Chapter 7

Shane stood up, cleaned her pants from the sand and motioned to the water. Carmen frowned and burst into a quiet laughter.

“What are you doing?”.

Shane removed her sunglasses and threw them on the sand, carelessly.

“Come with me?”.

She stretched out her hand toward Carmen. The wind messed up her hair and black strands rose and fell down on her forehead.

“Are you kidding me? The water is too cold”.

Carmen rested on her elbows and observed her attentively.

Shane just smiled.

“Are you serious?”, Carmen asked against the wind.

And then.

“Yeah, you’re serious”.

She sighed and stood up, trying to tame her wild hair with not much success.

“You’re crazy, Shane. That’s one of the reasons why I married you. Actually I don’t even remember marrying you, but I’m sure your almost permanent insanity convinced me that you were the right one for me”.

Shane chuckled and in two steps was right onto her. She sneaked her arms around Carmen’s waist and kissed her, deeply. She closed her eyes, felt Carmen’s soft, warm hands resting on her jaw line, tracing the invisible lines of her face. She felt Carmen’s fingers lingering on her lowered eyelids, then on her forehead, and smiled into the kiss. She inhaled, exhaled, because Carmen’s smell was everything she needed.

Carmen’s smell and Carmen’s presence all around her, inside, outside, above and beyond that reality made of sun and wind and waves crashing and seagulls flapping their long wings.

Shane picked Carmen up and ignored her little yell of surprise and protest. Laughing and stumbling in the sand, she walked to the foaming sea.

”A desert road from Vegas to nowhere,
Some place better than where you’ve been.
A coffee machine that needs some fixing
In a little café just around the bend….”

“Oh my God!”.

Carmen widened her eyes seeing the ebb and flow approaching.

Shane’s face just a few inches away from hers.

“Do you want me to let go of you?”.

Carmen stared at her. She circled her neck and snuggled against her chin.

“No. I trust you”.

And suddenly Shane felt her heart wide open to every single creature on Earth.

She wore pants and a tank top and she didn’t care. She knew exactly what she was about to do. It was one of those little follies you usually tend to put aside, especially after so many years.