Through the Lens (Click Duet #1) (Bay Area Duet Series) Persephone Autumn (black authors fiction TXT) 📖

agent no matter where I am. Technology allows people to be on opposite sides of the world and still work together.”

Beside me, Cora’s body softens and relaxes into my side once more. And it feels so fucking good to have her body pressed against mine. Her warmth and energy radiating into me. Soothing me. Revitalizing me. Like being home again. She rests her head on my shoulder and I rest mine on hers, closing my eyes and breathing in this moment.

Waves crash along the shoreline, cars rev and honk in the distance, wind whips our hair and I can’t tell where hers stops and mine begins. But neither of us moves. Both of us in a strange limbo of emotions and confessions. Our hearts thrown on the line, praying to not suffer the same pain as before. Promises exposed and hanging on the line as we breathe the same air for the first time in years.

But one truth holds absolute. I could sit with her on this beach for hours, not a soul around us, and feel nothing except bliss for the rest of my days. Everything about this moment is perfect. Everything about this moment is us.

Time evades us and I get lost in thoughts of what could be, causing me to almost miss when she speaks again.

“When?”

I am half tempted to tease her regarding the singular worded questions, but I bite my tongue. Now isn’t the time to tease and play.

“When the shoot ends, I’ll obviously need to go back. Alyson set up another shoot for me, but it should only be a day or two. And even though I don’t have to do it in person, I need to go talk with my mom. Tell her I plan to move back as soon as possible. She is the only person, besides Alyson, who needs to know.”

She lifts her head, stopping me. “What about your dad?” she asks, confused at why I only mentioned my mom.

I didn’t want tonight to be when I brought this to light, but it looks as though I will have to tell her now. I take a deep breath and hold her gaze. The only set of eyes to ever provide me solace. “My dad passed away a couple years ago. Heart attack.”

Instantly, her arms pull me into an embrace, lips at my ears softly whispering through light sobs. “Gavin, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

Instinctively, my arms curl around her frame and I bring her closer to me. Within seconds, her legs straddle my lap and lock together at my backside. Yin and Yang. She weeps for me and my family. And I allow myself this moment to be raw, shedding tears for a man who was my role model for so many years. A man I have grieved for and thought I would eventually find peace after his passing. Until now. Sharing this with Cora makes the loss of him more potent and noteworthy. More real and closer to my heart.

Part of me forgot my mom and I weren’t the only people to lose him. When Cora and I started dating, my parents became hers too. After so many years apart, it never dawned on me to let her know sooner of his passing. Especially since we hadn’t spoken for more than a decade.

When the tears quiet, she doesn’t remove herself from our embrace. As if she knows the power it holds. As if she isn’t ready to let it float off with the tide.

“Thank you,” I whisper into her hair, my hands stroking lazy trails up and down her back.

“For what?” she asks, head tucked in the crook of my neck.

“For saying the right words. And just being you. Everyone I’ve told says or shows me pity. Or walks on eggshells when we’re in the same room. As if I’m this fragile creature who will crumple. So, thank you. You’ve always known how to say just enough to convey the right thing.”

I press a kiss to her temple and her arms and legs squeeze me tighter. We sit like this a little while longer before I make a suggestion to check the time. She pulls her phone from her back pocket, lighting the screen and mutters shit.

“Must be late,” I assume. We have been here a while. Felt like hours. But when emotions are heightened, time has a tendency to not measure the same way clocks do.

“Almost two. We should go. We have to be at Honeymoon Island by ten. Somewhere in there, both of us need to sleep and eat and whatever else.”

I laugh at her slight state of panic. “It’ll be fine.” I stand us up, her legs tightening around my waist, arms circling my neck. “Let me walk you back to your car.”

After a few strides, she unhooks her ankles and drops her feet to the sand. Once she is upright, I weave my fingers with hers and we trudge through the powdery sand and back to her car. Every six or seven steps, I glance down at her and happiness floods my heart. Warmth and love and everything right in the world.

Fuck, I have missed her.

We reach her car ten minutes later. She offers to drive me the quarter mile back to my hotel, but I decline, wanting to walk back and reminisce over tonight. She slips into the driver’s seat, starts the car and rolls down the front windows. Her hair whips across her face and steals my view of her perfect, soft green irises.

Bending down, I tuck the strands behind her ear and relish the way she leans into my touch. “I’ll see you in the morning.” Fuck, I want to kiss her again. My thumb brushes over her lower lip and she shudders, eyes slipping shut. How easy would it be to kiss her right now? But I don’t. I won’t. From now on, she needs to lead me. She needs to let me know she wants this as much as I do.