“It’s a very beautiful place,” Hardwicke said, meaning it, though it was also a bit of a deflective pleasantry so he wouldn’t accidentally say anything more personal.
“It is – I suppose some people might say it’s a bit desolate, but I like it here,” Celeste said softly. Her eyes flickered up to his face, and Hardwicke thought – or maybe just imagined – he saw a look of wonder pass over her face. “I just… never imaginedyouwould show up here. It’s been so long – I’m shocked you even remember me, let alone recall my name. I must look completely different now.”
“No. You’re exactly the same as you ever were. I’d know you anywhere.” The words slipped out of Hardwicke’s mouth before he could stop them, and he internally cursed himself as Celeste’s eyes widened as if in shock.
“I – I feel a bit the same way, I guess,” she stuttered, as if she too couldn’t quite believe what she was saying. She bit her lip as if uncertain of what to say next, before she seemed to draw herself together, looking him in the eye again. “Look… I get this might be weird, and you can say no if you want to with no hard feelings at all, since you probably have your own ideas for how you want to spend your vacation. But… would you like to come get a drink with me, and… catch up a bit? I knowoneplace that’s open where we can get a bite to eat and something to sip on. But like I said, no hard feelings if you don’t have time. Or if you just don’t want –”
“I’d love to.” The words came out of his mouth in a heated rush, before he could think about it – and the smile that broke out over Celeste’s face as they did made his heart pound in his chest.
“That’s – that’s great!” Her eyes twinkled just as he remembered they had back then, as dark blue as the twilit sky. “Then how about now? I mean, I guess you don’t really have to unpack anymore or anything like that.”
There was mischief in her voice, and Hardwicke found a smile tugging at the corner of his own lips. He couldn’t help it – Celeste had always had that effect on him.
Because she is your mate, and somewhere in her soul, she knows it too,his pegasus said, sounding smug.That’s why she invited you out. That’s why she’s so happy to see you again, even after all this time. She knows. She just doesn’t realize it yet.
Well, his pegasuswouldsay that, Hardwicke thought as he locked up his car to prepare to follow Celeste into town. It was certain about literally everything – doubt was a foreign concept to a pegasus.
“It’s a nice little place, but I wouldn’t exactly call it fancy,” Celeste said, turning to him as they walked.
“That’s all right – anything will do. I’m not a very fussy person.” It came to Hardwicke then that hewasvery hungry – it had been a long drive, after all.
“Yes. I remember you basically would eat just about anything back then,” Celeste said. “But youwerealways pretty fussy about your drink – what was it, expensive whisky on the rocks? I don’t know if we can offer you that here on our humble island, though.”
“That’s all right – I don’t drink anymore, or hardly ever,” Hardwicke said. “That was just my wild and crazy youth, I guess.”
Celeste laughed. “I’d hardly call a glass of whisky two or three nights a week wildorcrazy. But shall we just go for something softer, then? I think we can manage that.”
As something in his chest tightened, Hardwicke wondered if this had been a good idea after all. Being near Celeste again, even after all this time, was reminding him of how he’d felt about her – not that he’d ever forgotten, but he’d managed to keep it shoved into a corner of his mind for so long that he’d been able to deal with it. The scar in his soul would never heal, but he’d learned to work around it, to not let it overcome him.
But now… how can I stay sane, when she’s right here, in front of me? With no idea about what she means to me, what sheisto me?
And how could he focus on his work – the only thing in his life thathadmeant something to him, without Celeste – if he could think only of her, of the way the corners of her eyes crinkled, of the silvery gray that now laced through her hair, of the beauty of her smile?
It had been a mistake to agree to the drink, Hardwicke decided. He’d tell her and say he’d forgotten he actually had something else he needed to do and excuse himself, just as soon as his pegasus stopped screaming and snorting at him that he’d do no such thing –
“Ah, we’re here,” Celeste said, stopping outside what looked to be a small diner – it, like a lot of the other shops they’d passed, had tinsel up on the inside of the window, little fairy lights strung across the awning, and a wreath of holly on the door. “Like I said, it’s not fancy, but it’s a nice place to sit and talk.”
It was cozy inside, Hardwicke had to admit – a nice little haven out of the wind, with small, red leather booths lining the wall.
“There’s no table service,” Celeste told him, “so I’ll go up to the counter to order for you. Do you trust me?”
Hardwicke blinked at her. The first response that jumped into his mind waswith my life,but it was possible that was just a littletoomuch when Celeste was probably just asking if he didn’t mind if she ordered for him, seeing as she knew the place.
Still, he found, he couldn’t quite bring himself to say anything else – his pegasus simply wouldn’t allow it, strangling all the other words in his throat before they could leave his lips.
“With my life,” he said, the words coming out sincere, heartfelt, earnest – everything he’d always longed to be with her.
Celeste’s eyes went wide for a moment, and then she let out a quick, shaky laugh. “Oh – well, I’ll try not to order anything that might endanger it, that’s for sure! It’s just that the cook here knows me, and she’ll sometimes make off-menu stuff for me if she’s not busy. Wait here – I won’t be long.”
Hardwicke slid into a booth, and did his very best not to put his head into his hands.
‘With my life’. Really.
It is the truth,his pegasus piped up, stomping its hooves.Don’t you regret not telling her the truth all those years ago?
Maybe so, Hardwicke thought. But it seemed like Celeste was happy now, as he watched her laughing with the woman behind the counter. Maybe it had been the right choice forher, even if it had meant he’d spent the last twenty years alone.
“So, I’ll leave what we’re having as a surprise,” Celeste said with a twinkling grin when she returned to the table. “But I made sure Chrissy – that’s the chef – knew you were an out-of-towner, so she’ll cook you up something real good.”
