Twenty minutes of easy silence and hand holding later, they reached.. .a marine repair yard? She squinted in the late-afternoon sun through the chain-link fence until she saw— yes—Carson's sailboat suspended in slings. "Wow, they were able to salvage your boat. That's awesome."
"It'll take time before she's seaworthy again, but the hull is intact." He put the vehicle in park and turned to face her. "That boat holds some irreplaceable memories."
A blush burned her cheeks. "Maybe we'll make more memories when it's afloat again."
"No maybe about it once we get her back in the water about a month from now." He winked.
She studied the landlocked craft, winging a prayer of thanksgiving the sturdy craft hadn't capsized altogether. "Thanks for bringing me here. Seeing this helped take the edge off what happened."
"Hell." He thumped his forehead. "I never considered you might not want to sail again. Hey, no sweat if this is a problem for you. I can put this puppy on the market before close of business today."
"You would do that for me?"
"It's just a thing," he answered without hesitation.
"I'm not so sure about that." Her mind filled with an image of Carson on his ship whether it was on the water or in the sky. "At the very least it's a piece of who you are, a way to center yourself."
"I've found a new center."
This moment had been so very much worth waiting for. "Carson, I don't have a problem with sailing. I'm not that faint of heart."
"I never thought you were. You're the strongest person I've ever met." He traced her jaw with callused fingers that rasped so gently against her skin before pointing outside again. "Actually I didn't bring you here just to see the boat. Look closer. I had the shop do one repair right away. See? There. She finally has a name."
Nikki searched, squinted, until she could decipher— "Isis. For my Egyptian project perhaps?"
How fun, Isis finding a flyboy, defying even the constraints of geography and history. A whimsical, romantic notion.
"Most definitely inspired by you and your teaching." He slid his arm along the back of the seat and cupped her shoulder.
"Of course a bit of the legend is backward." She sank against his arm and into spinning out the symbolism of his thoughtful gesture. "Isis saved Osiris from drowning, but you saved me that day in the harbor."
"Honey, you saved me from drowning in ways that have nothing to do with water." He hooked a knuckle on her chin to tip her face toward his. "Knowing you has turned my life around, grounded me, lets me fly, everything at once. The way I remember the story of Isis, she brought Osiris back twice."
"So this is our second chance?"
"If you want it to be." His forehead rested against hers. "I love you, Nikki. I know the words aren't fancy or impressively multi-syllabic, but I mean it with everything inside me and look forward to showing you every day for the rest of my life, if you'll let me."
Her arms slid around his broad shoulders only to discover he was shaking as hard as she was. "God, Carson, I've been in love with you for almost three years."
"I'm sorry I wasn't the man I should be then, but I swear to try my damnedest to be worthy of your trust."
"I had some growing up to do myself." How strange to remember at this moment that she'd always told her students perfect wasn't required, only a best effort. Yet, she'd been expecting perfection from her parents, Carson, herself even, and because of that, she'd almost missed out on the purest perfection of all—true love.
His arms tightened. "I don't deserve you."
She arched back to stare him straight in the eyes. "Bull."
"What?
She flicked the zipper tab on his flight suit. "You deserve me and I totally deserve you. Although maybe you'd better not hold me to that when we have an argument, because I'm sure we will sometime since that's a part of loving and living, too." Perfect in its imperfection.
"As long as we get to make up and wake up in each other's arms." A passion she recognized well flamed to life in his blue eyes.
Nikki snuggled closer against his chest again, need sparking to life stronger, hinting it might be time to burn rubber back to her place. "Awaken to desire."
"Always," he whispered the promise against her lips.
Always.