Page 25 of The Art of Loving Lacy
Dane put his arm around her. “Actually, Lace and I are heading out for a bit.”
“Where to?” Savannah asked.
“I want to show Lacy around,” Dane said.
“I’ve been here before,” Lacy said. “When I was young, we visited a cottage here a few times.” She thought about those trips with her parents, a weekend here or there over the summers, and while it hadn’t struck her as odd when she was younger, now she realized that they never took her anywhere to swim besides the local ponds.Darn it.Maybe if they had, she could have dealt with this mess instead of repressing it.
“Yeah?” Dane asked.
“It was a long time ago,” Lacy said.
“Well, I bet I know of a few places you haven’t seen,” Dane said, holding her gaze.
“Oh.” Savannah wiggled her eyebrows. “You two kids go have a romantic night.”
THEY PARKED AT the Wellfleet Marina. Dane opened the door for Lacy and took her hand. She breathed a little easier, away from the worried eyes of Dane’s family and her sisters.
Dane flashed a smile. “Come on. Let’s get some ice cream.” He pulled her toward Mac’s Seafood and Ice Cream.
“I never turn down ice cream,” she said.One night. Just one night.
“Then we have something else in common,” Dane said.
They ordered chocolate cones and ate them as they walked along the pier. Lacy couldn’t stop thinking about the panic attack, and as they neared the edge of the pier, she slowed her pace.
“You okay?” Dane asked.
She looked at the edge of the pier and felt her pulse speed up.Come on! This is ridiculous.“Yes,” she managed. She looked back the way they came and spotted a store.
“Want to go look around?” Dane led her back away from the pier. “Come on. This place is really cool,” he said.
The Frying Pan was an artist’s studio, which also served as a store. Its floors were made of wide-planked wood, and the same wide-planked boards ran both horizontally and vertically along the walls. Lacy had never seen such interesting metal sculptures, some taller than she and Dane and some impossibly small and intricate, interspersed with paintings of fish, oysters, and other sea life.
“Every month, the artist features his newest piece on this wall.” Dane pointed to a sculpture that looked alive. Two big metal fish chased a school of smaller fish, fanning out before them.
Lacy stood before it, mesmerized. She reached up and touched the shiny details of fins and scales, the hole of the eyes.
“It looks too real to be fake,” she said.
“Funny how something so cold can look as if it lives and breathes,” Dane said.
“It does. I can feel the heartbeats of each of those tiny fish, the fear as they swim for their lives.” Her pulse kicked up again.Oh no. Stop it. Don’t think about fish or sharks.“Dane, can we walk a bit?”
“Yeah, sure.” He led her out the door, and they walked along the side of the road and past a tent, beneath which a small band was playing. “Over here,” Dane said. They walked past the tent to a playground at the far end of the property, where Dane climbed up the colorful play equipment to a big square platform a few feet off the ground and patted the seat beside him.
Lacy smiled at his offer, then joined him on the playground equipment. “It’s been years since I’ve been at a park.”
“Me too. I spend most of my time on the water and as little as possible on dry land,” he said.
Lacy’s stomach twisted again.What am I doing? I can’t have just one more night.One more night would secure his spot in her already swollen heart. He was too sweet to just break up with. She couldn’t do it.I have to do it.
They listened to the band, and Lacy tried to imagine a future with Dane. Every time she thought of being on his boat, her throat tightened. She gripped the cold metal of the playground equipment. She had to end things and she had to do it now. She’d never be able to do it if she spent one more night in his arms. She looked at his profile, the smile that had first attracted her to him and those honest eyes that had stolen her heart over Skype and FaceTime. She hated herself for what she was about to do to him—and to them—but she knew he wouldn’t let her go if she told him the truth, and then she’d feel guilty and his life would be ruined. She steeled herself to ask the question whose answer she didn’t really care about.
“Dane, what was the real reason you never came to see me?” Lacy asked. “I don’t want a pat answer. I’d really like the truth.”Stop. Stop. Stop.She hated baiting him into a fight he couldn’t win.
He looked at her then, his brown eyes warm and alluring. His hand moved to cover hers, and then he turned to look in the direction of the beach.
“Never mind. I…I get it.”What am I doing?Anger tugged at her belly—anger at herself for having the stupid panic attack, anger at Dane for being so flipping perfect when he was with her. Fear wrapped around the hurt in her heart and squeezed tears from her eyes. She was throwing their relationship away, and it was killing her.
