Page 53 of Wild Life

“Never.”

I let out a sigh. “I obviously miss her. What kid wouldn’t miss their parents after they died tragically when they were so young? However, if they were still alive, I think I would still have struggled with seeking love from outside sources.”

“Maybe if my dad had survived the cata-maran accident, I would still have blamed him for it.”

“Do you blame him now?”

Aleki gathered my hair into a high ponytail with one hand and raked his fingers along my scalp at the base. “If it weren’t for his n-need for adventure, my f-family would have been safe at home. I had wished for it on that l-last trip—that we’d never have to go on a b-boat again. Someone or something must’ve been l-listening to me.”

I remembered my own wish before the car accident. “Right before our car crashed, I wished to live on a tropical island far away from my parents. For years, I blamed myself for killing them. I guess the universe was listening to both of us.” The laugh that left me was heavy and void of anything positive. The universe obeying children’s wishes was wild work. Many times, I had wished that Bit, my toy bat, had turned into a real one. I would have taken that instead of the whole deserted-island deal. “IwishI’d never made that wish.”

“I don’t.”

His confidence startled me, and I looked over my shoulder. “Why not?”

“Because I never would have met you.”

Our lips met again, and the kiss grew deeper and more consuming than before. Our broken pasts were fusing together into a complete present, with the promise of a future worth wishing for.

We broke apart after some time, and Aleki refocused on my hair.

“Read me your book.”

Poaka overheard the command and abandoned the patch of mushrooms he had been busy feasting on to plant his burly body next to me.

I rubbed his head before rocking in my seat and folding my legs into a pretzel. I cracked open the paperback. “You’re going to love this one.”

The brook babbled softly in the background as I thumbed through the pages, finding the first chapter.

Aleki oiled my hair tenderly and carefully, as if I were his whole world. And I read for my boys in the only world I wanted to be in.

Chapter 24

Iguana, Don’t You Wanna?

Aleki

“Tilt your hips back a little m-more.” I pressed my hand in on her lower abdomen, dead center between her hip bones, angling her pelvis back against me.

“Bend your knees a little.” I skated my hand lower, down the inside of her thigh, before tickling her kneecap.

“Ah, that’s perfect. Now, look straight ahead and c-control your breathing.” I moved my other hand to the base of her neck, correcting her position to open up her airway.

“Good girl. G-grip it with your hand and don’t let go.” I wrapped my hand around hers as she fisted my steel rod to demonstrate how to grip it properly.

Maris erupted with laughter, her body shaking and tears rolling down her cheeks.

“What?” I asked, completely confused, stepping away as she fell out of the proper form I had created.

“You sound like you’re directing a porno.”

“Pornography?” I clarified. I knew that it involved naked people having sex, but I’d never seen one in real life.

She nodded vigorously, unable to speak through her fit of laughter.

“Maris, be serious. This is im-por-tant for you to learn.” I sighed. Her habit of distraction took some getting used to. Focus came easily for me since there had been nothing in the way of it before she had arrived. But, Maris was constantly jumping from thought to thought, like a frog landing on lily pads.

“I’m sorry,” she wheezed out, gasping for air. “I keep picturing you with a mustache and a velvet jacket like some seventies porn lord.”

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