Epilogue
Avery
Summer
Standing on the dock overlooking the Pacific, I watched the choppy waves crash on the rocks nearest to shore. The smell of saltwater drifted all around me, and when the light breeze swept through my hair, I felt… excited.
But also terrified.
“Did you know that the Pacific Ocean got its name from a Portuguese explorer?” Maverick asked, stepping onto the boat and causing it to sway a bit. The sight alone almost made me puke. “Pace is Latin for peace. As in peaceful. So stop looking like you’re going to your death.”
Shifting my attention to the not so calm sea, I said, “Yeah. So peaceful. But at least the sun is shining, right? So when our boat flips over and we’re poured into the sea, we’ll have a pretty sight as we’re sinking to the bottom.”
Maverick laughed and stepped out of the boat, back onto the dock. “We won’t be sinking to the bottom because we’ll be wearing these.” He held a lifejacket and motioned me over.
Reluctantly, I stepped closer and slipped my arms through it. He buckled it for me and checked the straps before putting on his.
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” I said, inwardly cursing myself.
After we’d graduated and had more free time, we had spent a lot of time on the rock he’d taken me to before. Since we both worked on the same street, we’d take our lunch breaks together and sometimes sit by the water—if it wasn’t too windy or too cold.
During one of those times, I had made a random comment about the boats in the harbor. That had led to him talking about the boat his dad had in the garage that was hardly ever used.
And here we freaking are now.
“You ready?” Maverick asked, standing in front of me and resting his hands on my waist. His sapphire eyes glistened as the sun reflected off them. “If you really want to, you can back out. I promise I won’t judge you.”
There was my chance. But that’s the thing about getting what you wanted; sometimes you realize it wasn’t what you wanted after all.
“No, I want to do this,” I said, sounding more confident than I felt. “You’ve driven this thing before, though, right? Like more than just once.”
“Yep,” he said, stepping away to load an ice chest into the boat. “Dad used to take me out on it a lot when I was younger. Before things got weird with us.” The way he moved and got everything ready, he looked like he knew what he was doing. I had to trust him. “If I’m going to be a marine biologist, I’ll be spending a lot of time on the water.”
“You have several years of schooling first, big guy,” I said with a smile, loving how excited he was. “You’re no sea expert quite yet.”
“You have years of school too, short stuff,” he retorted, skewing his brow.
“All thanks to you,” I said, walking closer to the boat.
“You did all the work. I just pushed you a little.”
More like shoved. Maverick had pressed me to apply for over a dozen scholarships, and I’d gotten two of them.
My great GPA got me one that would cover three years of tuition, books, and housing, and the second was an essay contest I won. The topic for it had been to produce a thoughtful, well-crafted essay on my passion and the goals for my future. Even though I wasn’t the best writer in the world, I had applied for it anyway and had written my heart out. It was also a three-year scholarship, so I was completely funded for college.
When I’d gotten the letter from them, I had called Maverick crying. Happy tears, of course. We were attending University of Port Haven in the fall and were going to room together in the dorm.
The sun warmed my back as I faced the boat and willed myself to make that next step from land to sea. I had overcome a lot of obstacles in my life. First with the abuse from my dad and then from my own demons—ones that hardly ever called to me anymore.
If I could silence them, I could do this.
Mav was already in the boat and stuck out his hand. “You can do it, baby. Just take my hand and step off.”
I stared into his kind eyes, taking from him the encouragement I needed. I placed my hand in his, letting the feel of him ground me. And then I stepped off.
…And blurted out a string of curse words as the boat rocked at my movement. I gripped the seat with so much force my knuckles turned white.
“You’re okay,” Maverick said, wrapping his arms around me and kissing my nape. “We’re safe. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”
He kept that promise.
Once we were both seated—and I was still clinging to the chair for dear life—he started the engine and slowly backed away from the dock. I held my breath at first, expecting the water to swallow us whole. Or the boat to topple over and send us overboard.
Neither happened.
What did happen, though? Maverick’s smile as he drove us through the bay.
I focused on him, letting his love for the ocean seep into me as well. He talked about some of the marine life nearby and he explained some of the things on the boat that I forgot right as he told me.
Sooner than I expected, I relaxed and actually began enjoying myself.
Mav didn’t drive fast, so the wind was pretty tame. I studied the landscape as we passed, seeing the seaside homes that stretched toward the sky. But for once, I wasn’t interested in the land. I shifted my gaze to the sea.
With the sun shining and shimmering off the water’s surface, I found it truly was beautiful.
“I’ll be damned,” Maverick said with a light laugh. “Is that a smile on your face?”
“Shut up.” My smile widened at the smug look on his face. He was too handsome and silly. And intelligent. “Okay, this isn’t as bad as I feared. Thank you.”
The smugness in his smile vanished as a heartwarming gleam came into his eyes. “You’re welcome.”
Once we’d driven around the bay for about an hour, Maverick found a spot near land to stop the boat and drop anchor. It was weird feeling the earth move beneath me while the boat was still, but luckily, the choppy waters had eased up, so it was a gentle rock as opposed to one that scared the piss out of me.
Maverick opened the ice chest and handed me a soda, which I accepted and took a big drink of. I hadn’t realized how thirsty I’d been. However, I nearly spit out my next drink when I saw what he pulled out next.
“Twinkies?” I asked after almost choking. “You seriously brought Twinkies?”
“Seemed fitting,” he said, placing one in my lap. He didn’t withdraw his hand, so I took it, interlocking our fingers. “They’re sort of our symbol. They’re infinite, you know.”
We shared a smile, and my heart warmed at the memory of us sitting on that rock so many months ago, talking about our deepest fears and the immortality of Twinkies.
“I think I’ve heard that somewhere before,” I said, holding onto his hand and knowing I never wanted to let him go.
“Look at that,” Mav suddenly said, nodding to something behind me. “You can see the moon. It’s faint, but it’s there. Kinda cool to see it during the day.”
I looked to where he’d instructed and saw it, smiling as a thought occurred to me.
I’d been wrong. Maybe the sun and the moon could co-exist. Not just in the speck of time before light chased away the dark, but in all the moments before and after. That’s where me and Mav were now: two opposites that had been drawn together against all odds, stuck in our moment of forever.
THE END