Katura is right—when you miss a chance, and you have a second one, take it.
I see a shadow in the distance on the beach. I don’t know it’shim. But I feel it. He is like a fishing reel, reeling me in. A hook that doesn’t hurt but tugs and tugs no matter what I do, pulling me away from my thoughts and routine and toward him.
I rise from my beach chair at the bonfire and walk into the darkness toward the figure.
It’s Kai.
He sits alone by the shore, only ten or so feet away from the water, where the waves can’t reach his feet, and the sight breaks my heart. I want to be with him. In his happy moments. In his grief. When he feels like he needs to talk to someone.
I walk on the sand, my feet sinking, the breeze whipping a loose strand of hair across my face. I come and sit down next to him on the sand.
“What’s up, stranger?” I nudge him softly with my shoulder.
We stare into the blackness of the ocean lapping at the shore just several feet from us.
He turns to look at me.
We are alone. I want to say so many things, and I don’t. Because words never did us any good.
But then, silence did the worst.
“Are you all right?” I ask.
I can feel his gaze on me, and when I turn, he doesn’t say a word. He gets up, and my heart falls, thinking that he will walk away.
Instead, he sits down behind me, his raised knees on each side of me, and wraps his arms around me, pressing me so tightly against his chest that in seconds, my heart is ready to explode. From all the feelings that suddenly rise in me. From this tender gesture.
His cheek presses against mine.
I close my eyes and inhale deeply.
He is silent. But words and feelings crowd my head and heart. I press my hands to his arms, and we sit like this for some time.
Kai, say something.
Tell me things.
I turn my head and find his lips. He kisses me softly. No tongue. It’s so gentle and warm and loving that I can almost feel what he is feeling. Our breaths mix, our lips touch, let go, then touch again, just brushing against each other, emotions suspended between us.
It’s the most innocent kiss and the most important yet.
Why now?
Why not back then?
But I don’t say it because this moment wipes away the past.
Kai is like a rose with thorns. You have to work around the thorns to get to the smooth parts. I want to. So desperately, it hurts.
We are wrapped in the darkness of the island night and the soft purring of the ocean at our feet.
His forehead touches my head. “I was really scared earlier,” he says quietly.
I tense. He’s never admitted anything like this before. And here is the soft part of him as his thorns fall off, one by one. Moments such as this are precious. They make my chest tighten and tears burn my eyes.
“Me too,” I say. “Everyone was. Because of what happened some time ago, right?”
His hand slides up to stroke my hair. He is so gentle right now that it rips my heart. I am used to him being snappy. Cocky. Slightly hostile in his silence. Careful, maybe. Just not tender like this. I want to touch him so desperately, but I am afraid he will just pull away.