ISLANDS

“Fresh start?” Vic raised his champagne glass.

I tore my gaze from the clear turquoise shimmer of the cove, sun dancing submerged patterns over the bottom. Ripped puzzle pieces, images wavering through light and shadow. I touched my glass to his and sipped.

Vic punched his cushion and leaned back on the beach blanket, resting his glass on his chest as he looked out over the bay. Filtered light through the lacy mimosa leaves overhanging us played on his skin, picking out the glint of copper in the curly thatch over his chest. It rose and fell deeply, a relaxed smile behind his beard.

I looked out over the half-moon beach, the gemlike little cove nearly enclosed by a rocky arm of the isolated cay. “It’s good to remember there are places like this in the neighborhood.” Just putting a stretch of water between me and the dark mass of the island had lifted a weight off me.

“I like to think I’m the only one who comes here. You’re the first person I’ve brought.” He rolled over on his side, supporting his head on one arm, gaze traveling leisurely from my feet to my face.

He smiled and I smiled back, almost as if we could replay that first day at the beach. He reached over to run a finger along the top of my hand. The light touch sent a shiver down my spine.

I sat up, hugging my knees.

“You’ve got to find out, you know.”

“Find out what?”

“About us. Whether you want to run away or to.” His eyes were the color of the bottomless “blue holes” that lured divers ever deeper.

He sat up and started to touch my arm, then paused. “They came!” He jumped to his feet, pulling me up.

“Who?”

“My friends.” He pointed at the cove. A dark shape surged and broke the surface. Shiny gray-blue back. Curved dorsal fin. It slid under again, followed by the slap of a flat crescent tail.

“A dolphin!” I ran down to the water’s edge.

“I was hoping they’d show. I was following them the day I found the hidden entrance to the cove here.”

“Will he come back?” I waded into the silky water.

Two arched backs broke the surface a few feet out. Another followed. One more. A sleek shape glided closer. The long, gleaming body flew out of the water, arched, and crashed down, tail slapping to spray me. He circled back and bobbed his head, grinning, uttering high squeaks.

“Do you think I could touch him?”

Vic nodded at the dolphin eyeing us with an impossibly friendly look. “Go ahead and try.”

I talked to the creature, making soothing noises as I slid into the water and floated toward him. He bobbed his head, moving slightly away. I held out a hand and paddled forward. “Come on, I won’t hurt you.”

He seemed to grin wider and squealed, as if laughing at my absurd reassurance. He edged back, waiting. Teasing me?

I laughed and eased toward him. He turned his head, the dark, liquid eye gleaming with awareness. He chirped and bobbed his head.

As the alien gaze held mine, inviting recognition, I remembered John’s dream to be reborn in the sea. Holding my breath, I reached out for the glistening animal, and the dolphin let me touch him. A strangeness stirred inside me. Joy welling, rippling up and outward, boundless as the sea….

The dolphin exploded in a high-pitched squeal, leaping into the air, splashing under. The others were headed out toward the cut, and he surged up and after them. A last glimpse of a gleaming fin, sleek fleeting grace.

I swam back to the shallows, the link with the dolphin alive in me. Scooping up a handful of water, I tossed it to the sun, dazzles spattering down. I laughed, spinning in a circle of kaleidoscope colors—blue sky, silver waves, green leaves, gold sand. Whipping my arm, I shot a spray at Vic.

He smiled, eyes bright with the sunlight. “You know, the way John felt about dolphins, I was thinking about bringing him here. Before.…”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Not today. I’m trying to tell you, Susan, I damned near loved him like a brother. Maybe that’s why when I first saw you, I . . . .” He shook his head. “That’s not it, it was the other way round. I think it was him reminding me of you, before we met.” He lifted his palms. “I read some more John Donne. ‘Twice or thrice did I love thee, before I knew thy face or name.’”

“Vic, you can’t—”

“I can.”

His kiss tasted of salt sea and sweet wine. Warm waves rolled over us. His arms came around me and I was pressing against him, our wet skin molten in the intense sunlight.

He eased me back, flashed a fierce grin, suddenly tossed me over his shoulder and charged up the sandy slope.

“You are a dangerous lunatic!” I pummeled his back.

He dropped to one knee and dumped me onto the blanket. “No escape now. You’re at my mercy.”

Blinding sunlight strobed off the sea, the sand, the shiny leaves, shattering through us. The light flung shards like the spray of the dolphin’s dive, its joyful touch reverberating in my blood and bones. Vic and I rode the sun-shot waves, plunging deeper.

The link shivered through me, stronger than blood. No breaking free? I didn’t care.