18. Adrian
Adrian
T he crunch of gravel under their feet scraped in his ear against the gentle hum of the ocean as they walked the steeply sloped path that led to the cliffs. The houses were spaced far apart, and the only light on the street came from their windows and the warmth of the moonglow overhead.
“You’re a doctor?” he asked her.
“Oh, yeah. I have a PhD in marine ecology.”
“Is that how you met Anne?” he asked her.
She paused. “She was my professor at Yale.”
Damn . He could tell she was smart after admiring her problem-solving skills with the boat today, but that was a whole other level of intelligence. He would tell her about his bachelor degree in business some other time.
The starlight danced on Cori’s face, etching lines of introspection into her delicate features. She nearly tripped several times, her eyes focused upward, poised with an unspoken question as she looked at the stars.
It had happened again but this time she had been staring at a man at the bar. Doug Jenson, poor guy. He had just lost his wife to cancer, leaving him a widower with two young boys. He hadn’t been out on the water all summer because she was too ill. Adrian knew it probably meant thousands, likely tens of thousands of dollars, had been lost during the summer season.
When she had seen Doug from across the crowded bar, for a moment all the light had been sucked out of her eyes—just like the night before at dinner. Only this time, she seemed sad instead of panicked.
Adrian had never paid attention to anyone so aptly in his entire life, and he couldn’t figure out why. He replayed what happened on the boat in his mind for what seemed like the hundredth time. When he had touched her hand, the sky spun over his head, and he swore he felt not only the swell of the tide but the pull of the moon. He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck.
He broke the silence with a heavy sigh. “Seth and I share an apartment over the barn. I think I’ll sleep in my old bedroom in the farmhouse tonight.”
Cori twisted her face, trying not to laugh. “You don’t want to risk it, huh?”
“Risk hearing my brother groaning like an animal through the thin wall in between our bedrooms? Nah, I’ll take my chances. Ariel might set me on fire in her sleep, and Dad might have a bad dream and flood the bathroom but both scenarios are preferable.”
Cori laughed softly at all the unfortunate possibilities of the night. “Sounds like a lose-lose-lose situation,” she teased.
She looked back at him over her shoulder, an amused smirk dancing on the corners of her mouth, and he caught himself before his hand instinctively reached out to grab hers.
What was wrong with him ? He had almost touched her multiple times today, as if his body was being pulled on an invisible line at the end of her reel.
As they turned the bend, an urgent meow greeted them at the path. Turtle rubbed her face and whiskers urgently on Cori’s legs and sprinted with purpose to the house. They turned toward the cottage, and dread stung the back of his throat. He put out his hand, this time with no hesitation, catching Cori on the wrist. She stopped in her tracks, and he knew she felt the same heaviness in the air. Magic, like electric fear, pushed down on them.
The door of the cottage was cracked open, illuminated ominously by the moon in stark contrast to the darkness of the rooms within.