I grin. “Something like that.” No person has ever loved me like my dad. If he knew about the cancer, he would be here. He’d steal a thousand lives to save mine. “I don’t…” I shake my head “…I don’t know why certain random things pop into my head. But I can’tnotsay them. I’ve been so enamored with the unique, the crazy, the unexpected… I assume everyone around me surely finds this information as fascinating as I do. My dad did.” I furrow my brow, staring at my feet. “At least I think he did.”
“Dolphins …”
I glance up as Theo speaks.
“Driftwood… mating… fascinating.” He rubs the back of his neck, eyes on me, and a boyish grin claiming his mouth.
Who is this man? And where has he been? And why do I feel his hand reaching into my chest, trying to claim something he cannot have?
“Sharks…” He continues. “Sharks kill, on average, ten humans per year—worldwide. Humans… we are responsible for the death of over one hundred million sharks per year. So… statistically, I’m not going to die by the jaws of a shark.”
I did not know that. I’m equally saddened by the morbidity of his statement and excited that he has his own random-facts bank. In another life, Theodore Reed would make my heart do flips. A part of my soul would gravitate toward his. However, in this life, I will be satisfied with moments like this, stealing as many nows as I can. Surely, a third-generation thief can do that. Can’t I?
“I don’t have an eating disorder. Never have had one. I like cheese and cream sauces, anything fried, pints of lager, wine so old it’s a crime to drink it, and the occasional puff of a cigar because it reminds me of my grandfather. I obsess over large chocolate bunnies at Easter and sweets at Halloween. I never believed in Father Christmas, but it didn’t stop me from pretending that I did so my dad would attempt to bake biscuits to put by the tree. They were the worst thing I have ever tasted.
“But I came here—Savannah—to see…” I shake my head and blink back the tears “…to see if I can do it better. To see if doing it better will make a difference in my life. In this life.”
Theo’s brow pulls tight. I can only imagine what he thinks of my sappy and cryptic view on life. I could tell him. I could say “I’m dying,” but I don’t owe him any explanation, and he doesn’t owe me an ounce of sympathy. Everything between us is a lie. We are nothing and that’s how it has to be.
Every kiss.
Every touch.
Every moment of skin to skin in truly stolen breaths.
It’s allnothingbut a fleeting moment—anowwith nothing brought from the past and nothing borrowed from the future. What if life could be that for everyone? What if every moment was free from expectations and regret? What if we started counting time in breaths instead of seconds? What if I could hold my breath and stop time?
I smile. That’s my ah-ha moment. When we stop breathing… time does stop. That’s when we know our time is up. I think I’ll keep counting breaths.
“I’m holding you up.” I turn and head down the stairs.
“Maybe I can quit a little early.”
I turn.
Theo shrugs. “Maybe I can make us dinner. You know… Food. Small talk. Maybe I say something that makes you grin. Maybe you say something that makes me laugh. Maybe the food is crap so we drink too much wine. Maybe the full moon beckons us to the beach where we walk in the shadows of the night. Maybe you tell me something about yourself. Maybe it’s a lie, and maybe that’s okay because we’re both going our separate ways in a few months. But maybe… just maybe for one night we feelhuman.”
I won’t love you, Theodore Reed. I can’t.
I nod. “I’d like that very much.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
My name is Scarlet Stone and I would stick my hand in a biscuit barrel of poisonous snakes on the off chance that there might be one biscuit left.
Theodore
It’s been aweek since I’ve looked at the newspaper clippings and photos. It’s been a week since I polished my knives and closed my hand around my .45 Winchester Magnum or assembled my .22 long rifle. It’s been a week since I’ve thought about killing anyone.
“What is this?” Scarlet covers her mouth with a napkin and coughs a few times.
“Tofu. You said you didn’t eat meat.” I cut into my medium rare steak.
“What did you do to it?” She gulps down her water then takes a sip of Merlot.
“Fried it in a pan with some of yourseasalt.”
“And?”
