Left in the Sand, Found by the Sea novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Last Question

Orla's POV

Eli showed me the text on his phone at the end of the pier, with Rocco still green beside him.

I read it, and I read the last line twice.

"The girl pays for what she did to me last night."

"He means the stream," Eli said.

"I know what he means. The families saw him back out of a harbor."

"He'll want it back."

"Then he can try to take it from me."

"Orla."

"Don't say stay with Winnie."

He shut his mouth.

"Last night you told me you didn't want to be the thing I got over," I said. "So don't make me the thing you leave behind to protect. Tell me when and where, and I'll be there."

"Noon. The lighthouse."

"Then we'll be there."

He looked at me for a long moment, and I watched him not decide for me.

"All right," he said. "But first, your ex wants a word."

Rocco was waiting on the bench by the ferry slip with his duffel at his feet and his hands hanging between his knees.

The ferry was loading.

Four people in rain jackets, a dog, a crate of lobsters.

I sat down next to him, and he did not look up.

"You came," he said.

"You asked Winnie to ask me."

"I wanted to say a thing, and I didn't want to say it in front of him."

"Then say it."

He breathed through his nose.

"Was there ever a chance?" he said. "For us, I mean. Not now. I know now. In the first year, maybe. Did I miss it?"

I thought about lying.

It would have been the kind thing, the soft thing, the thing I had been doing for four years.

"There was a year," I said. "Maybe a year and a half. I'd have gone anywhere with you."

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