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“Like I said last night—I’ve been on autopilot. I needed this trip, I neededthis.” I gestured at the tranquil scene around us. “A little slice of peace, a little break from my everyday.”
“What’s wrong with your everyday?”
“Nothing. It’s perfectly unremarkable. I walk my dog. I get my coffee. I do my job.”And then some.“It was time I did something special, just for me.”
“A big trip is a good choice.”
It was, even if I’d needed to be medicated to get here.
“My best friend is always telling me to live in the moment. I don’t know how to do that anymore. I’m always overthinking, doing something else in the back of my mind. Work, usually.”
A breeze rustled through the ferns casting tiny ripples in the water. He went on watching me, waiting for more, so I went on talking.
“Here, I feel like I’m finally starting to learn how to shut the rest of that off, and just let go. Stop chronicling and experience.” He smiled at the reference. “Just enjoy where I am right now.”
“Do you like where you are right now?”
He wasn’t asking about the waterfall or the views. Looking at Duncan in the dappled sunlight, the atmosphere in the little glen seemed to change. Maybe something insidemechanged. I hadn’t come out here to find him, but here he was, for a limited time only. I could set aside sticking to the plan for a few days. I wanted to know him for however long I could.
“I really do.”
He nodded, satisfied. “There you are.”
The moment stretched out, waiting for one of us to say or do something more, as though the Fairy Glen weren’t satisfied with vague notions and hints. Moving slowly in the stillness, Duncan tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear. It hardly counted as a touch, but he let his fingers trail along the strand, and my body lit up like he’d caressed my skin.
I would just pretend my hair wasn’t coated in sweat.
“I’m sorry I ran out on you last night,” I whispered.
“No apologies necessary.”
“You’re very forward. I’m not used to it.”
Maybe more to the point, I wasn’t used to the way he made me feel—alive and eager and like my world’s axis had shifted.
“I don’t see the point in not going after what I want.” He paused, his fingers still in my hair. “Unless my interest is unwelcome. I’ll stop if you want me to.”
“No,” I said before he’d finished his offer. I’d never known a man quite like him, but I didn’t want him to change a thing. “Don’t stop.”
His fingers resumed their pull along my hair, finally coming to rest on my shoulder, his thumb spanning my collarbone. I leaned forward, silently asking for more.
He seemed ready to satisfy, when a family with three young children bounded into the clearing. They laughed and talked about the fairy houses they’d seen on the trail to the falls and ran straight into the shallow water to kick up a chilling spray.
That was certainly one way to ruin a moment.
Duncan and I shared a smile.
“Back to the bikes?” he said.
I agreed, and we scrambled down to the gravel lot. I got back on the bike with considerably less enthusiasm than I’d had at the start of the ride, but this trip only went in one direction—I had to keep going forward. I wouldnotcall Arnav for a rescue.
Thankfully, the road turned downhill until it reached the coastline. Far on the other side of the water lay low hills with billowy gray clouds stretching across the sky above. The bike path hugged the shoreline all the way down the peninsula of the little pseudo-island. To the right, we passed a sculpted golf course green, to the left, the choppy waters of the firth.
Just before we rounded the point of the peninsula, Duncan called for me to wait. I did, and he pulled his bike close to mine.
“Look.” He pointed toward the firth.
My gaze followed his, scanning for whatever had made him stop, when a fin broke the water. I sucked in a breath.
