Everyone else’s significant others landed on the island and fate brought them together.
Maybe it was her turn for it to happen.
“I’m giving this a chance. I’m not saying he has a decision to make. We both do. But putting pressure on anything isn’t good.”
“Bring him to Easter dinner next Sunday,” her mother said.
“What?”
“You heard your mother. If he’s here alone and doesn’t have a close relationship with his family, there is no reason he can’t join you with your siblings.”
One part of her yearned for him to be here, to see her world and meet the people who shaped it. The other part dreaded the scrutiny, the questions, the unspoken tests he’d never signed up for.
Hadn’t he been tested enough in his life?
If not his life, at least yesterday that she’d witnessed.
“I’ll feel the situation out,” she said.
It was the best she could do.
She left shortly after, ran to the store to get food for the week, then went home to finish her laundry.
All the things she had to do before work tomorrow.
Arik was probably on the couch with his feet up and watching TV.
Could she really find some common ground when they had such vastly different lifestyles and backgrounds?
21
BELIEVING IN THINGS
“You bought a puzzle for us to do? Or is this an April Fool’s joke?” Natalie asked on Tuesday.
He’d texted her on Sunday to see if she was settled, then told himself not to bug her too much at work yesterday.
Secretly, he hoped she’d be the first to reach out to him and she had by mid-morning, his relief washing over him like steady waves on a calm beach.
Not that he’d been steady or calm prior to her name lighting up on his phone, but after, that was exactly how he’d felt.
How she made him feel.
No one could bring out that emotion in him. Ever.
Not even his grandmother.
But Natalie had him believing in things that he thought didn’t exist.
“Do you know how hard it is to come up with date ideas that don’t consist of going out to dinner on this small island?”
She laughed. “There are a lot of things to do.”
“There are. But you’ve probably done most of them. If I tried to go over the top, you might think I was buying your attention. I don’t want that either.”
The war he battled internally was enough to rival the sweat from a 10K in the desert.
“I can see your side of it,” she said.
