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The cloud hovering around Avery lifted. There was a lightness to her step now, an ease in her he hadn’t seen up until now. How long had she been carrying that weight around all by herself? He couldn’t imagine it. It made him want to share some of his own burdens and fears, dig up the trenches of everything he was and make peace with them.

Wolfe led her down to the docks, painting picture after picture of his life here. Finally, when they made it down to the water, Avery tipped her face back to the sun.

“I like the quiet,” she said dreamily. “I like hearing the sea.”

“It’s always been my favorite thing,” he agreed. “Sometimes it’s nice to feel…small, I suppose. Puts it all into perspective.”

“Coming from a ghost, that’s certainly saying something.” She bumped her arm into his and he tingled under the mere brush of her elbow.

Pathetic.

“I’m full of wisdom,” he teased. “Just you wait.” He pointed to the small building just above the dock. The sign above the door read BRACKEN BAY WHALE TOURS. “While we’re here.”

Avery rocked back on her heels, lower lip tucked between her teeth.

“Will you be able to come with me?” she asked above the roar of the waves.

The water made him feel…not quite himself. The further he strayed from land, the more he could feel himself slipping away but the hope in her eyes, the fact that she even wanted him with her at all… He would manage it.

“If you want me there, Avery, God himself could not keep me away.”

She blushed the color of summer strawberries and he nearly groaned at the sight of it.

“Then let’s do it.” She held out her hand, lips curling into a smile.

Wolfe took it, feeling like a king.

“Lead on,” he urged. “I go where you go.”

Always.

Chapter 16

“Hey, are you awake?”

A nudge came somewhere down by my hip. I rolled over on the couch, bringing the blanket around me up to my chin.

“No,” I breathed, fighting off a yawn.

The rain returned on Friday and Saturday, as did a level of exhaustion I’d never felt before. I slept almost nine hours every night and was now on my second nap of the day.

Marissa said it was burn out, that my body was finally catching up with my mind and all of me was finally settled enough to rest. I wanted to ask her how it could be burn out when I’d written nothing, but she beat me to it.

“You’re stressing yourself out constantly. That takes a toll,” she’d said matter-of-factly. “You’ve permitted yourself to rest—for once. This is the side effect.”

“It’s awful,” I grumbled.

Marissa countered immediately. “It’s needed. You can’t pour from an empty cup, Av. Rest. Sleep. Drink a beer.”

“But the publisher—”

“Can wait another week or two. We have until the end of November, remember? Just—just focus on you right now.”

Her permission was a blessing. Even with all that sleep, I still felt weak-kneed and drowsy.

“Avery?” Another poke.

I swatted Wolfe’s hand away. “I’m awake.”