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My lips hover close, almost touching, when he whispers, “No, but you wore that dress today, knowing what it would remind me of.”
“I might not say it with words some days, Lance, but you’re in everything that I do.”
“Kiss me,” I beg, brushing my lips to his.
He lifts his chin, flirting with my mouth before bringing his hand to my face. He puts us chest to chest. “I love you, sunshine.” He flattens his lips to mine.
And funnily enough, no matter how scary it feels, how badly I want and know I’ll fight it, I want to be his forever.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Scarlet
We find Vinny and Ave in a tiny shack on the beach waiting for us as the sun dips low on the horizon, forcing the visitors on the island out to the beach to watch its descent.
Ave has the biggest smile on her face, bags of supplies from some of our favourite little shops on the island stashed at her feet. Vinny sits proudly at the head of the table, Ave and I either side of him and Lance next to Ave.
I can tell she missed her daddy today. She’s not given him a second to breathe since we sat down, asking him a million and one questions.
Lance told her everything he could about our day, his eyes drifting to me every now and then and holding. And maybe I’m dreaming it, but I swear I can see him figuring me out. Can see him catch the moments my heart thaws little by little.
We eat unhurried, the conversation filled with Ave’s chatter, laughing when she says something as out of pocket as always and listening in awe when she tells us something she learned today.
It’s one of those nights that mean nothing to anyone else, but I know I’ll never forget.
And I won’t ever forget it.
“What’s that?” Ave asks, pointing across the room.
I turn to look at what she’s referring to, seeing a small casket being carried into the shack. “Ave, don’t point,” I tell her without looking back at her, my eyes transfixed as another casket is carried in right after, followed by a third.
“What…” I face Vinny, wondering if he knows what’s going on, but he shakes his head, at a loss.
Do we leave? It seems rude to stay but disrespectful to get up in the middle of whatever this is.
Is it a wake?
Vinny spots a local, and friend, from the island and cocks his head for him to come over to our table. “Teva, do we need to leave?”
“No, no, you can stay. This is a celebration of life. Of love. You are welcome here.”
“What happened?” Ave asks, leaning up in her chair to see better.
My eyes snap back, seeing a woman shrouded in what looks like a thick blanket, her head bowed over the smallest casket.
“A tragic accident. One of our own lost his life and two of his children’s out on the sea. It doesn’t happen often, but it happens.” He nods toward the woman. “Mahana. She lost them all.”
I stare at the mother, my eyes filling with tears as music starts to gently float around us. Songs sung for lives not lived. For a wife, a mother, who grieves the loves of her life.
I can feel the world already moving on around her, can feel the loss in her chest from the other side of the room.
I turn and stare down at my plate of food, feeling my hands start to tremble in my lap. “I think I’m going to go back to the lodge,” I try to whisper, my mind lost to all the wrong things.
I need to pull back.
I’m going to go.
I can feel it.
