Chapter 23
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
Emelia
My hair whips behind me as the boat skips across the water.
It’s nearing the end of September, and though it’s a relatively warm day for this time of year, it doesn’t feel that way when the wind is flying right at us.
I’m warm, though, because Elliott brought me a warm, furry blanket to wrap around myself.
The sun glistens over the deep-blue water that reflects the tall evergreens on the shore.
I inhale deeply and tilt my face up to the sun.
I can’t remember the last time I felt as relaxed as I do now.
All my work stresses and the concerns about finding out more information about my birth mother feel a million miles away.
I’m not sure if it’s being out here on the water or if it’s the man beside me at the wheel.
He’s standing behind the steering wheel of the boat with a backward baseball hat, a gray hoodie, and jeans. Somehow, he looks a hundred times hotter than any of the guys I’ve been on dates with in Boston, the ones who pride themselves on their expensive dress pants and shirts.
Elliott glances at me and smiles. “You good?” He speaks loudly enough that I can hear him over the boat’s engine and the wind rushing past my ears.
“Yup.” I nod vigorously so that he knows I’m enjoying myself, even if my hair keeps whipping me in the face.
He nods and turns back to the lake.
He’s completely in his element on the water, steering the boat to our destination. There’s something about a free afternoon and fresh air, I suppose.
“We’re almost there,” he says a few minutes later.
He slows the boat, and I stand to get a better view over the console and the front of the boat. The lake curves dramatically ahead of us, obscuring my view.
“This is Dead Man’s Curve.” He points ahead.
“I can see why.”
Elliott slows the boat even more as we approach the curve. Rather than the regular shoreline, jagged rocks rise at the edge of the water. He maneuvers the boat around the curve, and my mouth drops open when we clear it.
The jagged rock on the side of the lake keeps rising on both sides until it’s more than fifty feet above us. The boat moves slowly closer until we’re almost surrounded by the natural curve of the rock.
“Wow.”
Elliott smiles. “Let me put the anchor down.”
While he’s busy, I marvel at the natural beauty around me.
When he’s done, he cuts the engine and sets his hands on his hips. “What do you think?”
“This is so cool. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“We used to come here during the summer in high school to make out.”
I laugh, looking behind us to where the narrow opening is. “It’s a good spot for it. Not much of an audience unless someone is all the way up there.” I point to the top of the rocks, where all that can be seen are mature trees.
“Not worried that I brought you out here to make out with you?” He steps closer to me while the boat bobs gently.
“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”
He tugs me by the waist of my jeans. I go willingly.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to disappoint you.” Gripping the back of my head, Elliott brings his mouth to mine.
The effect he has on me is immediate. The blanket drops behind me, and I place both hands on his chest. I’m no longer thinking about how beautiful the scenery is or how relaxed my body is. Now I’m wound up.
The second his tongue swipes mine, my nipples tighten in my bra, and I press into him, not wanting any distance between us. He groans into my mouth, gripping the back of my head harder.
I don’t know how long our kiss continues, because time seems not to be a factor in this hidden alcove, but when he pulls away, Elliott rests his forehead against mine and cups my face.
“If we don’t stop now, I’m afraid we won’t be able to.” His voice is low and rough.
“Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
He chuckles deep in his chest, then steps back. “You still don’t know why they call it Echo Lake.”
Right, the whole reason we’re here.
“Are you going to tell me?” My head tilts.
“Scream.” He crosses his arms.
“Excuse me? Are you planning to drown me?” I look around.
He shakes his head at me. “Just scream. As loud as you can.”
I frown at him, and he gestures with his hand to give it a try.
So I scream as loud as I can until my throat burns.
My voice ricochets off the rock face and echoes several times around us.
I laugh, wanting to do it again. “That is so cool…Hello!”
Hello, hello, hello, hello.
“You do it.” I nudge him with my elbow.
Now that it’s his turn, Elliott appears a little sheepish, but he’s a good sport about it. “Emelia!”
Emelia, Emelia, Emelia, Emelia.
We go back and forth a few times until our throats are sore from screaming so much.
“Want a drink?” Elliott goes over to one of the seats where there’s a built-in cooler under the cushion. “There’s beer, water, soda.”
“Water is good for me. Thanks.”
He grabs us each a water, twists the caps off, and hands mine over. The cold liquid soothes my throat.
Elliott caps his bottle and takes my hand, leading me between the gap in the console to the front of the boat. We settle on opposite sides, stretching out our legs.
“Thanks for taking me here.”
“You’re welcome. I’m glad I got to show it to you.”
“Have you brought Baylor here yet?”
He smiles, and I can tell he’s replaying some memory of his daughter in his mind. “Yeah, just this summer, actually. She wouldn’t stop begging me to bring her here every day after the first time I showed her. After the sixth day in a row, I told her we had to give it a break.”
I laugh. I can totally picture Baylor screaming at the rocks, loving it.
“When was the first time you ever came here?”
Something shifts in Elliott’s demeanor. “The first time I ever came here was with my father. It was just him and me. With two younger siblings at the time, getting him all to myself was a rarity. That’s probably why I remember it so well.”
“How old were you?”
“About six years old.”
We’re both quiet, and I decide not to let this moment pass without asking what I want to know. “Elliott…what happened to your dad? Did…did he pass away too?”
“No.” He looks at the rock face for a minute with a pensive expression.
I think he’s not going to answer me, and I’m about to apologize for asking when he talks.
“After my mom died, he just kind of lost it. Lost himself. Part of me understands it now. I didn’t then, but now…
He went from being happily married and having a good family life to being alone and raising four kids on his own—one of whom was an infant.
There was no time for him to grieve the loss of my mother.
He had kids to raise, to provide for. Kids who were grieving too and didn’t understand where their mother had gone.
She left for the hospital to go have our brother, and only Hollis came home. ”
His jaw tenses, and he pulls off his ball cap, smooths his hair back, and then slides it back on backward.
“Things didn’t really go downhill until a couple of years after my mom passed.
He started drinking, dabbling in drugs. Even before we went to live with my uncle, Roy was already having to step in to help.
Neither of my grandparents on either side were alive by then.
It was a total mess.” His face bears the weight of his words.
Unable to stop myself, I get up and take the couple of steps it takes to reach him. Elliott widens his legs for me, and I sit, leaning back against his chest. He wraps his arms around me, and I immediately place my hands over his.
“That must have been very difficult.”
“I think that’s when I started to feel like it was my responsibility to make sure all my siblings were okay. I was the oldest, and I tried to shield them from what was going on with my dad as best I could. It felt like I was the one who needed to hold it all together.”
“That’s a lot of responsibility for a little boy to carry. What about Roy?”
“After we went to live with him, things got better in time, but it was ingrained in me by that time, this feeling that if I didn’t hold us all together, everything would crumble.
It’s a difficult instinct to turn off, but I try my best, even though I fail.
” He kisses my temple, as if to say that his hostility when I first got here came from fear.
Everything Elliott is telling me lines up with what I’ve witnessed since I arrived in town. Now I understand better why he’s that way.
“How did you end up with Roy?”
A long, slow breath floats out of him. “My dad got picked up for drinking and driving shortly after my mom passed away. They gave him a slap on the wrist that didn’t amount to much.
Then one day, years later, he decided to get behind the wheel after a bender and killed someone.
The judge gave him the maximum penalty, and he was sentenced to prison for thirty years.
The case made big news because the guy he killed was the son of a big politician. ”
“That’s awful.”
Elliott nods against the top of my head.
“Thank God for Roy.”
“Tell me about it. If it weren’t for him, we probably would’ve been separated and shipped off to different foster homes. Who knows what kind of situation we all would’ve ended up in.”
I shift so that my shoulder rests against his chest to see his face. “Do you still talk to your dad?”
He shakes his head. “Nah. Even though I can understand how lost he must’ve been after my mom passed away, he pretty much made the decision to abandon his family.
Even if the accident had never happened, he was already checked out by that point because of the drugs and alcohol.
” Elliott lets out a low chuckle that holds no humor.
“I think it bothers me more now than it did when I was younger.”
“How come?”
“Now that I have Baylor, I can’t imagine checking out of her life like that.”
“That makes sense. I’m sorry you had to go through all of that.”
“What’s that saying? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger?”
“Well, I think you’re strong enough by now,” I say, and he gives me a squeeze with his arms. “Thank you for telling me all of that, Elliott. I know it must be hard to talk about.”
“Honestly, Emelia, I surprise myself when I’m around you. I haven’t opened up with anyone like this in years, maybe never. You’re very easy to talk to.”
I know he’s not saying it to make me feel special, but it has that effect nonetheless. But I understand what he means, because when I opened up to him that night on the dock, it felt so natural too.
He dips his chin and kisses me. I place my hand on his cheek and sink into the kiss. This kiss feels more about comfort than desire, and when it ends, I snuggle back into him to enjoy this feeling a little longer.