Page 143 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
Alistair dragged the side of his nostril across my cheek.
Cuddling.
He couldn’t wrap me in his arms and hold me against him. So he rubbed, warming me. Caressing and comforting my body as it crashed from its high.
I reached for him, twining my arm under his chin and pressing my forehead to his nose.
And then we held on to each other.
Alistair might have truly brokenmy brain. Because time mashed itself into a big, steamy vat of potatoes during the second half of my stay at Niverwick.
Jackson refused to talk to me.
We shared a cottage because we had to. But we’d become two strangers who occupied the same living space.
And I hated that.
Hated that this man I’d loved, and lived with for three years, suddenly seemed so estranged. As though the life we’d built together hadn’t happened.
I tried to talk to him. He ignored me. So I wrote him letters and tucked them in the drawer with his boxers. And I pouredeverythinginto my writing, articulating my feelings.
I think when we met, I hadn’t fully grasped who Pippi Long was. I didn’t know what I wanted out of life. But I do now. And I’m sorry I had to string you along on the quest to figure myself out.Penning a hope for his future, and for mine:Jackson, you’ll be okay. You’re smart and enigmatic and driven. This life is going to bow to you one day and give you everything you’ve ever wanted. You’ll be happy, I promise, as will I, when we’ve been able to put this hurt behind us. Time will give us clarity.One day we’ll look back on this and realize this decision was the best thing for us.
So much love and care went into those words.
He crumbled them up and threw them away.
In an effortnot to dwell on Jackson, and the utter mess I’d made of our lives, I spent the last couple of days of my vacation…vacationing.
Chunks of time meandered by as I wandered the isle. Usually alone. And sometimes with Melany and Sarah, who knew what’d happened between me and Jackson, but were very careful to avoid talking about it.
On a soggy evening, when rain lolled in the air above our heads, threatening to fall, but never following through, they took me to a field on the northern part of the isle where they’d found the will-o’-the-wisps. And I’d awed at those beautiful, fluttering spirals of light. They were like jellyfish. The sort you’d see on an undersea screensaver, all glowy and ethereal, floating effortlessly through the air. Cajoling us into following their dance with an unspoken promise (a lie) that we’d float above our problems too, if only we’d join them.
“I can see why people get wrecked, following these things to their doom,” I’d said.
“I’ve already tried to follow them.” Melany turned her guilty grin toward me. “They’re so pretty and squishy. I wanted to see what they felt like.”
“Did you touch one?”
“I did.” Another shamefaced smile. “And got the shock of a lifetime.”
“Her hair was standing on end.” Sarah laughed.
“Yeah, don’t touch them, Pippi.” Melany snatched my arm and tucked my hand against her side, as though shielding me from the mistake she’d made.
The next afternoon I went for a hike. Alone this time, although I met enough people along the path to whet my appetite for conversation. It was invigorating, winding along rocky trails through the mountains, weaving around the curtains of fog and mist, and finding fields and valleys blanketed with the greenest grass I’d ever seen. A spattering of flowers had begun to bloom, and the trees—all slanted and curved to accommodate the hilly and rocky terrain—were proudly showing off the first buds of their summer leaves.
It was a different world up there, on the northernmost point of the isle. And it was the first time things looked, and felt,magical.
Or maybe that was the spark of new love slipping rose-colored glasses over my eyes, making everything seem more vibrant and majestic.
Because my nights were spent with Alistair. And my heart was so far gone, lost to this creature from the sea, that I didn’t think I’d ever get it back.
Sometimes we cuddled, with his nose nuzzling me as we sat in silence. Other times we talked about the things that made us sad, as well as the things that uplifted us. About the unfairness of life and the cruel irony fate often teased us with.
Sometimes we played and laughed and teased. Sometimes we seduced.
And thesex.
