“I always thought it was a girl who hurt you and sent you there that night.” Her smile is ironic. “Can you believe I was even a teensy bit jealous?” She shakes her head, blinking up at thestructure.
“You were right,technically.”
“I…I don’t know what to say. Your mom…” Aubrey squeezes her eyes shut. When she opens them, they’re shiny. “I feel so bad for your dad. Paul, I mean. And you, too.” Her fingers drift over myforearm.
“You can still call him my dad. That’s what he is. And don’t worry about me. I’ve gotten overit.”
“How?” She makes a face. “I don’t mean that you shouldn’t have. I just feel silly now, knowing all this. It took me until now to forgive my mom for what she did, and I’ve known about it my whole life. How did you go from shock to forgiveness soquickly?”
“It took some time. That night with you helped. When I heard your story, I realized I wasn’t alone. And it wasn’t anything I did wrong. I watched you leave after ourhour—”
“You watched mego?”
I feel a twinge of guilt. I hadn’t wanted her to feel embarrassed about the way we’d used each other, so I pretended to beasleep.
“Our time was up, and when you got out of my bed, I knew you were going to leave. I watched you get dressed. And then you picked up my family picture from a box and looked at it.” I can see it so clearly, her finger tracing the people in the photograph, the light from that night’s full moon illuminating her body. “I realized how lucky I was to have my dad. Someone who wanted me so much he adopted the lovechild of his wife’saffair.”
Aubrey takes a deep breath. Her eyes follow two quail running across the parking lot. When they disappear into a bush, she murmurs, “I don’t know what tosay.”
I understand that. How long was it before I could form a sentence after I first foundout?
“It’s a lot to take in,” I tellher.
“Where do we go from here, Isaac?” She blinks up at me, shielding her eyes from thesun.
“That depends on you,Sixty.”
“Me?” Her eyes show me the fear she feels, but there’s happiness theretoo.
I nod once. “I’m all in. Areyou?”
Her eyes roam my face, then her hands follow the trails her eyes just made. I close my eyes and lean into hertouch.
When she says the word, I hear it, but I can’t believe it, so I ask her to say itagain.
“Yes,” she yells,laughing.
I laugh with her, and pull her face to mine. When my lips slide over hers, I know our hours are finished. The clock is wide open, and I’m going to love her every hour of every day until there are no more hoursleft.
Perfection isn’t attainable,I know that now. It doesn’t even exist. But when I look out at the scene in front of me, I know this is the best it could everbe.
Claire flies up into the air, her knees tucked into her body, and comes back down, sending a wall of water cascading over Isaac. She laughs and swims away. Isaac glides to where I sit on the second pool step, leaning in to kiss me on thelips.
“What do you think about giving Claire a little brother or sister?” he murmurs against mycheek.
“Only if we can spend more than one hour trying,” Iwhisper.
Our back door opens, and my dad steps out. Isaac straightens but holds his hand up. I smack his offered high-five andwink.
“Dad, where’s Cheryl?” I ask as he comes up behindme.
“In the kitchen. She brought over an appetizer. And adessert.”
I smile. He tries to hide it, but I can tell he really likes her. I like her too, and I especially like that he goes hunting a lot less than he used to. I consider it a win from allangles.
“Hi, John.” Isaac comes out of the pool, dries off, and shakes hands with mydad.
“Hello, son-in-law.” He claps Isaac on the back, then wipes the pool water off on his shorts. “You two ready for that honeymoonyet?”
