“I feel the same way,” she said sincerely. “I always told both of my boys the same thing ever since they were little. I promised them I would love who they loved, and I would fight those they needed to fight. I meant every word of that. The last time I saw Reid, before he left for this trip, he was broken. He thought he’d lost the best part of him. We all did, but I knew he took it so hard. The joy behind his eyes was completely missing. I hated that. I wanted so badly to fix it. If there was an actual enemy I was up against, I swear that was a battle I would have won. I so fiercely wanted to protect him from the hurt he felt, but I couldn’t. And then the next time I saw him, all of that love and joy was back in that boy’s eyes. He’d found that piece of him again that made him want to experience all of the joyful things in this world. That mattered so much. As a mother, I can’t possibly express to you how much that means to me.” A slow tear slid down her face, and I hugged her tightly.
“I think he’s the one who fixed me,” I confessed. “But you have too.”
She brushed some of the hair back from my face and gestured her head towards the beach. “Go be young. Go be joyful. Enjoy this night, Cassidy. And I genuinely hope you can feel how loved you are here.”
I brushed a tear away from my own cheek and mouthed the words “thank you” as Uncle Buck returned. I smiled at her and walked backwards to the wooden steps, giving them both a quick wave before disappearing down onto the beach to find Reid. He was standing at the water’s edge with the paddleboard ready to go.
“This will have to be your horse tonight princess,” he teased as we carefully slid it further into the water.
“We’re both supposed to ride on this at the same time?” I asked in shock. I couldn’t imagine my balance was all that great in general, but to keep steady on a giant plastic board with another person seemed impossible. Especially given the fact that my core strength seemed wiped out by my painful ribs.
“We’ll sit on it,” he said with a laugh, somewhat calming my fears. “I’ll straddle it and you can sit in front of me.”
He reached into the pocket of his gym shorts, pulling out a little plastic bag.
“This is all I have left,” he said softly, staring at the small bag of ashes in his hand. He looked up into the night sky. I wasn’t sure exactly what he was staring at, but the look in his eyes led me to believe that even if he wasn’t seeing anything in particular, he was definitely feeling something heavy.
“Are you sure you want me to go with you?” I asked respectfully. “I completely understand if you want some time alone to do your thing.”
The glow from the moon gave off just enough light for me to see the moist corners of his eyes.
“I want you with me,” he replied sincerely. “That’s how this should end. This is exactly what he wanted. I’m not grieving. I’m not angry. Ironically, just like he asked of me in his letter, I feel young and alive like I’m fourteen all over again, laughing under the stars with my best friend. This is exactly what he’d want from me. And the exact way I want to remember him right now. Howling into the moon. There’s never been one howl. Never. And I wouldn’t want it that way.”
Without another word, we pushed the paddleboard into the cold, soft waves. The temperature was chillier than I imagined it would be, but I didn’t care. Once we were both situated and steady on the board, he slowly began moving us out to the large, square wooden swimming dock about a hundred feet out. His movements were slow. I wasn’t sure if that was because of the pain he was in or because he was taking all of this in. The fireworks across the bay started lighting up the night sky above us.
“It’s amazing out here,” I said softly, staring up into the sky. It looked like tiny particles of glitter bursting right open on top of us. Once we reached the dock, he tied the paddleboard to the edge of it. He helped me onto the dock, and although it pained my entire torso to move like that, it was easy to disregard the discomfort over this moment. “I think our doctors would kill us right now if they knew what we were doing,” I muttered quietly with a slight laugh.
“Are you ready?” he asked me with a smirk. “You’re right, it might hurt a little given the shape we’re in. But don’t think about it. Ten seconds. We jump.”
He grabbed my hand.
Reid tilted his face towards the sky. The fireworks burst over our heads, and Reid howled into the air with his boyish, genuine spirit. His sound filled the space around us, and it was so infectious. I mimicked his sound and within seconds, we leapt towards the water. It was one of those rare moments that felt like slow motion - Reid threw his handful of ashes towards the universe and the two of us, beaming like children, came crashing down into the water with a giant splash.
The cold water surrounded me and I felt like I was floating through space again - just like I had after the car accident. But this time Reid was holding my hand as if separation couldn’t physically win over the feeling we had clinging to one another. We surfaced and I wiped the blonde locks of hair away from my face. Reid howled again and in the distance, the sound echoed back. He smiled, and I knew I would never forget the look on his face. The echoed noise was likely just Uncle Buck or his Grandpa James from the cottage. But it felt complete in that moment, as if something else out there in the darkness was answering us.
Reid and I reached our hands up to the dock to steady ourselves. I was thankful that the water was so cold - it numbed my entire body, and the pain in my ribs was virtually absent at the moment. Reid cupped my face with his other hand and he kissed me with such purpose.
As much as I appreciated what they’d done to the pool house to make me feel at home, it was nothing compared to the way I felt now. If home was a feeling, this was it.
“I love you Cassidy Jones,” he whispered between kissing me.
We slid over and my back was resting up against the rusted ladder of the dock. Reid wrapped his hands around the metal to steady himself, kissing me down the side of my face. I wrapped my arms around his neck. He embraced me with his entire body, and my face rested on his shoulder.
Something in the night sky caught my attention. It looked unusual to me somehow. The fireworks were still exploding in the other direction, so that wasn’t it. This - this was something new. The sky looked different.
I slowly reached my hand up just above Reid, as if I was pressing it up against our starlit backdrop.
No way.
Conforming to the outside of my hand, the stars took shape around it, as if they were lined up perfectly with my skin. This was it. The story I’d been told since I was a little girl - the wish I was promised that I never believed in - the fairytale I didn’t believe anyone ever lived. This was mine.
“I love you too, Reid Carson,” I whispered back.
Those words - which spent less than ten seconds on my lips - didn’t actually seem so crazy after all.
About the Author
Randileigh Kennedy grew up in Nevada and now resides in the Midwest. When she isn't writing, she stays busy planning random theme parties and working on crafty DIY projects, which are all featured on her blog at www.randileighkennedy.com.
If you enjoyed this book (okay, even if you hated it :) please make sure to leave a review on Amazon.com – your feedback helps out tremendously.
Be sure to check out other work from Randileigh, including the Six Series, also available on Amazon.com. For more information, you can visit her Amazon author page at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00JH0FMQQ.
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