playing Clue with her parents, Michelle slipped out to see her fiancé and Beck slipped out to meet Ari.
They sat at Brant Point, where the small round lighthouse blinked as boats and ferries rounded the corner into port. Ari was still wearing her lavender dress, and Beck wore white tennis shorts and a red and white striped button-down. They sat in the sand, leaning their backs against the white lighthouse, their knees pulled up to their chests as they watched the lights of boats twinkle in the slightly moving water.
“I have to leave tomorrow morning,” Beck said.
“Most of my family leaves tomorrow, too,” Ari told him. “Beck, I want to tell you something.”
“Let me tell you something first,” Beck said.
“Okay.”
“I’ve been invited to join a practice in Boston. It will be the same sort of work, with more patients and more office staff.”
“But your patients in Plymouth—”
“I’ll go down to Plymouth once a week to see them.” Beck shifted in the sand to focus on Ari. “This is an important move for me. I’m working on a paper with another behavioral therapist, about the consequences of videogames on children. We’re headed into a new world with all our electronics and we can’t go backward.”
Ari turned her face away from Beck. She palmed a handful of sand and let it drizzle down her fingers.
“Ari, listen. I want you to come with me. I want to marry you. We don’t have time for a big wedding, but we can have a small one, whatever you want, and—”
Ari looked back at Beck. Enough light shone from the town, boats, and stars for her to see his face, his eyes. “Beck, are you sure? Marriage is huge. With your move, your new clients, marriage might be too much.”
“I think it will be damn fabulous,” Beck said with a grin. “I was always my best at a football scrimmage. Lots going on, plotting moves, kicking up our energy, and—”
“You think our marriage will be like a football scrimmage?”
“Yeah, maybe, just the first few months. We’ll have to find a place to live, not too far from B.U. so you can take courses. Find a good ob-gyn for you and a pediatric doctor for the baby. Plus, we’ll be dealing with so many relatives. Hen and Mom and Michelle will go crazy organizing baby showers.”
“But the baby—”
“The baby is mine. I will be the baby’s father. I could be, after all, if I’d slept with you on our first date.”
“I’m kind of stunned.” Ari was wide-eyed. “I didn’t know you could be so…impetuous.”
“You don’t know a lot of things about me. I don’t know a lot of things about you. But I know how I feel when I’m with you.”
Ari smiled. “How do you feel when you’re with me?”
“Like I’m right where I should be. Ari, this world is crazy, and I’m crazy about you. I want to be with you.”
“You sounded like Humphrey Bogart just then,” Ari said, joking to hide her emotions. She was afraid to believe this was real. ‘Kid, this world is a crazy place…’ I’m sorry, Beck, this is all so much. And I need to tell you something that’s happened…”
“Is it more important than the fact that I love you?” Beck asked.
Ari took a deep breath and let go of her fear. Happiness streamed through her. “Nothing is more important than that. I love you, too, Beck.”
Beck pulled her to him and kissed her for a long time. They kissed and kissed while the sand whispered as it shifted beneath them. They talked, about how soon they should get married, and if they married on the island, Hen could be the flower girl and have the best dress, and Michelle could be a bridesmaid because Ari’s best friend would be the maid of honor. They spoke of how they had to tell their families before they told their friends, and whether they wanted an apartment in Boston or a house in one of the nearby suburbs. As they talked, the stars grew brighter, and fewer boats passed, and the last car ferry blew its horn and slid into the harbor.
“We should go,” Beck said.
They stood up, brushing sand from their clothes.
“Come home with me,” Ari said. “Spend the night with me, Beck.”
“What about Eleanor?”
“Her house is big. Everyone else is on the second floor. We’ll sleep on the first floor in a room far away from theirs.”
“Let’s go.”
Because they had arrived separately, Beck drove his convertible behind Ari