“I am! I am thinking straight.” I whirl around to face him. “Would it be so bad? Staying here together? Would you hate it so much if this, you and me on thisrock, as you called it, was the sum total of the rest of your life? Would you feel just as trapped by me as youdid…”
As you did byher.
I see realization click into place. “Oh, Violet. You think, if we’rerescued…”
“It’ll be over.” My voice breaks. “This.Us. As soon as we leave, as soon as we go back… I’m terrified you and me will cease to exist. That there’s no place for us there — not together, at least. So forgive me if I’m not doing cartwheels at the prospect of a ship on that horizon. You may be thrilled beyond belief, but me?” My voice cracks. “The constant thought of losing you hasn’t been a fun way to spend the past fewdays.”
My voice fades out on a tattered breath, leaving us in total silence. As we stare at each other, listening to the rhythmic crashing of waves, I rack my brain trying to think of a way to bridge this suddendistance.
Before I can open my mouth to try, Beck starts moving. He stalks toward me, closing the gap between us in two long-legged strides, and grabs me firmly by the shoulders. Glaring down into my face, I can see how pissed he is before the first syllables leave hislips.
“That’s what you think of me? Ofus? You think what we have will disappear, just because we go back home?” He gives me a small shake. “Haven’t you been listening to a damn thing I’ve said for the past fewmonths?”
“I…I…” Ihiccup.
“Violet Anderson, you utter madwoman. You crazy, stubborn, complicated, awful, wonderful, beautiful girl. You lovely, charming, wretched, funny, sweet, strong woman.” He releases my shoulders to take my face between his hands. “I love you.I love you.And I will keep loving you until I take my last breath, whether that’s here on a deserted island with only hermit crabs to witness it, or back home in civilization, with the rest of humanity. I told you a long time ago — I’m here for you. I’ll be here for you.Always. Even when I’m a dick about it.” His lips twist. “Even whenyou’rea dick aboutit.”
I can’t help smiling at thatamendment.
His eyes soften. “We may’ve been lost on this island, but I found myself in you. And I’m never letting you go. Not now. Notever.”
His lips land on my cheeks, kissing away the tears still streaming down my face, then moving to claim my mouth. The kiss is one for the record books — an indisputable underscore to the emotions he’s just laid bare at my feet. I feel like I might float up out of my body as we stand interlocked on the beach, bothtrembling.
When he finally breaks away, my tears have stopped and there’s a lightness in my chest that’s been missing for days. He’s brought me back, yet again. My ever-present guardian, hauling me bodily from thebrink.
From the depths of a swallowingocean.
From the clutches of a scorchingthirst.
From the embrace of a still, clearpool.
From the midst of a pit ofdespair.
He has saved me over and over and over again. Without faltering. Without failure. In the darkness, he leads me back, a guiding star illuminating my way home. In the glaring light of day, he is my solid foundation, letting me fly but always there to catch me when I need to return toearth.
I hear my pulse pounding in my ears as I look up at him. They say the average human heart beats 2.5 billion times over the course of alifetime.
2.5 billionheartbeats.
And every one of mine belongs tohim.
“I love you,” I tell him, kissing him again with every ounce of passion in my bloodstream. We’re both breathless when we finally breakapart.
Beck’s eyes never shift from mine, emerald surfaces shining with light as he holds meclose.
“Going home won’t be the end of us, Violet. It’ll be a chance at a real beginning. A future together, carved out in whatever pattern we want.” His nose nuzzles mine in a stroke of reassurance. “I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks about that. Aboutus. The world can go to hell, for all I care. I’ve been there and back already. And if, when all is said and done, I walk out with the love of my life at my side… I guess I can’t really complain about a damnthing.”
* * *
In the end,it happens ratherquietly.
There are no waving flags, no blaring trumpets. No armored knight on a white horse, charging in to save the day. A helicopter does not swoop down at the last second to air-lift us to safety. Men in black flak jackets don’t storm the beach, guns blazing, as though we’re hostages in a standoff with the island keeping us against ourwill.
It’s a sun-drenched morning. I sit with my feet in the shallows, watching minnows dart by with preternatural speed as Beck re-builds his fishing traps in the sandnearby.
One minute, the horizon is clear. The next, there’s a large luxury cruiser gliding intoview.
Beck speaks rapid-fire into the radio as I throw wet leaves on our fire, sending a plume of thick black smoke up into the sky, to lead them straight to us. It’s far too shallow for the hundred-foot ship to approach our reef-ringed atoll. We stand on the beach, hand in hand, watching as a hard-bottomed inflatable dinghy is lowered from the upper deck with rope pulleys. It hits the water with asplash.