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“On a clear day? Absolutely.” And the other was standing next to her, wherever next to her took him.
He knew things were changing. That part didn’t bother him. He actually liked change. It might’ve been a product of his love for the sea, where the only constant was there was change. It kept things new and exciting.
It didn’t even bother him that those changes included putting distance between them. Relationships were like sailing. The wind kept shifting, but as long as you adjusted the sail, you would get to where you were going. Was he going to miss her not stopping by his facility on a daily basis or working with her? Sure. But part of the adventure would be figuring out what the next chapter looked like.
The thing he found slightly worrisome was that he didn’t know exactly where they stood. Up until now, it hadn’t been a problem. They’d been enough on the same page that there wasn’t anything that needed to be said. Status quo had been working for them.
But status quo was about to shift. For the first time in whatever this thing between them was, they were going to have to talk about where it was going. And that was where he started to run into a problem. Feeling, he was pretty good at. Talking about feelings? Not so much.
He dug his toe in the sand, searching for the right words to breech the subject. “So listen, about—”
“Are you going to take the job?” she jumped in over him.
He paused, taken aback by the conversation switch. “The job?” He shrugged. “Probably.”
“What would stop you?”
Hadn’t they already talked about this? At length? “I don’t know. I guess I’m taking a moment to make sure it’s right. You know, ‘fools rush in’ and all that.”
She snagged her lip with her teeth. “That’s smart.”
“Plus, I feel like I should at least tell Claire about it before I accept it. She deserves to give her blessing before I start filling out the change-of-address forms.”
Molly raised an eyebrow. “Do you really need a change-of-address form when your address itself goes wherever you go?”
The tension that’d been hanging in the air between them started to ease, giving him more confidence. “Valid point.” He relaxed. “Why the sudden interest in my job decision?”
“I want to see you live out your dream.” She pulled her gaze away from the water and focused on him. There was something about the way she looked at him that felt like she could see all the way into his soul, confirming everything he wanted to tell her. “You deserve this.”
“About that…” He cleared his throat, once again searching for the right words to bring up the conversation he’d tried earlier. Really, it shouldn’t be this hard to find the words for what he needed to say. In fact, three popular ones came to mind. “There’s something I’ve been wanting to talk to you about.” So it wasn’t the most romantic start, but it was a start, which he counted as a win. “It has to do with the, uh, dance.”
She gathered her wind-blown hair into a sort of ponytail and draped it over her shoulder. “I say we blame it on the wedding. All that lovey-dovey romance starts to cast a spell after a while.”
“There certainly was something in the air.” He wasn’t sure he wanted to call it love yet, but he was definitely hoping that was the final destination. “The thing is, Molly…”
I like you. I might be falling in love with you. I’m pretty sure I want to spend the rest of my life with you. There were a thousand choices of how he could finish that sentence. Why couldn’t he get one out?
Molly didn’t wait on him to find the right words. Instead, she placed her hand gently on the center of his chest. “I hate to do this, but this headache is getting the better of me. Would you mind if we finished this conversation later? I think I’m going to slip out early.”
Once again, the sudden turn of the conversation caught him off guard, and it took him a second to get his bearings before he could answer. “Absolutely. Are you okay?” He wrapped his hand around hers, holding it against his heart. Disappointment comingled with concern.
She offered him a weak smile. “It’s nothing a little rest won’t cure.”
“Of course.” The elation of the night seeped out of him. He let go of her hand and shoved his own hands in his pockets, taking a step back. This wasn’t at all how he’d seen this conversation going, but he knew as well as anyone that life didn’t always go according to plan. Reluctantly, he tucked away his confession for another time. “Can I drive you home?”
She shook her head. “No, thanks. You should stay. Enjoy the rest of the party.”
A dull ache started to rise up deep in his chest. Yes, it was just a conversation, but there was something about this moment that he hated to let pass. “Right. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.” Besides, there were still things that needed to be said.
“For sure.” She stared at her toes in the sand for a long moment as the waves rolled in and out. Finally, she looked up into his eyes. “For the record, I really enjoyed tonight.”
“Enjoy” wasn’t nearly strong enough to describe the way he’d felt about the evening. Maybe it didn’t end the way he’d wanted, but he wouldn’t have traded the rest of it for the world. “Me too.”
She turned and headed for the stairs, slowly trudging through the warm sand.
“Molly,” he called. She paused on the bottom step and turned back to him, her beautiful features lit by the soft moonlight. “I hope you feel better.”
“Thanks.”
