Still Waters (25 page)

Crew

"How are you doing there, kid?"
I say as she opens the door to her treehouse and steps out onto the landing.

"I'm doing great." But her
bottom lip wobbles a bit as she says it.

I reach over and pick up her hand in
mine, threading my fingers through hers. She gives it a quick squeeze and the
corners of her mouth lift in a smile as she watches me, watching her.

"You look beautiful," I
whisper, as I run my eyes over the curls that fall loosely over her shoulders
and the simple white beach dress she bought on our first visit here, almost a
year ago. Looking at her still makes my heart hurt. But these days all I feel
inside my chest is good pain. The kind of ache and longing that makes me want
to hold on to Hartley and never, ever let her go. Every time I feel it I'm
reminded that despite everything, old wounds can heal. Even wounds of the
heart. "These are for you," I say, pulling my other hand out from behind
my back. She takes the bunch of pink orchids from me and brings them to her
face. But her eyes stay on me.

"Are you ready for this?" she
asks slowly with a mischievous glint her eyes. It's the same question she asked
me the first night we spent together. Then, I wasn't sure. Now, there's no
doubt in my mind.

"Yes. I've never been more ready
for anything."

I pull her closer to me, and she leans
into my chest, resting her forehead against my shirt. I take a moment to look
over the side of the landing. Jake is standing below with his arm around
Eleanor, waiting for my signal.

"Time to go," I murmur into
Hartley's hair, and she gives a little sigh of contentment into my chest. I
push her away from me a little so that I can look down into her face. "I
hope you like it. I want it to be perfect." She tilts her head up so that
we're looking into each other's eyes.

"It already is."

As the band begins to play, I tug her
gently by the hand towards the stairs that wrap around the trunk of the tree.
She laughs softly at how excited I am and then she gasps, putting her hand over
her mouth and shaking her head when she sees the lanterns in the trees and the
petals along the path leading to the beach. We reach the forest floor, and
Eleanor breaks away from Jake, stepping forward with a basket in her hands. She
gives Hart a quick peck on the cheek and then begins to thread flowers through
her hair while they laugh. Next to me, Jake clears his throat, and when we lock
eyes, I can see that he's struggling to keep his emotions in check. I nod at
him, and he nods back and then he reaches into his pocket and hands me a little
white shell bracelet. I hold it in the palm of my hand and look at it for a
moment. It's impossibly small. Were her wrists really this tiny? I roll the shells
gently between my fingertips until I find it. You can still feel it, after all
of this time. Jake watches me as I lift the bracelet to my face and see the
small letters I engraved there, many years ago.

Jessie

I glance up, and Hartley is looking at me
over Eleanor's shoulder, her eyes full of compassion. She steps closer and
pulls a flower from her hair before taking the bracelet from me and winding it
around the stem.

"I wanted her to be part of
this," she whispers as she pushes the flower into my buttonhole. "Now
you look like you're about to get married."

 
The musicians from the village strum their
guitars and sing love songs in Spanish as we walk hand in hand down to the
sand. I watch her face as we round the last bend, and the shore opens up before
us, not wanting to miss one single expression on her face. She stops where the
forest meets the sand, clasping my hand tightly as she takes in the cubby house
I've made between the trees out of white silk and flowers and the candles in
the sand.

"Can we stop here for a
moment?" she whispers and behind us, I sense everyone stop and take a step
backward to give us some space. "I don't want to miss it."

I step behind her and pull her back
against my chest, resting my chin on the top of her head. We stand like that
for five minutes or more, watching the sea turn orange and red and purple as
the sun slowly sinks in the sky.

We make it under the cubby house just as
the sun dips behind the mountains. Frank steps out from behind a tree and gives
Hartley a wink.

"Frank?" she laughs when she
sees my face. "Frank is marrying us?"

Frank smiles warmly and pulls his collar
away from his neck. He's not a suit and tie kind of guy. "It would be my
honor."

We turn and face each other as the
musicians slow their strumming and lower their voices so that now all we can
hear are the waves rushing against the shore and each other's pounding hearts.
We make our promises to each other quickly; Hartley said she didn't want proper
vows. She just wants us to mean it. And then we kiss, and even though it's not
our first kiss it feels brand new because now I'm not just kissing the love of
my life.

I'm kissing my wife.

"This is like a dream," she
whispers against my mouth. "I want this moment to last forever."

"That's perfect, kid," I say,
as I lean down and kiss her again. "Because forever is exactly what I had
in mind."

****

Thank you for reading Still
Waters. If you enjoyed it please leave a review at your favorite retailer. And
don't forget Goodreads

Quote
s

'The moment was all; the moment was
enough.'
The Waves
by Virginia Woolf

'You cannot find peace by avoiding
life.' Virginia Woolf

'I am sick to death of this particular
self. I want another.'
Orlando
by
Virginia Woolf

'I see you everywhere, in the stars, in
the river; to me you are everything that exists; the reality of everything.'
Night and Day
by Virginia Woolf

'What if I told you I'm incapable of
tolerating my own heart?'
Night and Day
by Virginia Woolf

'You can't separate me from the person
you've imagined me to be.'
Night and Day
by Virginia Woolf

'He smiled the most exquisite smile,
veiled by memory, tinged by dreams.'
To
the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf

'Two things are infinite: the universe and
human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe' Albert Einstein

'The meeting of two personalities is like the
contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are
transformed.' Carl Jung

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my team of super beta readers for
their time and effort in helping make “Still Waters” a much better book. A big
thank you to my sister-in-law Rosie for her help with the cover artwork and for
building the website. And lastly, a big thank you to my husband Jeremy, for
wholeheartedly supporting this very girly book of mine, and for reading it
without laughing or rolling his eyes once.

About the Author

Rebecca Addison has been writing stories for as
long as she can remember. She always considered herself to be a children’s fiction
writer until one day in May when she found herself writing a New Adult Romance
by mistake. A chapter shared with friends for a bit of fun gradually turned
into the book you’re now holding in your hands. Rebecca lives with her husband,
two children and two cats on the edge of the forest in New South Wales,
Australia. She is currently working on her second New Adult Romance, set in
Hawaii.

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