Page 210 of Just One More Thing

The air is cool and damp, thick with salt. The bay is in that predawn hush where the water sounds quieter.

Jake’s hand stays wrapped around mine, warm and steady. He walks slowly, matching my pace.

I hear the boat before I feel it. The soft knock of hull against dock. Rope creaking.

“I’m going to pick you up,” he says. “I’ve got you.”

Both hands find my waist. He lifts me off the dock and lowers me into the boat, then guides me onto the seat.

“If this is an elaborate plan to dump me in the ocean, just know I will haunt you.”

“Noted.”

The engine turns over. The low, familiar rumble of The Pinch of Tides. I’d know the sound of this boat anywhere.

We ease away from the dock, and the sounds of The Point slowly fade behind us.

I can’t see anything, so everything seems louder. The clang of the buoy bell. The way the water changes when we leave the sheltered bay for the Atlantic. Spray catching my face when we cross a wake.

It isn’t long before I feel the boat slow. The engine drops to an idle, then shuts off.

It’s quiet. Just water lapping against the hull and the sounds of Jake moving around the boat, tying us off to something.

I reach for the blindfold.

“Not yet.”

“Jake.”

“Almost.”

He helps me stand, one hand around mine, the other firm at my waist. “I’m going to lift you onto something. Don’t move unless you’d like to get wet.”

“Well….”

He laughs as he lifts me and sets me onto something solid.

Dock boards.

His hand finds the small of my back, the other holding my arm as he guides me forward. Then the dock ends, and sand shifts beneath my feet.

Sand.

I know exactly what sand after a boat ride means.

We stop walking.

I can feel him behind me now. His fingers slip beneath the bandana. “Ready?” he asks softly.

My heart is beating louder than his voice. “Ready.”

He unties the bandana.

I open my eyes.

At first all I see is light.

Candles.