“I can’t believe we have to leave so soon,” Aaron said.
“I thought you were excited to get back.”
“I am,” Aaron said.
He’d been texting back and forth with Katie and Brendan the entire time he’d been away discussing new program ideas. He had momentum now, and couldn’t wait to see what the new season would bring. But...
“Leaving always feels so hard. Though I guess...” he gave Zack a sly look from under his lashes. “It feels less hard this year.”
“Because you’ve shown the world what the skating seal boy can do?” Zack said, his voice teasing and apparently not taking the bait.
Aaron laughed; what had started as an insult from Cayden had now become, somehow, the audience’s fondest nickname for him. Aaron didn’t hate it anymore; how could he, when he’d finally found the way to be who he always was?
“Yeah, I guess so,” he said, leaning over to kiss the edge of Zack’s jaw.
“So, question,” Zack said, when Aaron pulled back.
“Yeah?”
Zack looked apprehensive. “We still take the ferry when we go, right?”
Aaron squeezed their twined fingers together. “Yes, of course. It runs until after Halloween.” He sighed, letting himself indulge in wistfulness for the moment. Unlike summer evenings, he had a lot fewer memories of autumn here. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been here in the fall?”
Zack shook his head. “I know better than to hazard a guess.”
“Not since I was seventeen, and even then I was flying out all the time for skating things.”
“Do you want to come back, when you’re done?”
Aaron shrugged. “What does done even mean? I can’t skate or tour or coach from here. That’s why I had to leave in the first place. I don’t know what my career looks like after skating. Or if there ever will be an after. Maybe I’ll be like Uncle Ras. Or maybe I’ll coach. Who knows.”
“Does it still bother Ari?”
“No.” He and Ari had, had a long conversation after Almaty.
As displeased as she’d been about Zack’s article—and the attention it had drawn to their island and the seals—as time had gone by she had come to tolerate, if not embrace it. Aaron suspected that both bringing Zack to the island and travelling to Kazakhstan herself, had helped. She was still connected to the island in a way even more profound than Aaron was, but they understood each other better now.
“I think it helps that—well. It’s not like things could get weirder than they were this season. If we—she and I and the island—survived that, we can survive anything.”
“I’m glad.”
“Me too,” Aaron said sincerely. “She still hates my ringtone, though.”
Zack laughed, his face creasing in a broad smile.
Aaron gazed at him, his strong jawline and the lines of his shoulders under his t-shirt. He traced a fingertip down Zack’s arm, tracing the swirling pattern of ink.
“I’m lucky you’re crazy about me,” he said. “I know this isn’t the sort of place where I can ask people to follow. And, to be clear, I’m not doing that. I’m just happy to have you with me as long as you want to be.”
All of which was true. Aaron knew Zack loved him, his family, and his island, as much as anyone not from it could. But Aaron didn’t know how to look too far into the future, because he didn’t know how to have both Zack and this place forever.
“Isn’t it?” Zack said. He sounded surprised. “Your island. Who wouldn’t want to follow you here?”
“People less enamored of hard work, dangerously isolated winters, and fish?”
Zack fixed Aaron with an intent gaze. “Hey. I am in this adventure with you. If I’m not scared off by skating, your meal plan, an entire Olympic cycle, or my general incompetence at relationships, I’m not scared off by this place or your stories about it.”
“Or gutting fish in the family restaurant?” Aaron asked.
“Or that,” Zack said gamely. “And I get that we’re taking things slow and being reasonable people with separate places, and if that’s what you need for the next four years, I’m on board. But I’ll be wherever you are, waiting when you’re done. And if you need something else, I’m here right now too.”
Aaron opened his mouth to say something in response to that—or at least kiss Zack like he deserved—but in the distance, something on the water caught the corner of his eye. He turned his head sharply to try to get a better look at it.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” he whispered under his breath.
He stood up and held his arm out behind him.
Zack took his hand, but didn’t get up. “What is it?”
With his other hand Aaron pointed deep into the lake, towards the horizon “What am I looking at? Out there?”
Zack squinted. “I know what you’re asking, but I’m not sure. I wouldn’t even know what they look like.”
It was then that the barking started.
Aaron turned to him very slowly. “Oh my God,” he said. What had been terror in St. Petersburg was simply wonder here.
“Do you want to go and see?” Zack didn’t sound frightened, only eager, as ever, to follow Aaron into anything as if it were nothing more unusual than a walk in the park.
“I’d have to swim,” Aaron said. “If they’re real; the boat has always scared them.”
“I can swim, too, you know,” Zack said.
“I know,” he told Zack. “But this isn’t your problem.” Truth be told, he didn’t know what the seals, if were even real, would do if confronted by an outsider. But then, if they were showing themselves now to the two of them, perhaps that meant they approved of Zack.
“Considering how much I want to keep you with me, and know I can only do that by going where you go, I’d say it’s absolutely my problem.”
Aaron stared at him, his heart fluttering at the warmth in Zack’s eyes. In the distance, the barking started again.
“Before we go,” Zack said. His fingers tightened on Aaron’s. “There’s something I want to ask you.”
“Go
