Page 83 of Sanctuary at MacLeod's Cove
‘How could I forget? She told you to find your heart.’ Her own heartbeat quickened as she said this. ‘And have you?’ she asked quietly.
‘I have. And it’s full,’ he said, his eyes shifting to hers. ‘And I’m ready to move on. With my house… with you. Question is, are you?’
She knew what he was asking. She could see it in the shadow of insecurity which lingered in his eyes.
‘Sam, you know I can’t. Not yet. As friends, sure, but anything else’ — she shook her head — ‘no. I need to heal first. Or at least begin the process.’
‘Yeah, sorry, of course.’ He looked away, and she could feel his pain, but there was nothing she could do to ease it.
‘Sam, my feelings for you run too deep to allow you to believe I’m over everything that has happened. But I really believe I will be. And when I am, I really hope you’ll still be around.’
He smiled then. ‘I’m not going anywhere, Jen MacLeod.’
A shout from Liam further down the path made them both look out to sea, in time to see a spout of water and a whale arc through the water, its V-shaped tail slapping the surface before disappearing into the depths.
‘Wow,’ they heard Liam exclaim.
Wow indeed, thought Jen as she and Sam went to join the others in their descent back down to the beach.
It might not have been a traditional memorial, but it was something positive Liam would associate with his father and remember all his life. No one wanted a monster for a father.
Kate and Lucy went ahead, talking quietly about the café and Lucy’s worries about a proposed development in the village, while Jen followed, partly listening to their conversation and partly listening to Liam, whose questions to Sam never stopped.
‘Sam,’ Liam said, ‘what happens when someone dies? Where do they go?’
‘No one really knows for sure, Liam,’ said Sam. ‘Some people think their souls fly to heaven and are with God. And others think they become part of the universe from which they came.’
‘Part of the universe? What do you mean?’
She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Sam wasn’t in his comfort zone but, to his credit, he carried on. He wasn’t going to ignore or divert Liam.
‘Just that the tiniest parts of us are absorbed into the tiniest parts of the universe, things like the air, the sea. So that it’s all one.’
‘I don’t get that.’
‘No, I don’t really, either. Not in a practical sense, but I guess that’s what I believe.’
‘What, that part of my dad will become the sea?’
There was silence.
‘Or the whale, or a bird?’
‘Yes, I guess so.’
‘So people aren’t really gone when they die, they just change into something different.’
‘Yeah, well, maybe.’ Sam cleared his throat. ‘At least I think it could be like that. As I say, no one knows for sure.’
‘Oh. So, why do you think that if no one knows?’
Sam wiped away a sheen of sweat from his forehead, which, Jen was sure, was totally unrelated to the physical exertion of descending the hill.
‘Because that’s what I feel in my heart. Sometimes it’s hard to get your head around things, but you can trust your heart to understand things a little better.’
They all continued walking in silence as Liam considered this.
‘So you mean my heart is better at understanding things than my head is?’
