“How did you know it was us?”
“We didn’t.”
But he had hoped. I gave him a watery smile.
The door opened yet again and more people filed into the room. This time it was the woman from the picture with my grandmother, Nash’s abuela. She was followed by a woman with long, dark curly hair and green eyes. Behind her was a tall man with lighter brown hair. I knew right away it was his parents. He looked a lot like his mother.
“Nash!” his abuela cried and then broke into rapid-fire Spanish that made my head spin. I watched him, wondering if he understood what the heck she was saying.
He smiled and nodded. Then he returned her monologue with one of his own—matching her speed.
Wow. He really talked slow to me on that island. And I still hadn’t understood.
Before I could ponder that further, he finished talking, and all eyes swung to me. His mother and grandmother both converged, wrapping me in a hug at the same time. They started talking and exclaiming in Spanish once more, and I sat there in the center of them, feeling like I was starring in some sitcom on TV.
“Mom,” Nash said with a laugh. “Ava doesn’t speak Spanish.”
His mother pulled back and looked at me with tears in her eyes. She stroked the side of my cheek with her hand and I actually saw affection in her eyes. “Bella,” she murmured.
“Si,” Nash replied. “She’s very beautiful.”
His grandmother kissed me. “You look like your abuela.”
That was the first time anyone ever told me that. I started to cry.
Everyone started talking at once. People were patting my back. My mother was going on about some movie about people who talked to coconuts when they were stranded.
“Everybody out!” Nash yelled over the chaos.
Everyone stopped talking and looked at him. “We love you all. We can’t wait to spend time with you. But we need a minute.”
To my surprise, they left. My father was the last to go, pressing a kiss to my head. Then he gave Nash an approving look and shut the door behind him.
I collapsed against the table. “It’s like a circus.”
He chuckled. “Your mother seemed nice.”
I burst out laughing. “Tell her that she should have been an actress and she will love you forever.”
“So what now?” he said, his voice taking on a serious tone.
It was the question I’d been dreading since we first crashed onto that island. Probably because I knew what I had to do, what this would come to if we ever made it out alive.
Part of me actually wished we had been able to stay there. Even with everything that happened, things on that island seemed simpler.
“Hey,” he said softly, coming up and wrapping his arms around my chilled frame. “Why don’t we go to the hotel? Shower, get some food. Then we’ll talk.”
I snuggled into him a little closer, taking a deep breath. He still smelled like the ocean.
“Okay,” I replied, my answer muffled against his shirt.
I wasn’t used to him wearing a shirt.
“Where’d you get the shirt?” I asked.
He grinned. “One of the nurses gave it to me.”
Damn nurses were probably checking him out.
“Come on,” he said, lifting me down off the table. I was so incredibly tired all of the sudden.
“The doctor didn’t bring my paperwork back.”
“We’ll sic your mother on him.”
I laughed.
He reached for the knob on the door and then stopped. He spun, grabbing me by the shoulders, and looked so far into my eyes I wondered if he saw my soul.
“We’re going to be okay,” he whispered. “Even if it takes a while.”
He kissed me.
It was our first kiss that wasn’t on a beach. Our first kiss in the “real world.” It was everything it always was: hot, consuming, and deep. I curled my hands into his T-shirt, gripping the cotton fabric tightly. He turned his head one way and then the other, covering every angle he could. His mouth was an onslaught to my already overwhelmed senses. Kissing him was something I would never ever get enough of.
Yet…
Yet this felt like the last time.
It was like we were saying good-bye.
Like when he gazed into my eyes, into my soul, he saw exactly what I tried to hide, exactly what I refused to admit.
And it was like he was telling me it was okay.
The kiss ended too soon. We stood there, bodies pressed together, my hands still tangled in his shirt. He kissed my nose. He kissed my forehead.
“You ready?” he asked, hoarse.
No. “Yes.”
He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. I didn’t move. My feet were glued to the floor. I knew the minute we walked out of this room, everything would change.
When I didn’t follow, he turned back. He gazed at me so tenderly I literally felt my heart crack.
“Bella,” he murmured, stoking my hair. “I know what you’re thinking.”
“You do?” My voice trembled.
“Yes. You think we need to go our separate ways.”
The crack deepened a little bit more. “What if what we feel…?” I gestured between us. “What if it was all just a product of our environment? Two people trying to survive?”
“Do you really think that?” He bent down a little to look directly into my eyes.
“I don’t know,” I whispered, upset. I was confused. I was overwhelmed. The crash hadn’t seemed like that big of a deal on the island. Now, it felt like my life was split in two.
Before and after.
In some odd way, I felt like I was getting a fresh start, a do-over of sorts. It seemed like I needed to really think about my life, my feelings, and not just shuffle through the next part of my life. In a way, that crash killed the old me, and in her place was a woman who was ready to take on life and make it what she wanted it to be.
Did I want Nash?
So much it hurt.
But jumping into something seemed wrong. It seemed like I needed to find my… land legs. Like I had spent all this time at sea and I needed to get my balance again on land.
It seemed the fair thing would be to let him go.
They say if you love something—someone—you should set them free…
I felt like being a hoarder.
He took my face in his hands. “I’m going to give you some space, bella. The time I think you need.”
“But what if I need you too?”
He smiled. “Don’t worry. You haven’t seen the last of me.”