Come Back

“He caught you a lionfish?”

I nod. “He did. I was obsessed with them. I told you that day we became Six that I touched them. And I did. Every time I saw one snorkeling my hand just reached out.”

“And they didn’t sting you?” James asks with a laugh. “They’re venomous, you know.”

“I know. And I did get stung, like four or five times. My dad was so pissed, he finally said I wasn’t allowed to snorkel anymore.”

“This was before or after the present?”

“Before.”

“So Nick gave you the forbidden fruit. And you were allowed to keep it? On the ship?”

I nod as I remember. “Yeah. We had a nice tank. We were twelve. Old enough to take care of it ourselves. It was big too. Of course, we had a guy on board who really took care of it. But back then Nick and I felt like we were in charge. We had a pufferfish too.”

“You did not.” James laughs. “Pufferfish venom is another calling card of mine.”

“We did,” I exclaim as I try to sit up and make my case. But James pushes me back down into his lap, and I’m too comfortable to fight it. “That came after. Because one day we came upstairs and all the fish were dead. Oh my God, I cried so hard over those fish. No one knew what happened. My father was furious. I’m not sure if it was because I was crying like an idiot over it, or the inconvenience of replacing them. But we cleaned up the tank and a few weeks later we were near a reef and Nick got permission to go catch fish.”

“And he came back with your lionfish.”

“He did.”

“He loves you, I guess,” James says as he drags some hair off my forehead.

“I know.”

“Did you ever give him such a fantastic present?”

I shake my head but suddenly it’s difficult to talk as a lump of sadness appears in my throat. I swallow it down and find my voice. “I could never think of something special like he could.”

“I think you were his something special, Harper. I’m sure he didn’t need a present to let him know you loved him.”

“Yeah.” I sigh. “But I wish he had something to think about like I do. The feeling when you receive a gift from someone who loves you. And everything about that gift says you’re special.”

“Well,” James says through his own sigh. “I can’t think of a single gift I’ve gotten that actually… meant something.”

“You never got gifts?”

“No, I did. Cars. Trips. Shit like that. Shit rich kids get. But to me, they were just things. Were you spoiled, Harper?”

“Hmmm.” I think about it for a second. “I guess. I had a nice life.”

“Did your father buy you things instead of spending time with you?”

“No, we didn’t get a lot of frivolous presents. And my dad hardly spent any time with us at all. We were mostly ignored except at dinner or parties. But when you live on a two-hundred-and-twenty-foot yacht and your whole life consists of sailing around the tropics visiting paradise, that’s probably enough to qualify as spoiled.” And so that was my life. The beaches, the boats, the water. And once a year on my birthday, a party. I think back to those birthdays, but they mostly run together. Presents, beaches, swimming, fireworks… They all run together except for one. “What did you think when you first saw me?”

He sucks in some air and when he exhales I close my eyes and picture that day again. “Well,” he says softly. “That day on the beach when we both became Six I thought you looked like a sea nymph who would sing a song and I’d lose my mind from the beauty of your voice.”

“You are such a liar,” I snort. He pokes my armpit, testing to see if I’m ticklish. I am, so I squirm, and then his hand slips to my breast and finds the hard pebble of my nipple. He pinches it and I moan a little.

“You want to know what I thought about when I saw you in Huntington that first time?”

My hand slides up my stomach and I place it over the top of his and then grip him a little harder and rub my breast using his hand.

“You’re turning me on, Lionfish. You know that, right?”

“Tell me what you thought, James. I want to know.” My eyes close again. He slides his hand underneath my shirt and squeezes the nipple again with no fabric to dampen the pleasure.

“It was my first day in HB. I had an apartment on PCH. I had some ripped Levi’s. Some vans. Some expensive sunglasses. Just fitting in like I do wherever I’m sent. And I had just finished taking a walk down the pier to check it out. It was just about sunset, and it was cold that day. Rainy and cloudy. So no one was paying any attention to the sunset.”

“Except me,” I say softly.

“Except you. I spotted your hair first. Then there was this break in the clouds and the sun hit your face in a way that turned your brown eyes to this incredible gold, and your hair was like a beacon on that gloomy day. Your beauty called to me, the same way it did back when we turned Six. And I knew the very second I saw you. You were my only reason to live.”

I tip my head up so I can see him and he’s got a sad frown on his face. “Because you had to shoot your brother?”

He looks away and he takes a deep breath that lifts my whole body up with the effort.

“There’s no one left for me to love but you, Harper. My brother is dead, my sister is probably dead. They took her that first year I was working because my mother was ‘getting ideas’ about my little sister’s promise. It was hard to get upset about my lot in life before that. I mean, that was just how it was, ya know? It never occurred to me that I was allowed to be outraged at the thought of my baby sister being promised to a man. So she disappeared. A few years later one of my contracts was shooting his mouth off before I pulled the trigger and he claimed he killed her. I took him at his word, because you know what? The idea that my sister was kidnapped as a toddler and given away as a child bride is just more than I can deal with.”