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Those things might all be true for him, but it wasn’t true for Molly. She wanted to be “great friends.” She’d made it clear her intention was to move on when her job here was done. And if that’s what was going to make her happy, he wasn’t going to be the one to stand in the way. No matter how badly it hurt to watch her go.
“Of course,” he lied. “All good things must come to an end. Much like today’s work. Like I said before, time to go home.” He reached down and took the folders from Claire’s lap.
Claire reluctantly stood and gave his arm a gentle squeeze. “And sometimes, one ending is the beginning of an even better chapter.” She neatly stacked the pile that was on the desk in front of her and picked it up to leave.
Grant appreciated her encouragement, but at the moment, his broken heart didn’t agree.
Molly woke up early Saturday morning feeling restless. She had an idea of why, but she didn’t want to think about it. In fact, she thought it best if she pushed it as far out of her mind as possible. And to help with that, she decided to focus all her energy on cleaning her already tidy condo until it was time to meet Hadley and Ellyn on the balcony. Besides, nothing said productivity like having a shining, piney-fresh bathroom before seven a.m.
Since the condo was so small, the cleaning process didn’t take long. She’d finished her bedroom and bathroom and still had time to spare. She headed into the main living space like a girl on a mission. She fluffed pillows, refolded throw blankets, and wiped down counters. There wasn’t so much as a hair out of place. In fact, the only thing out at all were the two tote bags she kept hanging on the hooks by the front door. Maybe, for the sake of making the space super clean, she should put those away too. She could easily grab them from her closet when she needed them.
She swooped into the entryway and grabbed the bags. There was a decent amount of weight to one of the bags that she wasn’t anticipating, and the force she’d used to pull them off the hook sent it swinging wider than expected. It bumped into the wall with a muffled thud.
“Oops,” she said aloud. She examined the wall. It didn’t appear to leave a ding, but she used her finger to rub the spot for good measure. Then she pulled the handles apart and peered into the bag to see what was responsible for the wall thump.
There at the bottom was the metal water bottle she’d taken to work with her on Tuesday and a brown paper-wrapped package. The gift Mateo had given her. She’d forgotten all about it.
She pulled it out and sat down on the couch, staring at the gift. She’d meant to open it that night, but had gotten distracted because…
She shook her head to clear the thought from her mind. Why she hadn’t opened it didn’t matter. The important part was that she open it now. She gently slid her finger under the seam and pulled the paper back from the neatly wrapped package.
Underneath was the back of what looked like a picture frame. A smile creeped across her face as snapshots of her time at Turtle Rehab flashed through her mind. Maybe it was a picture of Hope. She hated to play favorites, but the loggerhead she’d helped rescue would always have a special place in her heart, and she hadn’t been able to get a great picture of the turtle with her phone.
Anticipation building, she pulled the paper away and flipped the frame over. All at once, the world around her froze. The picture staring back at her had captured her time at Turtle Rehab, all right. It just wasn’t the aspect she’d been expecting it to capture.
Of course, Hope was in the center of the picture. The turtle seemed to be smiling at the camera, poised over the crystal-clear waters of the Gulf on the day of her release. But Hope wasn’t the only one in the picture. She and Grant, who were holding the turtle on either side, were also smiling at the camera.
Molly had no recollection of taking this picture as they’d carried Hope into the water, which wasn’t all that surprising. There’d been photographers and camera crews all over the place that day. It wasn’t even surprising that the composition of the action shot was so perfect it could’ve been staged. She’d learned long ago that wildlife photographers were amazing at what they did.
What caught her off guard was how this one photograph, which was meant to capture the beauty of a specific loggerhead, seemed to instead capture the essence of her relationship with Grant.
They were both beaming at the camera, their heads tilted together and their smiles radiating joy. But there was so much more to them than that. Their easy comradery was evident by the way their steps, even in the photo, were in unison. Their natural teamwork and how they brought out the best in one another was obvious by the way they effortlessly carried the one-hundred-sixty-pound turtle through the shifting sands of the surf. And their love for each other…
Even if she wanted to, she couldn’t deny the obvious passion that pulled them together.
But that didn’t change anything, did it? She’d always known their easy friendship was a rare gift. She might’ve denied it in the beginning, but she was willing to admit now that, against all effort to stop it, she’d somehow fallen in love with him.
But what was happening in the picture wasn’t the problem. It was what would happen down the road that had her pumping the breaks. Or, perhaps more accurately, shutting it down altogether. She wasn’t walking away because there wasn’t anything there. She was walking away because—
Her spinning mind was interrupted by the incessant pinging of new text messages coming in one after the other. Feeling like she was under some sort of a trance, she picked up the phone from the coffee table in front of her.
Hadley had texted,
Where are you? Your coffee’s ready.
And getting cold
And then Ellyn had chimed again.
And so is mine. Xoxo
But we still love you
Molly glanced at the clock. She’d been sitting here staring at this picture for longer than she’d thought. She stood, still clutching the frame, and made her way to the sliding door.
“There you are. I was about to send a search party to check on you.” Hadley picked up a mug and passed it around to her.
Molly felt like she was in a haze, but she set the picture on her high-top patio table and dutifully passed the coffee over to Ellyn anyway.
