Chapter 15 #2
We get a lot of kids in the shop. I love their enthusiasm, and Skye loves how easily they manipulate their parents into buying stuff. But, oh boy, I am not prepared for the impact of two disappointed frowns.
I drop down to their level. “Hey, have you guys ever played Seashell Shuffle?”
They both shake their heads.
“Oh, it’s the best. Skye and I play it all the time. All you have to do is find fifteen shells and bring them back here, and I’ll show you the game. Can you count to fifteen?”
“I can,” Dominic says proudly.
“Great! That makes you the shell keeper. Try and find different ones, too, so they’re all different sizes and shapes and colors.”
I’ve barely finished my sentence before Daphne is walking away, tugging her brother’s sleeve.
“Hurry up, Dom. I want to look for shells.”
“Stay where I can see you both,” Benji calls, then turns to me. “I’m not about to get a lecture from Isaac about gambling, am I?”
I smile as I toe my shoes off and squeeze the cool sand under my feet. There’s a fresh breeze wafting off the water, carrying salt and sea and every happy memory I own.
“No, it’s a—hey, Dominic, you dropped your hat.” I jog ahead and pick it up, but both kids are preoccupied.
Benji takes the cap from my hands and dusts it off, putting it backward over my head. His fingers brush my cheeks, and my eyes flutter closed.
“You’re so beautiful,” he says, skimming his thumb around the corner of my mouth. “I can’t believe I survived an entire year without these freckles. Don’t let me do that again.”
I thought about you every day, I almost say. I dreamed of you. But nothing compares to having you in front of me.
“I won’t.”
“Good.”
Neither of us moves, the heat of his hands hovering over my skin while he looks at me the way only he does.
When he left, I didn’t just lose a lover. I lost a friend and all the easy understanding we had.
Now it’s heated glances and picking our way around conversations so we don’t accidentally bite into anything sour.
I’m sick of it.
I drop my eyes, freeing myself enough to step away. Benji falls into step beside me, our hands brushing every few seconds.
“Seashell Shuffle is a game my aunt came up with. No gambling included, I promise. If they’re anything like we were, they’ll have so much fun, looking for different shells, that they’ll forget there was a game in the first place.”
“You’re tricking them,” he teases. “You’re more devious than I remember.”
I shove at his shoulder. “Like you haven’t told them a white lie every once in a while.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m going to be in big trouble once they get access to the internet and find out that TVs don’t need to be turned off to charge every couple of hours.”
I laugh. “My dad told us the TV worked like those ride-along horses at the mall. Charged us a dollar for every hour we wanted to watch.”
“Damn, he would have made a fortune off of Isaac and me.”
Ahead of us, the kids start chasing the tide in and out, giggling and jumping back when it touches them.
My memories overlap and settle onto each other like waves. “We spent most of our time outside, so I never really thought about it until I was older and wanted to know about all the shows the kids at school were talking about.”
“What did you do in winter?”
“We still went outside; we just got wetter.”
He makes a strangled little sound in his throat, and I blush all the way to my shoulders.
Dominic is determinedly comparing the shells he finds and putting back the ones he doesn’t want, scooping sand back over them, like he’s tucking them back in to sleep.
Meanwhile, Daphne is chasing seagulls, and I could swear it’s twenty years ago and I’m watching Skye do the same thing, her long hair blowing in the wind.
Skye always ran toward the things that terrified her. I’ve always admired that.
Benji finally has enough of collecting sand in his sneakers and stops to remove them, banging them against his thigh until they’re empty before stuffing his socks inside. He carries them on his opposite side, and I can’t take it anymore.
We can’t know until we try, right?
I slip my hand in his. Benji doesn’t comment on it, his grip tightening around mine, but he’s definitely smiling.
Today has been fun. It always was, with him.
“What’s Isaac doing right now?” I ask, curious. I wonder if I’ll get a chance to meet him while they’re here.
“Ring shopping. He’s proposing when he gets home.”
Oh. “Have they been dating long?”
“About a year,” he says, and my heart stutters.
Would Benji have asked if we’d stayed together? How long would he have waited?
You said you’d wait for me, as long as it takes. But what if I don’t want to wait anymore?
We’ve come to a stop in the sand, and I stare up at where the hotel stands guard over the shoreline.
Belle Wether was a few years older than I am when she built this place.
She only had a few years with the love of her life, and they say she never loved again.
That half her heart died with him and the rest she dedicated to her work.
I think I understand her now.
“I’ve always wanted to get married here,” I say.
“I know.”
I whip my head over to him. “What do you mean, you know? I’ve never told you that before.”
“No, but you love the beach and this hotel, and you once told a customer that you wanted to get engaged under the stars.”
“You remember that?”
He shrugs. “I have a list in my phone.”
A whole list? About … me?
“What? Show me.”
I reach for his pocket, and he twists away, chuckling.
“No.”
I try again, and he catches my hand.
“Why not?”
“Because you like surprises.” He leans in, kissing my cheek. “It’s one of the things on the list.”
* * *
Eventually, the kids demand ice cream—okay, I demand ice cream, and the kids eagerly back the idea—and I fill Benji in on Skye’s demands.
“Will I need to get it notarized, or will a blood seal do?” Benji asks, my favorite smile curled into the corner of his lips.
I love that curl. I want to shrink myself down and burrow into it on cold days while the rumble of his voice vibrates down into my bones.
“I’d forgo the blood,” I say. “She might send it off to a lab, where they clone you and frame you for murder.”
“Sometimes, I forget you two are related, but never for long.”
I take that as a compliment.