Page 85 of Sail Away with Me

“It’s an outline of the island,” he told her. “I thought since this is where we met, it was fitting.”

It was stinking adorable.

“Open it,” he said.

She did, using her thumb nail to push the two sides away from each other. Galvin smiled at the photo of her and Sail, but it was the one on the other side that brought tears to her eyes.

“My mom had this photo,” he told her. The picture was of their parents, from the weekend Pearl had met Galvin’s mom. “It ties us all together. Almost like you were meant to move here, and I was meant to return home when you got here.”

Galvin wiped at her tears, unable to hold them back. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful.”

“I have,” Sail said without missing a beat. “I have the luxury of looking at her every day.”

“Sail,” she said his name quietly.

“I love you, Galvin.” He leaned toward her, kissing her full on.

Galvin deepened the kiss, cupping his face, with her necklace dangling between them.

“I love you, too.”

He smiled against her lips. “This is the best Christmas of my life.”

She nodded in agreement.

“Open your next one.”

“This is more than enough, Sail.”

He curled a strand of her hair behind her ear. “We’ll never reach the point where we’ve had enough.”

She wanted to believe him, but they were about to have a drastic change in their lives.

Galvin opened the envelope.

Read the words.

Turned the paper over to see if there was more.

And then read the words again.

Her first year of tuition for law school had been paid for.

“Sail . . . how . . .” she couldn’t find the words.

“I want your first year to be as easy as possible. Law school is so important to you, I want you to achieve greatness and not have to worry about money or anything.”

“This is too much.” Galvin folded the paper and tried to hand to him, only for Sail to put his hand up.

“Galvin, I don’t know if you know this, but you saved me. The day I walked into the diner and met you changed my life. You gave me purpose, reason, and something to believe in. I wantedto be a better person simply, so you’d give me the time of day, and when I set out to make those changes, I realized being this new version of myself was pretty damn good. It made everyone around me happy, but I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for you.”

Sail cupped her cheek.

“I see us having a future. One where we’re living together, working, and doing all the mundane adult things. Do we have a lot to figure out? Yes, we do. Is it going to be easy? Hell no, it’s not. We’re not naïve, we know there are going to be struggles. But paying for your first year of law school doesn’t have to be one of them.”

“This is a lot.”

Sail shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s not enough, and it means I need to win another regatta next year, and the year after. My baby’s going to be a kick ass attorney someday, and when that day comes, I’m going to be right by her side.”

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