Charlie St. Cloud Page 0,38
she took a few more steps and stopped next to him.
“You’re limping,” he said. It was a cute attempt to cover for himself.
“Just a few knocks from my last sail.”
“That where you got those bruises on your arms?”
“Yeah, I got tossed around pretty good.”
They stood there for the longest time, just inches apart, and Tess traced her route across the Pacific. She could feel his breath on her neck as she pointed to distant stops like the Marquesas, Tuamotu Islands, Tonga, and Fiji. Then he brushed against her for a closer look as she limned the course over the top of Australia, across the Indian Ocean to Durban, around the Cape of Good Hope into the South Atlantic, where the winds would push her home.
“That’s a long way by yourself,” he said. “Don’t think I’d be brave enough to do it.”
“You’re just smarter than I am.”
They were side by side, staring at the whole wide world that she was going to circle. She rubbed one of her bruises, then turned to Charlie and looked into his caramel eyes. “Where do you dream of going, Chas?” She heard herself call him by a nickname—it just came out, but she liked the sound of it.
“Zanzibar, Tasmania, the Galapagos. Everywhere . . .”
“So why don’t you?”
He pushed his hands into his pockets and sighed. “Too many responsibilities here.”
“All work and no play?”
He didn’t answer. For the first time this evening, there was a twinge of discomfort. Despite his smile and twinkle, this man was hiding something. Then, up from deep inside her, came a reaction so surprising that she felt giddy. Instead of wanting to run from his secrets, she just wanted to be closer.
“Come on,” she said, “what’s stopping you?”
His eyes dodged her and then he flashed that smile that must have gotten him out of most tight spots. “Let’s take a walk.”
“In the cemetery? It’s the middle of the night.”
“Anybody who’d sail solo around the world can’t be scared of a cemetery.”
She wasn’t so sure.
“C’mon,” he said, grabbing her button-down and two coats. “I want to show you something.”
SIXTEEN
IT WAS MIDNIGHT IN WATERSIDE, AND THICK FOG OOZED between the monuments. The moon was invisible behind the clouds, great walls of darkness closed in on every side, and Charlie led the way across the lawn. All was silent, and even their footfalls were muffled by the murk. Marble angels and granite nymphs appeared from nowhere as his flashlight slashed the gloom.
It was the witching hour, and Charlie was under a spell. Everything about Tess had thrown him off balance in the best possible way. Sure, his nervousness had made him go on too long about the origins of the St. Cloud family name in Minnesota. Yes, he had filibustered about the differences between cirrus and stratus accumulations. And yet, he could tell she was having fun. She was knocking back beers and laughing at his jokes.
From the moment she had come strolling down West Shore Drive at 8:00 P.M. sharp, he had tried to memorize every detail about the evening. Her hair was blowing wild, and when he greeted her with an outstretched hand, she ignored it, got up on her tiptoes, and kissed him hello on the cheek.
“Dinner ready?” she said. “I’m starving.”
Sure enough, she ate two portions of everything and was lavish with her praise of the food. He loved the way she seemed to devour life, savoring every bite. He told real stories, not the canned ones that usually came out on dates. Tonight he had dispensed with the usual version that he projected to the world: the young man content with his job in the cemetery, the happy-go-lucky guy who never wanted to leave Marblehead. Tess drew out the real Charlie, the one with dreams of breaking free of everything and everyone that reined him in.
He even wanted to tell her about his maps on the wall, the sunset tables, and how those concentric circles governed his life. The rings on the charts showed the ambit of his world, demarcating exactly how far he could go from Waterside and still get back for Sam. A trip to Cape Cod. A drive up to New Hampshire. The outer circle was the absolute farthest he could go. Beyond that line, there was no chance of making it home in time. The promise would be broken and his brother would be gone. It could be dangerous sharing all this with Tess, but now, with the night winding down, he was feeling