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She squints into the distance. “What is that? There are so many people by the railing.”
“You’ll see.”
I let her walk ahead of me, making sure she goes slow so she doesn’t slip along the wet rocks. The sound of the crashing waves gets louder the closer we get. She keeps turning around to look at me, and I poke her with my crutch to keep going.
“This is so cool how they built a path through the rock for tourists.”
“Come here.” I push through the crowd, and find her a small space to squeeze into against the railing. I stand behind her, bracketing her with my arms while she peers over the railing to look down into the chasm. I try to keep an inch of space between us, but the crowd forces us closer. Her sweet peachy scent mixes with the salty smell of the ocean, and I close my eyes as I breathe deep.
“It looks like a little cave,” she says.
A small child sitting on his father’s shoulders points to the incoming wave. “Here it comes.”
Charly’s eyes dart up to mine. “Here what comes?”
I grin, and whisper in her ear, “Wait for it.”
She shivers, and I love the way her body reacts to my nearness.
As one wave rolls in, it crashes with the air left behind from the previous wave. Water sprays up, shooting over our heads like an erupting volcano, and a loud boom of thunder echoes from the cave.
Everyone cheers, and Charly squeals in delight as we get soaked by the water falling around us. “Oh, my God. What was that?”
“That was Thunder Hole.”
“The waves did that?” She stretches over the railing. “That sound was epic.”
“You don’t always hear it, but we came at the right time, just after high tide started.”
She spins around, and throws her arms around my neck. “Thank you for bringing me here.”
We listen to the sound several more times as the waves roll in and out. Charly snaps more pictures. Then she asks someone to take one of the two of us at the far edge of the cliff. With her palm pressed against my back, her thumb gently brushes over the scar in the middle of my spine, and I wonder if she even knows she’s doing it.
I hug her against me, gripping her waist as tightly as I can.
As if holding onto her can make her stay.
By the evening, we’ve successfully set up one of the two tents I brought, blown up the air mattress, and started a campfire.
“Are you sure you don’t want your own tent?”
Charly shakes her head, eyes wide. “You promised to keep me safe from snakes, and you can’t do that if you’re all the way in another tent.”
“Fair enough.” I take another bite of the fluke I cooked over the fire. “How’s the fish?”
“So good. You were listening when I told Jared what my favorite fish was, weren’t you?”
I smirk. “Maybe.”
“He texted me, you know.”
I arch an eyebrow. “Oh?”
“He asked when I was available to go canoeing. I had to tell him that you already took me.”
“And what did he say to that?”
“He asked me to dinner instead.”
