Page 77 of The Moment Promised

I shake my head. I want to spend every moment until we need to go home here in Authensville. Before I can say that Charlie says, “The Keys? Which island do you guys live on?”

“Key Largo,” Finn says.

Charlie’s eyes widen a little. “Wow. Small world.” He laughs. “I’m from there.”

“I didn’t know that.” Chloe says, “I mean, I knew you were from Florida but not the Keys.” She shakes her head. “You learn something new every day.”

“You didn’t like it down there?” I assume since he lives here in Authensville now.

He shrugs. “I loved it, actually, but I moved away after my high school sweetheart broke my heart.”

I wonder what she was like. She couldn’t have been the brightest letting someone like Charlie go. He’s funny, respectful, kind. A good dad to Chloe. From what I’ve seen, there isn’t a single bad bone in his body.

And the way Chloe looks up to him, the way they get along. It’s something I’ve always dreamed of.

Being here with Charlie has healed a deep wound I hadn’t even realized I had.

“Her loss,” Chloe says, as if she’s heard the story about Charlie’s high school sweetheart before.

“Yeah,” he says, with a hint of something behind his gentle smile—pain.

Early glimpses of dawn make their way through the blinds, casting faint lines of light along the wall to the guest room.

I’ve found myself unable to sit still here in Authensville, I want to be awake and present for every minute of it since our time here is finite. Even in my sleep, I’m tossing and turning, just wanting to wake up and enjoy the day. Usually, I would grab a book or scroll on my phone, but today I feel extra charged, like if I don’t get out of this bed, I’ll burn a hole through it with all this pent-up energy.

I slowly creep around the room, careful not to wake up Finn as I pull on leggings and Finn’s Florida Key’s hoodie he gave to me when he grew out of it. The floors are old, giving away any movement with loud creaks. Even when there’s no movement, when the apartment settles you can hear it. I’ve almost convinced myself this place was haunted, but who would haunt such happy souls? Charlie and Chloe are as pure as pure gets.

The apartment is dark, with only purple hues coming in through the windows. I enjoy the silence, as I make my way down the stairs, through the closed steakhouse, and out the door.

The cool air touches my skin, the smell of trees and nature fill my soul. I can only see two small businesses past the morning fog, although there are at least ten along the downtown strip. No one’s out here except for me, like I exist in my own little world.

I make my way down to the lake right past the strip, slowly dragging my feet along the cracked sidewalk. As the lake comes into view, I freeze, about to run the other way.

There’s a man at the edge of the lake, his bare feet in the clay. I can’t make much out about his appearance given how strong the fog is this early into the day. Right when I’m about to walk back the other way, he turns to grab a rock, spots me, and tosses me a wave.

“Morning, Adeline!” he calls.

“Charlie?”

He nods, signaling for me to join. I place my hands in the pockets of my hoodie, casually walking down to the shoreline.

Charlie doesn’t say anything to me as I approach him, he just hands me a flat stone, tipping his chin toward the water for me to toss it. I do, and in one quick motion, the stone sinks below the surface.

“Skip it,” he says, tossing another stone like a frisbee, I watch in amazement as it grazes the waters surfaces, skipping along once, twice, and even a third time before sinking.

I blink. “How did you do that?”

He smiles at me. “No one ever taught you how to skip a rock before?”

I shake my head.

“What about your old man, he never taught you?” he asks casually, letting his feet get soaked as he walks a little into the water to grab a perfectly flat stone.

“My dad never taught me anything,” I say, almost low enough that he couldn’t hear. But he did, and he gives me his full attention as he tries to understand my statement.

I sigh. “The only thing he’s taught me was to be frightened of him.”

His face remains the same, but the corner of his mouth ticks downwards. He hands me the stone, pointing at the water. “You have to flick it at the right angle, try to aim so it skids across the surface, low enough so it grazes it, but not so it sinks right away.”

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