by A. S. Teague
I nod, not fully accepting his excuse. I’ve seen him tired, and he usually isn’t short with people. But I try to push the thoughts aside, ready to enjoy the day he’s planned for us, and lace my fingers through his as we make our way to the water.
It’s several hours later when the girl from this morning, whose name is Megan I’ve since learned, leads us to the area designated for the dolphin encounter.
The day’s been wonderful, even more so because somehow Breccan arranged for us to have the entire excursion to ourselves. The nerves I felt about swimming with dolphins melted away with each activity that we’ve done leading up to this.
Megan’s busy chattering away, telling us about each of the dolphins, how they’ve come to live in Costa Rica and the methods used to train them.
“I’m nervous,” I whisper, staring at the water.
Breccan doesn’t respond, and I glance over to see him staring in to space and rubbing his hands on his swimming trunks.
I place one of my hands over his, and his head jerks in my direction. “Did you hear me?” I ask.
He pulls his hand from under mine and rubs the back of his neck. “Oh, uh, no. What did you say?”
He’s still not looking at me, instead his eyes dart from side to side, landing anywhere by my face.
I plant my hands on my hips, having had enough of his strange behavior for the day. He loosened up from earlier this morning as the day wore on, but now it seems like whatever was bothering him is back. I’m frustrated that he’s potentially ruining the best part of the day, but more than that, I’m worried that something’s wrong.
“What is going on with you?” I hiss.
He squeezes his eyes shut and draws in a deep breath. “Sorry baby. It’s nothing.” Bending at the waist, he places a kiss on the top of my head and then tugs at my hair. “Let’s go swim with Flipper.”
He throws an arm around my shoulders and begins pulling me toward the trainers before I have a chance to protest. I decide to let it slide, again, but resolve to get to the bottom of whatever is going on with him when we get back to the villa.
Hesitantly, I wade in to the water until I’m waist-deep. Breccan follows me in along with two men in wet suits.
A whistle in between one man’s lips, he shakes both mine and Brec’s hands. The other man introduces everyone and then the first guy blows the whistle.
A split second later, two dolphins burst out of the water fifty yards ahead of us. After a synchronized backflip, they dive back in to the water and I squeal in delight.
“Ohmygod! Did you see that?”
Two more sharp blows on the whistle and the first two dolphins are joined by two more and for the next few minutes, Breccan and I watch them perform tricks.
I’m mesmerized by their grace and impressed by their agility. The dolphins charge out of the water, their large bodies performing feats that I would think impossible, and I’m struck by the beauty of it all.
I continue watching the show in silence, unable to form words even if I’d wanted to.
Connor would have been so bored.
I giggle at the realization that this is something Connor would have hated. Unless the dolphins suddenly started playing Minecraft with their flippers, he would have been ready to bail ten seconds after this started. I glance over at Breccan to see that his eyes are glazed over and laugh harder.
Two peas in a pod, they were.
With a final flip of a tail, the performance ends and the water stills. The two men in wet suits make their way over to us and asks how we liked it, and when Breccan doesn’t speak, I answer for us.
“Amazing. One of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen,” I gush.
The man with the whistle around his neck gives me a smile and a quick nod of his head. “Glad you liked it, Miss. You ready to interact with them?”
I nod my head vigorously, eager to see what’s next. “Do I get to touch one?”
“Of course, You’ll get to pet them and feed them.”
Hesitantly, I ask. “They won’t bite me, right?”
The man laughs and shakes his head. “Nope.”
I let out a sigh of relief and turn to Breccan. He’s still got a faraway look in his eye and his lips are moving, almost imperceptibly.
“Brec?”
At the sound of my voice, he shakes his head and plasters on a fake smile. Clapping his hands, he rubs them together. “Let’s do this.”
For the next half hour, we meet each of the dolphins that we saw in the performance. We feed them sardines and pose for pictures.
Unable to stop smiling, my cheeks begin to ache.
“We’ve got one last dolphin for you to meet, Miss O’Neil.”
He gives a sharp blow on his whistle, and at the edge of the roped-in area, a dolphin breaches the water. It races toward us, diving and then surfacing, again and again. Once it reaches us, it stands up in the water, it’s flippers appearing to wave at me. I smile broadly and wave back.
“This is Margie.”
I remember Megan mentioning the name earlier as her favorite, and I can see why she likes her so much. She’s the largest of all the dolphins we’ve seen today, yet agile and graceful despite her size.
“Sidney.” Breccan’s voice cuts in to my thoughts, and I tear my gaze away from Margie to look at him.
He reaches out and takes my hand in his, pulling me close. A crease etches his brow, and worried, I ask, “You okay, honey?”
The crease remains in place, but one corner of his mouth tips up and he nods. He reaches for my other hand and turns me until we are face to face.
“Always worried about everyone else,” he murmurs.
He clears his throat, then swallows hard. “When I saw you in that club, I knew there was something special about you. And even though I was an asshole and I couldn’t remember everything from that night, I knew that I’d met someone remarkable.”
He pauses, and I take the opportunity to reassure him. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not okay. You are way too amazing to ever be forgotten.”
Warmth spreads across my chest and I squeeze his fingers, whispering, “Thank you.”
“What I didn’t know was that I’d met the woman who would show me what life was really about. All those years, I spent thinking I had everything I needed.” He shakes his head, a bitter laugh tumbling from his lips. “I didn’t have shit.”
I pull my hand from his and use it to cup his jaw. “I love you.” I tell him simply. He covers my hand with his and tilts his cheek to my embrace.
Pulling a deep breath in through his nose, his chest heaves as he releases it and continues. “Sidney, you are the reason I am the man I am today. Your unwavering trust in me, something I know can be so hard for you, validates me. I know you think that it’s you who’s leaned on me the last couple of years, but I would have never been the man you needed me to be if it weren’t for you being who you are. Your selflessness, your love and faith in me. Your refusal to give up, even when no one would blame you. God, I admire you so much. And I don’t think I tell you that enough.”
My eyes fill with tears as he speaks, pouring his heart out in ways that I’ve never heard from him. I’ve always known that Breccan loves me, and I’ve not once doubted that. But there have been times over the last two years that I’ve wondered why he loves me, and how he’s able to put up with me at times. Hearing him tell me that he admires me when I can’t be any less admirable, causes my chest to swell.
“We met because of Connor.” He gestures around us “And we’re here now because of him. And because of that, because he gave you to me, I will forever search for ways to repay him. And no matter what I do in his honor, in his memory, it will never be enough.” He taps a finger between my breasts. “Because you, Sidney, are the most important part of who I am.”
A choked sob escapes my lips, the tears streaming down my cheeks when Breccan drops to his knees, the water rising to his chest.
Desperate to tell h
im that he’s wrong, that it’s him who’s all those things, I open my mouth, but nothing more than another sob comes out.
“Sidney O’Neil, you are absolutely the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I cannot imagine spending the rest of my life not trying to show you what you mean to me. Will you marry me so that we can spend the next sixty years going on adventures of a lifetime—together?”
Without hesitation, I shout “Yes!” and throw myself in to his arms. He catches me easily, just like he always has, and I pepper his face with kisses.
The sound of a dolphin laughing breaks in and Breccan stands, placing me back on my feet at his side.
“Margie. The ring please,” he says, his face split wide in the most genuine smile I’ve ever seen.
At his words, Margie slides back under the water and disappears.
Panic mars his beautiful face and he shouts, “Hey uh! What the hell?” he asks one of the trainers, as the man begins frantically blowing on his whistle.
While the trainer continues to blow his whistle, the other man tells Breccan, “Don’t worry. She’ll surface in a minute.”
“Don’t worry?” Breccan roars. “That damn fish better come back up with my ring or you’ll be the one worrying.”
At the sound of the whistle, the other dolphins spring to action, soaring and diving all around us. I glance at Breccan, and his face, that just moments ago was pure elation, is now a mix of murderous glare and panic.
A giggle escapes my lips despite my best efforts, and before I know it, I’m bent at the waist, gasping for air through the fit of laughter.
“You can not seriously be laughing right now!” Breccan barks, which only causes me to laugh harder.
“I’m sorry,” I squeak out. As I stand upright, Margie springs from the water directly in front of us, a box attached to her front flipper.
“Thank fuck,” Breccan breathes, as he tries to snatch the box from Margie. It won’t come away from the string its hanging from and one of the other men in the water swims over to us to help. After fumbling with it for a few seconds he finally gets it free of Margie and hands it to a seething Breccan.
The dolphin gracefully slides back in to the water and swims away, using her fluke to splash Breccan in the face.
“Oh shit!” I squeal.
“Jesus Christ, could this have gone any worse?” he groans, and I laugh all over again. His eyes cut to mine and I give his arm playful slap.
“Oh, it wasn’t that bad.” I tell him.
His eyes nearly bug out of his head. “That fucking animal almost lost your ring! I spent a month designing the damn thing!”
My heart leaps at the thought of him having a ring specially designed for me. “Well, do I get to see it or not?” I quip.
“I don’t know. You still think that shit was funny?”
I nod my head. “Yep. I can’t wait to get home and tell Reb.”
His eyes narrow. “Don’t you fucking dare. I’ll never live this shit down. You better tell her it was the most romantic fucking day of your life.”
I roll my eyes, but concede and nod. “Fine. I’ll tell her that it was straight out of a romance novel.”
He doesn’t say anything more, but lifts the lid on the box revealing the most stunning piece of jewelry I’ve ever seen.
One hand flies to my mouth as I gasp, while the other tentatively reaches out to touch the ring. I want to feel it, to make sure that it’s real and I’m not imagining it.
The emerald-cut diamond is huge and set in a platinum band, flanked on either side by amethysts—Connor’s birthstone. There are round diamonds set in the band that appear to wrap the entire ring.
“You like it?” Breccan asks gently, and my gaze snaps to his face. He’s studying me carefully, his face unreadable.
I nod, my lips pressed together, and he pulls the ring from its box and slides it on to my finger. The weight of it feels strange, but also so right, as if my hand had been made specifically for this ring, and not the other way around.
I hold my hand away from my body, admiring the way the setting sunlight reflects off the stunning gems. The purple stones shine the brightest of all and I press my hand to Breccan’s chest, feeling the strong beat of his heart beneath my fingertips.
“It couldn’t be any more perfect.” I whisper, standing on my toes and pressing my lips to his.
He wraps his arms around my waist, lifting me from my feet, and my legs instantly go around his hips. My core pressed against him, I feel his arousal grow between us as I deepen our kiss, gliding my tongue slowly along his.
My arm around his broad shoulders, shoulders that I’ve spent so much time leaning and crying on, I clutch him tightly. I try to convey how much this day has meant to me without words, hoping that he’ll understand everything I’m trying to tell him.
He rolls his hips in to me and breaks our seal to whisper in my ear. “The staff have agreed to give us some privacy.”
Dazed from the intensity of our kiss, I look around and notice that we are alone in the water. Heat pools in my belly as I whisper, “Make love to me, Breccan.”
His chest rumbles with a growl and he wastes no time stripping us of our bathing suits.
I’m clinging to his chest, my legs wrapped tightly around him in the warm waters of the ocean as he enters me.
Slowly, he begins to move and as he does, a sense of peace washes over me.
Yes, this is exactly where I’m supposed to be.
CHAPTER Four
july
BRECCAN AND I spent two more days in paradise before returning home last month. The trip was amazing, and not just because I’d come home with a fiancé instead of a boyfriend, although that was the highlight of the trip.
Crossing another item off Connor’s bucket list felt good. Really good. Breccan did the impossible, making something that could have been bittersweet just sweet. I haven’t had time to dwell on the fact that it was me crossing the item off instead of Connor.
As soon as we arrived home, I called Rebecca to share the news. Her reaction was everything I thought it would be, and she insisted on throwing an engagement party almost immediately.
Rebecca showed up this morning almost as the sun was coming up and began decorating. In no time at all, our house was completely made over, the decorations simple and tasteful.
“It looks amazing, Reb.” I breathe as I walk in to the living room.
Bent at the waist, rearranging a vase of flowers, she straightens and glances over her shoulder at me.
“No, you look amazing!” she squeals, waltzing over to me. “Gah, I just knew this dress would be perfect for tonight!”
She holds my hand above my head, forcing me to do a twirl, and I giggle as the skirt billows out around me.
“You were right,” I admit, as I admire the dress she insisted I buy when we went shopping. I wasn’t sure, but Rebecca insisted I get it, and I’m glad she did, because I look fabulous.
“Let’s have a glass of wine before everyone gets here,” she says, and then leads me in to the kitchen. I settle myself on the barstool and let her fuss over the drinks, knowing she won’t let me help her if I try.
I grab the Rubik’s cube from the basket on the end of the counter and twist the colored blocks a couple times.
I’ve been working on the damn thing for almost as long as Connor’s been gone. When I saw that one of the items on his bucket list was to solve the cube, I’d immediately purchased one, assuming that it would be the easiest item to cross off.
I was wrong.
“Argh.” I grumble, dropping it back in the basket.
Breccan and I have both been trying to solve it, taking it everywhere we go and pulling it out whenever we have a free minute. But all our efforts have been fruitless. We’re no closer to solving the puzzle than we were when we bought it.
“What’s the matter?” Rebecca asks, handing me a wine glass filled to the brim. I take a long sip.
“That damn Rubik’s cube.
I can’t solve it to save my life.” I point to where it’s resting and Rebecca picks it up. “At this rate, I’ll be a hundred before I ever figure it out.”
She takes another swallow of wine and then sets her glass on the counter and eyes the cube. “May I?” she asks.
I sweep my hand, telling her, “Be my guest.”
For a few minutes, I watch her in stunned silence as she spins the panels around, the colors starting to match up.
She’s still working on it, her brow creased in concentration, when Breccan and Tripp come through the door, laughing loudly.
“Shhhhh!” I snap, my eyes wide as Rebecca slides the last few panels in to place, the colors all lining up perfectly.
“Oh my God!” I murmur, shocked. I’ve spent months trying to get the damn thing solved and she waltzed in, and with a few flicks of her wrists, solved it in less than five minutes.
“Holy shit, Reb!” Breccan whoops, grabbing her around the waist and twirling her in a circle. He kisses the top of her head when he sets her down and then comes to me.
Pulling me in to his arms, he plants a wet kiss on my lips and then squeezes me tight.
“I can’t believe you just did that!” I shout when the shock finally wears off. “Hey, it still counts even though it was Reb that solved it, right?” I ask aloud.
She lifts a shoulder and smiles as she brings her wine glass to her lips. “Of course it counts!” Changing the subject, she directs her attention to Breccan. “Doesn’t your fiancée look amazing?”
He takes a step back, holding me at arm’s length, and his eyes roam my body. My cheeks heat at the intensity of his face, and when his eyes meet mine, he says, “Yes, Rebecca, my fiancée looks incredible. Although, she always does.”
He pulls me back to his chest and whispers in my ear, “Wish we had a few minutes alone, so I could show you just how much I like this dress on you.”
My nipples tingle at the feel of his breath on my neck, and I fight the desire that floods my veins.
“Ahem.” Tripp clears his throat behind Breccan and I step away, working to push the disappointment aside.
