“Okay, yeah, sure. Caroline, you good with that?” Simon asked, still curious.
“Go ahead, Jillian brought me some things, new changes of clothes and stuff. I’ll powwow with her and then we can all head back up to the main house for dinner, sound good?” I nodded, walking over to the front of the porch, leaning down to kiss him once, then twice.
“Sounds good, babe,” he said. “Did you know they were coming?”
“I did,” I said, kissing him once more. “Surprise.”
“You’re kind of terrific, you know that?”
“I do know that,” I nodded, then turned him back around. “Go play with Benjamin, I’ll see you in a bit.”
The pair of them walked off down the beach, and I turned to Jillian.
“Thank you so much for coming all this way.”
“You got it. I’ve always wanted to see this part of the world. And Benjamin has been pacing up a storm. He hated not being over here,” she replied, looping her arm through mine and walking with me inside. She handed me an overnight bag I recognized from home.
“Did you bring it?” I asked, unzipping the bag.
“I did,” she nodded, and watched as I pulled a long flowing dress from the bag. A long flowing white dress.
“Perfect.”
An hour later, Simon and Benjamin came out of the bungalow to find Jillian and me waiting for them.
“Hey, where have you—Hey. You look gorgeous,” he said, whistling. I stood before him in my white dress, thanked him for the compliment, took his hand, and walked with him down to the beach, leaving our friends behind.
“What’s going on? Aren’t we going to dinner with those guys?” he asked.
“Not just yet,” I answered, looking ahead to the beach, where I could see a few candles lit and a tiki torch or two. “I wanted to talk to you, before they join us.”
“What are you up to, Caroline?” he asked, looking carefully at me.
“I bought this dress a year ago in a little boutique in Mendocino, when I was visiting Viv. I was on my way out of town, and I was stopped at a light when I saw it in the window across the street. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. And without having any reason to wear it, and not a clue why I was doing it, I bought it, straight off the mannequin. It didn’t even fit me. I had to take it to a tailor to have the hem lengthened; it was too short for me. The tailor told me it was vintage, probably from sometime in the 1930s.”
“It looks great on you,” he said, holding me at arm’s length to get a better look. “Go on, gimme a little twirl.”
I laughed, and then twirled. The dress was ivory, bedecked with old lace along the bodice, with a gauzy lace overlay along the skirt. An afternoon dress, it was made for lazy strolls in town, or a trip to the gardens. It was likely worn with stockings and lace-up shoes. I was rocking it barefoot. And in those bare feet, I tugged on his hand once more and continued on the path toward the beach.
“When Benjamin told me something had happened to you, I went into crisis-management mode. I didn’t think about anything other than getting to you. To have you that far away, and not be able to know exactly what was wrong or how to help you—I can’t think of the words to tell you how that felt. How it felt to have someone you love so much possibly taken away from you.” I stopped then, just before the pebbles gave way to sand. “But then, I don’t have to give you words. Because you already know what that’s like.”
A stormy expression stole across his face, and he grasped both of my hands in his. “Caroline, I’m so sorry that you had to go through all of that.”
“No no, it’s actually fine,” I said, stepping into his arms and bringing them around my waist. “Because here’s the thing. I had hours in an airplane, with nothing to do and no one to talk to, and the only thing I could think about was you. And us. And how much I love you.” I walked him, pushed him really, backward through the sand. “I also thought a lot about something else.”
“What’s that?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Garlic foam,” I answered, then spun him to face the beach.
I love me a speechless Wallbanger.