by DW Davis
That may have been a lot to read into that question and that look, but I had known Rhiannon all my life. I thought about Maeve and what she would think. I remembered the promise Maeve had begged me to make with her last breaths.
I had been in love with Rhiannon once. That love had grown cold and been replaced by my love for Maeve. But my Maeve was gone. I felt a hot tear escape my eye and grow cold as it rolled down my cheek.
Maeve was gone, but Rhiannon was here, and the feelings I once had seemed to be coming alive again. Could I fall in love with Rhiannon again? Had I already started to? Looking into her eyes that early spring morning, I knew the answer was yes.
“I think,” I said to her as I took her hands in mine, “that we should go sailing.”
Epilogue
Rhiannon and I left the pier that morning as soon as her uncle arrived to relieve us. We didn’t really talk about it; we just walked to her car and drove to the Nadeau House, her house now. As we pulled into the driveway, Rhiannon hit the button to open the garage door. I felt just a momentary twinge as I looked into the empty garage, but it passed quickly.
Closing the garage door behind us, we got out of the car and walked up the steps into the house. I took a deep breath as we entered the kitchen, but if Rhiannon noticed, she never said anything. We didn’t stop at the kitchen. I took her hand, and, with what can only be described as a shy smile, she let me lead her to the master bedroom.
Thank goodness she had completely changed it. It looked nothing like the room Maeve and I had shared. Stopping next to the bed, I turned to her and started to speak, but she put a finger to my lips. Then, very softly, she reached up and pulled my head down to hers and kissed me long and deep. Without a word we undressed, climbed into her bed, and made slow, sweet love. Afterward I held her close as we drifted off to sleep.
Sometime later I woke up to the sounds of pots and pans clanking together. I started to look for my jeans and shirt when I noticed a set of clean clothes - my clothes - on her dresser. They were not the clothes I had on when we came from the pier.
I shrugged my shoulders and put them on. I was glad I’d gotten dressed when I entered the kitchen and found my sister Malori there with Rhiannon.
“Hi, Squirt,” I said. “What are you doing here?”
Malori turned around from helping Rhiannon with the dishes. “Rhiannon called and told me you needed some clean clothes.”
“So you rushed some right over,” I said with a smile. “Thanks, Mal.”
“You’re welcome,” Malori said grinning back at me.
I walked over to Rhiannon, who was busy at the sink, and put my arms around her.
“How long have you been up?” I asked her as I kissed her cheek.
“About an hour,” Rhiannon replied, turning to receive a kiss on the lips. “I called Malori and asked her to bring you a change of clothes and decided I needed to clean up the kitchen before you got up.”
I looked around the kitchen and noticed it was very neat and tidy. “It looks like you did a great job.”
“At least from now on I won’t have to do it alone,” Rhiannon said.
I gave her a teasing smile and raised my brows. “Really, are you getting a roommate?”
“Brat,” she said, batting me lightly on the cheek with the sponge. “As a matter of fact, I think I’ve found just the right someone. He should be moving his stuff in later today if he knows what’s good for him.”
“Point taken,” I responded with a light laugh.
“That’s what I’m here for, favorite brother of mine,” Malori informed me, “to give you a ride to Mom and Dad’s so you can pick up your car and stuff.”
“Is that a fact?” I said. “Does that mean you’re taking me to lunch?”
Glancing at the clock on the stove, Malori informed me, “It’s closer to supper time. You slept through lunch, lazy-bones.”
Wringing out the dishrag, Rhiannon announced, “I’m going to cook you up a home-cooked meal in honor of your first night...” She stopped suddenly. “In honor of our first night together in this house,” she said quietly after a moment.
Realizing she’d been about to say “in honor of your first night in my house” before remembering that it was the house I’d bought for Maeve and shared with her for years, I took her hand and pulled her to me.
“This isn’t going to be as easy as I thought,” Rhiannon said, clinging tightly to me.
Gently stroking her hair, I reassured her. “Honey, we are here, now, and we’re together. We go forward from here together.” I looked at Malori. “Mal, I think I’ll stay here for now and pick up my stuff tomorrow.”
“All right, bro,” Malori said, “I think that’s a good plan. I’ll see you two tomorrow.”
“Thanks, Malori,” Rhiannon said, letting go of me long enough to hug Malori good-bye.
Then it was just Rhiannon and me. We walked to the living room.
“Does the fireplace still work?” I asked her.
“It should,” she said.
I got a fire started, and we sat on the floor in front of the couch facing the crackling flames. I held her close to me, and we just sat quietly for a time watching the flames. When she was ready, she began to talk.
“Michael,” she said.
“Yes, honey,” I replied.
Rhiannon smiled. “I still love it when you call me honey.”
Smiling back at her, I said, “I’m glad.”
“You do know you are the only man I have ever loved?” Rhiannon asked slowly, with emphasis.
I couldn’t imagine that. “I do now,” I said.
“You’re the only man I’ve ever been with, Michael,” Rhiannon revealed to me.
I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I just pulled her closer to me.
“I thought you should know that,” she said snuggling even closer. Again we were quiet for a while.
I thought about all the history between us, my history in that house.
“Honey,” I said.
She breathed a pleased sigh, “Yes.”
“We can’t stay here,” I told her.
“I know,” she said. She’d been thinking the same thing it seemed.
“I’ve been looking at a place in the islands,” I said, “on Saint Thomas.”
She was thoughtful for a minute before she said, “I think that would be nice. How soon can we leave?”
“Tomorrow,” I said. I couldn’t think of any reason we couldn’t leave right way.
She turned to look at me. “Just like that?” she asked.
“Just like that,” I told her. “If that’s what you want.”
Rhiannon shook her head, smiling sadly. “What about the house, and my job?”
“My dad will take care of the house,” I assured her. “I’m sure your bosses would understand.”
She sat up, and her brow furrowed as she thought about that. “I should give them two weeks’ notice, don’t you think?”
“Do you really want to wait two weeks?” I asked her.
Rhiannon smiled and shook her head. “No, not really,” she admitted. “Can we really leave tomorrow?”
“Just let me make a couple of calls and in a couple of days we’ll be on Cuarto sailing the Islands,” I promised her.
She thought about that a minute, maybe less.
“Make the calls, Michael,” Rhiannon said with a smile. “Make the calls.”
The first call was to my dad to explain the situation. Then I called the airport to make sure the Seneca would be ready. I checked with Rhiannon to make sure her passport was up to date.
With the planning, packing, and arrangements, it was actually two days later before Rhiannon and I went wheels-up at Wilmington International on our way to Saint Thomas and the marina where I had left Cuarto.
We had to make stops in Nassau and the Turks and Caicos on the way but finally arrived and boarded. I’d contacted the folks at the marina to let them know I was returning, and they had her all ready for
us.
After we’d stowed our gear, Rhiannon changed into a bikini and laid out a towel on the foredeck. I joined her after double checking that all the hookups were secure and working.
“Are we really here, Michael, or am I going to wake up and find this is all a dream?” Rhiannon asked me.
“We are really here, honey,” I assured her.
“I love it when you call me honey,” Rhiannon said.
Rhiannon and I spent the next several months sailing around the islands. The calendar showed that summer had passed and fall was upon us, but there among the islands we hardly noticed the change of seasons. As October became November we started thinking about going home for the holidays.
“Could we go for Thanksgiving and stay right through New Year’s?” Rhiannon asked me when we began discussing it.
“We could if that’s what you wanted to do,” I told her.
“I think I’d like to do that,” she said.
“We’d need a place to stay,” I informed her. “My father found a buyer for the Nadeau house.”
“He did?” Rhiannon said, sounding a bit disappointed. “So where would we stay?”
“How would you feel about living in a suite at the Wright Isle Resort for a couple of months?” I asked her.
“Are you serious?” Rhiannon said, before she remembered. “Oh, yeah, you own a big chunk of that place, don’t you?”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” I acknowledged. “I’ve already contacted Hernando. Did you know he’s planning to retire next spring?”
“Hernando retire?” Rhiannon said. “How will they manage without him?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I hope he’s been bringing someone along to take over for him.”
“Do you think we could stay in the suite we had Prom night?” Rhiannon asked with a grin.
“I think it’s been remodeled a couple of times since then, but yes, I think we could,” I told her. “Actually, honey, that’s the room I asked Hernando to reserve for us.”
“I still love it when you call me honey,” Rhiannon said. “I should have known you’d think of that.”
I smiled and then checked to see that the small package I’d put in my pocket before I came up on deck was still there.
“Rhiannon, how would you feel about going to a big wedding?” I asked innocently.
“Whose wedding, Michael?” Rhiannon asked as she turned toward me. A look of surprise came to her face when she noticed the ring I was holding sparkling in the sunlight.
“Ours,” I said.
“Oh, Michael,” Rhiannon said as tears started to fill her eyes.
“I was thinking we could make the trip home a long honeymoon,” I said.
Rhiannon took the ring and put in on her finger. She looked at it for a long moment as if expecting it to disappear, and then she looked at me.
“Well,” she said expectantly.
Realizing what she was waiting for, I took her hand and slowly got down on one knee.
“Rhiannon, it wasn’t that long ago that I thought I could never love again. If not for you, I may never have been able to. You are such a part of me that I don’t think I could live without you. Rhiannon, my friend and my lover, will you become my wife?”
Rhiannon’s tears streamed, and she was literally shaking as she replied.
“Michael, I thought I had lost you forever. Then, when you lost Maeve, I begged God to take me instead and give her back to you. I loved you so much, and I couldn’t bear to see you suffer so.”
Rhiannon stopped a minute to collect herself. I felt a lump rising in my throat and tears filling my eyes.
“I have never loved any man but you, Michael, and I threw that away once. But I promised you that I would always be there for you if you needed me. Now I have another chance and, mister, you can bet your life I’m not throwing this one away. Yes, Michael, I will marry you.”
I stood slowly, and with tears rolling down my cheeks, took Rhiannon into my arms and held her. Brushing her hair back from her face, I kissed her warmly and gently and told her I loved her. She wiped at my tears and told me she loved me, too. We kissed again and, without another word between us, went below to our cabin.
About the Author
DW Davis graduated from Western New England College with an accounting degree, after a four year hitch in the Army, and is currently working as a middle school math teacher. DW grew up in coastal North Carolina and still resides in the state’s Coastal Plains region with his lovely wife and two sons. DREAMS ADRIFT is the third book in the River Dream series.
Connect with DW Davis Online:
On his web site:
http://www.riversailorliterary.com
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On Twitter:
http://twitter.com/DWDavisRSL
