Chapter Twenty-Nine
Victory
As Wells pilots the boat out through the moonlit water, my thoughts drift back to dancing with his father.
I asked Alexander if he had any advice about dating his son.
He joked at first, telling me to be ready for anything, his love for Wells coming through in every word.
But it’s his serious response that came afterward that I hear now, with the same gentle authority as when he said it.
Raising my children taught me the value of time.
Follow your heart, put the people you love first, and don’t let anything stand in your way, because every hour you put something off is an hour you can never get back.
I know that from losing Harvey, and I’ve preached it over the years to my brothers, but the advice hits different now.
Being on the island and spending time with Wells in the city have reminded me what it’s like to not be focused on work all the time, to be open to new things instead of keeping myself sequestered in my office or sitting alone in a restaurant giving off leave-me-alone vibes, or going from point A to point B without noticing my surroundings.
Seth was right. I had put myself in a box, but those weren’t wasted years. I needed them to heal. I feel bad for avoiding his calls last week and slip my phone out of Wells’s suitcoat pocket, which I’m wearing because it’s chilly while we’re cruising, to send him a text.
Me: I found a box cutter.
Seth: Please tell me you didn’t use it on Wells.
I smile as I type my response.
Me: Not a chance . Thank you for pushing me.
Seth: I just pointed out the obvious. You pushed yourself.
Seth: Want to get together this week?
Me: Sure. I’ll let you know my schedule after I get back to the office and see how much work has piled up. Thinking better of putting him off, I thumb out, Actually, let’s plan it. Pick a day. I’ll make it work.
Seth: Are you okay?
Me: Yes. I’m just learning to work to live instead of living to work.
Seth: Excellent. Breakfast 7 Tuesday? The diner?
Me: Perfect. See you then.
When I look up from my phone, Wells is watching me with that easy smile that stirs butterflies in my chest. I picture the butterfly that landed on his shoulder, and my love-drenched heart wants to believe Harvey really did have a hand in all of this.
“Texting your boyfriend?” Wells asks.
I slip my phone back into the pocket and hook my finger in the waist of his slacks. I ditched my heels the minute we got on the boat, and it feels funny being so much shorter than him again. “I’ve got to keep myself occupied back in the city.”
“Poor bastard is probably celebrating.” His arm circles me, pulling me closer. “Little does he know it’ll be his last hurrah.”
“Oh yeah?” I laugh. “What are you going to do, charm him to death?”
“I’ll give you charm.” He lowers his lips to mine, turning my laughter into hungry kisses.
A little while later Wells anchors the boat, the lights of the island twinkling in the distance.
“Babe, would you mind grabbing a screwdriver for me from the lounge area belowdecks? It’s in the top drawer next to the couch. I need it to turn on the safety lights. If it’s not there, it might be in one of the galley drawers.”
“Sure.”
I head downstairs and check both tables in the lounge and the drawers in the kitchen, but I don’t see a screwdriver. I’m looking through the cabinets when Wells hollers down to me, “Actually, I think it’s in the nightstand in the second bedroom. Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I head into that bedroom and search for the screwdriver.
After searching the entire room, and his bedroom, just in case it was in there, I head upstairs empty-handed.
“Sorry, Wells, I ca—” The air rushes from my lungs.
He’s standing on the deck, holding a single red rose.
Behind him, pink and red rose petals are scattered over fluffy blankets and pillows.
If that’s not enough to melt my heart, there are at least a dozen electric or solar candles flickering around the deck and an ice bucket with a bottle of champagne beside two flutes.
“ Wells ” falls from my lips, an incredulous, awestruck whisper.
“I can’t let some city boy one-up me after you leave.”
A laugh tumbles out. “Don’t you know you’re the only boy I want? I was texting Seth.”
“A likely story,” he says teasingly, and gives me the rose.
I lift it to my nose, inhaling the sweet scent. “It’s beautiful. All of this is beyond romantic. How did you get all of this on the boat without me seeing?”
“I can’t expose my sources.”
He takes my other hand, and as we sit on the pillows and blankets, I realize he’s barefoot, too. You think of everything . He reaches up and tucks my hair behind my ear, his gaze moving over my face. “There you are.”
I sigh, knowing I’ll never get sick of hearing that.
The edges of his mouth tip up appreciatively.
He runs his finger beneath my chin and brushes his thumb over my lower lip.
“I didn’t think it was possible to feel this much for someone, but you’re everything to me, Victory.
If I live to be a hundred or through a thousand lifetimes, I want to spend all the days of every last one of them with you. ”
My heart takes a perilous leap as our mouths come together in a soul-searing kiss, shattering my ability to think beyond how desperately I want to be closer to him.
His fingers tangle in my hair as he deepens the kiss.
Yes . I fumble with the buttons on his shirt, and he draws back with a wicked glint in his eyes.
He grabs his shirt with both hands and tears it open, sending buttons flying. I laugh as he tosses it aside.
He strips his jacket off me and takes me in another scorching kiss. We strip each other bare, and a shock of cold air hits before his big, warm body comes down over me. He pulls a blanket over us and brushes a feathery light kiss to my lips.
“I don’t want you to leave,” he whispers. “I know you have to, but I have half a mind to strap you to my bed and never let you go.”
Emotions clog my throat, but I push past them, needing him to know the truth. “If we live to be a hundred, or through a thousand lifetimes, I want to spend all the days of every last one of them with you, too.”
“Careful, baby.” A storm of emotions brews in his eyes. “I’m not above holding you to that.”
“Please do.” I pull his mouth back to mine as our hearts, and our bodies, become one, and our passion takes over.