“Watch your fingers,” I tell her, securing the fish and removing the hook with precision. “Excellent work, Alicia.”
I glance up briefly and catch Cecilia watching us. She’s lowered the e-reader completely now, her chin resting in her hand.
“I think we have lunch,” I say, smiling her way.
“Only if you clean it,” Cecilia calls back, her tone light.
“Fair enough,” I reply, turning back to the kids. “Who wants to learn how to fillet?”
We clean the fish right there on the stern bench. Alicia and Ethan tease each other the entire time. All week she’s been insisting that her brother needs to stop calling her Buttercup now that she’s about to turn fourteen.
I brought them out here as an early celebration, before the official party. I’ll admit, I considered skipping the main evententirely. I thought about showing up the next day, or perhaps stopping by briefly afterward, all to avoid the inevitable tension.
Montgomery makes no effort to hide his displeasure. Every time he looks at me, he seems ready to throttle me on the spot. I endure it. I would endure far worse if it meant keeping the peace for Cecilia and the kids.
I didn’t want Alicia’s day burdened by his behavior. But Alicia asked me to be there. She looked me straight in the eye when she did. And in that moment, I realized I would face the fury of a thousand jealous fathers if that’s what it took. Refusing her was never an option. Next week, I will be at her party. I will show up for her, no matter the cost.
“Alex, I think I cut it wrong,” she says, pulling me back to the present.
I lean closer. “Let me see. No, it’s good. Just angle the blade a little more. Like this.”
Once the fillets are seasoned, we set them on the grill with vegetables. When everything’s ready, we eat together, along with the pasta salad Cecilia prepared.
I take them in one by one: the kids laughing, the sea breeze tangling our hair, Sam at my side waiting for a dropped scrap.
Yeah, I think,there is nowhere in the world I would rather be.
I wake to an empty space beside me, the sheets already cold.
Sleep evaporates. I drag a hand down my face, forcing out a long breath, but my thoughts have already gone back to yesterday’s scare. To finding her far out in the water, alone on an empty beach. I made her promise to wake me if she wanted to go into the ocean this early.
I pull on sweatpants and leave the room, moving down the hallway with care so I don’t wake Ethan or Alicia.
When I reach the glass door to the porch and look out, the tension in my shoulders fades as I see her.
She’s sitting on the hanging swing, wrapped in a light blanket, watching the horizon with a calmness that is miles away from the turmoil that lived in my chest only seconds ago. Sam is sleeping at her feet, as expected.
I slide the door open, and the sound of the ocean floods in. I cross the porch and sit beside her, pulling her into my arms. She leans back as I kiss her temple.
We stay like that for a moment, watching the sun rise on the horizon.
I brush a strand of hair away from her face, my gaze lingering on her profile. This view doesn’t even come close to the feeling of having her in my arms.
“One of these days,” I murmur, my lips pressed to her temple, “I’m going to get down on one knee for you. You know that, don’t you?”
Cecilia arches an eyebrow and turns to look at me, that spark I adore, defiantly lighting her eyes. “But you already do that at least three times a week.”
A laugh slips out before I can stop it. I nip at her chin. “Sassy,” I say. “And you know exactly what I mean.”
Her expression changes into something that dismantles me every time. She lifts a hand and traces my jaw. I turn my head, pressing a kiss into her palm.
“I know,” she whispers. I feel my heart answer immediately, pounding hard into my ribs. “And I want everything with you, too.”
She gives me a half-smile. “I kept my promise,” she adds. “I stopped running.”
She leans in and kisses me. When her tongue brushes mine, for a moment, the ocean, the sleeping house, the world itself cease to exist.
She pulls back to look at me.“Ti amo, Alexander. Sei ogni stella del mio universo.”[LXXX]
