Page 48 of Butterflies and Hazel Eyes
“This is a little-known beach a friend of mine and I usually use to launch our kayaks. It’s perfect for paddling around the shoreline.” He took the bag and motioned for me to sit on a piece of driftwood. Once we were comfortable, he opened the bag and hauled out a soft-sided cooler. “How about a toast?” he asked, opening the cooler and lifting out a bottle of champagne.
“You have champagne?” I asked, surprised. “That’s so, so wonderful,” I finally said over the lump in my throat. “I’ve never shared a champagne toast with anyone before. Let’s do it,” I said excitedly, rubbing my hands together.
Gulliver plucked two plastic wineglasses from the bag, and I held them while he worked the wire cage off the cork. He wrapped a rag over the top and raised a brow. “Ready?”
I scrunched up my shoulders around my ears. “Ready!”
He worked the cork until it popped off with a resoundingthud.We laughed while I chased the bubbly liquid around with the glasses. He rested the bottle in the sand, and I handed him a glass that he raised.
“To Charity on her birthday. May she always remember the joy of turning twenty-seven, even when she’s turning seventy-seven.”
I held my glass up and clicked his, though it sounded more like a knock, and we each took a sip. “Thank you for taking the time to bring me here. You’re incredibly special to me, Gulliver. So is this lake, and you know that.”
He stretched his legs out into the sand to relax. “You’re incredibly special to me too. I just wanted you to have a birthday to remember. It’s okay to live on the one day every year that reminds you you’re here on this earth for a reason. It’s why I wanted you to see this beach.”
I tipped my head to get a better view of him. “This specific beach?”
“This specific beach. I wanted you to see the lake from a different shore. You’ve seen it from the campground, the two islands, the sea caves, and now from this beach. When you compare the different views, what’s the same?” He sucked down his glass of champagne like a dying man.
I let my gaze drift back to the cold, black water and starry sky. “I see the ripples on the water when they catch the moonlight. The sparkles bounce around like fireworks on the Fourth of July. The moon is as big as it is at the campground, and the stars are equally as copious.”
“Good observations,” he agreed. “What’s different?”
I focused on the water, but the champagne hit my bloodstream, and I was starting to feel tipsy. “The way it makes me feel,” I whispered. “The campground makes me feel like a kid without a care in the world. I don’t have the same feeling here.” I swallowed more champagne and kept my gaze trained on the water.
“How do you feel out here, Charity?” he asked, putting his arm around me and holding me to his warm chest.
“Diminutive yet bigger than life. Out here, I see how vulnerable I am, but also how much I’m in control of my destiny. There’s a shaky fear here,” I said, holding my hand to my belly, “of making the wrong decisions. But on the other hand, there’s a settling in here,” I said, tapping my chest, “of peace. Out here, it doesn’t matter what I do for a living. Out here, the only thing that matters is sitting on the shore and staring out over this magnificent creation. I realize now I need to sit out here and experience the fear and the peace at the same time because in life you can’t have one without a little bit of the other.”
“Wow,” he sighed, his breath warm on my neck as he leaned in close and kissed my collarbone, nuzzling his nose in for a moment longer before he spoke. “You’re incredible. You always blow me away with the way you see the world.”
I remained silent while a bird drifted in the air off in the distance, its wings defying gravity in a way we take for granted. “More than anything,” I said slowly, “is realizing how vast this lake is. It doesn’t matter what side of it I stand on, I know I’ll never see the opposite shore. There’s an air of mystery about the lake, and it keeps my imagination alive in ways other places around the country don’t. Considering I’ve seen just about all the wonders this country has to offer, it’s a huge thing for me to be this enamored.”
He leaned forward and tossed back the rest of his champagne. “I should never have doubted you,” he said with laughter on his lips. I liked how the alcohol freed his tongue and relaxed his shoulders. “I wondered if you’d understand why I brought you here. Now I know that you do.”
I finished the last of the liquid in my glass and set it in the sand. “You’re trying to show me how hard it’s going to be to leave Plentiful and the lake,” I said. His head bobbed to the left in acknowledgment, but I put my hand on his chest. “But what you’re really doing is trying to show me how hard it’s going to be to leave you.” His head bobbed again. “Every moment we spend together is another reminder to my heart of how hard it will be to leave you. The thing is, I’ve left places as beautiful as this before because, in the end, there wasn’t enough to hold me there. Plentiful is different. This lake is different. You are different,” I whispered.
His eyes closed, and he swallowed. “If I kiss you right now, I might never stop.”
“Then I’ll be the one to kiss you,” I whispered, tugging his head down to my lips. When they connected, everything between us changed. The wind no longer blew against my face because his lips blocked it to keep me warm. I no longer heard the sound of the lake or the seagulls because his moans filled my head with unexpected bubbles of emotion.
When the kiss ended, he wrapped his long arms around me and held me to him, his lips still close to mine. “Happy birthday, Charity,” he whispered, kissing my lips with the tenderness of a man as enamored as the woman he was holding. “I never want this night to end.”
I rubbed his back in the moonlight while we sat on a piece of driftwood, our hearts beating together in harmony. “I don’t either,” I whispered. “Out here, we’re truly alone with no interruptions and nothing pressing down on us. It’s just us and nature. When I’m staring out over the lake, I can let all the stuff I’ve gone through in my life go and enjoy what I’m experiencing in the moment. I love the spontaneous moments in life as much as I rely on the dependability, I guess.”
“I think you’re going to love what I got you for your birthday after hearing you say that,” he said, his finger up in the air.
“I said you didn’t have t—”
The words weren’t even out of my mouth before he had me in his arms, his lips on mine. He curled his fingers into my hair, and I wrapped my arms around his neck to hang on tight. I whimpered under his lips, but instead of ending the kiss, he trailed his tongue across my lips until they opened. He traced the ridges of my tongue with his in a seductive dance that told me exactly what he’d do if we were alone in his apartment. A sound of desire ripped from my throat, my wants no longer hidden by the dark. He knew the truth now. I was drunk on Gulliver Winsome.
He tried to end the kiss, but his lips went back to mine for three more short kisses before he could. “I know I didn’t have to get you anything, but I wanted to. I hope you see in it exactly what you just said, spontaneity and living in the moment, but also the reliability of life. It’s in the bag,” he said, motioning at the paper bag lying forgotten on the sand.
I tore the paper off, and he helped me open the tape on the box. When I lifted the lid, I froze in place, lowering the top again and staring at him. “What?” I whispered, the box lid shaking as I held it down over the picture inside.
“Do you hate it?” he asked nervously as he lifted the picture from the box. “It’s okay if you do.”
My hands shook when I took it from him and rested it on my lap. He bent down, touched something on the back, and it lit up. I almost dropped the wooden frame as my breath hitched. “No one has ever given me anything so perfect,” I whispered. I ran my hand over the image of me lying on the sand with the northern lights swimming above me in green, yellow, and pink.
