Page 74 of The Best Wild Idea
Silas
I hadn’t meant for it all to come out like that. Something about the sun, the water, the reflection of it all bouncing around in her unbelievably light turquoise eyes had me spilling everything I swore I’d never spill.
“When do we do this again? Can we just stay here forever?” Jules is practically bouncing off the deck as I swing the tail of the boat back into its slot at the marina. “How can we do this every day?”
I grin at her, trying to reconcile the fact that deep down inside I’m desperate to give her anything. She could ask me to buy that tiny island we passed on the water twenty minutes ago and I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Last night feels surreal. Like a dream I could never bring myself to have. I had to shove away all the doubts and second thoughts I had about dancing with Jules. It was supposed to be simple. The musician was already there. It was an easy way to fulfill our deal from back in Switzerland. Just one more way to remind her that there’s so much more to look forward to if you’re willing to live in the present moment. But it had all flipped as soon as we started moving across the cobblestones together.
I’d barely been able to breathe. That whole moment we had last night with the guitar playing under the lamplight — I promised myself that it wouldn’t matter what happened between us next — that one moment alone could quench my thirst for Juliet Hart until the day I died. However, by the time I woke up this morning, I knew I was only fooling myself if I thought I could live forever off that memory alone.
I woke up in desperate need of seeing her again.
I pull the sail down hand over fist, using the ship’s pulley system. The enormous swatch of fabric floats down onto the deck, sinking into a heap next to my feet.
“We can stay in Spain as long as you’d like. Teach you to sail. Live by the water. Hell, I’ll even buy you whatever boat you want. A little dingy to practice with? Or you can just learn on this one,” I tell her. Seeing her eyes glow like this, like she’s falling in love with the same sport I’ve always had a soft spot for makes me happier than I’ve felt in a long time. She’s the only woman I’ve ever taken on that boat. And the only one I ever want to see out there again. “I never took you to be such an adrenaline junkie, Jules, but now that I know, what am I going to do with you next?”
She throws her head back into the sunbeams and lets out a laugh. She looks more free from worry than I’ve seen her look in years. If she was beautiful in Switzerland, she is magnificent here in Spain.
“I guess since you started forcing me to jump out of planes and race in the ocean,” she shoots back, laughing, “you’ve created a monster, Si.” She hops to her feet. “What’s next? Shark diving in Bermuda?”
I set the ropes aside and begin securing a second buoy off the starboard side.
“The next stop might surprise you, actually,” I tell her. “We’re learning to make pasta in this little stone house off the Amalfi Coast. Zero adrenaline required, if you’re up for it.”
Her laughter rings out across the front of the ship, and I chuckle while I watch her, wondering when it’s going to dawn on her that I’m serious.
“No, really,” she says, stooping down to tie her sneaker. I hop off the hull to give her a hand and she steps onto the floating dock.
“Really though. There’s the sweetest little grandma in Amalfi who’s agreed to teach us. She goes by Nonna Lisi. It’s a small break from adrenaline and extreme sports, but it should be memorable nonetheless.”
She pauses to regain her balance after having used her sea legs out on the water, but she quickly steadies herself and releases my hand.
“Nonna Lisi?” she repeats, then smiles, looking for the joke in my eyes. I wait, knowing she won’t find one there. “Wait, you’re serious?”
“I guess not all your bucket list items included a death-defying experience?”
She skips a few feet in front of me, swinging around to catch my eye again as she twirls ahead.
“I have absolutely no idea how you guys found this adorable woman to teach us pasta making in Amalfi,” she starts, “but I can’t think of a better place to go next!”
“Good, because we’re heading straight to the airport from here. The crew already grabbed our luggage from the hotel.”
She runs back and hugs my forearm into her body before linking her elbow in mine, like she did last night. We walk toward the car waiting off the dock, back on dry land, and I wish she’d snatched my hand again, like she did for just a second before the sky opened up above us last night. But, I’ll take her arm linked in mine.
“Thank you,” she says, looking up at me.
“For the sail today? You don’t have to thank me for that. I love getting out there.”
“Not that.This.”
She releases my arm and skips ahead again, swirling her arms up toward the sky.
“For not giving up on me before all this could even get started. For not leaving me in my house when I couldn’t walkout that first morning.” She walks backward, still facing me so she can hold my eye while talking. “For not hating me for what I accused you of.” She plants her feet. “You have never given up on me, even when you’ve had so many chances to. And maybe should have at certain points.”
I’m taken aback.
“I would never give up on you, Jules. You should know that by now.”
