“You lived with huge sand worms eating people,” I continued. “There are goddess sea monsters sleeping in caves in the water. A few weeks ago, the island was surrounded by attacking sharks. That’s all normal to you. If you believe in the paranormal on the mainland, you’re a crackpot. If you keep insisting, the men in little white coats show up to commit you.”
“You don’t have a single friend you think you could tell the truth?” he challenged.
“I don’t.”
He seemed to read my mind. “I’m sorry for suggesting it then.”He was appropriately contrite. “I just want to make sure all your dreams come true. The thought that you didn’t have any friends back home … .”
“I had friends,” I countered. “They might not have been the same sort of friends you were blessed with, but I had friends.” I paused a beat. “When I think of my life on the mainland, it doesn’t feel like my life any longer. I never felt as if I belonged back there. I was always searching for something. I assumed it was my mother but now I’m not so sure.”
“You were looking for me.” He broke into a wide smile.
“Your ego is amazing,” I said on a laugh. “I think I was looking for you.”
He puffed himself out.
“I also think I was looking for Lilac … and Booker … and Aurora. I was looking for Wesley, and this island.” I sucked in a deep breath. “I think I was looking for the magic.”
His expression softened. “I understand, but there must be someone from your old life you want to share your future with.”
“Why are you so adamant about this?”
“If you didn’t have anyone in your life you could trust with your darkest secrets, you were alone,” he replied. “I can’t stand the thought of you being alone.”
“If it’s any consolation, I didn’t know I was alone.”
“That makes it only mildly better.”
“How about this?” I leaned closer to him. “I’ve never been happier. Isn’t that the most important thing?”
“Yes, but I want you to have more than one person who is there for you at our wedding.”
He was talking about my father. “Wesley will be there for me.” I wanted to say that his friends would be there for me too, but the truth was they would be there for us. Wesley would be too, because he was genuinely fond of Galen long before I arrived on the island. My father was the only one who was mine.
“I guess I’m focusing on things that don’t need to be focused on,” Galen said after several seconds.
“You really are,” I agreed. “What’s important is us. The other stuff … it’s going to happen as it should.”
He grabbed my hand and squeezed. “You’re still wearing white, right?”
Laughter escaped before I realized it was bubbling up. “Absolutely. I will look like a virginal dream.”
“Yeah, don’t take it to a weird place.”
“I heard it as soon as I said it.”
“It creeps me out.”
He wasn’t the only one.
BOOKER, LILAC, AURORA, AND BRODYmet us in the parking lot of the Voodoo Lounge. The place didn’t look operational — there wasn’t a single golf cart in the lot and the windows were too dirty to see through — but Galen assured me it was indeed open for business.
“Who owns this place now?” I asked.
“Blaine Gordon,” Galen replied, looking down at his phone screen. “He purchased the bar about eight years ago.”
“Who owned it before then?”
“Michael Smith.”
