And she wanted every part of him.
When they reached the dock, Arthur stopped and knelt. “Here.”
She dropped to her knees beside him, her eyes tracing the pathof the bird carved into the lid of the box. It was beautiful. She hadn’t noticed that before. The last time they’d tried to do this, she’d been so angry that all she saw was him, him, him.
Now she realized exactly what she was looking at, and she reached to touch the intricately carved design. “Is this… a starling?”
Arthur nodded once, a tug to his lips. “Her favorite bird.”
Then he undid the latch and lifted the top of the box, exposing what remained of the pale gray ashes. Eva pictured the spirit of the wood, and the strange, arborous form she’d taken to communicate with her son again.
There was nothing so strange about these remains, save one thing. When Eva looked down, she saw a honeybee, out far too late, sitting on the dock. She lifted it onto her fingertip just as the wind picked up and stole the ashes from the box, chasing them across the rippled surface of the pond.
“So, now you know.” After a moment, Eva realized Arthur was addressing the little insect she held. “She’s gone.”
Eva bit her lip and lifted the honeybee into the air. As far as eulogies went, it wasn’t much, but then, Arthur Connoway did a lot of speaking without words.
He leaned against her. “Hey, Ev?”
“Yeah?”
Arthur kept his eyes on the water, softly rubbing her skirt between his forefinger and thumb as he spoke. “I didn’t like to talk about her much before.”
“I know.”
After a long silence, Arthur turned his face to hers. The last sun streak lit the jeweled hazel tones in his eyes. He was earth and fire,passion and depth. “I think I’d like to tell you about her now,” he said. “If that’s okay.”
Pressure built behind her eyes. Eva lifted the now-empty box and set it on the dock, crawling into Arthur’s lap and folding her arms around his neck. His hands came around her, and together, they breathed, slow and steady. They had the time, after all.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Tell me everything.”
Epilogue
One Year Later
I groaned, clutching the dark gold mess of Eva’s hair. “We have to go, bee girl.”
Eva used one arm to swipe her tangle over one shoulder. “You want me to stop?”
“No.”
She grinned, crawling back up and fitting her body to mine in a warm, sloppy kiss. I hadn’t slept well in the tent, and drowsiness made the pleasure of her touch harder to resist, especially when she rolled her hips against mine like that.
The alarm sounded.
“Ignore it,” Eva said into my neck, squeezing her thighs against me. I fumbled for theSNOOZEbutton again.
“Five minutes,” I mumbled, rolling her over and kicking off the sleeping bag.
We didn’t really have five minutes. Blue hour would come and go in a flash, and if we weren’t ready, we wouldn’t make it to the proposal spot by sunrise.
But then Eva wriggled out of her shorts.
With a growl, I sat up and took her by the hips. She rode mewith her hands on my shoulders, my face buried in her breasts and my hands at her waist to control the rhythm.
It drove me wild. And she knew it.
“You are resplendent,” I murmured against her skin.
