Veritas (29 page)

Grey shrugged. “Lucky accident, I guess.”

It was obvious that there was more to the story, but Lauren knew better than to press, and she sighed as she looked out over the water. It was as if the entire world were spread out before her, full of opportunity and adventure, daring her to do something worthy of being remembered. It was humbling, to sit
there and realize that she had never done one thing worthy of being remembered by anybody. “I feel so small, sitting here.”

“Yeah,” Grey agreed, her tone much lighter than Lauren’s. She had found this spot during a weekend bender with Kip not long after Emily had died. She had wanted to come alone, but Kip had invited herself along—no doubt to make sure that she did not drink herself into a stupor, fall overboard, and drown.

Which was, she had to admit, something that could have very well happened.

Grey had sailed by the point more times than she could count, but she had never bothered to actually seek it out until that weekend. The hike that day had been Kip’s idea—something to
get her out and moving instead of just sitting on the boat drinking herself to death—and though Grey had cursed her friend the entire time, she had been thankful for it ever since. It probably did not make sense to a lot of people, but Grey
liked
feeling insignificant. In the months after Emily’s death, it had been a relief to be faced with the fact that her pain did not matter in the grand scheme of things. That no matter how she felt, the tide kept turning. The wind continued to blow.

That life, in all its forms, soldiered on.

Lauren watched Grey out of the corner of her eye as they sat in an easy silence, each lost to their own thoughts. A part of her expected to see the shadow of melancholy that always hovered at the edges of Grey’s personality to appear, to darken her features and weigh heavily on her shoulders, but it never happened. The small smile tugging at Grey’s lips made Lauren smile as well, and she could not resist reaching out and wrapping an arm around Grey’s shoulders. “Thank you for showing me this,” she whispered as she drew Grey into her and pressed a light kiss to her temple.

A feeling of utter peace swept through Grey as she leaned into Lauren,
like this was exactly where she was supposed to be, and she closed her eyes as she tried to commit every detail of the moment to memory. “Thank you for coming with me.”

“There is nowhere else I’d rather be.” Lauren rested her temple against the top of Grey’s head and held her close as the truth in her own words rocked her to her core. Her dreams were within her grasp back in New York, just waiting for her to return and take them, and yet she found herself wishing that this moment could last forever.

The fact that it could not settled heavily on her heart, and she squeezed her eyes shut to try and block out the painful truth.
One more week
, she told herself.
You have this for one more week. Don’t think about New York. Just enjoy the moment.

Grey felt Lauren stiffen beside her, and she sighed as she opened her eyes. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Lauren whispered. “Just…”

The silence at the end of Lauren’s thought told Grey all she needed to know, and she nodded understandingly. “I know.” A large body surging out of the ocean in front of them drew her attention, and she smiled as she pointed at it, grateful for the distraction. “Look.”

“What?” Lauren lifted her head and looked at the spot in the ocean where Grey was pointing.

“Just…there.” Grey smiled as a humpback whale breached right in front of them. “See it?”

“Kinda hard to miss,” Lauren chuckled, her brows lifting in surprise. “I didn’t realize there were any whales in the Caribbean.”

“Usually just sperm whales,” Grey said, her smile growing wider as another whale leapt out of the water, not far away from the first. “But humpbacks come to the Caribbean during the winter to mate. It’s pretty early for them to be out here though, they don’t usually show up until at least January.”

“Still…” Lauren sat up straighter and leaned forward to stare at the now placid waters in front of them, as if by sheer force of will alone she could make the whales reappear. “That’s pretty amazing.”

Grey looked over at Lauren
, whose face was lit with wonder, and nodded. “Yeah. Amazing.”

“I have never seen anything like that before.” Lauren glanced at Grey, and blushed when she found the brunette staring at her. “What?”

“Nothing.” Grey shook her head. She leaned in and kissed Lauren softly. “Is it wrong that I like looking at you?”

Lauren smiled shyly and shook her head. “No.”

“Good,” Grey whispered, smiling as she cradled Lauren’s face in her hand and guided the redhead’s lips back to her own. They kissed slowly, lazily, their tongues stroking idly together, and Grey sighed when she finally pulled away. She ran the backs of her fingers over Lauren’s jaw and kissed her again. “We should probably stop this.”

“Says the woman who keeps kissing me,” Lauren pointed out in a husky whisper.

“I can’t help it,” Grey retorted, kissing Lauren again for emphasis.

Lauren laughed. “You’re ridiculous.”

“Ridiculously sexy?”

Grey’s expression was adorably hopeful, and Lauren shook her head as she pressed a hard, chaste kiss to her lips. “Ridiculously silly.” She kissed her again, more tenderly this time. “And pretty damn perfect.”

“Smooth talker,” Grey murmured.

Lauren smiled and
kissed Grey again, the caress even gentler than the last, and she held it until her head began to swim. “You know it. Now, be good. These rocks are not comfortable enough for the things that’ll happen if you keep kissing me like that.”

“
Yeah, because I’m the one doing all the kissing here,” Grey grumbled playfully as she pulled away. She winked at Lauren and added, “If I’m not allowed to kiss you, what do you want to do?”

“I dunno.” Lauren shrugged and
shot Grey a sly look. “You could always tell me a joke or something.”

Grey smiled. “You want a clean one, or a dirty one?”

Lauren laughed and shook her head. “Why am I not surprised you have a catalogue of both? I dunno, Wells, surprise me.”

“Okay…” Grey’s voice trailed off for a moment as she mentally rifled through her options, and she clapped her hands when she decided what joke she was going to tell. “There were these two whales swimming around off the coast of Japan. We’ll call them Hubby Whale and Wifey Whale.”

Lauren sniggered. “Okay.”

“Hush. So,
one day, they’re swimming around, bored out of their minds, and Hubby Whale spies a whaling ship. ‘Hey,’ he says to his wife, ‘you wanna have some fun?’ Wifey Whale, used to his idiotic ideas, rolls her eyes and asks, ‘What do you have in mind?’ ‘Well,’ Hubby Whale drawls, ‘those fishermen are always messing with us—let’s go have some fun with them.’ Still not convinced, Wifey Whale says, ‘Like what?’ Hubby Whale starts giggling like an idiot and says, ‘Let’s go capsize their boat!’ Wifey rolls her eyes again. ‘Capsize their boat?’ ‘Yeah,’ he insists. ‘It’ll be easy. We just take a big breath, swim under the boat, and blow real hard. The bubbles will capsize the boat and it’ll be AWESOME!’”

“Whales say ‘awesome’, huh?” Lauren chuckled.

“These do. Now stop interrupting,” Grey admonished with a smile. “So…after going back and forth over it, Wifey Whale finally agrees to help capsize the boat. They each take a big breath, swim under the boat, and blow as hard as they can. And, sure enough, the damn thing pitches right over and all the sailors fall into the water. ‘See!’ Hubby Whale shouts victoriously, ‘It worked!’ Wifey Whale smiles and says, ‘Okay, that was kind of fun.’ ‘Told you,” Hubby says, his eyes drifting toward the sailors splashing around in the water. ‘You know…I am kind of hungry.’ ‘No,’ Wifey says immediately. ‘Just, no’. ‘But why?’ Hubby asks in the most pathetic whiney-little-kid-type voice ever. And Wifey just shakes her head and says, ‘While I have no problem blowing, I refuse to swallow seamen.’”

Lauren
chuckled and shook her head. “Oh my god. I did not see that coming.”

Grey grinned. “Ba-dum-dum.”

Lauren laughed harder. “Okay, that was good.”

“Right? Kip told me that one,” Grey shared. “Your turn.”

“I don’t remember this being a quid pro quo type arrangement,” Lauren pointed out.

“Come on, Murphy,” Grey cajoled. “You gotta have one dirty joke in your repertoire.”

Lauren sighed. “Okay, I have one…but it’s not exactly dirty.”

Grey nodded. “All right. Wait—it’s not the lesbian dinosaur one, is it?”

“Um no.” Lauren shook her head. “I don’t know a dinosaur joke. It’s about  a nun.”

“Well, that’s a classic start,” Grey said, nodding. “Okay, go.”

“Right.” Lauren cleared her throat. “So one day, Sister Marie Clarence, a nun from a convent in a small town in France, walks into a liquor store. The guy working the counter looks surprised to see her in his store, and when she asks for a fifth of bourbon, he looks positively scandalized. ‘But sister,’ he says, aghast, ‘why in the world would you want the devil’s drink?’ Sister Marie Clarence looks at him and says, ‘It’s for the Mother Superior.’ ‘I don’t believe you,’ the shopkeeper says, shaking his head. ‘The good Mother would never want for poison such as this. I am going to report you to the Monsignor!’

“Sister Marie Clarence smiles her most sincere smile at the man and shakes her head. ‘I speak the truth. The Mother Superior is quite constipated, and this bourbon will help cure her of her ills.’ The shopkeeper looks properly abashed and reaches beneath the counter for a fifth of his finest bourbon. He slips it into a paper bag and hands it to the nun. ‘Of course, Sister. I apologize for doubting the strength of your faith. Here, take this to the Mother Superior.’ Sister Marie Clarence nods her thanks at the man, tucks the bag into her habit, and discreetly leaves the store.

“Later that night, when the shopkeeper is walking home after closing up for the night, he passes by the convent. There’s a large crowd gathered at the gates, so he wanders over to see what’s going on. He pushes his way through the crowd, and his eyes just about pop out of his head when he sees Sister Marie Clarence wearing nothing but her veil, dancing naked in the courtyard and singing the most bawdy bar song he had ever heard. ‘SISTER!’ the shopkeeper yells at the clearly inebriated nun. ‘What in the world are you doing? I thought that bourbon was for the Mother Superior’s constipation?’ Sister Marie Clarence turns to him and gives a little shimmy. ‘Oh, it is,’ she assures him with a grin. ‘When she sees me, she’s going to shit!’”

Grey let out a bark of laughter and clapped her hands. “Okay, seriously, that is my new favorite joke.”

“I’m glad you liked it.” Lauren smiled, obviously pleased, and cleared her throat as she looked back out over the water. It was still early in the day, and she was not ready to let this moment end. “So, what’s the lesbian dinosaur one?”

Grey held up a finger as she tried to get her laughter under control. Once she succeeded, she heaved a large sigh and smiled. She had not expected to spend the afternoon sitting out here telling jokes, but like everything else that happened when she was with Lauren, it just
felt too right to even question. “It’s stupid, really.”

“So? It’s a joke, Grey…”
             

“Okay, fine.” Grey tucked her knees up to her chest and looked over at Lauren. “How about this—if you can guess the punch line, I’ll make you dinner tonight.”

Lauren grinned. “You’re on.”

“I can’t believe it.” Of all the dishes Grey could have messed up for the dinner she had made for Lauren, it was the rice that did her in. Not the Mahi-mahi, or the lemon, garlic, and wine reduction she had finished the fish in, but the rice. “This is so embarrassing.”

Lauren smiled and took another bite of the ruined rice. It was chewy, yet somehow undercooked at the same time,
and she reached out to place a reassuring hand on Grey’s arm as she swallowed. “It’s not that bad.”

“You don’t have to eat it,” Grey muttered. “Really. You’re going to make yourself sick trying to choke any more of that down.”

“Nobody’s getting sick.” Lauren chuckled and rolled her eyes. “It’s just rice, Grey.”

Grey groaned and ran a frustrated hand through her hair as she glowered at the offending side dish, as if it was the rice’s fault that it had not turned out right. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Lauren used the side of her fork to cut into her fish, and she looked at Grey as she speared the bite on the tines. “The Mahi turned out really well. And this sauce is incredible,” she added as she swirled the fish in the excess sauce pooled on her plate.

Grey blew out a loud breath and forced a small smile, embarrassment still written clearly on her face. “Thank you.”

“Thank you for a lovely dinner,” Lauren replied, her eyes soft and her tone warm.

“I…” Grey started to argue that the dinner she had made was anything but lovely, but she held back. Lauren was clearly not bothered by her lack of culinary skills, and her wallowing in self-pity was only going to ruin their last night alone together. She sighed and reached for her wine glass. Rice was apparently too difficult for her to manage, but she knew how to pick a good wine, and the pinot noir she had paired with the meal was outstanding. Grey met Lauren’s gaze as she lifted her glass, letting it hover in the candlelit air between them, and said, “To lovely dinners with even lovelier company.”