Sweet Forty-Two(52)

“Regan went for a walk down the beach. I had no idea why he was here, and in such a pissy mood, but,” she exhaled slowly and flowed into another position, this time facing me, “I guess I have more answers now than I did a few minutes ago.”

I put my hands behind my back, then again in front of me. I never did know what to do with my hands. By my side, then.

“Yeah,” I stammered, less affected by her grace than by my own lack of such.

“Come here for a second, do some with me,” she said as if some were an obvious subject.

“Do what? Yoga?”

She nodded, her eyes closed as she seemingly breathed herself into another pose.

“No thanks.” I shrugged, prying my hands into the pockets of my too-tight shorts. “I’m not all skinny like you are. I’d hurt myself.”

Ember stood straight, breaking her flow, and looked at me. “It’s not about being skinny, Georgia. It’s about getting out of here,” she pointed to her head, “and getting into here,” she patted her bared belly button.”

“Thanks, but I’ve clearly been here enough.” I pointed to the softer skin around the bottom of my shirt.

She rolled her eyes, approached me and took my hand. “Good lord, come with me.”

I had to give her credit. Not only did she not stand there in her slender glory and try to tell me she wasn’t skinny, which is the single most annoying thing about some skinny girls, she also didn’t try to lie to my face and say in a chipper kill-me-now voice, oh Georgia, you’re skinny, too. Annoying skinny-girl habit number two.

Based on those two things alone, I allowed Ember to drag me to her sacred spot in the cool sand.

“Loosen up. Just shake everything out and hang like this.” Ember folded forward and let her upper body hang as if draped over her own waist. “Make sure you keep your neck loose.”

Uh, okay.

“Come on,” she urged when I stood there for a few seconds longer than it should have taken me.

I did as instructed. “Just ... hang here?”

“Yes. Let your upper body surrender to gravity. You don’t have to hold yourself to the Earth. Gravity does a fine job all by itself and doesn’t need our help.”

Something in the words she said brought more tears. They dotted the sand before I knew what was happening and could try to stop it. The Earth didn’t, in fact, need my help. An overpowering sense of humility pushed me to the sand and I sat there, my knees digging into the cool silk of it.

Ember kept her head down, but spoke as though she’d seen the whole thing. “It’s a hard thing to get used to, sometimes. Not doing everything ourselves.”

She had no idea. None.

“Bo and I have had to work on that with each other. Me, because I’m an only child of recklessly fantastic parents,” she giggled before taking a breath and sitting next to me, “and Bo because, well, when his parents died—”

“Wait,” I cut in, “his parents are dead, too?”

Ember nodded. “They died a few years ago. Before I met him. Car accident,” she added quickly, as if anticipating my next question.

Okay, maybe she had some idea.

“Since you said too, I assume you know about Rae, his sister?” Ember’s lips tightened to a close.

I nodded, looking over my shoulder.

“Did Regan tell you? Or CJ?” She took the elastic out of her hair and let the wild beauty of it fall all around her.

I didn’t know why it mattered who told me, but I answered. “Regan.”

She gave a side smile that made my insides hurt. “He doesn’t talk about her much. With anyone.”

Piecing together fairly quickly that Ember likely didn’t know about the nuclear letter that showed up on his doorstep, I thought better about bringing it up.

“He must trust you,” she continued, grabbing small fistfuls of sand and letting it drain between her fingers like an hourglass.

“Yeah,” I stood, brushing the sand from my shorts, “I think I screwed that up royally this morning.”

Ember stood, and though she was a few inches taller than me, she didn’t make me feel that way with her smile. “Not likely. Regan’s all brood, no bite.”

“It was kind of big...”

Ember shrugged, looking unimpressed.

I tilted my head, scrunching my forehead. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

She sighed. “Because you deserve it. Everyone does. Kind of like innocent until proven guilty? We should all be nice, I guess, no conditions around it. I was a bitch to you before. And, I’m sorry. I just—”

“It’s okay,” I put my hand up, “I know all about the pregnancy scare and Willow trying to plant herself directly over your boyfriend.”

Ember let out a fantastically airy laugh. “Do you know Willow?”

“I ... let’s just say I know how she operates.”

A grey look passed through her eyes. Seeming to force a grin, she hitched her thumb over her shoulder. “He’s probably that way. There are fewer houses down there, and a nice rock wall.”

“Thank you.” I smiled, put my head down, and made my way along the edge of the water.

I didn’t have to walk very far before I saw him. Shirtless and shaking water from his hair, Regan walked over to the rock wall Ember had assured me was there, and picked up his towel. Before drying off, he tossed the towel over his shoulder and leaned forward and picked up an envelope. I knew it was the card from Rae based on the shape, and the reverence with which he was handling it, dutifully setting it back on the rocks before drying off.