Chapter Thirty-One
Elise
We pulled up to my apartment complex, and the sudden silence inside the car felt heavier than it had on the drive. My hand was still locked in Brady’s, but my mind kept circling back to my father’s rigid face and everything I had walked away from. I reached for the door handle but froze.
The promise of returning to normal by visiting the senior center had temporarily calmed me, but the enormity of what driving away with Brady presented was fully settling on me.
“I’m looping, Brady,” I admitted, the confession slipping out raw. “This is all so overwhelming. I can’t sort myself out.” I turned to face him fully. “How do you do it? How do you stay so calm when everything around you is chaos?”
Brady looked out at my plain brick building, then back to me with that steady warmth I was already addicted to.
“You don’t fight a riptide, Elise,” he said softly, thumb tracing slow circles over my knuckles. “You let it carry you out past the breakers until you can float. I don’t want to be another person holding you back. I want to be the calm water where you can breathe again.”
His words settled deep in my chest. I had been ready to run upstairs and hide behind routines. But looking at the apartment, I realized none of it would change how I felt.
“Come with me,” he said.
“Okay.” The word left me before I could second-guess it.
We didn’t even turn off the engine. He reversed, spun us around, and drove in the opposite direction of town. My apartment disappeared in the mirror.
Twenty minutes later a small private airfield appeared. A helicopter waited on the pad. I stared. “You casually arranged a helicopter?”
He shrugged with a small, boyish smile. “It’ll get us where we need to go faster.”
I laughed and I followed. Looking at Brady, a person could forget that he came from a wealthy family, but there were signs.
Before we climbed in, he held out his hand. “Phones.”
My stomach flipped. Leaving my phone meant no safety net. For one terrifying second, I almost couldn’t do it. Then I set it in the console. Brady did the same. The silence felt enormous. He took my hand, and we climbed aboard.
The takeoff sent my stomach dropping, but Brady sat close, arm along the back of the seat. I let myself lean into him as the desert fell away beneath us, the vastness somehow making everything feel possible.
We landed at a tiny outpost, then drove down a winding dirt track until the world grew quiet and green.
The Glasswater Pools were tucked between ancient stone, impossibly clear and inviting.
We changed quickly into the swimsuits someone had arranged to be there for us and slipped into the chilly water.
The shock pulled a gasp from me, but as I swam, the relentless noise in my head finally quieted.
Brady surfaced beside me, hair slicked back, eyes bright with mischief. “You know what would make this even better?”
I raised an eyebrow, treading water. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”
He grinned that full, dimpled smile that always disarmed me. “Skinny dipping. Just us. The guards are paid to keep everyone else away, and I promise they’re not looking.”
I stared at him, water lapping at my shoulders. “You’re serious.”
“Dead serious.” He floated closer, voice dropping playfully. “Come on, Elise. When’s the last time you did something completely uninhibited? No plans. No guilt. Just you and me and this perfect water.”
My heart raced. The old Elise wanted to list every risk. But the part that had walked out of the compound today wanted this. Wanted him.
I glanced around once. The pools felt private, almost sacred. “If anyone sees—”
“They won’t,” he assured me, already reaching for the waistband of his trunks. “Trust me?”
I did. God help me, I did.
With a shaky laugh I turned my back, peeled off the swimsuit, and tossed it onto the rock ledge. The cool air kissed my bare skin, then the water enveloped me completely. It felt shocking and freeing all at once. I ducked under, letting the silence of the underwater world swallow everything else.
When I came up, Brady was right there, naked and grinning like a kid who’d gotten away with something wonderful. “There she is,” he said softly, eyes warm with admiration and heat. “My brave, beautiful Elise.”
We swam closer. The water made everything feel weightless, playful.
He dove down first, beckoning me to follow.
I took a breath and went under with him.
The world turned crystalline blue. Sunlight filtered through in shifting shafts, illuminating the smooth rock formations below.
Brady turned toward me, bubbles escaping his smile.
Even underwater, his dimples were unmistakable.
Actual bubbles left my mouth as well as I laughed and he reached out, his fingers brushing my arm in a playful chase.
We surfaced together, gasping and laughing. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I said, wiping water from my eyes.
“I can,” he replied, treading water close enough that our legs brushed. “You’ve been carrying the weight of the world for years. You deserve to feel light for once.” His voice softened. “You deserve to have fun, Elise. With me.”
What is this? He wasn’t only a lover. He was becoming my best friend, the first person who made me feel safe enough to be silly, to be naked in more ways than one.
We dove again. This time I chased him, fingers grazing his side.
Underwater, we grinned at each other like co-conspirators, weightless and free.
When we surfaced, he pulled me close, our bare skin sliding together in the cool water.
The contact sent sparks through me. Swimming with him like this was sexy, playful, deeply intimate.
His hands settled at my waist, respectful but warm.
“You’re incredible,” he murmured against my wet hair. “I’m so damn proud of you standing up for what you want.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, heart full. “Thank you for being someone who makes me laugh in the middle of everything falling apart.”
We floated together, bodies brushing, trading soft kisses and quiet laughter until the sun began to dip.
Eventually we climbed out onto the warm rock ledge, drying in the late afternoon light, covered for the sake of the likely bored driver.
I curled into his side, my skin still tingling from the water and his touch.
And I was exactly where I wanted to be.