“Because I’m a man,” Xavier said. “And men don’t wear makeup unless they’re emo or play in a boy band.”
“Please?” I wheedled.
His brilliant blue almond-shaped eyes seemed to sparkle. “Okay . . .”
“Really?” I brightened.
“No! I’m not that much of a pushover.”
“Fine,” I pouted. “I’ll just have to make you smell like a girl. . . .”
Before he could stop me, I grabbed a bottle of perfume and squirted him in the chest. He sniffed his shirt curiously.
“Fruity,” he concluded, “with a hint of musk.”
I collapsed into laughter. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I think you mean irresistible,” Xavier said.
“Yes,” I agreed, “ridiculously irresistible.”
I leaned forward to kiss him, just as there came a knock at the door. Ivy poked her head into the room and Xavier and I sprang apart.
“Your brother sent me to check on you,” she said with a raised eyebrow. “To make sure you aren’t up to no good.”
“Actually,” I began indignantly, “we were just—”
“Heading outside,” Xavier cut in. I opened my mouth to argue, but he shot me a sharp look. “It’s their house, we play by their rules,” he murmured. As he steered me out of the room, I noticed Ivy looking at him with a new respect.
Outside, we sat on the garden swing with our arms around each other. Xavier disentangled himself long enough to roll up his shirtsleeves and then throw Phantom’s frayed tennis ball across the grass. Phantom always retrieved but then refused to relinquish, so the soggy ball had to be pried from between his teeth. Xavier stretched back to throw the ball again and then rinsed his hands under the garden tap. I breathed in his clean, woody scent. All I could think was that we had survived our first test relatively unscathed. Xavier had been true to his word and had not allowed himself to be intimidated. On the contrary, he had held his ground with unswerving conviction. Not only did I admire him more than ever, but I also relished that he was in my house, this time as a legitimate guest rather than an intruder.
“I could stay here all night,” I murmured into his shirt.
“You know what’s so strange?” he said.
“What?”
“How normal this feels.”
He twisted my hair around his fingers and I saw, reflected in his gesture, our lives entwined.
“Ivy was being dramatic when she said there’s no turning back,” I said.
“It’s okay, Beth. I don’t want my life to go back to the way it was before I met you. I thought I had it all, but really I was missing something. I feel like a completely different person now. This might sound corny, but I feel like I’ve been asleep for a long time, and you’ve just woken me up . . .” He paused. “I can’t believe I just said that. What are you doing to me?”
“Turning you into a poet,” I teased.
“Me?” Xavier growled in mock anger. “Poetry’s for girls.”
“You were great back there. I’m so proud of the way you handled yourself.”
“Thank you. Who knows, maybe a few decades from now your brother and sister might actually like me.”
“I wish we had that long.” I sighed and immediately regretted the words. They had just slipped out. I could have kicked myself for being so stupid; what a perfect way to ruin the mood.
Xavier was so silent, I wondered if he’d even heard me. Then I felt his warm fingers under my chin, and he tilted my face up so we were looking eye to eye. He leaned down and kissed me softly, the sweet taste of his lips lingering after he pulled away. He bent forward and murmured in my ear, “We will find a way. That’s a promise.”
“You can’t know that,” I said. “This is different. . . .”
“Beth.” Xavier put a finger against my lips. “I don’t break my promises.”
“But . . .”
“No buts . . . just trust me.”
When Xavier left, no one wanted to go to bed even though it was already past midnight.
Gabriel we knew was an insomniac. It wasn’t unusual for him or Ivy to stay up till the early hours of the morning. But this time all three of us were restless and alert. Ivy suggested a hot drink and was already pulling milk out of the fridge when Gabriel cut in.
“I have a better idea,” he said. “I think we all deserve to unwind.”
Ivy and I guessed his meaning immediately and didn’t even bother trying to hide our excitement.
“Do you mean right now?” Ivy said, the milk carton almost slipping from her grasp.
“Of course, right now. But we have to hurry; it’ll be light in a few hours.”
Ivy let out a squeal. “Just give us a moment to change! We’ll be right back.”
I too could hardly contain my anticipation. This would be the perfect way to express the exhilaration I was feeling about the direction my relationship with Xavier had taken. It had been so long since I’d had a chance to really stretch my wings. My cliff-diving performance for
Xavier hardly qualified as exercise. If anything, it had only served to whet my appetite and remind me how stiff and cramped my wings really felt. I had tried spreading them out and floating around my bedroom with the curtains pulled tight shut, but I’d only crashed into the ceiling fan and bumped my legs on the furniture. As I changed into a loose T-shirt, I felt a bolt of adrenaline shoot through my body. I was going to really savor this predawn flight. I went downstairs, and the three of us made our way silently out to the black Jeep parked in the garage.
It was a different experience driving along the coastal road that unfurled like a ribbon in the early morning. The air was fragrant with the scent of pine, and the trees were tipped with green. The sea looked solid, like a velvet mantle that had been draped over part of the earth.
Along the residential streets, the shutters were all closed, and the streets were deserted as if the occupants had suddenly packed up and evacuated. The township, when we drove through it, was also deserted. I’d never seen Venus Cove asleep. I was so used to seeing people everywhere: riding bikes, eating fries on the pier, or buying jewelry from local craftsmen who set up their stalls on the pavement. But at that hour of the morning, there was a stillness that made me imagine we were the only living beings in the world. I wondered why people referred to the early hours of the morning as “ungodly” when in fact that was the very best time to connect with the forces above.
Gabriel drove for about an hour along a straight stretch of road, then turned onto a bumpy scrub-lined track that seemed to wind toward the sky like a corkscrew. I knew where we were.
Gabriel was taking the route to White Mountain, named because of the snow that sometimes coated its peak, despite its coastal location. You could see the mountain’s outline from Venus
Cove, like a pale gray monolith rising against a star-studded night sky.
There was fog up on the mountain, and the higher we drove the thicker it became. When
Gabriel could no longer distinguish the road ahead he parked and we climbed out. We were standing on a narrow and winding road that continued uphill; tall fir trees, like soldiers, surrounded us on all sides, almost completely blocking out the sky. The tips of the trees were studded with beads of dew, and we could see our breath materialized in the cold air when we exhaled. The ground underfoot was sodden with leaves and bark, muffling our footsteps. Mosscovered branches and tendrils of ferns brushed against our faces. We veered off the road, disappearing into the dense forest. Shafts of moonlight sliced through the canopy in places, like little spotlights illuminating our way. The trees whispered softly to one another and we could hear gentle rustling and the scampering of small paws. Despite the darkness none of us felt afraid. We knew the mountain was completely secluded. No one would find us there.