AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A sudden rush of emotion welled up inside me, and my eyes burned with unshed tears. "He does. I'm being blatantly honest when I say that he does. Even knowing that, though, I'm scared about what loving him means. What will be the cost? Will I lose something else important?"
Gus was quiet. He looked out over the marina. Finally, when he spoke again, his voice was a little scratchy. "Let me tell you a story, young man. It's one about love and loss and the choices people make.
I nodded. My heart pounded in my chest while I waited for him to continue.
"This goes back a long while—many, many years ago. I was a young man, and back then I made my living fishing the shores of Lake Michigan. Sometimes we would go for weeks, even months, without seeing anyone else but the other fishermen. I fell in love with one. His name was Manuel. He was tall, strong, and his eyes were a deep blue-green, the color of the ocean."
Gus's eyes misted over as he continued. "We decided to join forces and work together on the same boat. We had long days and even longer nights spent hauling in the fish and then mending the nets. Somewhere, through all of that, we fell in love. It wasn't only us. I knew of other couples that happened like that."
A lump formed in my throat. I had to ask the question on my mind, but I feared that I knew the general direction of the answer. "What happened?"
He sighed, and his shoulders slumped forward. "Manuel's family didn't approve of him being with a man. At least that was his assumption. I was lucky in one way. My parents split when I was a kid, and my older, non-judgmental sister, raised me."
"But you had a rough life as a child then, too."
He shrugged. "Eh, it wasn't bad to tell the truth. She's the best woman in the world, and we're still close." He rubbed his whiskers. "Anyway, Manuel's parents wanted him to marry a woman, have children, and carry on the family name. He loved his family, and he didn't want to lose them. The idea of disappointing them weighed so heavily on his mind."
My stomach tied into knots. "So, he left you? Did he choose his family over you?"
Gus shook his head while a sad smile played with the corners of his mouth. "No, that's not what happened. One morning, he surprised me. He asked me to leave with him. Huge dreams tumbled out, dreams about running away together and starting a new life, with new names if necessary. Manuel wanted to be a carpenter."
I held my breath as I waited for the rest of the story.
"It was exciting to see Manuel dreaming about what he thought would be a positive future, but it scared me. I didn't know how I could leave everything I'd ever known behind. I'd never been further from home than Chicago. So…" Gus hung his head. "I said no. I told him that I couldn't do it. I wasn't ready to take that leap."
I watched as a single tear rolled down Gus's cheek into his beard. "He left the next day. I didn't even get to say goodbye because he slipped off the boat before I woke up. I never saw him again, and every day I still regret that I didn't have more courage to fight for true love."
A tear stained my cheek, too. It was a heartbreaking story. "I'm so sorry. That sounds incredibly painful."
He nodded. "It was hard. I've never had a more difficult decision in my life, but I learned something of value that has been part of me ever since."
I turned my head to look at the craggy outline of his face as I waited for him to continue.
"I know now that true love is worth fighting for. It's worth taking risks and sacrificing everything else of less value. In the end, that all-encompassing love is all that will ever matter."
Reaching up, I wiped another tear away.
As Gus looked at me, his eyes blazed intensely. "Don't make the same mistake as me. Don't let fears, doubts, or the desires of others keep you away from the person you truly love. If it's Tyler, fight for him with everything you've got. Don't ever let him go. A true love like that is the rarest and most precious thing in all the world, worth so much more than a bagful of diamonds even."
I felt the sting of tears in my eyes, the truth of Gus's words hitting me like a physical blow. Tyler was the one. The one I wanted to wake up to every morning, the one I wanted to share my life with. The one I couldn't bear to lose.
I leaned toward Gus's good ear. "Thank you… for everything."
He clapped me on the shoulder with a strong, reassuring grip. "Go to him. Tell him how you feel. The rest will work itself out, you'll see."
Chapter fourteen
Tyler
As I stood in my kitchen, carefully packing the wicker picnic basket, my thoughts ran wild with a mix of excitement and trepidation. I had spent most of my day visiting specialty shops around Blue Harbor, selecting gourmet cheeses, artisanal bread, and the best fresh fruits I could find. To complete the supplies, I added a bottle of chilled white wine and nestled it into the basket with two crystal glasses protected by linen napkins.
I wanted it to all add up to a perfect picnic that Ronan would never forget. Still, beneath my excitement about our upcoming meal, I worried about the future. Once we finally figured out the mystery left by Ronan's great-uncle, would he leave Blue Harbor—and me—behind?
While I folded a soft, plaid blanket, I did my best to shake off the negative thoughts. I tossed in a set of flickering LED candles to create a romantic mood. Everything was set except for one thing—dessert.
When I looked at the clock above the kitchen sink, I saw that I still had half an hour. It was time for an emergency trip to The Crafted Crumb. I grabbed my keys and raced out the door. When I arrived, the usual scents of freshly baked bread and sweet pastries wrapped around me.
Rafe looked up from behind the counter. "Tyler! Let me guess, you need a special item for a meal with that man of yours."
