Page 77 of Sack

“For this.” She swept the room with her other hand. “For arranging this. I just…” she started to say then hesitated. “We’ve both been so busy with work, it’s fun to get away.”

He didn’t think that’s what she’d wanted to say, but he let it go. “I didn’t realize I needed a break until I suggested it. And I wouldn’t have suggested it unless you had said something. So, thankyou.”

“Then I guess we’re both to blame if it all goes south.”

Studying her expression, he frowned. “This weekend?”

She hesitated before she answered. “Yeah.”

So again, he didn’t think that’s what she meant.

Ivy

Bellies full of crab, fries, and coleslaw, she and Colt walked the wharf, passing quaint shops and window shopping until they reached the end of the pier. It had stopped raining while they ate, the clouds parting enough to let in a few sunbeams. Ivy leaned into the wooden railing, gazing across the choppy surface of the Pacific to a large rock formation that was currently inhabited by at least a hundred barking sea lions. Colt stood at her side, with his forearms resting on the rail, silently watching with her.

Even with all the noise, it was peaceful.

“If you never discovered you were good at football, what would you have done with your life?”

Colt moved his eyes from the sea lions to look at her. “I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it.”

“Are you not passionate about anything else?”

“I’m passionate about my charity, but I wouldn’t have that without my football career. Why do you ask?”

“I was just standing here thinking, fate or whatever you want to call it, is a funny thing. What if, at a young age, my parents or a teacher encouraged me to become a singer. I would have gone down a different path and never discovered my true passion was for graphic arts.”

“Are you trying to say my true passion isn’t football?”

She shook her head. “No. Not at all. It just makes me wonder, is this it? Or does life have more in store for us?”

He stood, turning to place his hip on the rail so he faced her. “Are we still talking about careers?”

“If I hadn’t become a graphic designer, and you a football player, do you think we would have ever met? Is fate planned? Does it have a certain design? Would we both have ended up at The Parting Glass on that day anyway?”

“I doubt it. We met because you were taking my picture and I thought you were the paparazzi. Something neither of us would do without our respective careers.”

“Yes, but then a short time later, I backed into your car. No matter what we did for a living, that still would have happened.”

“True, but it was your work for Emerson that brought you there, and Oz—whom I would have never met without football—who invited me.”

“So, you’re saying you don’t believe in fate, that we would have never met?”

“I’m saying it’s impossible to ever know.”

She turned back to the sea lions. “I guess that’s true.”

“Hey.” He softly ran a hand down her back. “Fate or not, all that did happen, and we did meet. That’s all that matters, right?”

“Right.” She gave him a weak smile because that’s not why she wondered. What she really wanted to know was if he wasn’t a football star, would their relationship have taken a different path?

One that wasn’t destined to end in heartache.

“I don’t want to leave.” Ivy gazed forlornly out the window of their room. For the first time, the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

“I know. But unfortunately, I need to get back.”

They’d delayed as long as possible, even asking for a late checkout time. She knew it wasn’t fair to make Colt feel bad.

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