Page 98 of Our Hearts Knew Better

My heart does the opposite ofslow downas I peek a glance at him over my shoulder, to find his eyes fixed up on where mine were. He connects our gazes with a blink down, and I dip another smile toward the opening of the cave.

“What now?” he asks, a tingle at my ear, a soft push for me to show the rest of the way.

I slip off more to the side, as I feel my back starting to lean into his chest, and I strip, while trying not to think of his eyes on me. While also stripping quick enough so he doesn’t think I’m getting naked for him again.

My bra and my panties—basically a swimsuit—are still on as I dive into the water.

I swim under, a bit away from the boat before I come up, fingering my hair from my face, and turn to Levi. He’s watching me with the spark that energizes me, my treading speeding up.

“Come on,” I call to him as I start a stroke toward the cave, these, too, energized at the sound of his splash behind me.

Water laps at my grin as I stroke and kick forward, my pulse pounding as I hear him gaining on me. . .

But I win, my hand slapping onto the far rocks inside the cave as I lean against them. Levi’s right there, though, touching the rocks just a few strokes after, leaning against them beside me, with a couple bodies worth of space between us.

As he looks up, I take the moment he’s not looking at me to track the water that runs down his cheeks. Then over his parted lips, mine folding in on the memory of how those lips once felt.

My pulse pounds again at the failed skirting around, and I continue tracking the water all the way down his bare chest, half blurred under the sea, where I see he left his shorts on.

As he should, Summer.

“I’ve never done this before,” he murmurs with that adoring look I last saw so long ago but makes me have to force my focus as if it were only yesterday. Another blink back down to connect our gazes snaps me to his words and I snap out my own.

“What?” I can’t believe he’s never been inside a cave before. “Yes, you have.”

He shakes his head. “My dad didn’t, so I didn’t, either.”

I sink some against the rocks. “I’m sorry for your mom.” A big breath. “But I’m also sorry about your mom.”

Levi sighs back against the rocks at my emphasis, licks water from his lips. “She doesn’t understand how I could just…give up on him that fast.”

Now I’m shaking my head before he even finishes that thought. “You didn’t.”

“Didn’t I?” he asks, a low seeking of an answer, a small raise in his brows. “He can’t be alive, Summer.” His ache and almost breathless desperation through my name moves me closer, water lapping gently against the rocks. “I want more than anything for him to be alive…but he can’t be, because if he is…I failed him. I let him go too soon. I grieved him…” He squeezes his eyes closed, putting a squeeze in my next heartbeat, but it’s only for a second before his eyes are open and he’s breathing in the salty air to clear away his pain.

“He was gone, Levi.” My fingers trail through the water, pressing a touch to his arm to get him to look at me, and when he does, I linger only a moment before pulling back. “And you know he wouldn’t have wanted you to go with him.”

His throat bobs as he swallows, his eyes now tracking the water running down my cheeks. When a droplet gets to my lips, I lick it away, and he glances away.

“I felt his death,” he tells me, and from the slow way he does, like he’s trying to feel out the words, I know this is the first time he’s said them before he confirms it. “I never told anyone that. It sounds nuts.” He scoffs the smallest laugh, and I shake my head again so he knows for sure I don’t think so. But the squeeze feeling has grasped my throat so I can’t say anything right now if I try.

“But I felt it,” he continues. “I was just…I couldn’t breathe for a moment. It’s like I was sinking, and I wasn’t even on the boat. My heart raced, and something in my head just…shifted. I felt nauseous. I ate some bread.” His laugh now is softer, sadder. “Then it passed. Then my dad was missing.”

“Levi.” I whisper his name, and he faces me fully, closing enough space between us to give my heart a jolt, a yearning for so much at once.

“He may never turn up. You know, what will she—” He cuts himself off with a cringe, and I swallow to release the hold onmy throat so I can say something. That’s another reality they’re toeing. Levi having his answers, and Isolde never getting them.

“Your mom’s tough,” I finally manage to say. She’s difficult to keep down. That’s where she gets her hope from. “She’ll find what she needs. You don’t just take after your dad, you know,” I add as a light tease to put some light in him.

And when his dimple makes an appearance, a curve finds my own lips that his gaze latches onto…as he starts moving in even closer.

My body draws in to his too. . .

Then we go still, our smiles slipping from our faces.

My pulse thuds in my ears. I know as our breaths grow louder and mingle together in this enclosed space that he should back up, or I should move.

But he doesn’t, and I can’t.

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