Chapter 20 #3
“Just to be clear,” she said in case her emotional brain was crossing signals, “we’re giving up the job to be together, right?”
Gabe let out a big breath and nodded. “Right.”
“And it’s what we both want?”
“Yes. It’s what I want. Is it what you want?”
She pushed up on her toes and pressed her hands to the sides of his face. “Gabe, I’ve never been able to talk to anyone the
way I talk to you. I don’t think I would have had the guts if it hadn’t started with a fake phone number, but I’m so glad
we’re here. You understand me, and you help me feel things I was afraid of. Before all this, I had beliefs about what I could
and couldn’t have if I wanted certain things in life, but now I see there’s a balance. You’ve shown me I can open myself up
to try to find it. I want to do this with you.”
He looked down at her with a warm smile and tucked back her hair blowing in the wind. “I want to do this with you too, Emmy.”
He wrapped her in his arms, and she stayed there, happily huddled against his warm chest.
“I didn’t think it would be this chilly out here,” she said with another shiver.
“Come here.” He reached between them and unzipped his windbreaker and held it open. “Room for two.”
Emmy slipped her arms around him inside his jacket. He rezipped it with her inside. “Well, now I can’t see the sunset.” She
said it to his chest where she’d buried her nose. She inhaled her favorite scent and rubbed her cheek into his soft shirt.
“Then turn around.”
She awkwardly shuffled her feet and rotated her body to face forward with her back against his chest. “Now I’m in a straitjacket.”
“Yeah, but it’s a warm straitjacket,” he said, and kissed her head.
“Right where you always wanted me, Axe Murderer.”
“You know my endgame now.” He hugged her to his chest and held her tight. She leaned her head back against his shoulder and
stared out at the view. The sun had inched lower, now dipping its belly into the sea and shooting a streak of shimmering gold
across the water.
“This is nice,” Emmy said with a contented sigh.
“It is. No wonder so many people come out here.”
“Have you never been?”
“First time.”
“Really? Well, I’m honored to have your Sunset Cliffs virginity.”
“I’m honored to give it to you. So, what did your parents have to say about all this?” A hint of nerves hid in his voice.
“Don’t worry, they are still smitten with you.”
“Good.” Emmy heard the smile in Gabe’s voice and elbowed him. He stifled a laughing grunt. “I don’t want them to think I’m
getting in the way of your career and hold it against me.”
“They don’t. Believe it or not, they want me to make my own decision like an adult.”
“Go, Frank and Vera.”
“I know. We actually ended up talking about my brother too. I told them how my job helps me feel close to Josh, and they finally
understood. I’ve spent all these years thinking they disapproved, but I’d just never explained it to them. They get it now,
why I care so much.”
He stayed quiet behind her for a long while. Long enough that the emotion over it all—talking about her brother, explaining
her love for her job, deciding to give up the promotion—caught up with her. She tried her best to stifle the sob that shook
her body.
Gabe stiffened and leaned forward to try to see her. “Hey, are you crying?”
“No,” she said weepily.
“Emmy, I can hear you crying.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Emmy.”
“I’m fine.”
“Tell me what’s wrong, or I’m going to unzip this jacket and expose you to hypothermia.”
She chortled and wove her hand up out of the neck hole to wipe her eyes. “It was going to be me,” she confessed. “The job.”
He stiffened again. “What?”
“Alice told me the other day, before we went to HR. They were going to give the promotion to me.”
She heard him exhale and curse under his breath. She did another spin inside the jacket and felt her hoodie twist along with
his shirt. “But it’s okay,” she promised him and wiped her eyes with a shake of her head. “I know what I want, and it’s you,
Gabe.”
Pain creased his brow as he looked down at her.
“It’s you,” she repeated and pushed up to kiss his lips.
His kiss was reluctant at first, restrained, but then he leaned into it. Hard. He gripped her face in his hands and kissed
her like that night in Mexico in the rain. Like he needed the air in her lungs for himself. Like he couldn’t get enough. Like
he was showing her she’d made the right decision by choosing him.
And she knew she had.
She did one final turn inside his jacket to face the water just in time to watch the final moments of the sun dipping the
crown of its head below the surface.
“Have you ever seen the green flash?” Gabe asked.
“Of course not because it’s not real.”
“What? It’s totally real. I’ve seen it, like, ten times.”
“You absolutely have not. It’s an urban legend.”
“Incorrect. Watch, it’ll happen here in a few seconds.”
“It will not.”
“Yes, it will.” He squeezed her again and kissed her cheek.
Emmy rolled her eyes. She’d spent many a sunset staring at the horizon waiting to see what local lore promised she would:
a flash of green light blaze across the line where the sea met the sky in the second after the sun fully sank. There was no
scientific evidence it existed, no photographs. Just a bunch of San Diegans claiming witness. Emmy was honestly surprised
Gabe fell into the believer camp.
“It’s coming,” he whispered in her ear.
She shook her head with a skeptical laugh as the sun crept lower and lower.
“ Right ...” He dramatically drew out the word while the last drops of gold melted away. “Now!”
Emmy sucked in a sharp breath and blinked.
“Did you see it?” He leaned sideways and asked her with an excited grin.
His enthusiasm was infectious, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“No.”
Gabe gave her a crooked grin, seeing right through her. “Liar.” And then he kissed her again.