“How do I look?” I ask when I’m ready.
He turns around and nearly staggers back over the cliff when he sees me. His ocean blue eyes are wider than ever as he slowly looks me up and down in awe, staring like he’s never seen anything so stunning in all of his life.
I guess he likes it.
“You look like a dream come true,” he says as he stumbles over to the crate, with one eye on me and one eye on where he’s going. He reaches back into that magical box and pulls out a bottle of red wine. The label is long gone, but the red liquid inside is still very much there.
“Five months or so,” he says with a grin as he tucks it under his arm and walks over. “Again, my sense of time is pretty fuzzy. One morning it was planted on the beach. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion.”
I feel my cheeks heating up, knowing that I’m that special occasion.
Carson grabs a few hollowed-out coconuts and flat rocks, which I guess are his dinnerware, and we walk back down to the beach, chatting along the way. He’s easy to talk to and he even makes me laugh a few times.
I ask him all about the island and he answers whatever dumb question I have without laughing or belittling me.
“There’s no sign of people?” I ask, feeling my stomach drop with dread. “At all.”
He shakes his head as he gives me a sad look. “No, my love. And I’ve been over every inch of it.”
I’m feeling sick to my stomach and my headache is starting to get worse until we walk out of the jungle clearing and I see what he’s set up.
“Wow,” I whisper as I look at the fire in the middle of the beach. “You did all of this?”
He nods proudly. “For you.”
It’s gorgeous. White powdery sand in front of an endless sea of blue. A pile of wood is sitting next to the smoking fire and there’s some kind of contraption set up with a huge fish speared in the middle of it.
I haven’t eaten fish in years, but that thing looks so tasty and I’m so hungry, that I wouldn’t mind eating it raw. Not even sushi-style, I’m talking Golem-style from Lord of the Rings, just ripping a bite out of it and chewing it like an animal.
He heads over to the fire and tends to it as I walk around and enjoy the view. This island really is spectacular. I didn’t see it properly earlier when I was spitting up saltwater and kissing the sand in gratitude. The gorgeous palm trees are gently swaying in the warm breeze and there’s an electric feeling in the air as the sun begins to go down, giving the whole area a soothing glow.
The fire bursts to life after Carson blows on it a few times and I watch, taking notes in my mind, as he lifts up the bamboo contraption he built and puts it over the flames, letting the fire slowly cook our fish.
“Come sit,” he says as he begins to place some green leaves into a bowl he must have carved out of a block of wood.
“Is that a kale salad?” I ask, staring at him in shock as I walk over.
He smiles at me and the sight nearly takes my breath away. He really is a handsome man. I’d like to see him after a visit to the barber, but I have to admit, his wild hair is kind of growing on me in a sexy primal kind of way.
“Nothing but the best for you, my love,” he says as he rips up the kale leaves and places them into the bowl. I watch as he breaks open a lemon and squeezes it on top of the cooking fish and then onto the salad.
The breeze washes over my face as he pops open the wine and pours it into the two small empty coconut shells that he brought.
I smile as he hands one to me. “I guess we’re not going to have wine every night?”
He shakes his head sadly. “Just the one bottle, but you never know what tomorrow might bring. It brought you and I never thought such a miracle could happen.”
I clink my coconut to his and take a sip.
“Mmmmmm,” we both moan as the delicious liquid slides down our throats and warms our chests from the inside out.
“Thank you for saving it,” I say as I watch the breeze making his hair ripple on his big round shoulders. “I really needed a drink.”
“I can imagine,” he says as he takes another sip. “So, tell me, what has happened in the world in the past eight years?”
“Oh, man. Where do I start?”
I start telling him everything. The pandemic, climate change, Donald Trump as President, the war in Europe, Brexit. He’s looking at me skeptically like I’m trying to play a joke on him or something.