Wherever You Are Page 10

  “I’m not going anywhere for six weeks, at least. That gives us enough time to get some things together.”

  “Well, let me know if you need help. I’m willing to pitch in.”

  “I definitely need your assistance as a mentor. While we’re away, I want to finalize plans for the fund-raising gala. I’m inviting several people, but I need your help with getting the medical faculty and staff to support.”

  “Done,” he said simply. “What else?”

  Frowning, she turned toward him. “What do you mean?”

  “Any other changes you plan on making with your life?”

  Shrugging, she thought about his question. “I don’t know. I guess the proper answer would be to work smarter, not harder. Eat better. Exercise more. Sleep.”

  He laughed. “What about fun? Don’t you want to add that in there somewhere?”

  Fun. It had been so long since Avery had fun. The thought made her stomach clench. “I’m not sure I know how to have fun anymore.”

  “Good thing I’m here to help you.”

  “What do you do for fun?”

  “Nothing.”

  Avery laughed then. “Straight up? You’re lecturing me and you don’t bother to have fun?”

  “Hey, I’m older.”

  “By a few years. That doesn’t even count. How about I agree to add fun back into my life if you do the same?”

  Just then, a flash of light streaked across her eyes, and when she turned toward him she could make out his shadow clearly. Gasping, she brought her hand up to her mouth. And it didn’t stop there. She saw him turn to face her. No, she couldn’t make out his face, but she definitely made out that movement.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I see you,” she whispered.

  “What do you see?”

  She reached out and touched his face, his chin, then brushed her fingers over his cheek. “Not details, but I can see the outline of your silhouette. It’s gray. No color, but it’s there.”

  “That’s amazing.” He held her hand against his cheek and kissed the palm of her hand. “I’m glad.”

  Avery was afraid to blink, but when she did, he was still there. This time, she could see a fleck of brown in his skin. “Your skin,” she breathed. “I can see brown.”

  After the second blink, though, he was gone. Shoulders slumped, she pulled back. “Gone. You’re gone.”

  He pulled her hand back up to his face. “I’m not gone. I’m still here.”

  She nodded and wiped a tear from her face with her free hand. “That was amazing.”

  “That was progress,” he said.

  * * *

  El parked the car at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, close to the Platte River. The park was a tourist spot where people could camp, canoe, kayak, walk along the beach, float on the river, explore the nature trails or climb the steep sand dunes.

  “Are we here?” Avery asked.

  “We are.” He hopped out of the car and jogged over to her door to open it for her. “How does your toe feel?”

  Avery hadn’t complained much about any pain on their drive. He’d made sure to stop periodically to let her stretch and take a quick walk. The roughly four-hour drive was smooth, since they’d left in the early morning and there wasn’t much traffic.

  Helping her out of the car, he watched as she tilted her head up to the sun. She wore big designer shades, a pair of khaki shorts and a white tank. Due to her injured toe, she was wearing a pair of sneakers.

  “Toe is fine. Where are we?”

  El smiled. “We’re at the Dunes.”

  Avery sucked in a deep breath. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Avery once told him that her family had often visited the park, and she had great memories. When he’d set up the road trip, he’d made it a point to visit places that were dear to her heart. This was the first stop.

  He had a picnic basket on dry ice and he’d requested she wear her bathing suit under her clothes so they could go tubing. It was his hope that he could help her hone in on her other senses. After Avery had gotten a glimpse of him in the car, he felt confident that her sight was returning and hoped she’d regain all of it. But even partial blindness was a step forward for her at that moment.

  “Can you see me?” he asked.

  She lifted her shades to reveal her eyes. “I recognize the sunlight. But it’s like everything and everyone is under a gray haze. I see motion, but I can’t make out any details.”

  “That’s good.” He placed his hand on the small of her back. “There’s a spot over there on the beach. I brought us a picnic.”

  El spread a blanket and steered Avery to the spot once everything was prepared.

  Lunch consisted of turkey sandwiches, bottled water and potato chips. They ate in comfortable silence. There were people milling around, kids running along the beach. El enjoyed the serenity and hoped Avery was enjoying it, as well.

  “Thank you, El,” she said. “You know I love turkey sandwiches.”

  El laughed. “I almost got ham just to piss you off.”

  She nudged his shoulder. “You know I hate ham. It would have been World War III here today if you did.”

  There were two things Avery didn’t eat: beans and ham. El could never understand how someone could not like either. He was a fan of both, especially ham. When he was a kid, Lawrence’s cook often piled heaping slices of ham on white bread for him for lunch. He could remember gulping the sandwiches down and asking for seconds. The ham was succulent and sweet because the cook made it with a honey-baked crust.

  “You know I wouldn’t do that to you. I learned my lesson long ago.”

  “Oh, I remember that day.”

  El did, too. He’d taken it upon himself to show her the glory of a good ham and brought in lunch from Zingermans, a popular local deli. The sandwiches were the best he’d ever tasted, and he was sure Avery would agree. Except she’d asked for corned beef.

  When Avery was studying, she rarely paid attention to anything, even food. He’d set the sandwich in front of her and waited for her to pick it up without even looking at it. One bite and that ham had been plastered to his arm. She’d spit it out immediately, practically choking to get it out of her mouth.

  “I still don’t know why you have such an aversion to ham. It’s so good.”

  She shrugged. “Hey, I just can’t deal with it. I don’t even like the smell of it.”

  She wasn’t allergic, she just hated it. After that, El never played with Avery’s food again. “Well, I don’t want a repeat performance of your food on my arm.”

  Avery giggled and popped a potato chip into her mouth.

  Once they were finished with lunch, El and Avery walked along the beach. Well, he walked and she hobbled.

  “Okay?” he asked when he noticed her nose was scrunched up, as if in pain.

  “It’s kind of hard walking along the beach in shoes,” she said. “But I’m a little nervous to take my shoes off. Don’t want to step on anything or hurt my toe.”

  “We can stop here.”

  There wasn’t a lot of traffic on this particular stretch of the beach, which was why he always preferred it. When she sat on the sand, he untied her shoes and pulled them off.

  Her low moan of pleasure shot straight to his heart. And his groin. “This is wonderful.”

  “Lie back,” he told her.

  “In the sand?”

  “Yes.”

  “My hair?”

  El barked out a laugh. “Your hair will be fine. Here.” He took off his baseball cap and placed it on top of her head. “This will help.” He slid her sunglasses off.

  As Avery slowly lay back on the sand, he thought about how so much time had passed but nothing had really changed as far as his feelings went. He’d
meant what he said when he’d told her he’d worked hard to get over her. But he found that he couldn’t stop loving her, no matter how hard he’d tried. And he did try. Hard. He’d even employed some of the same tactics he’d taught his patients, to no avail.

  “El?”

  Lying on his back, he turned his head to view her profile. “Hmm?”

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “You. Us.”

  She gasped. “What about us?”

  Tracing a finger down her cheek, he said, “About how much I still care.”

  El had been wanting a reason to not let himself feel what he’d been fighting against since she’d arrived. But he couldn’t find one.

  “I care, too,” she admitted, her voice a whisper. “And the fact that you brought me here, took me away when I needed it, makes me care even more. If that was even possible.”

  “You should know that there is nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”

  Avery turned to her side and tucked her hand under her face. “El, I’m sorry.”

  “You already apologized. You don’t have to keep doing it.”

  “I also said there were things we needed to talk about in person. I was wrong. I could’ve handled things differently. But I thought if I just left, if I hurt you, that was the only way you’d let me go. I was so wrong. And you deserved better from me.”

  El thought about the months following their breakup with trepidation. Long nights with no sleep, because she wasn’t lying next to him. Anxiety had plagued his days for months. He wasn’t sure how he’d even lasted a day. Short of begging her to stay, he’d given her every reason to choose him. He’d even hopped on a flight to Atlanta to try and convince her that what they had was worth fighting for. Yet she hadn’t fought, and she hadn’t chosen him.

  A tear streaked down her face and he brushed it away with the pad of his thumb. He didn’t want to get into this. He didn’t want to relive those moments because he’d worked hard to not let them consume his everyday thoughts. So he told her, “We both made mistakes then. I said some hurtful things, too.”

  Avery rolled her eyes and muttered a curse, as if frustrated with something. With me? “Yeah, I guess.”

  El knew they were treading on thin ice, so he purposefully steered the conversation back to the present. “What do you hear?”

  Avery frowned. “What?”

  “I want you to lie still, focus on the feel of the sand in your toes and underneath you. Listen to your surroundings.”

  Avery closed her eyes.

  “What’s the first thing you hear?” he asked.

  A slow grin spread across her face. “I hear the water, the waves crashing up against the shore.”

  “Good. What else?”

  “The wind. I hear and feel the wind against my face, my legs.”

  His gaze drifted to her long legs. El was a leg man, and Avery had a pair of legs that had haunted his dreams. Her toes were painted hot pink and she wore a thin silver ankle bracelet. He knew the bracelet had been a gift from Jess when they graduated from high school. Avery rarely took it off. The charm on it said Sister. He also noticed a new tattoo on her foot. There were two butterflies.

  He sat up and traced the outline of one of them with his forefinger. “When did you get this?”

  She shivered under his touch. “About a year ago. Jess and I got them together. The pink one with bursts of blue represents Jess, and the blue with bursts of pink represents me.”

  That didn’t surprise him. Avery’s favorite color was cobalt blue. It also didn’t shock him that she and Jess had gotten matching tattoos of butterflies, since she loved them. She also had one under her right ear. Avery had told him that she identified with the butterfly because of its metamorphosis. It signified the evolution of the soul and the momentum of life, the fact that everyone grows, evolves and changes. Just like a butterfly.

  El took a deep breath, willing his body not to react to her proximity. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her.

  “I hear that,” she said.

  El’s eyes snapped to hers. They were still closed. “What do you hear?”

  “You’re holding back. You want to say something, do something, but you’re not for whatever reason.”

  “What would you say if I told you I wanted to kiss you, but I’m not sure it’s a good idea?”

  She turned to him then, reached for his face and ran her thumb over his lips. “I’d say do it.”

  El leaned forward, brushed his nose against hers. “I could never resist you,” he murmured against her mouth. Then he captured her lips with his.

  Chapter 10

  Avery gripped El’s shirt in her hands as he kissed her. She felt the steady, firm beat of his heart against her chest as he leaned into her, stealing every bit of breath she had with his mouth.

  Once again, he’d rendered her useless for thought. Despite the tranquil surroundings, she was lost in a whirlwind of desire. The serene feeling she’d had only moments earlier had been replaced by a thrill she hadn’t realized she’d needed. Yes, she needed the peace he brought, but she also needed this.

  A moan escaped from her throat and his hand gripped the back of her head and tilted her so he could gain better access. His mouth was hot, his tongue relentless, his teeth persistent as he nipped at her lips before sucking her lower lip into his mouth.

  Passion threatened to overtake her right there on the public beach, tourists and visitors be damned. Avery didn’t care who saw them. She was willing to grant El whatever he wished in whatever way he needed.

  Desire pooled low in her belly and she closed her knees to quell the ache between her thighs. His hand pressed low on her stomach, played with the button of her shorts, before sliding down her legs and prying them back open. The feel of his hand brushing over the sensitive skin of her inner thigh had her arching her back up from the sand.

  Avery wanted to take his hand, steer it to her slick heat and let him have his way with her. But the faint sound of a child’s laughter drifted to her ear and she froze.

  El must’ve heard it, as well, because he pulled back, placing one last kiss at the corner of her lips before retreating. Avery’s body was still humming when she felt the soft breeze against her legs.

  El tugged her tank down over her belly; Avery hadn’t even realized he’d pulled it up. A few more seconds and she would have been shirtless, clad only in her bikini top and shorts.

  “Oh, my,” she murmured.

  From her left, she heard El’s deep chuckle. “Tell me about it.”

  “That was...intense.”

  El grabbed her hand and placed it over his erection. “Definitely.”

  Avery smiled, happy that she’d affected him as much as he’d affected her. El was driving her to the brink of crazy. But she hadn’t felt so alive in years. They took a few minutes to regain their composure before she turned to him. She could make out his figure.

  “El, you are a maniac.” She giggled when he barked out a laugh. “I would have let you have your way with me on this beach.”

  “You wouldn’t have.”

  “Oh, yes, I would have. It’s been a long time.”

  His thumb brushed over her chin. “I find it hard to believe you haven’t met anyone you wanted to spend time with.”

  “Why?”

  “You’re beautiful, smart...why wouldn’t a man try to get with you?”

  “I didn’t say men haven’t tried.”

  El chuckled. “What about that actor I heard you were linked to?”

  Avery grumbled. “Blair and I are not together. We had dinner and the internet blew up. Before I knew it, my face was plastered on the blogs, on Black Twitter. There were memes. Oh, God, it was a nightmare.”

  “The internet has no chill.”

  “Blair tried to date me, but I would never date
someone like him. He’s such an egomaniac. Everything is about him.”

  “Well, he is an up-and-coming star. I’m sure the decision to cast him is helping your show’s popularity. It’s like when that medical drama you used to watch cast the young bad boy to play the lead. The show was better for it because he attracted the female audience.”

  Avery laughed. “No, that show was good because it was well written.”

  “Yeah, but you can’t underestimate the appeal of chemistry between costars, and a good-looking cast.”

  “How would you know? You wouldn’t even watch an episode with me back in the day.”

  “I’ve watched a few episodes.”

  Avery’s mouth fell open. “Seriously? After you blazed on me for recording it every week?”

  She caught the rise of El’s shoulders, before he said, “Netflix.”

  She relaxed against the cool sand, sucked in a deep breath. “Smell that?”

  “What do you smell?”

  “Clean. It smells clean here.”

  El stood up, and she heard the rustle of fabric as he brushed off his clothes. “I rented us several tubes so we could get on the water.”

  Avery held out her hand and let El pull her to her feet. She couldn’t help but be worried about being in the water without really seeing what lay ahead.

  El squeezed her shoulder. “Don’t worry. You trust me, right?”

  Nodding, she said, “Of course.”

  “Come on.”

  It took several minutes for them to make it to the river bank. Along the way, El described the sky to her. She couldn’t see the blue of it, but according to him, it was clear, with scattered clouds to the west. He then described the water.

  His description evoked a childhood memory of her father carrying her to the river bank on his shoulders. Avery had felt invincible because she was taller than everyone.

  El tugged at the bottom of her shirt. “You have to take this off.”

  Avery’s face grew warm. “Okay.” She pulled her tank off and dropped it on the sand.

  Before she could unbutton her shorts, she felt his knuckles graze against her stomach. He unbuttoned them for her and pushed her shorts down. “You can step out of those now.”