After about 50 minutes, she noticed a larger island coming over the horizon. As it grew closer, she could make out a rocky mound near the middle of it, and after that a dock jutting out next to the entrance to a crescent-shaped lagoon. There was a small structure at the base of the dock, but otherwise she saw nothing beyond the palm trees and brush common to these islands. They were passing about 200 yards west of it when, without warning, Reynaud turned the wheel sharply and steered directly towards the dock.
“Are we stopping on this island?” she yelled to be heard above the noise of the engines and wind.
“Yes, Miss Katie. There is a short walking tour I think you will find quite revealing.” He cut the throttle, allowing the boat to slow drastically, and rushed to the bow to catch one of the pilings and bring the craft to a stop. After looping a rope around a forward cleat, he helped Katie up onto the worn wooden boards. She waited for Reynaud to finish with his boat and join her, only to see that he had returned to his seat behind the wheel.
“You’re not coming?” she asked.
“No, Miss Katie. This is a walk best taken alone. Just walk down the dock to the boathouse. Your will know exactly what to do once you pass it.” Katie’s heart was beating faster each second, and she found it necessary to take a series of deep breaths. Things were starting to add up to a sum she liked, but she couldn’t think that way. The disappointment of being wrong would be too much for her to handle. Plus, this could all be explained away far too easily.
She headed down the dock, her nerves so on edge she nearly lost her footing even though the dock was quite stable. She told herself it was from being on the boat for almost an hour, and certainly not from the hopeful tension bursting from every nerve ending throughout her body. She also had the eerie sensation that someone other than Raynaud was watching her carefully, and scanned the area for an extra set of eyes. The island was still except for the palm trees that waved gently in the ocean breeze, but the stress of the unknown was making her dizzy. She proceeded at a slow but steady pace, trying to suppress the trembling of her hands. She could do nothing about the way her heart thudded in her chest.
She walked past the boathouse, looking forward to determine where to go next as the dock ended and the white sand began. There were several paths into the trees, and she momentarily forgot her barely-contained excitement, instead growing irritated with Reynaud for suggesting otherwise. Rolling her eyes, she had no course of action except to yell back to him to determine what to do. She pivoted back towards the water to shout her question, but stopped before emitting a single syllable upon seeing a well-tanned Carson Fischer, his hands in his pockets and a sheepish grin on his face, standing on the dock in the location she just passed.
Katie eyes widened at the site of him, but she did nothing more than stare, unsure if she could trust her eyesight. Her mind went completely blank except for a very simple and repeating message: It can’t be, it can’t be, it can’t be. Her skin tingled, but the rest of her body felt as light as air, as if she floated in place waiting for this apparition to vaporize. Time lost its relevance, and the sand, water, and trees in her peripheral vision faded away, leaving Carson bathed in light against a dull, grey background. This has to be an illusion.
She had no idea how long she actually stood rooted to the sand, but she felt unable to move, as if doing so would make him disappear.
“Hey,” he said, as if he had just seen her ten minutes ago.
The single word convinced Katie that, despite her firm belief to the contrary, Carson was standing in front of her. The realization tore down whatever gate held back her thoughts and emotions, and they tumbled out all at once. Her first reaction was to gasp like a dead woman coming back to life. Everything she’d felt over the past months – love, loss, grief, despair, passion, longing, regret – burst forth in a sob, creating a flood of tears that streamed down her cheeks. Her chest and throat tightened to the point she could barely eke out one word – “how?” – before her legs gave way and she dropped to her knees.
Carson came to her, just like in the countless dreams she’d had since she last saw him, but when he grasped her shoulders, his touch was real. His face was a blurry mess behind the teardrops overflowing her eyes, but it was him – in the flesh. He knelt in front of her. “It’s OK, take it easy, it’s all right,” he told her in a soft tone.
Katie wrapped her arms around his upper body and pulled him to her until they were locked in an embrace. Now that he was here, for whatever reason, she could think of nothing else but holding him so fiercely that no force on earth could make her let him go. Her chest heaved with a sudden, desperate need for air. Questions formed in her mind, but she couldn’t generate the words with her heart up near her tonsils, so she settled for the feel of his skin under her fingers, the strength of his hands as they gripped her, his smell, and his heartbeat which, despite his calm demeanor, was pounding so hard and so fast Katie could feel it in her own body.
The shock eventually faded, and Katie realized she couldn’t just hold him like that forever. She released her grip so she could look at him once more. She felt a
