“It’s the sea.” Jacqueline stared at him, eyebrows furrowed, and he gestured out over the water. “That’s why I come up here. And why I go out on the water. I know that whatever bad thing I’m feeling, the sea will pull it out of me.”
Jacqueline took another deep breath, and under Arlo’s arm, her shoulders relaxed.
“I think it’s working,” she said quietly. “I do feel better. Better than I have in a long time.”
Arlo wasn’t good at picking expressions, but even he could hear the weight behind her words. He frowned.
“You broke up with your husband five years ago, but he has a kid in second grade?”
Jacqueline groaned. “Damn it. I hoped you wouldn’t pick that up.”
“I shouldn’t have mentioned it.”
“No, it’s fine.” Jacqueline let her head rest against his shoulder. “That’s why we split. This other woman, she gave him what he’d always wanted, which I… anyway. He got what he wanted, and I got the house, which I’ve just paid off. Next stop, Vegas!”
There was a hard edge to her voice, despite her toothy smile.
“Well I’m glad you’ve stopped by Hideaway Cove on your way to Vegas,” Arlo said, his voice gravelly. Jacqueline’s eyes flicked up to his.
“Me, too,” she said. “Though I think I’ve had enough sea therapy for one night.”
“In that case,” Arlo said, helping her up, “I think it’s time we had that drink.”
He showed her the back route to Caro’s restaurant, picking their way through low shrub along a path that existed mainly in the mental maps each citizen of Hideaway had of the land around their town.
He pointed out the ridge where Jools and Jess had dared each other into leaping from to learn to fly, the small cave where local kids invariably ended up when they were skiving off from the town’s correspondence school classes, and the wild herbs Tess had used for her experimental ice cream flavors before she graduated to seaweed. All the small and secret places that hinted at the heart of the small town he called home.
By the time they clambered around to the path that led down to Caro’s, Jacqueline’s cheeks were red with exertion. Arlo took her hand to steady her as she jumped across a muddy creek. Her hand’s warmth, and the way she puffed slightly as she blew a stray curl out of her eyes, made him want to smack himself. He cursed underneath his breath.
“Sorry,” he said when Jacqueline raised her eyebrows at him. Even he could tell that was a questioning look. He hunched his shoulders. “It’s just struck me that this might not have been what you meant when you said you wanted a tour of the town.”
“What?” Jacqueline blew her hair out of her face again. “Are you kidding? The sea therapy I could probably have done without, but this? I haven’t done anything like this since I was a kid.”
She frowned as her hair bounced over her face again, and let go of his hand to grab it and braid it into a long rope.
“Which must be obvious, since I’ve apparently forgotten what the wind is like this close to the water,” she added, sticking the end of the braid under her collar. “I hope this restaurant isn’t too fancy. I bet I look like a mess.”
Arlo swallowed. With her hair pulled back, Jacqueline’s eyes seemed bigger and more full of light than ever.
“You’re fine,” he said gruffly. “Caro’s isn’t a shirt and shoes place. People eat there straight after coming off boats, or work sites, so you’ll—I mean, shit, not that you look like you’ve—you look lovely. You…”
Tell her. The words thudded in his bones. Look how she already seems to belong here. The wind in her hair and light in her eyes. She’s the piece of your heart that’s been missing all these years. Tell her you’re hers, tell her she’s part of your pack—
Take her to meet Ma and Pa. Arlo’s mind tripped over itself.
“…You’re beautiful,” he said instead, and the dazed delight in Jacqueline’s eyes almost made his cowardice worth it.
“Well.” Jacqueline folded her lips over a smile that looked like it was threatening to take over her whole face. “You know, you’re not bad yourself.” Her cheeks blazed as she tucked her arm into his.
It can’t be this easy, Arlo thought as she smiled up at him. And yet…
Maybe it could be. A shifter’s mate was meant to be the other half of their soul; why was he surprised that Jacqueline was slipping so easily and wonderfully into his life?
She doesn’t know what she is to me, but she’s taking a chance on me anyway. Arlo swallowed. After almost drowning, babysitting three frightened shifter kids, and having to put up with me grumbling and growling all the time. Sure, she’s taking a chance on me now, for one date, but I need to do better than this before I tell her.
The path took them to the back of Caro’s restaurant; Arlo led Jacqueline around piles of neatly stacked pallets and other delivery detritus, silently cursing himself for not thinking this plan through properly.
“Are you sure it’s okay for us to be back here?” Jacqueline asked, picking her way around a stack of insulated buckets. Arlo recognized them from the Menzies’ fishing boat.