“Yep.”
She wrinkles her nose. “Of course you have. Probably bungee jumped too. And pretty much anything I can think of except maybe the hot-air balloon. Wait. Have you hot-air ballooned before?”
I laugh. “No. That’s one I haven’t done.”
“What else haven’t you done?”
I look out at the ocean. Love the view from up here. Really gives perspective. “Not much.”
“But thereissomething left on your list?”
There is.
It’s a big one.
“Theo?”
I blow out a breath.
Here I am, giving Laney an adventure of her lifetime, terrified to tell her what’s on my own big scary things list.
Can’t have that, can we?
“I want to fall in love.”
Her eyes widen and her lips form a smallo, like she wasn’t expecting me to go there.
But I have. And now I’m all in. I look her square in the eye. “Not thehappykind of love. Not whatever it is Emma has. It’s what she wants for her, great. But I wantmore. I wantecstaticlove.Purposelove. I want a love that’s the very reason for my existence. I want a love that makes life make sense, and I want a love that makes me want to be better. Myownkind of better. Fuckhappy. Fuckeasy. Fucksettling. I wanteverything.”
She doesn’t blink.
Doesn’t look away.
Just stares at me, listening.
Absorbing.
Yearning?
Does she feel it? Does she get it? Does she wanteverythingtoo?
“That sounds terrifying,” she whispers.
“That’s how I know it’s right.”
There’s a tug at the line.
I look down at the boat and wave.
Captain’s pulling us in.
Laney doesn’t say anything else on the way down.
She’s polite to the captain while he gets us back on the boat and pulls us to shore, then drops us at the dock.
We need to get back to the resort.
I know we do.
