Page 64 of The Lighthouse Keeper and the Mermaid
She burst into tears.
CHAPTER 74
They were happy tears, but she couldn’t control them, and his arms were around her in a second, his hand on the back of her head as he pulled her in close against his chest.
“I love it,” she sobbed. “I love it so much.”
“I’m glad,” he murmured. His tone was soft, and there was almost melancholy in his smile, as if he was thinking again of his promise to never make her cry.
She pulled back. “Let me see it,” she murmured, taking it from his hands. Some pieces of glass were opaque like the worn sea glass she knew and others almost had chips or flecks in them, and in the moonlight, it was a beautiful combination of glowing and sparkling.
“I chipped pieces off,” he said, his hand barely brushing her wrist as he watched her watch it as she moved it in the light. “So it would sparkle like you.”
“You are so smooth,” she murmured, laughing a bit. “It’s so beautiful.”
“I couldn’t let something ugly be on you.” She laughed again. Was it even smoothness if he meant it? She wasn’t sure what it would be called, but she was sure he meant it, and she kissed him again.
“Thank you, my love. Tie it on me.” She spun so he could.
It hung down to her collarbone, enough that she was sure she could take it off over her head—not that she wanted or needed to ever take it off, but maybe she would when she went out on the rough seas.
“Your turn,” she said, smiling.
He did as well, taking her hand and pressing his forehead against hers. “My turn indeed.”
“Should we have said our vows before you tied it?” she askedwith a laugh. “I’ve never been to a wedding.”
“Well, me neither.”
“Fair,” she laughed. “Kallias, I pledge to love you forever, to treasure you, to hold you, to love you through the good and bad times. I pledge to be your wife, your partner, your love for as long as we both shall live and to fight for that love with every fiber of my being. To God, to my soul, to the moon and the stars, let me love this man forever. Let me choose him forever, no matter the cost. For I love him, and I bind my soul to his if he’ll take it.”
“I’ll take it!” he practically cried out. “I’ll take it gladly.”
She smiled. “Okay, your turn now.” She pulled out his necklace. She almost regretted she hadn’t thought to chip the glass to make it glitter too, but his eyes seemed to sparkle upon seeing it all the same.
“It’s beautiful,” he said, looking practically entranced.
She hoped so. She had certainly spent enough time braiding it.
“Put it on me. Put it on me,” he said, spinning quickly and pulling back that luxuriously thick hair.
She laughed again and tied it.
His was tighter. It just barely wrapped his neck, so much so that she was glad it actually fit. She had designed it to be tight so that it wouldn’t come off while he was swimming, but now seeing it on him and him putting his hand on it and trying to look down to see it, she frowned. He couldn’t see it at all now.
“Oh, I wasn’t thinking,” she said. “Oh, Kallias, I’m sorry. I didn’t want it to be loose because I didn’t want it to come off while you were swimming, but now you can’t see it. I mean I guess I could tie it looser so you could take it off easier, but if it comes off while you’re swimming…”
“No,” he said, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder with the most reassuring of smiles. “It’s perfect. I’d rather this than ever lose it. Besides”—his smile grew ever warmer still—“it’s just like love. I can’t see it, but I can feel it.”
The warmth that spread through her body was profound and tears threatened again. “My God, how I love you,” she said, tossing her arms over him again.
He caught her around her waist as easily as ever and held her against him. “I love you, Daria,” he murmured. “To the moon, to the stars, to the One who created me, I will love you forever. And my love will only grow. Day upon day, night upon night, it will grow as it has every day since I met you, for my soul belongs to you, my sun, my lightin the dark, the one who pulled me out of loneliness with the most perfect of smiles. You know my everything. You have my everything. You are my everything, and I will love you forever. You have my life, my very soul if you’ll take it.”
“I’ll take it,” she murmured, kissing him.
“Then let us never part,” he murmured back. “Not even in death. Let us not even let death stop us.”
She wasn’t sure she could make such a promise but she did all the same, kissing him hard under their witness the moonlight. “I will love you for all eternity then. Until the stars collapse and the world implodes.”
