Chapter 36
HARPER
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Text thread with Mabel, Levi, and Harper:
8:53 a.m.
Mabel:
Sorry, kids, but I need to cancel today’s little excursion. Gladys pulled a muscle trying out her new swing.
Levi:
I already set everything up, which means I’m still charging you for this.
Mabel:
I’ll bake the cookies in the morning and drop them off so your payment is fresh.
Levi:
Hey, we can reschedule for a different day so you actually have something to write about.
If I knew one thing for certain, it was that if the day ended in Y, Mabel would be meddling. The woman loved sticking her nose into business she shouldn’t be concerning herself with, and I didn’t see that changing anytime soon. It was probably the journalist ingrained in her.
But there was no way this was anything but nefarious. Okay, so nefarious was probably being slightly dramatic, but the timing and circumstances were far too suspicious to suspect anything else. Besides that, Mabel had been trying to shove Levi and me together at every turn from the moment I’d arrived—hello, surprise roommate situation. And I didn’t believe she’d suddenly stop after three weeks.
As for rescheduling as Levi suggested in his text, there was no way I was passing up an afternoon alone on a boat with him. I hadn’t been sailing in far too long, and I fully intended to rectify that today.
I strolled down the dock toward Endless Summer, the same boat I’d learned to sail on when we were kids. At the sight of it, a photo book of memories flipped through my mind—from that very first sail when I met Levi for the first time, to the last outing he’d taken me on a week before things had gone to shit, and everything in between.
A pang settled in my chest at the thought of all the opportunities we’d missed in the time since. While I’d accepted the years lost between as payment for the life I was currently living—a life I was proud of because I’d created it myself—that didn’t mean the subtle stings of regret didn’t crop up once in a while.
Though I’d seen Levi completely naked, had tasted every inch of him, unapologetically ogled him while he showered, there was something absolutely delicious about seeing him here, in his element. So sure and confident.
He stood on the boat, wearing nothing but a backward baseball hat and a pair of board shorts that hung indecently low on his hips. The cut V of his abdomen and his happy trail drew my gaze straight down to where I definitely shouldn’t be looking. At least not while we were in public. That scowl he was famous for was firmly in place as he secured the lines, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out he was probably pissed that he’d spent his morning prepping the boat for a group tour that was no longer happening.
My God, this man was hot. And I was woman enough to admit the sight of him like this—all scowly and competent—did something to me. Made me so stupid, it was honestly embarrassing.
The muscles in his back, shoulders, and arms bunched and flexed with every movement, drawing my eyes to the tattoos inked across his skin. Tattoos I was still yearning to know more about, to learn the meanings of. I wanted to ask him details about each and every one… Especially the sparrow over his heart. But I’d been too chicken to bring it up.
Once I was close enough, I called out, “Got room for one more?”
He snapped his head up, his eyes connecting with mine immediately and sending a shiver racing down my spine. I had no idea how this man always seemed to find me right away, no matter what. Like there was an invisible string connecting us at all times.
Without hesitation, he dragged his gaze over me from head to toe, his eyes heating as he took in my pink sundress, the red ties to my bikini top visible around my neck. “Couldn’t stay away, sparrow?”
“Something like that.” I climbed aboard, accepting Levi’s hand as he helped me.
“Didn’t you get my text?”
“I did. But I figured there was no reason for this afternoon to go to waste. I’m sure the two of us can figure out something to do.”
“You really couldn’t stay away, huh?”
Rather than answering, I said, “Are you up for it, or what?”
Levi stared at me for long moments, his gaze darting over my face as if in search of something.
Finally, I reached up and swiped a hand over my mouth. “Do I have something on my face?” When he still didn’t respond, I huffed and rolled my eyes. “Fine. You’re right. I wanted to spend the day with you. Is that a crime? Should we call Brady?”
Levi cleared his throat and shook his head, glancing down at my hand still clasped in his. “My afternoon is all yours,” he said, his voice low. “But do you mind if we swap this boat for something smaller?”
I glanced around at this one, so familiar it made my chest ache. But maybe it would be better to try something new with him. “That depends. Is this smaller boat one of your projects?”
His stare felt weighted as he watched me for a beat before squeezing my hand, his thumb brushing over my knuckles. “As a matter of fact, it is.”
“Then lead the way. I can’t wait to see it.”
Without a word, he took my laptop bag from me, then shouldered it along with a backpack he grabbed from the cockpit locker. He stepped off the boat and immediately turned back to help me. Reaching out, he gripped me around the waist, holding me steady as I climbed down.
And then I was standing in front of him, and he was kissing me. He wrapped his hand around my neck, sliding his fingers into my hair, and pressed his lips against mine. It was soft and sweet, something we hadn’t experienced all that much now as adults, and I melted into him before my eyelids had even fluttered shut.
I rested my hand on his bare chest, allowing him to guide my mouth exactly how he wanted it. And soon enough, it wasn’t so soft or sweet anymore. I moaned when he slid his tongue against mine and kissed me deep before finally pulling back, a smirk on his lips.
“Gotta save a little something for later…” he said, linking our fingers and tugging me along beside him.
“You planning to have your wicked way with me on this boat you’re taking me to?”
“Thought about it once or twice.”
And I absolutely wouldn’t say no.
We strolled down the docks toward where Levi kept his personal boat. Being down here brought back so many memories from the summers I’d spent in Starlight Cove…summers I’d spent with Levi.
It was easy to get overwhelmed by the melancholy of it all—of lost time and what was or what could’ve been—but I didn’t want to do that anymore. I didn’t want to spend what little time I had left in Starlight Cove dwelling on the past.
While Levi and I could never truly start over because of the magnitude of our history, we could start fresh.
“Should I guess which one is yours?” I asked, swinging our clasped hands between us.
Levi glanced over, a slight smirk playing on his lips, and raised a brow. “You think you can?”
“I guess we’ll find out.” I scanned the boats in the marina, cataloguing the features of each and discarding them just as quickly. “Well, it’s not Moby’s Dick with the giant whale painted on the side. Too gaudy. And it’s not Mr. Overcompensator. Too ostentatious.”
With each one we passed, I discarded them all until my gaze snagged on one toward the end of the line. The hull was hidden by the boat next to it, so I couldn’t see the name yet, but it just felt right. “That one has promise. Looks well-kept. Pretty but not too flashy. If it’s named something like Ship Happens, I’ll have my answer.”
“You think I’d give my boat a ridiculous name?” he asked, something I couldn’t quite identify threaded through his voice.
“Not unless you lost a bet with one of your brothers. I think you’d give it a name that meant something. A name that was important to you.”
He cleared his throat. “You’re right.”
“I knew it. Maybe something with your mom or your siblings or maybe—” I glanced back at the boat I’d pinpointed as his, stopping dead in my tracks when the letters written in black script came into view.
The Sparrow.
Emotion clogged my throat as I stood stock-still, unable to do anything but gape at the two little words branded there. Something he’d just told me meant something to him…was important to him.
I could feel Levi’s stare on me, his gaze heavy and weighted, as if he was gauging my reaction. The trouble was, I didn’t know how to act casual. Didn’t know how to pretend that it was no big deal he’d done this… Named his boat the same thing he’d been calling me since we were thirteen.
“How long ago did you restore it?” I finally asked, attempting to make my voice even. Maybe it was a coincidence. Maybe it didn’t have anything to do with me.
He swallowed, breaking eye contact and glancing over at it. “It’s been a while.”
I squeezed his hand, needing to know the answer. “How long, Levi?”
“Eleven years.”
Back when I’d thought he hated me.
“What does it mean?”
“You know what it means, sparrow,” he said, his voice gruff but sure and steady.
My breath caught in my throat, and I bit my lower lip to keep from crying because the truth was so beautiful and heartbreaking, it made my chest ache. When I’d been spending my nights crying and cursing Levi’s name, he’d spent his restoring a boat, only to name it after me.
I turned toward him and traced my fingertips over the delicate lines of the sparrow tattooed above his heart, in its mouth a rope attached to the anchor below. “And this?”
“That, too.” He reached up and brushed a flyaway strand of hair back from my face before trailing his fingers down the curve of my jaw. “And all the rest of them.”
“All the rest—” My words cut off as his meaning registered. I darted my gaze over every inch of his exposed skin, my fingers following suit. First to the script arcing over his shoulder, then to the compass rose on his side. Then to the peach tree and the Ferris wheel and the sailboat on ocean waves, every single one of them a call back to us, now that I knew what I was looking at…what I was looking for.
They were all reminders of what we’d been. What he’d hoped we could be.
As tears filled my eyes, I swallowed repeatedly, attempting to shove down the sob that was working its way up my throat. I was overcome with emotion, finally aware of just how much this man had devoted himself to me, even in the years we were apart.
“I think you might be a little obsessed with me,” I finally said, my voice thick and wobbly. “You should maybe see someone about that.”
“You’re such a shit,” he grumbled, but I could hear the underlying affection in his tone.
Honestly, how had I ever missed it?
Then he smacked my ass hard enough to pull a yelp from me before linking his fingers with mine and tugging me, breathless and laughing, behind him.
Straight toward The Sparrow.