Chapter 43
Forty-Three
Something slowly drew Kenny out of a deep sleep but before she fully opened her eyes, she observed from behind closed lids that the sun was shining. She saw a canvas of yellow and could feel the warmth on her skin.
“Miss Sloane. Excuse me, Miss Sloane.” Kenny heard a gentle voice in the distance.
She lazily blinked open her eyes and through squinted lenses pieced together her surroundings.
She jolted to an upright position. The voice wasn’t echoing from the distance; it was coming from the mouth of the patient flight attendant who hovered over her.
The plane was empty of passengers and the overhead bins cleared of any luggage.
“I’m so sorry! I hope I didn’t keep you too long,” Kenny exclaimed, shoving the manila envelope that was resting on her lap into her black bag.
“No worries, Dear. You were sound asleep before the cabin was fully onboarded back in New York. You must have needed your rest. Even the older gentleman who sat next to you commented on how peaceful you looked. I hated to wake you,” the soft-spoken attendant whispered.
Kenny gingerly walked down the plane’s steep, shaky metal steps that led to the tarmac, through the small airport and back outside to a rocking chair at the entrance of the terminal where she called an Uber.
She pushed her sunglasses off her face and looked around at the palm trees while the breeze waved across her skin.
It was cooler than when she left in October but warmer than the plunging temperatures and accompanying blizzard that she narrowly escaped back in Manhattan.
The familiar smell of pine, oak and sea salt permeated the air and Kenny’s eyes were drawn to the vibrant colors that blossomed from the trees and flowers and brought the landscape to life.
Kenny quietly slid into the backseat of the Uber and immediately started to second-guess the rash decision to raid her savings account and jump on the first direct flight out of New York to Hilton Head.
The voices in her head started to chatter.
She should have called or texted or emailed J.P.
before dropping everything to rush to the island.
There were countless scenarios that Kenny didn’t evaluate or factor into her plan.
J.P. could be out of town on business. Perhaps he wouldn’t be as forgiving as Hailey when Kenny told him the truth about what prompted her to leave without warning or regard in October.
Maybe he wouldn’t understand at all, and her sheer presence would make this already difficult time even worse.
There was the chance that the major events that unfolded in his life over the last four months left a version of him that she wouldn’t recognize.
Kenny was so engrossed and distracted with her internal dialogue of weighing the pros and cons of the plan she didn’t have in place and deeply regretting not balancing them before she left the confines of The Dollhouse, that she didn’t realize how close she was to Sea Pines.
She was grounded back to the present when the small, black compact car pulled up to the Greenwood Gate and Derek the gatekeeper popped out of the tan hut with his Hawaiian shirt, toothy smile, and overstated welcome wave.
“You can roll down the windows, ma’am,” the reserved Uber driver suggested. “It’s too warm to turn on the heat and too cool to turn on the air conditioner, but it’s a beautiful day for fresh air,” he winked at Kenny from the rearview mirror.
“That’s a great idea, thank you,” Kenny replied.
As she rolled down the rear windows and slid the sunglasses to the bridge of her nose, she brought her attention back to her senses.
She fixed her eyes on the beauty of her surroundings, felt the fresh air hit her skin in the form of a light breeze, and smelled the ocean that was only a few hundred feet away.
Behind the flapping of the wind, she heard a soulful tune coming from the speakers in the front seat.
They were the wise words of Billy Joel. The same reflective lyrics that started her on this journey.
In that moment, as the car pulled around Fraser’s Circle, Kenny had all she needed. The last four months of her life were about to come full circle. They started and were going to end here, in her Vienna.
She anxiously pounded the four-digit code into the keypad at Villa #5 and pushed open the heavy, beige door.
She left her suitcase in the foyer and walked to the back of the airy room to open the blinds and back door to the patio.
There were no swimmers or waders in the pool but the pickleball courts were brimming with players.
The pavilion was free of construction equipment and busy with people lunching, reading, and playing cards.
She walked back into the villa that looked the same as when she left it in October and noticed a small white cardboard box, tied up with a green ribbon, on the counter next to the plantation passes.
She untied the ribbon, opened the box, and found a business-card sized note with three perfectly shaped and frosted cookies.
“We hope your stay with Low Country Hospitality is as refreshing as Miss Luana’s famous key lime pie cookies!”
Her eyes welled with tears for the hundredth time in the past two days and she took a giant, savory bite out of one of the cookies.
Tasting the cookie, hearing the song, noticing Derek at the guardhouse, all made Kenny’s life seem real and right.
The last piece of the puzzle was to find J.P.
But before she rehearsed any more scenarios in her mind, she took a long, hot shower to clear her head and wash away the ragged look and disheveled appearance that accompanied even the most well thought-out and planned travel excursions, which this trip certainly was not.
She dried her hair and applied makeup to her translucent skin; aside from the peaks of light that shone through the plane windows, she hadn’t seen significant sun in months.
Kenny paired skinny jeans with a fitted white blouse and threw a tan suede jacket around her shoulders.
She pulled up a pair of tan wedge boots and looked in the mirror.
The person staring back at her looked happy.
She looked like the person she saw four months ago.
Since there was no food at the villa and Kenny needed to walk off pent-up nervous energy, she started ambling down the bike path with the intention of stopping for food somewhere, be it a grocery store or restaurant.
Without any thought behind her chosen course, she found herself lost in the comforting sense of calm and serenity that overcame her every time she ventured around Sea Pines.
She also found herself taken up with a lone monarch butterfly that she followed all the way to Harbour Town.
The fluttering of bright orange wings with tints of red caught Kenny’s eye somewhere around the intersection of Plantation Drive and Lighthouse Road.
The sight of it released the kaleidoscope of butterflies that were unleashed in her belly the first time she laid eyes on J.P.
It also took her back to the day that she and J.P.
ran into each other on the beach. When one landed on her sunburned belly, he explained that monarchs were the smartest of all butterflies; because, just like the bottlenose dolphins, they stayed in Hilton Head year-round and didn’t fly south for the winter like the rest.
Stepping onto the red brick walkway that circled the marina suddenly made her hyperaware of her surroundings.
Every tall man with dark hair or a baseball hat that she saw up close or in the distance caused her to take a double look.
Every dog that she heard bark, halted her in her tracks.
She sat down on one of the red rocking chairs and tried to calm her mind, but anxious thoughts had her back on her feet and walking toward the lighthouse.
The top of the landmark was J.P.s favorite spot on the island and the colors that illuminated the sky would arguably make a picture-perfect sunset within the hour.
She debated climbing the tower but wondered if that would be too much like playing with kismet.
Then she thought about the butterfly that led her to the marina in the first place and threw that logic and overthinking out the window.
She took a deep breath, craned her head to look up at the observation deck she would soon be standing on and reached for the door. As she was about to push it open, someone tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to shriek and nearly jump out of her nervous skin.
“Sorry, ma’am! Didn’t mean to startle you,” apologized the young kid whom Kenny recognized from her last jaunt up the lighthouse. “They’re predicting some nasty storms this evening, so I’ve been asked to close early in case the heavy rains roll in earlier than forecast. Sorry!”
“Oh sure, okay. I understand,” Kenny said hoping the grim weather wasn’t a foreshadow of how her night or the trip would go. “I’m sorry I was so jumpy, I probably scared you, too!”
Her stomach growled and she remembered the purpose of her evening walk was to eat something, so she visited the Ma?tre d at the Quarterdeck and requested a table by the windows on the second floor.
It was the next best spot on the plantation to catch a view of the sunset and if she had come this far, she thought she ought to enjoy the light show.
While she waited for her salad and scallops, she got up from the table and stepped onto the deck that circled the second floor.
She never snapped the photos of the picturesque scene she promised Colby four months ago, so decided to make good on her word.
She carefully captured breathtaking views from all around the deck; and as she scrolled to identify the best pictures to send, and the sun slowly slipped out of view, her phone buzzed.
Text from Unknown: This is my favorite part.
Without thinking, Kenny slowly turned around and found J.P.
standing so close to her that she was certain he could hear her rapidly beating heart.
She cast her gaze up and he gently cupped her face with both of his hands.
Neither of them spoke and he lowered his head closer to hers.
J.P. delicately kissed her forehead and then her nose. Kenny’s legs trembled with each touch.
“I should have done this a long time ago,” he said before kissing her on the lips.
“I missed you.” She smiled, when he lifted his head back up and slid his hands to her waist. “What happens now?” she timidly whispered.
“Now, we give it a shot. We give us a shot and we see what happens.” He winked and pulled in her for another long, slow kiss.
After a few moments, Kenny took a small step back and pulled out a manila envelope from the bag that was on her shoulder and handed it to J.P.
“What’s this?” He released her lower back and opened the clasp of the paper sleeve.
“It’s my manuscript. It’s going to be published and should be on bookshelves by the end of the year,” Kenny said with a smile.
“That’s amazing! You’re amazing. Which storyline did you choose?” J.P. excitedly asked.
“None of them. It’s about a girl. And a guy. Who accidentally meet on the sandy beaches of South Carolina and fall a little more in love every day.” She shrugged and lifted her arms to hug him.
“I hope this guy and girl live happily ever after.” He grinned and scooped her up and into his arms.