Page 148 of Absolute Certainty
“Will you take me back to the beach again before I go home? If I can’t keep one, then I need to see them more than two times.”
Resting her chin on her hand, Sahar added. “She has a point. You can’t expect her to get her horseshoe crab fix if she isn’t seeing them multiple times.”
Eloise’s eyes gleamed as she looked at Sahar, then back at Jay.
“Deal,” he accepted.
With sheer, wondrous excitement, Eloise squealed, putting her hand out in front of her dad for him to shake. Jay dipped his head and dropped a kiss to her knuckles instead.
The cracks in Sahar’s heart slowly pieced together, moments of shared joy wrapping themselves around her like threads of sparkling gold. Enveloping her hands around the mug again, she took another sip of the coffee, warm liquid and even warmer company. A perfect world indeed.
Eventually, Alex showed up, and the conversation about horseshoe crabs continued. Everything grew a little loud and a lot happier.
Jay’s fingerssnaked around Sahar’s hips as Eloise and Alex ran ahead of them toward the still, smooth water.
The beach was crowded, but not as bad as it would’ve been on a weekend. Salt air filled her nose, mingling with the intoxicating scent of Jay’s cologne.
“Now that she’s out of earshot, what’s with the horseshoe crabs?” she asked him.
She felt him shaking his head. “I have no idea, but it’s slightly concerning. The last time we saw them, she said they’re cuter than dogs, and with this newfound desire to keep one as a pet, I’ve been trying to figure out exactly where Maya and I went wrong in our parenting.”
“How is she not creeped out by them? Where are their eyes?” Sahar added, squinting through her sunglasses.
Jay shrugged, tightening his grip on her.
“By the way, you could’ve warned me that you were going to wear that dress,” he rasped in her ear.
Tilting her head to the side, she moved her sunglasses to her head and looked up at him. “It’s not out of your system yet?”
“Never.”
His lips hovered over her temple before he kissed her there. Soft and sweet, like all of Jay’s kisses.
She fixed her eyes on the sight of Eloise and Alex giggling before them. Something comforting rose inside her again and squeezed—something permanent.
She took out her phone and snapped a photograph of the scene ahead. Turning the camera then, she took one of her and Jay, too, his face buried in the slope of her shoulder.
Love had never been a solid fortress for Sahar. Instead, like castles in the sand, it had always been unsteady, temporary—built only for the moment until the tides came and washed them away. But the love she had for Jay was made of stone, impenetrable and timeless.
Walking a few steps after Jay as he settled on a spot to set up the beach towels, everything hit Sahar at once. How lucky she was to find love that was madejust for her.
Sahar had read stories of grand gestures as proof of love’s existence, but she never thought she’d find its immensity in the small, simple moments. She never imagined uncovering magic in the ordinary.
Alex and Eloise were beside them now as they discarded the clothes worn over their bathing suits. Jay was trying to convince Eloise to drink a few more sips of water when a loud voice bellowed, “Callahans!”
“Uncle Patrick,” Eloise screamed and ran toward him, wobbling over the grainy sand.
“Asshole,” Alex mumbled, setting her folded T-shirt dress onto the beach towel.
Jay and Sahar turned to her in unison, questioning the insult.
She rolled her eyes, half-amusement, half-something Sahar couldn’t place forming in her expression. “He told me he wasn’t coming because I’d be here, and he didn’t want to see me after yesterday’s game.”
Sahar glanced at Patrick as he came closer with Eloise in his arms, his eyes fixed on Alex, and a lopsided grin plastered on his face.That expression.She’d noticed it last night, too, but Jay seemed so clueless that it was almost hilarious. Did he really not see it?
Wasthere something? Or was Sahar so happy and in love now that she was romanticizing every little interaction?
Eloise hopped out of Patrick’s arms and dragged him to the horseshoe crabs. He waved off Jay and Sahar as Alex followed behind them, standing by the water, eyes set on the horizon.
