Laurie squinted at him, struggling to read his lips in the glare of sun on water.
“A what?”
He raised one hand above the water and spelledS-E-L-K-I-E.
“How’s that?” she demanded.
“Beautiful,” he said and signed, then let his hand fall back beneath the surface of the water. “Otherworldly. Bound to steal my heart and disappear.”
“This is my world.” She let the small, gentle waves of the bay push her closer to him. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He stood steady as a pillar, unmoved by the waves or the tide.
Laurie braced her forearms on his sun-warmed shoulders and laced her fingers together behind his neck. Their faces were inches apart, their height difference neutralized by the buoyant saltwater. Her feet floated above the sand.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said again.
Suddenly, Kekoa unfroze.
Released from their statuesque stillness, his arms wound around her and pulled her close. The space between them disappeared.
Laurie lost herself in the warmth of his kiss, the salt smell of his skin, the steady anchor of his body.
“I’ve wanted this for so long,” he murmured against her lips.
It felt like a miracle that she could hear him even with her eyes closed, that she didn’t have to work overtime to understand him the way she did everyone else. That low voice rumbling from his chest seemed to bypass her broken ears and cut straight to her core.
He pulled back enough to look her in the eyes.
“I love you, Laurie. Everything about you. Your spirit and soul, the core of who you are. You’re extraordinary.”
She kissed him again, cutting off his words, suppressing a cold fear that she could never live up to the magical creature he had made her out to be in his mind.
Her hands moved up the back of his head, relishing the sensation of his short-cropped hair beneath her fingers.
She gave herself over to the moment, escaped her too-busy brain, left all her hesitation and worry bobbing in the wake of sensation.
Then he broke away.
The world rushed back in as cool ocean water flowed between his chest and hers. Laurie opened her eyes and flinched at the sudden glare of light on water. After the refuge of his arms, the world felt horribly harsh and wide.
She kicked her feet, treading water again, and looked at him in confusion.
“I meant what I said before.” That statue-like rigidity was back. He stood straight, expression hard, like a man barely holding himself together.
“Which part?” she asked.
“All of it!”
Suddenly, Laurie felt very tired.
She swam for shore, and her legs shook as she walked out of the water. She went to a bit of shade and dropped into the sand, feeling completely worn out.
Kekoa sat beside her, and they were quiet for a while.
Finally, he brought a fist up to his chest and moved it in a small circle.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you,” he said.
