She laughed and took a deep breath, her hand pressed to her chest. “You’ve worn me out, Calum MacLachlan.”
“I doubt anything could wear you out. I get tired just watching you.”
“I love this. I really do. I’ve never felt so much a part of something before.”
He leaned against a willow tree, reached up, and broke off a twig. “It makes the world look like a different place after you’ve seen it through the eyes of these people.”
“They are wonderful.”
He was looking at her as if he wanted to say something very badly.
She cocked her head. “What is it?”
He didn’t respond right away, just tossed the twig into the river and moved over to the river’s edge and stood there looking out at the water with his hands shoved into his pockets.
She walked over to stand beside him, then sat down in the damp grass that edged the riverbank.
The moonlight made the water sparkle like silver glass and the music and the laughter flowed out over them the same way the slight breeze did. She looked up at him and watched that breeze ruffle his hair.
He looked back down at her after a long silence; then he sat down next to her, his long legs drawn up and his forearms resting on them.
She was leaning back on her elbows and looking up at the night sky. “I don’t remember ever seeing a night like this. Look at all those stars up there twinkling down at us.”
“For some reason there are always more stars when you’re this close to the sea.”
“I wonder why that is?”
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“Did you ever wonder what those stars really are?”
“No.”
“Didn’t you ever look up when you were a boy and pretend they were something special?”
“No.”
She laughed. You were probably too busy cleaning something.”
He just looked at her.
“Try it now.”
“Try what?”
“Guess what the stars are.”
“Stars.”
“Please.”
“All right.” He was quiet for a long time. “I suppose I’ve always thought they were planets like the sun or the moon only smaller and farther away.”
“They could be. I think they’re lightning bugs that fly really high.”
He gave her an odd look and she laughed. “Go on. It’s your turn. Dream up something.”
He scowled up at the sky. “Running lights for ships that can fly to the moon.”
