Page 89 of The Edge of Always

Earl had shown them his new work yesterday. It was called The Rubicon. He’d only just started it, but it was a blue door, probably somewhere in Paris. He’d told them that a rubicon is a precipice, a choice between two paths. So the door symbolised the choices they all had to make. Luna thought it was sadder than his other work, darker and more haunting, but still very beautiful.

‘I’m sure Gregor will love it.’ Earl’s new collector had commissioned another of his paintings since last year, much to Gregor’s delight. Luna was worried about the strain on Earl of working towards deadlines, though. He looked thinner, more worn out than normal. Zadie had mentioned a lingering cough.

‘My dad’s got that as well,’ Luna had answered. ‘There’s a bug going around, I think.’

Now, Luna was distracted by the view from the van’s window. She loved crossing the flats towards Holy Island and imagining that everything they were driving across would soon be beneath the sea.

‘The tide starts to come in at 3pm,’ Earl told them. ‘I’ll come back for 2.30, shall I? Make sure we have time?’

Two thirty was five hours away.

‘That’s great, Earl,’ Emmett told him.

‘Yeah, thanks for driving us, Earl.’

They waited while Earl coughed.

‘This blasted cough,’ he said finally, pulling into the island car park. ‘So annoying.’

‘Maybe you should have a rest today?’

‘No, no, I’ll be fine.’

Still, Luna and Emmett didn’t move.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yeah, we can come back with you if you like?’ Emmett offered.

Earl waved a hand at them. ‘No, no. None of that. Now go and have fun. I’ll see you both later.’

They clambered out of the van and waited while Earl turned around and drove off. And then it was just them. Luna and Emmett on an island that felt like it was the end of the world.

‘Beach?’ he asked.

‘Beach,’ she agreed. They set off towards the north of the island, where the quieter beaches were, passing a couple of cafés on the way.

They were the first people there, walking along the grassy shore that reached down to the sand, the sun and the sea stretching out for miles ahead of them. Luna always wondered what it must have been like for the monks who came to live on the island centuries ago. They must have felt like they were on the very edge of the universe.

Luna felt like that now.

Neither of them spoke for a while, and Luna had the same sense that she did last night, of joint breath-holding.

‘You know, Earl told me something this year,’ Emmett said eventually. His voice was clear but he twisted his hands around and around. His shoulders were up, just a touch.

‘Oh yes?’

‘He said that with him and Sebastian, it wasn’t about love. Not first and foremost. It was about friendship.’

‘Did he? How interesting.’

Every part of Luna’s body lit up. Like a million tiny fires lighting beneath her skin. She couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. She didn’t dare believe it. Surely, she must have the wrong end of the stick. After all of these years, all this longing, it couldn’t possibly be this easy. Things weren’t easy, at least not for her. At least not this.

‘He’s been giving me all sorts of lectures, about emotional maturity.’

Luna knew that Earl was the only person who could get away with talking to Emmett like that. He was the only one that Emmett would listen to.

‘That’s cool.’ Luna picked up a shell, rubbed the bumps of it under her thumb. It would be a good one to sketch.