Chapter 28
JACK
At some point I awoke and reached for her, finding the bed empty. At first, I was confused; had it all been a dream? But the sheets still smelled like her perfume.
I propped myself up on one elbow. ‘Taylor?’
‘Taylor?’ I called louder, throwing off the sheets and putting my feet on the cool wooden floor.
She wasn’t in the lounge or the kitchen.
A weird feeling settled in my stomach. I hadn’t thought she’d be the kind of woman to just take off in the middle of the night.
I still didn’t think that. Had last night upset her?
Flicking on the light over the sink, I saw it. A note on the fridge, held on by a magnet.
Couldn’t sleep. Gone to the beach to watch the sunrise. xx
Relief flooded through me at the sight of those innocuous little x’s on the end. Kisses. She couldn’t be that upset if she was leaving me kisses.
I headed back to the bedroom and pulled on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, then headed outside. The grass was wet underfoot, the air damp and cool. Stars still littered the sky overhead, although the horizon was ever so slightly lighter than the rest of the sky, an indication that dawn was close.
I found her sitting on a rock near the tidal pool, her arms hugging her knees in front of her.
‘Hey,’ I said softly when I was a couple of meters away. ‘OK if I join you?’
She turned her head and smiled. ‘Of course.’
‘Is that my shirt?’ I asked, as I climbed up onto the rock and sat down next to her, our shoulders touching.
‘Couldn’t find my dress in the dark,’ she replied. ‘Didn’t think you’d mind.’
‘I don’t. It looks better on you anyway.
’ And it was true. Even in just the shirt and her underwear, with her hair all tousled, she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t believe how lucky I was to have spent the night with her.
To be sitting beside her now. I nudged her with my shoulder.
‘How come you couldn’t sleep? No regrets, I hope. ’
‘No of course not,’ she replied, leaning her head against my shoulder. ‘Last night was incredible. I’m still processing it.’
‘Processing?’
‘I’ve only ever been with Adam,’ she explained sheepishly. ‘And it was nothing like… that.’
‘Is that a good thing or a bad thing?’
‘Oh good. Definitely good. I don’t know how else to describe it without sounding corny.’
‘I don’t mind corny.’
She laughed. ‘I guess it’s just different, when you have some kind of connection with the person.’
‘You didn’t have a connection with Adam?’
She reached out and touched my hand, curling hers inside mine and threading her fingers through my fingers. ‘Not like this, no.’
Her touch was electrifying. ‘I feel it too,’ I told her softly.
We sat in silence for a few minutes, then she lifted her head off my shoulder and nodded towards the sky.
‘Do you see those two stars over there?’
I followed the direction of her gaze. ‘I see a lot of stars. Which two in particular are you referring to?’
‘There, see Orion’s belt?’
I nodded.
‘Follow the line northeast. There are two brighter stars, to the side.’
‘Got them.’
‘That’s Castor and Pollux. The Gemini twins.’
I heard her swallow and waited, sensing, correctly, that she wasn’t finished.
‘I had a twin,’ she said quietly, so quietly I wasn’t sure at first that I’d heard her correctly. ‘A brother.’
‘Had?’
‘He died.’
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘It was a while ago now, when we were teenagers.’ She looked around, at the beach. ‘This was actually one of the last places I saw him alive.’
‘Do you want to talk about it?’
She shook her head. ‘Not really. It just hits me sometimes, usually at moments like this, when I’m happy. I had an amazing night and I hate that he never got to experience anything like this.’
I rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb. ‘I know what you mean. Owning a restaurant here in Pine Harbor was Alex’s dream, and it’s not right that I’m the one here doing it, and not him. But I guess that’s why they say life isn’t always fair, right?’