Elegy

“Why don’t you sit down?” Harper asked, patting the empty spot next to her.

“Okay.” He seemed hesitant, but he did as she asked.

“Are you nervous?”

His hazel eyes settled uncertainly on her. “Should I be?”

“No. It’s not bad. Honest.”

“We’ll see.” Daniel leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and he looked like a man who was waiting for a bomb to drop.

Harper took a deep breath and began what she wanted to say. “Since we’ve been together, everything has been so crazy and so intense.”

“That is true,” he agreed, but sounded reluctant to do so.

“And we’ve hardly even had a chance to just be together or do normal couple things, like argue over what to watch on TV. Then everything happened with Penn, and now I’m away at college.”

He folded his hands together and stared down at the floor. “I know.”

“And in everything we’ve been through, you’ve proven to be strong and loyal and patient and wonderful, and I’ve grown to love you so very much.”

“You’re doing that thing again.” He inhaled sharply through his teeth and rubbed the back of his neck. “You’re saying something nice, but you make it sound so bad.”

“I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone,” she continued pouring her heart out to him, mindless of his growing apprehension. “You aren’t the man of my dreams because I could never have dreamed someone as amazing as you. I wouldn’t have thought that anyone as wonderful and as perfect for me as you existed. But with all that, I’ve realized something.”

He sighed. “And here it is.”

“I don’t know your middle name,” she said finally.

He stared down for a second, then he cocked his head and looked at her. “What?”

“We skipped all the fun getting-to-know-you stuff, the first-date questions. Maybe because we were kinda friends first, or maybe it was because we both thought we could die at any moment. But we were almost instantly in a serious relationship.”

He opened his mouth, then closed it. Shaking his head, he said, “My middle name is Grant.”

“Mine’s Lynn. My birthday’s January 9, so I’m a Capricorn,” she said. “I think that you’re a Scorpio.”

“Yeah, I am. But what is this we’re doing here?” He motioned between the two of them. “What’s going on?”

“I thought that if I love you, and want to spend the rest of my life with you, that I should get all the first-date stuff out of the way.”

“Oh, you are tricky.” He narrowed his eyes at her as a gradual smile spread out across his face. “You psyched me out on purpose.”

“I did,” she admitted with a laugh.

He shook his head, then he leaned over and kissed her. She put her arms around him, pulling him to her, but then he stopped her.

“Hey, wait.” He stood up. “I wanna give you something.”

“What? What for?”

“I just finished it yesterday.” He held his hand out to her. “It’s in my room.”

Taking his hand, she let him lead her into his room. He flicked on the bedroom light, and in the middle of the floor at the end of his bed was a wooden chest. It reminded Harper of a smallish pirate’s chest, made out of a smooth wood, but in the center was a very unique detail.

Older, faded wood had been carved out in the shape of a heart. Branches had been wrapped around it, outlining the heart, and in the center of it, “Harper” had been very delicately carved into it.

“You made that?” Harper asked, in awe.

“Yeah. I bought some of the wood, but most of it is reclaimed. Some of the wood around the front of the house was rotted, but the parts that were still good, I used for the heart.”

Harper crouched in front of it, running her fingers along the top and carefully over the heart.

“The branches for the heart came from the rosebush.” He pointed to it. “I know how much you love this island, and I know that you’re gonna be gone at school for a long time. Doctors go to school for years and years. So I thought that if you could put your books and stuff in there, then, while you were away, you’d always have a little bit of here with you.”

“Daniel.” She smiled up at him with tears in her eyes. “That’s so sweet.”

“Thank you.”

She stood up and looked up into his eyes. “You really are the perfect guy.”

“It helps that I have a girl who I want to try to be perfect for.”

When she kissed him, she remembered everything he’d done for her, everything he’d given, and all that she wanted to give him. She loved him more deeply than she had loved anything before, and now all she wanted to do was be with him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. His arm encircled her waist as she kissed him more forcefully, then he picked her up and carried her back toward the bed.

When he set her back down, gently, his mouth separated from hers long enough so he could pull off his shirt, and Harper took the chance to do the same. And within seconds he was on her again, his lips trailing down her neck so his stubble scraped against her skin.

She’d worn a front-clasp bra, and he unhooked it as his mouth encircled her breast. She wrapped her legs around him, pressing her thighs against his waist, and that seemed to be all the encouragement he needed.

His lips were on hers again, kissing her fervently as she undid his pants. He sat up, pulling them down and roughly kicking them off, while Harper removed her own jeans. And then he was back with her again.

He started out slow, easing himself inside her. She clung tightly to him, and when he kissed her, she moaned against his lips. Then they were moving together, faster and more deeply, as Harper felt a wonderful, almost serene heat spread through her.

Every moment before this one became worth it, every single thing that she had gone through suddenly made sense, because it all brought her to this, brought her here to Daniel’s arms, exactly where she belonged.

FIFTY-EIGHT Fragmentary

The picture lay on the top of her comforter next to her, and Gemma stared down at it. Her notebook was open, and she was supposed to be writing in it, but she kept staring at the picture of her, Harper, and their mom. In the warm light of her bedside lamp, that photo had become the most distracting thing in the world.

“What are you doing?” her dad asked, poking his head in her room.

Gemma was quick to flip the notebook shut, hiding anything she’d written, and she smiled up at him. “Just journaling.”

“I didn’t know you still did that.” Brian walked over and stood next to her bed.

“I do.” She shrugged. “Sometimes.”

“I’m really glad that you’re home and you’re safe.” He reached down, stroking her, then he bent down and kissed the top of her head. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, Dad.”

He turned to head back out. “Don’t stay up too late. You have school in the morning.”

“I won’t,” she said, then just before he left, she added, “I had a really great time today. Thanks for spending the day with me.”

“Me, too.” He smiled, then shut her door and went down the hall to his own room.

After he’d gone, Gemma let out a deep breath and flipped the notebook back open, looking over what she’d written. She went over it several more times, making sure it had everything that she wanted to say.