“You came back,” he says, finally, voice scraping his throat.
“I told you I would.” My face is buried in his chest, soaking in the familiar smell of his tank top.
“But you couldn’t have finished sorting everything. Where’s all your stuff? What about Lisa?”
“Fuck my stuff. I’ve got everything I need right here.” I look up at him, my chin digging into his muscular pecs. He leans toward me again, raining kisses all over my face.
“Do you really want to stay on Gili Telu forever? I know it seems like a paradise, but it’s a lot different when it’s your every day. You might not realize how much you’ll be giving up—”
I press my finger to his lips before he can build up steam and pull him down to touch his forehead to mine. He’s bent nearly in half.
“You really haven’t been listening. I love the island. I love the sanctuary. But what I really love is you. I know exactly what I’m giving up because I know exactly what I stand to gain. You don’t get to make my choices for me.” I cross my arms over my chest. “There are a lot of places in the world I’d love to see. Wherever you go, I go. We’ll figure it out together.”
“I love you too.”
For a moment he seems unable to say anything else. I can see the thoughts flickering behind his shining eyes, but he finally seems to accept it. He’d better. I didn’t take two planes, a shuttle, and a ferry just to get rejected on the pier.
“Can we go home?” I ask, the hours of travel finally catching up with me all at once.
“Home is wherever we’re together.” He grins, then scoops me off my feet, making me squeal. “But let’s get somewhere with a bed.”
He tracks down my only suitcase and tosses it into the back of a horse-drawn cart before climbing in, never letting me go. He tells the driver where to bring us and cuddles me close, stroking my legs, holding me to his chest.
Suddenly his face lights up like the sun breaking through the clouds.
“I’ve been looking at boats. There’s this ship for sale on Lombok—”
My grin nearly takes over my face. After Steven pays the driver, the world seems to shrink to just the two of us as we trace the well-worn path back to the bungalow.
We tumble into bed still talking about what the future could look like and all the places that we could potentially call home.
I show him the bucket list my Mom saved and he pores over my childish handwriting.
“We could smash this list in a year! There’s some great diving out in Egypt. We could pop in between some treasure hunting.”
“Would you really want to do that?” I ask, my heart feeling full and content.
“Go on an adventure with you? Fuck yeah I want to do that.” He wraps an arm around my waist and moves me on top of him. After a few more minutes of kissing, I pull back.
“What about work? What about the turtles?”
“I can work wherever there’s an ocean. If you want to see it, we’ll go there. I want to visit my family, introduce you to everyone, but then we can go anywhere.”
“What about me? Eva promised to help me set up a website, but will I be able to freelance from a sailboat? What if I’m no good at it and I don’t make enough money and we go broke and get stranded somewhere?” I’m spiraling. His lips on mine drag me back down to Earth.
“You’ll keep following your heart and using that beautiful brain of yours to figure it out. And I’ll be there to support you every step of the way. Wait until you see how many people have booked the next few weeks because they saw your ads. You’re good at what you do. People will take notice.”
“Can we finish out the nesting season at least? We don’t have to go now?”
“We don’t have to do anything,” he says, snuggling me tight and tucking his head into the crook of my neck and shoulder. I feel something pressing against my leg and a warmth spreads throughout my body.
“Tell me again,” I whisper, voice husky as I grind up against him.
“I love you,” he says, reading my mind perfectly.
I wriggle, feeling his hard steel against my thighs. It makes my mouth water.
“Be careful,” he warns, his voice low, tickling the hairs on the back of my neck.
