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Charlee made eye contact with me and smiled before scratchily whispering, “Thank you.”
“Always,” I responded and smiled back. I watched how well Genesis took care of Charlee. I wish I knew more about their friendship. I wanted to know everything about Charlee, and as fate would have it, I might not get the chance.
Genesis came back out as soon as the shower turned on.
“I should go.” I headed to the door.
“Stay for dinner. I think she would want that. I’ll talk to her later tonight.”
I was thankful. “Are you sure?” I was strongly opposed to leaving after almost losing Charlee forever.
“Yeah.” She smiled. “Wine?” She grabbed a bottle of red.
“Why not?”
Beverly returned just after Charlee emerged, showered and dressed in oversized sweats. Her dark damp hair hung over her shoulders and her amber eyes popped with life. I took a moment to admire her. She was stunning.
We ate dinner together, talking about everything except for what happened. It was the elephant in the room that no one wanted to stumble on yet. Midnight didn’t leave Charlee’s lap. It’s as if she, too, knew that she almost lost her.
After we cleaned up from dinner, Charlee was tired, so Beverly and I said goodnight. Before I left, I leaned over and kissed Charlee on the head. I couldn’t get enough of the sweet coconut scent that followed her, and to think, I might never have smelled it again.
“Take care of yourself,” I whispered next to her ear.
Her palm cupped my cheek, and she pulled my face to hers so she could look me in the eyes. I thought she might say something, but she didn’t. Instead, she pulled me closer and kissed my lips softly. I yearned to stay in this moment forever. My heart had never been so full, and I couldn’t bear to lose her. Not to Nashville or anything else. I had never met a woman like Charlee and certainly not one that had made me feel like this.
Charlee pulled away and gave me a small smile.
I stood up and said goodbye to Genesis after giving her my number. She said she would text me later, but later came and went, and I waited for tomorrow with unease in my chest.
Charlee
Genesis had given me a lot to think about after we talked last night. Well, she talked and I listened because my throat was still too sore to say much. She wasn’t exactly giving me an ultimatum, but at the same time, she wasn’t leaving room for argument either. It was coming from a good place, though. I didn’t admit to her that I was trying to kill myself, because I wasn’t entirely sure I was. When I swam out there to release Bridger’s ashes, my thoughts had been all over the place. I thought about Levi a lot and Genesis and about fate and how the two of them entered my life at the most critical time. I had always believed in Bridger’s presence, but not wholeheartedly. I still had my doubts about the afterlife. About faith. About fate. But what I experienced when the doctor said I had been without oxygen for several minutes was otherworldly. It had felt real. I could smell Bridger’s cedar scent from his cologne, and I had felt the sun baking my skin along with the coolness of the water on my fingertips as I dragged them along the surface of the ocean. I heard the calm lapping of our surfboards as we floated together. Bridger and I were very much in each other’s presence somewhere that I couldn’t explain.
I also didn’t admit to Genesis that returning to the present, being alive, was the hardest decision I had ever made. I wanted to stay with Bridger wherever that was, but he was adamant that it wasn’t my time and was calmly insistent that I return to my life. He had requested one last promise from me, that I wouldn’t give up, and I could never say no to Bridger. I loved him too much, and he never asked for more than he knew I could give. So, I returned to Genesis, Levi, and Midnight.
Midnight lay by my side, sleeping soundly, and Genesis dozed off on the couch. I felt bad for what I put everyone through, but if it meant seeing Bridger again, I wouldn’t do anything differently. Seeing him again was a gift. He was exactly where he promised he would be. Out on the ocean and by my side. With the help of Levi, they had both saved me tonight.
If I moved to Nashville with Genesis, I was essentially saying goodbye to whatever it was that was between Levi and me, and I honestly didn’t know if I was ready to let go of something that had been the closest to feeling like I had with Bridger. Bridger had always felt like home from the first time I met him, and when I met Levi, he felt pleasantly familiar, too. It terrified me to feel this way again because I was afraid having intense feelings for Levi would somehow invalidate the memories I had with Bridger, but after my near-death experience, I realized that what I had with Bridger would always be uniquely ours, and whatever became of Levi and me would be uniquely ours, too. I reminded myself I didn’t have to give up one for the other.
For the third weekend in a row, I scraped myself out of bed at four in the morning to go surfing with Genesis and Jayden. I hadn’t stopped thinking about that tattooed surfer guy that no one seemed to know. They just said that he had been surfing there for a few weeks, but kept to himself. If that wasn’t intimidating on its own, his tattoos were. I had never seen someone as young as him adorned with so much ink. And I was surprisingly attracted to it. I was never really interested in any of the boys at school. I mean, I thought a few of them were cute, but nothing like this. I was magnetically drawn to Tattoo Surfer Guy like the universe couldn’t resist us being apart.
Okay, that was a bit dramatic, but when he first glanced my way, my whole body set ablaze in places I had never felt before. Just thinking about it now as we pulled into the parking lot at the beach, I was getting flustered.
“You alright back there?” Jayden glanced back at me through the rearview mirror. “You look flushed. Do you get carsick?”
My eyes widened in total embarrassment. Genesis turned around and giggled. She totally knew what I was thinking about because I had told her all about it earlier.
As Genesis watched Jayden get suited up, my eyes scanned the partially full lot and uneasiness filled my stomach. “What if he isn’t here? What if he never comes back?” I asked Genesis desperately.
“Calm down.” She laughed. “You haven’t even met the guy, and you’re already freaking out. Help us all if you two actually get together.”
I gave her a fake laugh and followed her out to the beach where we set up in the same place as the last two weeks, closer to the cliff rocks. I didn’t spot a towel or anything else on the beach between the rocks where Tattoo Surfer Guy was last weekend, and I couldn’t make out who the surfers were that had already swum out on the water because of the dense fog. My best, and disappointing, assumption was that Tattoo Surfer Guy wasn’t here.
“How do they surf in this?” I wondered.
“I don’t know, but they’re used to it.”
Shivering, I covered myself with the blanket I had brought. Today was not warm and sunny like the past couple of weekends. The weather was cold and damp, making it miserable. After an hour or so passed, I gave up hoping Tattoo Surfer Guy would show up, but the fog had cleared some, so I decided to go for a walk. Genesis stayed behind.
