I wrap my arms around his neck. “I didn’t love him,” I whisper. “I love you.”
Another swell is coming. I wrap my legs around his middle and hold on tight. He leans in to find my lips and kisses me, hard and deep and sure, and for once, I don’t need to know what happens next.
This is enough. The beach and the seagulls and kids laughing and dogs barking and the hot sun and the cool water and the beach house and Caleb Gray, holding me tight. Yes. This is perfect.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Caleb
One Year Later
Evanston, Illinois
“It’s just another beach house,” I say to Catie as I lift one of her suitcases out of the bed of my truck. Her dorm has a view of Lake Michigan, which I’ve never seen before today, but it does actually have a beach and is so big you can’t see to the other side, so it might as well be an ocean or the Gulf of Mexico.
“Except you’re not going to be here.” Her voice sounds uncharacteristically sad. The last few weeks, she’s been so excited. Talking nonstop about the classes she’s registered for and the people she met at orientation back in June. When we left Lockhart yesterday, though, in my truck, with her parents following behind us, her tone changed. She got quiet. Not like her at all.
I completely understand. I spent the year at A&M Galveston and was able to see her every few months. It wasn’t nearly enough, but we made it work. This year, she’ll be up here, and I hooked up with this group from the college going to study the dam systems in Denmark for the semester. Only a few undergrads were invited. Professor Jackson will be there, too.
I’m back to my easygoing self, but I’m nervous, and not just about her being so far away. I look around the Northwestern campus at all the people, all the buildings that I don’t know and never will. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to leave her here, but I know it’s what she wants. It’s what she needs. It’s what will make her happy. Plus, she got an almost full ride, and this place is stupid expensive, so she needs to take it.
We’re standing outside the dorm drop-off area. Her parents are parking in a lot somewhere, since I have most of Catie’s things in the truck. While we wait for them, I take my chance.
“Hey,” I say. Her forehead is wrinkled up. “It’s gonna be okay.” I put my arms around her, and she whimpers.
“How do you know?”
“I just do. We were born to be together, Catie Dixon, right?”
She laughs into my chest. “Yes. We were.”
I pull back and smile. “Then let’s go with that, all right? I love you. And here,” I say, nervous as I’ve ever been. I let go of her and open the front door of the truck, reach into the center console, and take out a box.
“You got me something?”
I nod. “I did. Nothing fancy. Just a little something.” I open the small jewelry box and inside is a tiny narrow glass rectangular tube with a silver chain attached to the top.
“Oh my gosh. Caleb. Is this what I think it is?” she asks, biting her bottom lip and tears already brimming in her eyes.
“I hope you think it’s sand,” I say.
“Um. Yes. I do.” She unclasps it, and I let my imagination wander to that beach and the things we did on it. She managed to drive down a few times over the course of the school year. I don’t think she told her parents where she was going, but at least I hadn’t made them any promises to protect their daughter’s virtue. Yeah, it didn’t take long for me to cave. She’s very persuasive.
She unclasps the chain, tears running down her cheeks.
I swipe at them. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
She shakes her head silently. “Put it on,” she asks, but not in a commanding tone. Her voice is shaky and low. “Please.”
She turns around, her face flush and wet with tears. I clasp the chain in place and kiss the back of her neck.
“Promise not to forget me,” she says, turning to face me again.
I kiss her. Kiss her again. “If I forgot you, that would mean that I’d have forgotten everything else first. Including how to breathe, which means I’d be dead, so…”
“So okay, don’t forget that, either,” she says, gripping the bottle in her hand.
“And I’ll see you at Christmas,” I say. “It’ll come fast.” I see her parents walking across the distant lawn, so I lift a hand to wave to them, but she doesn’t take her eyes off me. She pulls me close, hugs me tight.
“I’ll love you forever, Caleb,” she says.
I push back her hair and stare into her eyes and smile my biggest smile.
“Ahh, there it is, the get-whatever-you-want smile,” she jokes.
I kiss her red lips again and wipe her tears and try to keep in my own that I know are coming. “No,” I say, finally. “This is the have-everything-I-want smile. Right here.”
“Who me?” she lays her head on my chest, and I hold her close.
“Yes, you.”
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Acknowledgments
Not long ago my daughter, when talking about my books, said something that struck me as funny, something like “Mom, you created a whole universe.” First of all, it’s not rocket science, but it’s true, when you write three books in the same world that you start to feel like that world is almost as real as the one you’re living in. As the third and last book in this “universe,” I’m seriously going to miss these characters, and I have to thank my editor Heather Howland for that. Thank you for your guidance, your insight and collaboration, for your ideas and creativity. I have enjoyed this experience more than I can say.
To my agent, Danielle Chiotti, thank you, always, for your support and advice and wisdom and friendship. You are the literal best. Thanks also to Michael Stearns and Upstart Crow for all your support over the years.
To the staff of Entangled Publishing, all of you who work so hard from publisher to publicity to design and copyediting, and everyone in between—if you had a hand in the production of this book--I thank every single one of you from the bottom of my heart. I truly love Entangled and everything you represent and am proud to be part of this family.
To my writing buddies on whom I depend, I love you! To all the bloggers and reviewers and librarians who champion reading as a vital part of a thriving society—thank you. To my family and friends who support me, cheer me on and read my books, thank you, a million times over. I love you!
To my husband, Michael, who is my everything, and to my beautiful daughters, Lily and Cate, who are my everything else—so much love and thanks to you.
Thank you to my readers, whose support and kindness mean the world to me.
Finally, I’m big on thanking the man upstairs, so thanks, Father, for all my blessings, one of which is that I get to do what I love every day. It’s a good gig and I could not be more grateful.
And, last but never least, my friends—please, please, please VOTE!
About the Author
Christina Mandelski loves to bring the characters in her head to life on the page. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling and reading (preferably under an umbrella at the beach). Chris lives with her husband and two daughters in Houston. You can visit her at www.christinamandelski.com.
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