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“I know. Just pulling out the things we’re gonna use for sure.”
I nodded, helping her remove items from the tote bag. Dial could never allow herself to relax until the site was set up.
Once the table was situated like she liked it, she looked over to where Maple was walking the river’s edge. “Do you think the water’s warm enough?”
“Probably not. But when the sun pulls past the trees it’ll be real nice. Either way, you know Maple will still beg us to jump in.”
“I’ll leave the polar plunge to you and her.” Dial claimed one of the chairs.
“Absolutely not. If I have to get wet, you’re for sure coming with me.”
She flashed a look saying she would put up a fight, but I had no qualms about tossing her ass in if need be.
Dial pulled a bag of homemade granola from one of the coolers, Shaking it, she offered me some. “It’s the one with the chocolate chips you like.”
I grabbed a giant cluster and popped it into my mouth. “I think I missed this granola more than I missed you,” I teased.
“You keep talking like that and this granola is going to be your parting gift.”
“There ain’t gonna be no parting gifts, ’cause you’re stuck with me.” I’d heard her loud and clear in the car, and I agreed we needed a plan that factored in how getting back together would impact our daughter. But I was going to enjoy our day together, and for me that meant loving up on Dial and Maple.
She stared at the clear blue sky and asked, “Why do you think it is that we can’t shake each other?”
“That’s easy—it’s because you’re my person. Everyone has their person.”
“Only one?”
“You just get one. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t, but you just get the one.”
“What if you never meet your person?”
“Then they’re not the one. You could be on a train, lock eyes with someone, and feel this unexplainable connection. There’s a flash of what life could be with them and then poof, they’re gone.”
“That can’t be how it works.”
“I’m not an expert on soul mates, but I think I’m pretty close.”
“You think we’re soul mates?”
“You don’t?” Every sign and arrow was pointing to that fact, and she still had doubts.
She lifted her shoulders. “I think life or destiny has sorta pushed us together for years. Don’t really know if there’s a rhyme or reason to it all.”
“Give me your hand.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so. Just do it.” Dial held out her hand, and I laced my fingers with hers. “Look at that.”
“Yeah. What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?”
“At how perfectly we fit together.” I ignored the fact that my hand was dwarfing hers. “Do you feel that uptick in your heart rate? I know you do, because I’m experiencing the same thing. And then there’s our thoughts—I don’t know about yours, but mine are damn near X-rated.”
She snatched her hand away, standing. “We should go for a swim,” she said loudly enough that Maple reacted, jumping up and down. “Are you gonna join us, or am I gonna have to pull you in?”
“I’m a water baby, so you know I’m getting in,” I said. We stripped to our swimsuits, and I couldn’t help but sneak glances at Dial’s ass in her limoncello two-piece. “Race you to the water!”
Before the last word left my tongue, Dial had booked it, with Maple trying to keep up. The river wrapped itself around my legs, warm and slow, carrying the mossy-sweet scent that always meant summer had finally settled in. Maple’s laughter bounced off the water as I lifted her higher than I probably should have, and her squeal cracked open something bright in my chest before she splashed down in a spray of sunlit droplets. Dial’s laugh followed, soft and musical, drifting over the current like it belonged there. The grit of wet sand under my heels grounded me, and the buzzing of the cicadas scored the moment. And standing there with the two people that made the world make sense, I felt this quiet, grateful ache, like the river itself reminding me to hold on tight to everything I loved, because nothing had ever felt more right than this.
