a mom, my dad had helped with the wedding planning, growing more enthusiastic by the day. If I’d only know that the stern, gray-haired man I’d grown up with would one day be fawning over flower catalogs.
He opened the door for me, and together we drove.
At the church, the car stopped, and we got out. My dad walked me to the front door.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
“I love you, Dad,” I told him. And he smiled. We both did, knowing that while everything was about to change, that never would.
Inside, the church was cool, but the light shone through the stained glass and pretty colors swirled over the heads of the gathered crowd.
I smiled at Janine, who was standing next to me. My maid of honor. I couldn’t have picked anyone better for the job. She gave me a huge hug as the people stood and the choir began to sing.
Arm-in-arm, we walked down the aisle. Friends and colleagues assembled there turned and beamed at me. I felt nervous. Terribly nervous.
But as we made our way through the crowd and up to the altar, I knew I didn’t have to be nervous at all. Because he was there, waiting for me.
Eric was looking handsome as ever, in a smart gray suit. He insisted on wearing something serious for the wedding (ideas for a sky-blue suit had quickly been rejected)! As I stood to face him at the head of the church and the ceremony began, I stared into the darkness of his brown eyes and knew that I was here with my best friend. My lover. The man who could drive me wild, but was my new peace in the world.
“I love you,” he said to me as I approached. I’ll never forget that moment, the way his voice rumbled softly in the overhead spaces of the rafters. The way he shook my dad’s hand, then outright bear-hugged him in front of the crowd.
I knew that this wasn’t the first time Eric had been to the altar. But I did know that it was the first day of the rest of our lives. And I knew that somewhere, the old ghosts of the past had finally vanished.
