Behind the Curtain - Page 125

He closed his eyes briefly.

“Thank God,” he muttered fervently, before his mouth covered hers.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Two hours later they pulled into the idyllic, sleepy little town. Her eyes burned as they drove down Main Street slowly.

“Crescent Bay,” she murmured in wonder. She spied the ice cream parlor where she’d been standing when Asher crossed the street eight years ago. She recalled how everything in her vision had gone blurry and out of focus, save him.

I never stood a chance in this thing. The second he walked into my life, I was ruined for anyone else.

“When is the last time you were here?” Asher asked.

“The summer I met you. We never came back after that. My parents were upset with me, but it was Zara leaving that really seemed to sour everyone on the idea of vacationing here again. Too many memories.”

Asher squeezed her hand as he turned onto Silver Dune Drive.

“Not all of them bad, I hope.”

She shivered as she looked out at the white dunes and glistening blue lake. She recalled sitting on one of those dunes with Asher in the moonlight, feeling so overwhelmed and mortified by her need for him.

“No,” she whispered, squeezing his hand back. “Some of those memories are the best of my life.”

The feeling of poignant nostalgia stayed with her after Asher had parked the car and they made their way down to the beach, hand in hand. The trail to the secret lake was choked with weeds, but they were able to make it out. Part of her was shocked that Asher had driven them here, and that now they hiked toward their special spot. But another part of her felt like something was unwinding in just the way it should, like she walked on a path that was destined. They were meant to be at this place at this moment, as though this were the one location where all the confusion and hurt and uncertainty faded.

They were safe here. Protected, somehow.

“I don’t think there’s been another guardian for the secret lake since we left,” she said wistfully.

“It doesn’t look like it, does it?” Asher said as he moved aside some encroaching stalks of weeds so that she could pass. The path was so overgrown, Laila wondered if the little rocky beach might have altered in their absence. But when they finally cleared the woods and stepped onto the beach, she gasped in wonder.

“It looks exactly the same,” she murmured. She turned to study Asher’s profile. He pointed at the lake.

“That’s where I first saw you,” he said. He glanced over at her, his eyes alight at the memory. “I’d never seen anything so beautiful in my life. I think the same thing, every time I look at you.”

Tears stung her eyes. She went into his arms, squeezing his waist tightly. “I thought the same thing about you, once I got over my shock. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. What they say is true, isn’t it? That love can hit like a thunderbolt sometimes.”

He ran his fingers through her hair. “And you’re as helpless as a baby when it does.” She tilted her head back to see him and he kissed her gently.

“Come sit over here, on the big rock,” he said.

“Okay,” she agreed, a little taken aback by his solemnness.

He took both of her hands and urged her to sit on the rock. He stood before her, his handsome face cast in shadow.

“Do you rememb

er when we made love here once, and the condom broke?” he asked her. She blinked and laughed, surprised by his question.

“Yeah. We were worried I’d be pregnant,” she recalled.

“I never told you, but part of me wished you were.”

The water soughed gently against the beach in the silence that followed.

“I hoped for it too, once. Briefly,” she admitted. “I felt guilty about wishing it, but I did anyway. It would have forced our hand.”

“We would have had no choice but to stay together, given those circumstances. We would have had to be honest about being together. We would have been forced to accept the consequences.”

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