He nodded, brown eyes intense as he looked at her. He wasn’t even breathing.
How was it possible that she still had that effect on him?
Noah had only gotten more handsome since their shared adolescence. The years looked good on him. Anne, on the other hand… the face that she saw in the mirror was deeply tired, with stress lines etched into her brow and age spots starting to compete with her freckles. Living with her family in the humid tropics, she had abandoned the complicated makeup routine that she’d kept up in California.
She felt old and plain.
But Noah didn’t see her that way. Noah saw her beauty, and she loved him for it. She loved him for so many reasons; she always had. And yet, even with so much shared history, what was between them now felt… different, somehow.
“I’d like that,” she said.
A smile blazed across his face. “Really?”
“Really.” She reached her hands out, just slightly, and he hurried to take them.
“I’m glad you’re back.” He squeezed her fingers gently. “I’ve missed you.”
“We’ve known each other all our lives, but this feels… new.”
“Like the start of something.”
“Exactly.”
“I have so much on my plate right now…”
“I’m not in any rush.” Noah’s smile was warm, his expression calm again. “We’re on island time here, remember?”
Anne nodded, her eyes fixed on his. “I remember.”
24
Laurie
Laurie sat on the back steps with her legs in the sun and a warm cup of tea held in both hands. It was good to be home. She missed the familiar comfort of this place.
There was something about the salt air that simultaneously grounded and uplifted her, like her soul was expanding with each breath. She loved the sharp contrast of the horizon where the bright cerulean sky met the dark sapphire sea, and she loved watching the waves roll ever inward.
She rarely sat so peacefully, just looking out at the world. Either she was busy with something – doing household chores or working online or giving Mia her full attention – or she escaped into a book.
Sometimes it felt as though she had forgotten how to justbe.
Then she visited the landscape of her childhood, these dark cliffs above a restless sea, a stark place brightened by sunshine and tropical flowers… and she remembered.
The wooden boards of the back porch shook beneath her; Mia was stomping to get her attention. Laurie turned to smile at her daughter.
“Can I go get shave ice with Auntie Anne?” Mia asked.
Sure, she replied.Tell her you need to be back before four.
OK!She ran back into the house.
Laurie stayed outside a while longer, sipping her golden mamaki tea. Eventually, her mom came out to join her. They sat in companionable silence for a while before Dawn turned to speak to her.
“Are you staying for dinner? I asked Zoe to make that ‘ulu chicken soup that everybody loves so much.”
Dawn had a stiff and stumbling way of signing, accompanying maybe half of her words with an ASL translation – but it was still better than nothing.
Laurie’s husband had thrown himself into learning ASL in the first year of their relationship… and then, as she had gotten to know him better and lipreading became easier, he had slowly dropped off.
