Page 22 of Passions & Peonies

“Here, come lie down next to me. Not on me, though. It’ll be your fault if anything happens,” he teases as we get comfortable. He opens his arm for me to slide in next to him. I rest my head on his chest and my hand on his stomach. His hand finds mine again. Would we be the couple who can’t keep their hands off each other? Always holding hands, even just eating at a restaurant or going shopping? What the hell am I thinking? When would we ever be able to do any of that?

“So let’s behave and answer the question. What do you do back in the city?”

“My sister-in-law is a dress designer. She has her own fashion label called JCD. I’m her assistant. We just moved into a bigger office space in Manhattan because her business is doing really well.”

“Do you like your job?”

I hesitate.

“When you have to think about it, that’s not a good sign.”

He rubs my back, and I freeze. He lifts his hand.

“Sorry, my sunburn stings.”

He moves his hand to my lower back. Much better. I can feel my skin getting worse.

“Anyway, I do like my job, but I don’t know if it’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.” I explain to him what my job entails as an assistant and how much I love working with Jocelyn.

“If you had the chance to change your job or your life, what would you want to do?”

I sigh. “That’s the problem; I have no idea. The one thing I do know is that I’d leave the city.” We chat a while about what we like and dislike about living in a big city. He’s lived in Boston and New York City.

“Are you happy with your job?” I ask. “How did you end up here when you were ready to play baseball? What made you change paths?”

He takes a deep breath. “Three weeks before Josh and I were supposed to graduate from college, our mom died.”

My stomach turns. “Oh my gosh. What happened? Was she sick?”

“She told Dad that she fell and hit her head right before he got home from work. She said it hurt but she was fine. Well, she wasn’t fine. She didn’t wake up the next morning. She had a concussion and didn’t know it. Just a freak accident.”

I rub his chest gently. “I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what you went through.”

“Thanks. My dad was a mess, of course. It was hard for Josh and me and our sister Chloe, because we were all away at school. He had to deal with it by himself before we could get there. I’ll never forget the moment I saw him. He completely fell apart in front of us. I hadn’t seen him like that before. He was always the strong one. Mom was the glue that kept us together.

“I decided right then that baseball wasn’t my future. My family was. As soon as I made the decision, it was a relief. It showed me that I wasn’t as serious as I thought I was about pursuing a baseball career.”

He reaches for the bottles of water and hands me one. I take a drink, then listen to the sound of the crashing waves mixed with his heartbeat. I try to picture a younger Will, dealing with his mother’s death. It breaks my heart.

“I know what you mean to an extent. I wanted to go to a college where it’s warm and sunny all year round. I was accepted into a couple of them in Florida. But right before I was going to choose, my parents told us that they were getting a divorce. It was like a slap in the face. None of us even suspected that they weren’t happy. I guess when I look back, I can see it. Anyway, instead of going to college in Florida, I stayed in the city to be with my brothers. Everything we knew changed.”

“These big forks in the road pushed us in different directions, and look at where we are now. Together in St. Thomas.”

I take another sip. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

“Mmhmm.” He kisses my forehead tenderly.

“Why were you so sad on the plane? You seem much better now.” I roll onto my belly so I can see him when he talks.

His eyes close. “My best friend’s wife, Deb, died less than a month ago. Josh and I were in New York to help Sawyer and to be there for the funeral. We all grew up together. It was never SawyerorDeb. It was always SawyerandDeb. They were a package deal. Now she’s gone.

“She had a heart transplant when we were fifteen. Sawyer hadn’t left her side since then. This time, she went in for a routine procedure, and her heart gave out. And I feel helpless because I’m so far away. Why couldn’t it have happened during the second half of the year when we live in the Hamptons?”

“Wait a second.” I push myself up and sit back on my knees. “Sorry. Not to change the subject, but… you don’t live here all year round? I thought you worked here.”

“I do. January thru June, Josh and I work down here. July thru December, we work in the Hamptons. We own a marina there too.”

“Youownthis marina?” My voice squeaks.

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