But his voice was a million miles away, nowhere near me or my butterflies or my ocean. The water was perfect. It swirled between my toes as I sailed straight in, rising around my ankles then up to my knees, the ripped hem of my shorts already damp and darkening. Somewhere in another life, Wyn was yelling my name but I was too busy listening to the waves. I saw him rushing past worried onlookers as they lined up along the sand but I couldn’t work out why they were so worried. Couldn’t they see I was exactly where I needed to be? Beyond the swarm of people was another familiar face. A tall, pale-haired woman in a long white dress. She gazed out at me, worry written all over her face as she moved, invisible, through the crowd.
Emma Catherine Bell, she sighed, words for only me to hear.Return to me.
But I didn’t want to go back.
The water was up to my waist and the butterflies just out of reach. One more step and I’d be able to touch them …
‘Emily!’
A hard slap struck me, a massive wave taking my legs out from under me and dragging me down beneath the surface. I snapped back to myself and panic set in right away, my arms and legs kicking in every direction, but instead of driving me up, I seemed to sink deeper. The water coiled itself around my limbs, no longer liquid but solid, sentient. It wanted me for itself. Just as the light above began to narrow into a long dark tunnel, something else grabbed me around the waist, pulling me up and out with determination.
Seawater burned in my eyes as Wyn dragged me into shallower waters and I swiped at them with useless, salty hands. Overhead, the butterflies disappeared, replaced by sudden storm clouds, threatening the sunny day.
‘You’re OK, you’re OK,’ Wyn repeated over and over when we were back on the sand, well away from the waves. ‘Can you hear me? Can you say something?’
He knelt down at my side as I struggled upright, spluttering out a mouthful of water in response. The crowd melted away, returning to their friends and families without anything too exciting to report, and as they dispersed, I searched the beach for the woman in white. Just like the butterflies, she was gone.
With one hand, Wyn peeled wet hair away from my face, and held on to my wrist with the other, as if he was afraid I might hurl myself back under if he looked away for so much as a second.
‘I’m sorry,’ I croaked as the menacing clouds faded back into fluffy white cotton wool. ‘It must have been the tidal shelf, like you said.’
‘The waves went crazy,’ he murmured, fingers still combing through my hair. ‘Didn’t you see the storm coming in? I thoughtwe were going to get another like yesterday and you don’t want to be in the water when the lightning hits.’
A harsh worry line that had embedded itself deep between his eyebrows smoothed out as his hand curled around my cheek. I tried to concentrate but the way his thumb caressed my face left me ragged and breathless.
‘What would I do if something happened to you?’ he asked himself so quietly I had to strain to hear him. ‘I can’t imagine the world without you, Em, I don’t want to. Even if this is the last thing I expected to find in Savannah.’
‘None of this is what I expected,’ I whispered back. ‘But I’m so happy I found you.’
‘I think we found each other. I think we were meant to.’
He gazed at my lips and slid his thumb down the side of my face, tracing my cheekbone, my jaw, finally resting underneath my chin. Was this it? Was it finally going to happen? His eyes darkened with desire and locked on mine, until something else caught his attention.
‘Em,’ he said softly, turning his face to the sky. ‘Look up.’
I was afraid to, terrified I would see another cloud of inexplicable butterflies, but when I made myself look, I gasped. It was so much better and so much worse. A bold and brilliant rainbow, unbroken from end to end, shimmered in the air, stretching from one end of the beach to the other. Everyone was back on their feet, mouths hanging open, awestruck.
‘I didn’t even feel it rain,’ Wyn said. ‘Did you?’
‘No,’ I replied. ‘I didn’t.’
We hadn’t felt it rain because there wasn’t any rain. This rainbow had nothing to do with sunlight refracted by water in the air and everything to do with the way I felt about Wyn. All eyes were on the rainbow, shining even brighter against the bright blue sky, but I was too busy staring at a miracle of my own.
‘It’s beautiful,’ he said, squeezing my hand so tightly it sent a rush of golden sparks up my arm and straight to my heart. ‘I wish it could last forever.’
‘Me too,’ I replied, squeezing back just as hard. ‘Me too.’
Chapter Eighteen
‘You really have to be home so soon?’
Wyn pulled over into an empty space on Macon Street, put his truck in park then turned off the rumbling antique engine. ‘They’re showingJawsat the theatre down on Reynolds Square. Did you ever see it? Could be fun.’
‘I would love that but I can’t,’ I said with genuine regret. Old movies were my kryptonite. ‘My grandmother is expecting me home and—’
‘No need to explain. Protective grandparent, I get it,’ he said. ‘What if I come by and introduce myself? Last summer, I worked at the restaurant in this fancy hotel and I did real well with the afternoon tea crowd. Grandmother charming was my specialty, I swear.’
I didn’t doubt him for a second.
