As our laughter subsided, I marveled at how good it felt to let go, to be silly and imperfect with Zaila. “Thank you,” I murmured, kissing her temple.
She looked up at me. “For what?”
“For making me laugh. For being here. For...everything.” Zaila’s smile was tender as she traced the outline of my botched tattoo.
“No, no, I should thank you. This is just what I needed.”
We stayed just like that for a while, the heat of the sauna and the comfort of each other’s presence wrapping around us like a cocoon. This moment, sharing this place, reinforced my earlier revelation that I needed her. Not just wanted, but needed—like air, like the ice beneath my skates, like the beat of my heart. Zaila brought with her a sense of peace I hadn’t known in years. Maybe ever.
When the timer went off, we stepped out of the sauna and into the cool evening air. The sky had deepened to a rich indigo, stars beginning to twinkle overhead. On impulse, I grabbed Zaila’s hand. “Come on, I want to show you something.”
I stopped long enough to grab us each a thick, fluffy robe and some clogs that I kept by the back door. Hers were too big, but she followed me as I led her down to the private dock jutting out into the sea. The water lapped against the wooden pilings, a soothing rhythm in the quiet night.
“Look,” I said, pointing out over the water.
Zaila gasped as she saw what I was pointing toward: the faint, shimmering curtains of green light dancing across the northern sky.
“The aurora borealis, nature’s best light show,” I said.
“Incredible,” she whispered.
I loved her like this—soft, awestruck, warm, and cuddly.
I loved who I was with her. Part of me wished we’d never return to Houston, to work and our lives—that we could stay here at the ends of the earth and soak in nature’s wonders. I’d never deal with another irritation, just love Zaila until I quit breathing.
There was definitely merit in this thought. Though I wouldn’t be able to follow through. Zaila would want to visit her mother’s grave, return to work, and I was too enmeshed in my hockey team to let someone else take over the day-to-day details I handled. I’d been trying to find the right person since I’d started dating Zaila, but I hadn’t yet, and I wasn’t sure I could.
I wrapped my arms around her from behind, resting my chin on her shoulder. “Not as incredible as you.”
She turned her head, a smirk playing at her lips. “Smooth talker.”
“I try,” I said. “I mean it, though. Zaila, you’ve brought light back into my life. Joy. Laughter. Things I thought I’d lost for good when Karl died.”
Her eyes shimmered in the starlight. “Gunnar...”
“I’m serious. I know what you’re going through, how much it hurts, how you want to run from it. And I know that you’ll be stronger than I was, handle your grief better than I did because you’re unstoppable, Zaila. It’s one of the many things I adore about you.”
She shook her head, overcome. With a quick movement, I scooped her up in my arms.
Zaila let out a squeal. “What are you doing?”
I grinned down at her. “Going for a swim!”
“Don’t you dare—Gunnar!”
Her protests dissolved into shrieks of laughter as I jumped off the dock, plunging us both into the chilly North Sea. We surfaced, sputtering and laughing, the shock of the cold water exhilarating.
“You’re insane!” Zaila gasped, splashing water at me.
I caught her hand, pulling her close. “Insanely in love with you.”
Zaila’s face broke into a radiant smile. “Well, that’s good,” she said, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Because I’m pretty insanely in love with you, too. And that was before you brought me to this magical place.”
As we kissed with the aurora shimmering overhead and the cool sea lapping around us, the world seemed full of possibility, of joy, of love.
We swam back to the dock, climbing out and wrapping ourselves in the thick towels I’d left there earlier. As we made our way back to the house, hands intertwined, I couldn’t stop smiling.
“What’s got you so happy?” Zaila asked, bumping her shoulder against mine.
