Chapter 5
“Oh, wow!” Mallory’s eyes widened with awe.
Pulling into the small lot, James parked in the last spot next to the little patch of sand on the coast. The rain clouds were just starting to dissipate in time to show the many colors of the sunset that painted the sky. There were pinks, blues, purples and oranges. It was truly a work of art.
“Neat, huh?” he said.
“It’s stunning,” she agreed, beaming. “I never come to the beach when I visit in the colder months, but I should! And the snow on the sand is something else. How’d you find this place?”
“When I first moved back here,” James said, “and I was trying to find work and take care of my aunt, I’d take long walks along the water to clear my head.
There was no better place to do that than the beach.
Then one day I found this spot and just kept coming back whenever I needed to think or have a moment to myself. ”
“Makes sense. It’s… it’s perfect.
“Yeah, I know. I’m not sure why, but this spot always has the best view of the sunset. Every time I come here in the evenings, I see something really beautiful.”
Mallory nodded, but when she looked at James, she realized he was staring at her and not the sky.
He smiled softly when their eyes met, and Mallory was overcome with a sense of warmth and safety—something she hadn’t felt for a long time.
But before she could overthink, she leaned toward him, and James cupped her cheek tenderly with his hand.
“Mallory, there’s something I have to tell you.”
“What’s that?” she asked, her eyes searching his expression.
He smirked. “I had the biggest crush on you in high school.”
She chuckled and shook her head. “You did?”
“Yes,” he said, his cheeks reddening a bit. “It was honestly crazy how much I liked you. I didn’t go one day without thinking about you. And when you answered the door the day I came to fix your dad’s computer, I thought I was dreaming. That was the only explanation I could come up with.”
“Oh, whatever.” She scoffed, but she realized from the look in his eyes that he was sincere.
“I mean it,” he said. “I thought I might faint when I saw you. Luckily, I managed to keep my cool, and I didn’t totally scare you off...”
“Quite the opposite actually,” Mallory admitted, putting her hand over his.
“You didn’t scare me off at all. Although I didn’t pay much attention to you in high school, you caught my eye the second I opened the door for you.
And... since then... I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.
Not for a single day, minute, or second. ”
James rubbed his thumb along Mallory’s jaw, and his lips drew close to hers. “Can I kiss you?”
She nodded and he closed the space between them.
Mallory’s heart fluttered—this was the love she’d been waiting for her entire life.
It was the reason she’d kept searching and waiting, refusing to settle.
Because she knew somewhere out there, the love of her life was walking around and that she had to be patient because one day she’d find him.
Turns out, she’d already found him. They had passed each other countless times in the hallway for four years of their young lives.
James was her person. It was so obvious to her now that she cursed herself for having missed it all this time.
When they parted, she almost kissed him again, wanting to stay in that moment forever, but James brushed her hair from her face and then sat back in his seat.
“As much as I’ll be kicking myself later for saying this, I should probably take you home.
Your parents will start to worry about you once it gets dark. ”
Mallory sighed, knowing deep down he was right.
“How about this?” James said with a mischievous look in his eye. “I’ll drive really slow.”
She grinned, took his hand and pressed a kiss to it.
She couldn’t believe she could go from feeling so distraught and angry, to feeling like she was floating.
But it was all his doing, and she had an inkling that if she let him, he would make her feel that way for the rest of their lives.
“Deal,” she said, knowing she was looking into the eyes of the man she truly, deeply loved. “Drive really, really slowly.”
*
To Mallory, returning home that evening felt like walking out on stage and not knowing any of her lines.
What was she supposed to say? She’d calmed down quite a lot, but she still struggled to make sense of everything she was feeling.
She had a lot of questions and wanted to get the chance to talk to her parents—her mom especially—without either of them getting overly emotional or shutting down.
Was that even possible? She had no clue.
James pulled up to the curb, going at a snail’s pace until he had to put the car in park and accept that they reached their destination. Mallory spotted her mom sitting on the front steps, but Callie didn’t seem to notice them yet.
“I guess I won’t be able to put off this conversation for even a minute,” she said, sinking deeper into her seat. “Brilliant.”
“I’m sure if you told your mom you need some time, she’d let you go inside and sleep on it. She has to understand that today has been a lot for you.”
Mallory considered this for a moment and then shook her head.
“She would, but it’s okay. I think it’ll be good for us to clear the air, at least a little bit.
It’s best not to let things fester, and we’ve kinda been doing that a lot lately.
..” She sighed. “After today’s events, I’ll probably be up all night long thinking anyway. ..”
“I know what you mean.” He gave her a gentle smile. “I think my mind’s going to be racing after what happened tonight as well. I’m not sure I’ll be getting any sleep.”
Mallory smirked and tucked some hair behind her ear. She felt like a teenager again, worried that her crush was going to find out she liked him, but also desperately wanting to know if he liked her back. Thankfully, with James, she didn’t have to wonder.
“You should at least get some shut eye,” she said. “Or else you’ll be a hazard at the stove tomorrow when you’re making dinner.”
“Hmm. You’re right. I guess I should’ve thought about that before I let you kiss me.”
“You kissed me!”
He laughed. “Yeah, but you kissed me back. I’m not sure how you can expect me to come down from the high so quickly.”
She gave him a playful shove, resisting the urge to kiss him right in front of the house.
The only reason she didn’t was because she saw her mom looking their way at that point.
She didn’t have the energy to talk about this development on top of everything else.
“Just be careful,” she said. “Don’t burn your aunt’s house down. ”
“I’ll do my best.” He leaned forward and looked out the passenger side window.
“Alright, well, you should probably go,” he said with noticeable regret in his voice.
“I’m pretty sure your mom has clocked us.
I don’t want her to think of me as anything other than a respectable gentleman, who is bringing her daughter back home at a reasonable hour. ”
“Yes, of course. We wouldn’t want her getting the wrong idea. Heaven, forbid she found out her nearly forty-year-old-daughter kissed a man!”
James shook his head. “We can’t have that. I have a reputation as a computer nerd with no prospects.”
“Ha! Yeah right!” She snorted. “You’re way too good looking for that to still be your reputation.”
“Is that so?” He raised a brow, and she had a feeling her face was red.
Mallory chuckled. “And that’s my cue.” She opened the door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. She breathed in the post-rain air and smiled—at least the night hadn’t been all bad. “Will you call me tomorrow? I know you’re going to be celebrating with your aunt most of the day but—”
“I’ll find some time, for sure,” he said. “And I might just take your mom up on that offer to come over for dessert afterwards.”
“Well, let’s see how things go tonight first,” she said. “At this rate, I have no idea what Thanksgiving at the Ward house is going to look like tomorrow.”
“Gotcha. Just let me know.”
She waved. “Will do. Goodnight, James.”
“Goodnight, Mallory.”