CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Chelsea
Two days. Two long, blissful, ravishing, surrendering, intimate days alone and uninterrupted. This hurricane went down as the best-timed storm in my life. The water had halfway receded in the yard. Jake and I both knew he could drive his Jeep in the conditions, but he said he couldn’t leave me there with no way to escape if I needed to.
I wanted to think it had nothing to do with transportation and everything to do with how he felt tangled up with me in my bed.
The day after a storm passed through was always the most gorgeous. The beach was littered with whole conch shells, and other treasures washed ashore from the turbulent tides.
I held up a piece of beach blue against the sun. The hue was almost the same color as the sky. “Hey, check this one out.” He probably wouldn’t know how rare it was to find a piece this big, smooth, and blue.
Jake jogged over to where my feet were planted in the wet sand. “That one’s cool. But look at this.” He grinned before revealing a long strand of conch eggs encased in a spiral coating.
“Oh yeah, that’s a mermaid’s necklace.” I took the spiral and held it against my neck. “We always called them that when I was little. Really, it’s full of baby conchs.”
“Hmm, I thought I made a big discovery.”
I giggled at the disappointed look on his face. It was fun exploring the beach with him. It was the first time I remembered seeing it from an outsider’s perspective. Growing up on Brees Island, it seemed like the same old stuff every day. But Jake had a way of turning that around on me.
We were lucky. Hurricane Campbell had made a drastic shift to the east before reaching the island’s latitude. The inland areas around the cove saw the most water, but other than a few broken windows, there weren’t any reports of major damage. Only washed out roads. Given another day or two, the water would recede and life would return to normal. The tourists would be back and the store would reopen.
Jake’s hand rested against my waist as I leaned into his chest. For now, I wanted the water to stay in my yard, keep me stranded, and keep me in his arms. Nothing could convince me to leave this place of contentment.
“You know my neighbor, Alice, should see all these.” He stooped to pick up an olive shell.
“Isn’t she the crazy one?” I couldn’t believe there were sand dollars dotting the beach. You could only find them on low tide days near the sandbar, and even that was a rarity.
“Crazy as hell, but she loves collecting shells. Her yard is full of them—rows and rows.” He scooped up one of the sand dollars. “I think I’ll save a few of these for her.” He walked over to the bucket we had brought and placed the sea discoveries inside.
“Better get them now because between the beach combers and the tide, they will all be gone tomorrow. It will be like none of this ever happened.”
The words hung in the air and my stomach twisted. I meant the shells and the beach treasures, but I realized that maybe I had accidentally created a double meaning in the words. How do you pull words back in that you don’t want to have spoken?
As if he knew exactly what I was thinking, he reached for my chin and held it firmly between his thumb and forefinger. The look in his eyes stole my breath. “I’m going to throw this out there. Ok?”
I nodded, locked on his gaze, dying to know what he was about to say.
“This did happen.” His voice was deep and low. “And it is happening.” He pressed his lips against my mouth. I dropped whatever sandy treasure was in my hand and wrapped her arms around his neck. I had to stand on my tiptoes to reach him. His lips tasted salty. I nipped at his neck, lowering my heels to the ground.
He grasped my shoulders and kissed me on the forehead. “This has been my all-time favorite Sunday.”
I smiled. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who loved Sundays on the island. My hand slipped into his, and I kicked a wave that washed toward me. There were other words I wanted to say. I wanted to talk about what was happening and what it meant. Were we a couple? Were we dating now? But we had never been on an actual date. Did that mean something? I tried to quiet the questions storming my mind. I knew they would shatter the moment, and this Sunday was perfectly shatterproof.
He squeezed my hand. “What are you thinking over there?”
I squinted in the sun. “I think I know what song I want to write next. The whole song just hit me.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Want to hear it?” I couldn’t wait to get to the porch and play out the words.
“Lead the way.” His smile melted all the stress and anxiety away. It warmed me like the sun.
I tugged on his hand, crossing the beach and heading for the dunes. I was ready for him to hear the song that hit my heart like a crashing wave.