Page 118 of A Curse On Black Lake
Eliana smiles. “You’re full of those today.”
I chuckle and lift a shoulder. “Would you like to go look at the stars with me? I think they’re going to be pretty bright tonight.” I ask her.
She smiles and pushes her hair out of her face. “I haven’t looked up in a long time.”
I rub my beard, a little nervous, a little shaken from our sunset ride.“Is that a yes?”
“Yes, I’d love to,” she says.
“Cool. I’ll make us some dinner, and it should be dark enough by then.”
“I’ll help,” she says.
“No, no, you go take a load off. I told you I wanted to feed you.”
Her cheeks blush, and my chest puffs. “Okay,” she whispers.
After we finish eating, I grab a blanket from the basket that’s been in the same place since I was born. Not much has changed in this house since Mom died. Dad couldn’t bear to do it, and Ididn’t want to upset him. Now that both of them are gone, I don’t see the point in changing any of it unless I need to.
“Ready?” I ask her.
“Yep,” she chirps, following me out the door.
Night settles in, and the stars come out to play. I decided we wouldn’t go out on the hill next to the house. I want to get us as far away from light as we can. It’s not hard since we’re in the middle of nowhere, but we walked about fifteen minutes from the house, and the only light to our feet is the moon. The stars are bright, dotting the sky in waves of constellations, and this is the time of year it’s perfect to see them all.
“How about here?”
“Sure,” Eliana says.
I spread the blanket over the grass and sit down. Holding my hand out to help her, and she takes it, but steps over my legs. I look up, with my hand still in hers,and she plops down, straddling my thighs.
“I’m not sure looking at the stars works this way,” I say.
She smiles, and her blue eyes have gone nearly silver. “I don’t think it does either, but I wanted to tell you thank you, and I care about you a lot.”
My arms slide around her waist, and I tug her closer. “I care about you too … a lot.”
She grins, and I kiss her hard.
Her hands grasp either side of my face, forcing my chin up. Eliana presses in, dipping her tongue into my mouth, throwing every other thought andwhat-ifout of my mind. She’s the only thing I can andwantto focus on.
Eliana pulls away with a gasp and rests her forehead against mine. We soak each other in for a moment as the stars watch us fall deeper and deeper.
I kiss the space between her brows. She smiles softly and pecks me on the cheek before rolling off of me to lie on her back.
“Wow,” she says.
I lay back and instead of gazing at the glittering sky, turn my head to look at her and the way the moon casts its glow across her features. The white moonlight matches her hair, disappearing into the pearl strands.
“My mom and I used to do this when I was a kid. We’ve seen all kinds of things, like shooting stars. Sometimes the planets were bright enough you could almost see the color of them. We’ve watched blood moons and a lunar eclipse. Somehow she managed to borrow a telescope from someone, and we were able to see at least seven of the planets lined up.”
Eliana reaches for my hand, lacing my fingers with hers. “She taught me the constellations and some of the meaning behind them.”
“How did she learn all of that?” Eliana asks.
“She got a ton of library books about it. I don’t think she was ever interested in it on her own. I think it was a way for her to spend time with me, especially as she got worse. She couldn’t walk towards the end. I was strong enough to carry her to this spot, so we could look.”
My chest gets heavy, buckling under the pressure. The night before she died, we were out here together.
