Page 52 of Here With You

She let the warmth of his embrace soak into her core before she stepped back. “It's in the past. and we need to let it go.” It was okay to revisit the past to get perspective, but she didn't want to live there. How many years had been wasted because the one time she needed to be unpredictable, she wasn't? The one time when Miles needed her rebellious side to rule, and she had buried it.

She followed his line of sight toward The Kessler boathouse. Darryl and Cormac were talking near the dock.

“It's hard to let go when the present keeps hitting you over the head with the past.”

She smiled. When it came to getting good advice, she never went to her mother. She always went to Cricket because somehow, Cricket seemed to understand her.

“A wise older woman once told me that the universe works in mysterious ways. Sometimes you need to stop and listen to its message. If you refuse, she'll chuck a pebble at your head. If you still refuse, she'll use a rock. Then a brick, and then a boulder.” She nodded toward Darryl. “We've made up, so maybe it's time to make things straight with your brother. If you can't see eye-to-eye on everything, then maybe just see that your mother is happy for the days she has left.”

“I know you're right. The universe doesn't have to hit Darryl upside the head with a brick. I can do it for her later.”

She sighed and thought back to the tragic loss of her sister. “I wish I had one more day to spend with Olivia. We weren't all that close because I was jealous of her. She had it all. The funny thing is that now that I can see clearly, she had nothing. She was in love with a man she couldn't have.” Saying it out loud made her realize she'd suffered the same fate. Only Miles wasn't married to another. “She was in a loveless marriage. The only good thing that came out of it was Brie.”

“Do you regret not having children?”

She tilted her head back and forth. “I don't think I would have been a great mother.”

“Not true. You would have been an excellent mother.”

She laughed. “Nope, just look at what I did to get Brie back to Willow Bay. I told her I had the big C.”

He moved to the pit and placed the last piece of wood on the stack. “But your intentions were good.”

She took his hand and led him toward the water. It was a beautiful day, the wind had died down, but the water was still rough. It licked at the shore, leaving buried treasures of sand, seaweed, and driftwood.

“Brie wasn't living. She was attached to a house and its memories. That's no life.”

He stood back and stared at her. He didn't have to say the words because the message was in his eyes. She was guilty of the same.

“This is different. It's a job. It supports me and many in the community.”

“Okay, if that's the story you tell yourself. Would you ever leave it?”

“For what?”

They made it to the beach and stood there staring at the waves as they crashed and retreated.

“Me. What if I asked you to leave with me again?”

It was as if he'd punched her in the gut. From his voice and expression, this didn’t seem to be a theoretical question. It seemed like he was asking for real. “And do what? My life is here.”

He took her hand, and they walked down the beach. “Is it?”

“Yes, and so is yours. You came here to run The Kessler.”

He shook his head. “No, I came here to reconcile the past. I missed an opportunity to make things right with my father, and I won't pass it up with my mother.” He looked over his shoulder toward The Kessler boathouse. “The jury is still out with my brother. Right now, I'm trying to offer him what he refused me: kindness, patience, and compassion. But that brick is looking better and better by the minute.”

Miles had remained the same in many ways, but the older version of him was more patient and kinder, whereas the older version of her was the opposite. “What made you so—”

“Handsome?” he said jokingly.

“No, I was going to say—”

“Easygoing?”

She laughed. “That wouldn't have been the word I chose, but I suppose it works.”

“I've seen a lot of death in my years, and not one person has looked at me and said that they wished they had lived a life filled with more hate and anger before they passed. I've held the hands of children and the elderly as they took their last breath; all they wanted was more time. I could say I wasted the last thirty years, but if I'm honest, maybe I needed those years to teach me to appreciate every second I'm here.”

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