Page 39 of These Rough Waters

The side of his mouth cocks up a notch as he realizes I’m not going to stop him.

The warmth of his lips brushes on mine and I open to let him in, eyes fluttering closed –

The front door smashes open.

“Momma!” Harper’s excited voice rings out from the front door.

“My lord,” Ruthie huffs, “You have some energy in you, Harper.”

Torin and I jump apart like a fire had just been set between us.

“Torin!” Harper gasps, “Ruthie said you had an accident!”

My daughter comes to a screeching halt in the kitchen, her little sneakers squeaking on the tiles and hair drenched from the rain that still had yet to stop.

“Just a small one,” He tells her, looking so put together when I was melting and barely holding any composure. I was struggling to catch my breath, struggling to breathe past the knot of regret in my throat. I’ll tell myself I regret letting him get so close but truthfully, I regret not being able to steal that taste of him.

“It’s because you were on the boat on your own!” She scolds. “And in a storm!”

Ruthie chuckles where she stands in the door, “She’s a wild one.” She comments, “Keep her that way.”

I smile at the kind woman, “Plan to.”

Ruthie grins, eyes bouncing between the topless Torin and me, at the close proximity of the two of us, that even though we had jumped apart before they could catch just how close we had been only moment ago, we were still much too close to be innocent. I clear my throat and step further away, feigning nonchalance.

“I’ve got to get back sweetness,” She tells me, “She was as good as gold.”

“Thank you,” I say to her.

“Mmhmm,” She purses her lips, “y’all have a good night.”

A half hour later Torin has put Harper in front of his TV, a cartoon playing on the screen while he moves through his kitchen, preparing food for the three of us.

He hasn’t said a word to me since the incident in the kitchen. Instead, he’s taken a scolding from an eight-year-old for doing something reckless and then taught her how to tie different kinds of knots with rope before he left her in front of the TV and started to prepare dinner.

I had objected, he was still injured after all, and I was supposed to be looking after him but he’d coaxed me out of the kitchen without a single word and begun.

So now I’m sat here, staring down into the top of my water glass unsure what the hell is happening.

“I’ll be back in a moment, I’ve got to grill the steaks.”

“Outside!?”

“They’re better on the grill,” He grunts, taking the plate of steaks and disappearing out the back door, letting the screen slam shut behind him. I could hear the rain and how heavy it was, how the hell was he supposed to grill steaks!?

He also wasn’t dressed for the cold, while he’d covered his bare chest, it was only with a tee.

“Stay there, baby, I’ll be back in a moment,” I tell Harper, grabbing a sweater I’d seen hanging on a hook by the door and run after Torin.

I find him on a patio, the rain tapping rhythmically against the awning that stretches off the back of the house. I open my mouth to speak but words fail me when I notice the view that stretches out before me.

“Beautiful,” Torin rasps.

“It is,” I agree, eyes following the dense evergreen forest that stretches out from the back of Torin’s house. I realize quickly that the very thing that gave this small island its name is right in front of me, and while the angle is wrong so I can’t make out the Raven shaped cliff edge I know it for what it is. Even with the rain and heavy clouds, it was serene, and beautiful.

“The view too,” He says which draws my attention back to him.

“It’s cold.” I say, ignoring the twist in my stomach.