The Island

by Daya Daniels

  A breath leaves me and my endless nod follows.

  We did die.

  We most definitely did die.

  Tenley

  WE DIDN’T STAY THERE long…

  Couldn’t.

  Now, we’re here.

  In a room at the Hampton Inn in Back of the Yards, fucking.

  I’m keenly aware that this man can afford much more, yet this is the place he’d chosen.

  And I love that about him.

  I kiss Brooks’ lips still breathing heavy and in a post-orgasmic gaze.

  He flips me over onto my belly and he’s back at it again, driving his cock deeper and deeper inside me. I moan, exhausted as his fingers twist in my hair and his wet lips linger at my ear.

  “This is fate, Tenley.”

  His words sink into my very being.

  I bite down on my bottom lip and moan.

  Brooks’ palm slides over my ass cheek and his sweaty chest is planted to my back. His hips drive into me. Every stroke is life-changing. His teeth nip at my shoulder and he gives me all of him. “Do you want it all?”

  “Yes!” I grab at nothing.

  “It’s exactly what I plan to give you.” He slows his rhythm and then he stills completely, letting out a long savage groan that shakes the walls. A kiss is planted to my shoulder and then they’re peppered along my neck.

  I lie still, cheek planted to the sweaty sheets and just breathe.

  I accept that he had just spilled his cum inside me, not in some lusty move but in a deliberate attempt to give me something I still want so badly. Smiling just a little, I allow my tears to soak the sheets.

  Brooks’ big body covers mine. “I don’t know what’s happened to us, Tenley. I don’t even truly understand what’s happened to me.” He lets out a long breath. “It was a relief, honestly, knowing Joy hasn’t been sitting around waiting for me forever. If I put my ego aside, I felt some solace that she had James here to take care of her, support her, and that she wasn’t alone.” He roughs a hand across his face. “I don’t even know what that fucking means. He’s my best friend. He’s always been my friend.”

  “I know.” I swallow.

  “It freed me, Ten, from the past…from obligations I no longer understand and have left me…like they simply faded away.” His last two words are a shameful whisper before he looks away from me. “I’m free now, Tenley.”

  “I felt the same way about my life with James.” I sigh. “I can’t say I know who he is anymore. He’s different. He even looks different. He’s a different man. He no longer belongs to me…”

  Did we truly expect them to sit around and wait for us? To spend years awaiting the return of two people who left and came back as far different souls? Realistically, how long can one go without human contact? The sensation of human touch? Of companionship? How long can one truly endure loneliness?

  “I love you, Brooks, and have for a while.” I splay my hand against the sheets.

  He covers it with his own and kisses me again. “I love you too, Ten.”

  I suppose it’s a little difficult to fall in love with someone when you’re already in love with someone else. Some say it’s impossible. Perhaps we have proven that it is possible?

  Brooks encourages me to roll onto my back, and when I do, his fingers drift along my skin from between my breasts and down to my belly button.

  His blues shine.

  I smile.

  This man is all mine.

  “Will you marry me, Tenley?” He grins.

  I cup his jaw, smoothing my hand over his beard, adoring him. “Of course, Brooks.”

  He tosses me a boyish grin.

  I giggle for the first time today.

  Not every girl gets to say she’s marrying her hero.

  Yet, I do, because, I am.

  EPILOGUE

  One Year Later

  Brooks

  JAMES HAD KEPT BONA Fide going while I had been away. The company had expanded, and apparently, now Bona Fide owns a few space rockets—James’ idea, of course.

  A few months after I returned to Chicago, I went back to work taking up a large office space on the same floor as him and resuming my position as co-CEO of Bona Fide, right alongside James. The way it had always been…

  It should have been awkward, but yet, it wasn’t.

  You’d imagine that the two of us would’ve at some point battled each other to the death with our fists, hammered each other with questions and accusations, allowing our egos to get in the way of common sense and understanding and empathy. Yet, it never happened…

  We could only really be grateful to each other that we had done for two women who were once the love of each of our lives what we could not because we simply were not there. There was nothing left to explain after that. We simply eased back into the friendship we’ve had for the last twenty years and got on with life.

  I never thought I’d see a man like James as serious about his obligations as he is now.

  He was always the carefree one.

  Now, he’s more subdued.

  I suppose losing your wife will do that to a man.

  He admitted that he was heartbroken when Tenley disappeared, so broken. After that, everything had changed. He threw himself into this growing company and thought of nothing else.

  Tenley’s father, Richard, continues to give James shit though even to this day…I suppose that will never change, even though technically James isn’t his son-in-law anymore.

  I am.

  Richard reluctantly had told me in a whisper, that honestly, he was happy as fuck about that.

  I laughed and laughed, and of course, had kept that truth from my best friend.

  James knocks back the last of his beer and sets the bottle down on the table. “Are you up for a game of squash in the morning?”

  “Yeah, of course.”

  He smiles. “I’m sure you’ll win as you always have.”

  I laugh. “I can assure you that my squash skills are quite rusty. Fishing, axe throwing, carving up wood…those are my fortes these days.”

  James nods with a chuckle. “I see.” He slaps me on the shoulder. “Okay, wilderness man.”

  I laugh.

  “Where is the food?” James looks around searching for the waiter with no luck.

  The restaurant on Randolph Street is busy tonight.

  Keane’s “Won’t Be Broken” rains down from the speakers above us.

  I pull my beer to my lips and take a long sip.

  The four of us used to do this long ago and had found a way to work this Friday night tradition back into our lives despite that James and Joy have children and that Tenley had just given birth to our baby boy, Mitchell James, who’s now just three months old.

  A smile touches my lips at the sight of Tenley who’s deep in conversation with Joy.

  “So what do you think happened to them?” James asks, referring to Captain Alcott, Peighton, and their child.

  I pull the diary from my back pocket and set it on the table. I’d done enough research about Captain Alcott and had discovered that there was no trace of him after the Reveles was believed to have been lost at sea. But I know that isn’t true. “I don’t know. I never came across any evidence of burials or the bones of a dead body. The house was left in the most pristine condition…as if it was just waiting for someone to take up its residence.”

  James listens intently.

  I hesitate to say the words. “I suspect that Captain Alcott maybe had done just as I had…you know, built a boat and went out on the high sea with his family taking one of his biggest chances.” I run a hand down my cheek. “I don’t want to imagine what happened after that…”

  James frowns. “Jesus Christ.” His eyes pierce mine.

  “Yeah.” I tap the diary. “Captain Alcott’s story seemed like it almost ran parallel with ours, but the ending…”

  Was their ending supposed to be our ending too?

  “The ending happened the way it was supposed to
, Brooks.” His voice cuts into my wandering thoughts. “You’re back. You’re safe. Tenley is fine, thanks to you.” His eyes are so fucking hopeful.

  “This book saved our lives, James.” I fight back my tears.

  The Swiss Army knife I’ve had most of my life remains in my pocket. The axe which currently hangs above our mantle now saved our lives. Tenley-saved-my-life. And Peni…I think Peni saved all of us.

  We have so much to be so grateful for.

  Reminds me that we’re still alive. We’re fine.

  James sits forward. “Our exploration guys scoped out that area, searching for that island, Brooks, twice, and they never found any such place.” His face is scrunched up.

  “I know…” I suck in a breath. “But it’s out there, James, believe me. That island is out there.”

  Was it Heaven? Was it Hell? A tortuous limbo between the two places?

  He sighs. “So, you’re going to keep the diary?”

  “Yes.” I sigh. “Its contents will only set off more questions for Captain Alcott’s family.” My mouth twists. “I believe truly in my heart that this diary was meant for me to find it. I believe that house was meant for us to have. And I believe that island is meant for only those who it wants to find it.”

  I get a firm nod back from James. “Well, whatever it is, it’s fucking strange.”

  What isn’t these days?

  My eyes pin his. “Yes, I know.”

  “Okay then.” He smiles.

  I do too, then sit back in my chair and listen to James go on and on about space exploration.

  He is not the same James that I’d left behind, but I accept that he is still my bona fide friend.

  Tenley

  “THANK YOU, JOY.” I place a hand on her shoulder and flip through Fennel’s impressive financials along with a new brochure Joy had designed.

  I’d arrived back to Chicago to find that Joy had kept the line going and now it’s everywhere and had even expanded into more holistic products.

  “It’s good stuff, Tenley. Our entire house is full of it.” She laughs.

  I shake my head and flip through the pages. “I-I-I just don’t know how you managed to keep up with this while I was away along with your regular job.”

  Her lips flatten out in a sad smile. “I guess I was motivated by loss, Tenley. I had just lost my husband and my best friend too. I salvaged all the pieces I had left.” She wipes a tear away. “Fennel was all I had left of you. I couldn’t let that go too.”

  “Thank you.”

  She angles her head to the side. “I know I probably didn’t believe in it very much at first. I’m sorry for that.” Her expression is contrite when she chuckles. “But I should have believed in it then as I do now.”

  Joy pulls me into a hug, and when she pulls away, I look her over.

  She’s different, changed exponentially by life, as I’ve been.

  A smile dances its way across my lips.

  I think about Lola all the time. Each day, when I hold Mitchell in my arms I think of Lola and how one day I will see her smile and hear her laugh even if I have to wait a long while for it. Until then, I remain grateful for the forty weeks I did have with her. They were, hands down, the best ones of my life.

  “How is Peni?” Joy’s laugh pulls me back in the moment.

  “Oh, you know, always playing with Mitchell and getting into trouble. I take her to the park as often as I can. You can only imagine the looks we get from people as we pass by. Peni’s learning more and more. She’s even learning algebra now.”

  “My God, soon that spider monkey will be talking.” Joy sips her wine.

  I laugh out loud. “Yeah, probably.”

  She sighs.

  “How’s work?”

  “It’s good, you know, I’m always chasing the next big thing and the next promotion.” Joy chuckles.

  “Yeah.”

  “You know me.”

  I arch my brows. “Yeah, I do.”

  “I’m just happy to have you back, Tenley, in one piece.”

  “Thing is, Joy…I think I fell apart at one point and broke into many pieces.” I sigh. “Brooks helped to put me back together.”

  Her gaze is sympathetic. “We all did, Ten.” She runs a hand over my hair. “And it’s okay.”

  I nod.

  Joy smiles. “Everything is okay.”

  Yes, it is.

  Brooks

  I TAKE TENLEY’S WARM hand in mine and we bow our heads.

  James and Joy stare at us awkwardly and then they gradually do the same.

  “God bless this food and keep us safe to the end,” I say the words slowly, meaning every single one of them.

  “AMEN!” James digs into his steak.

  Joy’s brows crash together. “Okay then. We should think about praying more, James.”

  “Yeah, sure.” James smirks.

  Then they set off in a whole lot of banter about God and prayer and the psychedelic effects of narcotics on the human brain.

  Where’d the last part come from?

  I have no clue but chuckle anyways.

  Tenley cracks up laughing.

  Joy giggles.

  James is the happiest I think I’ve seen him in a while. “I’m just so fucking happy.”

  Joy lifts her glass. “To friendship.”

  We lift our glasses and bottles high above us.

  CLINK.

  To friendship.

  I’d finished that grandfather clock, finally. We’d reopened the old house in Back of the Yards and had renovated the entire place. I’d successfully gotten Tenley pregnant again as she had announced just this morning…She’s right here, still breathing, heart beating, alive.

  Things are good.

  The song changes.

  Tenley’s beautiful amber eyes find mine and she smiles when I know she finds it familiar.

  It’s what I used to always sing to her while on that island…a song I still sing to her now, and often. Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” plays softly.

  A song about the calm before the storm and about rainbows…

  I send a smile back to her, one full of love and hope.

  Who ever thought things would turn out this way?

  All the worry that had once slammed into me when I first arrived back in the real world had subsided. I had thought I would have to explain, fix everything and get us all back on track somehow. And I never had to do any of that. I’m no longer The Fixer, just a man who’s living his life.

  People change. People adapt. People evolve.

  It is survival.

  Just as Darwin had said.

  Life went on.

  Life goes on.

  So perhaps life had sorted everything out for us.

  Godspeed.

  -THE END-

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  Keep scrolling for a bonus excerpt of The Climb!

  THE

  CLIMB

  A

  Romance

  Novel

  By:

  Daya Daniels

  K2.

  The second highest peak in the world.

  Steep. Cold. Barren.

  A mountain that will challenge your technical climbing skills, your sanity, and your fortitude.

  A place where only a few succeed at making it to the top and many die trying.

  Kai and Annika—complete strangers—find themselves ascending a mountain they've both considered to be their nemesis for most of their lives. Kai intends to make it to the summit. Only a few things will force him to turn back, but unfavorable weather and exhaustion aren't among them. Annika plans to make her mark on the peak in one way or another.

  They climb.

  They challenge one another more than the mountain tests them.

  And soon they both realize that their true intentions for being on K2 are far more
complicated than either will ever understand.

  This is a mountaineering story. This is a love story. This is a story you will never forget.

  WARNING: This novel contains strong language and strong sexual content. Intended for 18+ years and above.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Base Camp

  5,000 meters | 16,404 feet

  Kai

  BLUE.

  I have complicated feelings about the color.

  It’s the hue of the candles that were on my birthday cake when I was ten years old. It’s the color of the Blue Grotto off Capri I’ve swum in once as a boy. It’s the deep shade of the beautiful sapphire in the diamond ring my mother, Catherine, never takes off her middle finger.

  It’s also the same shade of the poison dart frog I’ve once come across as a teenager in the Amazon jungle, which with one brush of its toxic skin against yours would stop your heart dead in your chest. It’s the color that my father, Alfred’s, angry, dry lips were the last time I saw him. It’s also the same shade of the murderous ice that sank the Titanic.

  And I’ve been told since I was a boy, many times over, that it’s undoubtedly the color of the blood that flows through my veins.

  It’s 07:00.

  Inhaling the freshly brewed coffee floating around in the thermos in my hands, I crane my neck up to the June sky of stratus clouds and the patch of cerulean that comes into view. My spirit deflates a little when nothing but endless gray suddenly swallows up the tiny window of light.

  A huff leaves me as I survey the gray expanse that surrounds me.

  More blue.