His tone was too gentle for her to take offense. "I was in a hurry."
"You were always in a hurry." He sent her a knowing look that reminded her of how many years they had known each other.
"You didn't exactly get through childhood unscathed," she said.#p#分页标题#e#
"Let's change the subject."
"Remember that party you had when your parents went out of town?"
"The one you talked me into having?" he asked pointedly.
"And somebody broke the picture frame that Tessa had given you to hold your prom photo?" she continued, ignoring the fact that she had been the one to encourage the party. "You thought Tessa was going to kill you for sure."
"So you went all the way to Portland with me to find an exact copy," he said quietly, turning to face her. "I'd forgotten about that. Why did you help me?"
"I didn't want you to get into trouble."
"Really?" he asked skeptically.
"Okay, I got to ride in the Thunderbird and spend time with you. But it was still a nice thing to do, even if my motives were a bit selfish."
"You were a pal."
She sighed. "And I wanted to be so much more."
"Well, it turned out that way."
For a few moments all was quiet between them. Alli leaned against the rail and watched him sail. Here on the water, he was completely at ease, master of his destiny, strong, powerful, a part of nature as much as the wind and the sea. It was how she always thought of him, the mist off the ocean dampening his hair, his cheeks burning from the midday sun, his eyes dancing with a joy that only being on the water could give him.
"You love this, don't you?" she asked, even though it wasn't really a question.
"More than I ever thought I would."
"So this part of your life turned out okay?"
He smiled at her. "Yeah."
"I'm glad." She looked out at the miles of water stretching before them. "Do you think we'll see any whales today?"
"I hope so or the Starks will be disappointed."
Alli turned her head to see the newlywed couple exchange a deep, passionate kiss. "I'm not sure they will come up for air long enough to see a whale."
"You might be right about that. By the way, we should talk about our kite. The festival is only a few days away. Have you thought about the design?"
"Megan wants to do a picture of our family for the design. She even drew three stick figures. Yours has great hair. Mine just looks fat."
"You always think you look fat."
"I have a mirror."
"You don't look in the mirror. Most of your impressions are stuck in your head from a hundred years ago. Maybe once you looked fat, so forever you're fat. That's the way it is with you. You never change your mind."
"That's not true," she automatically denied, although she had the vague impression that he might be somewhat right.
"Sure it is. Twelve people could say you were skinny and one person could say you were fat, and who would you believe—the one person who said you were fat."
She thought about that for a moment, wondering when Sam had gotten so good at analyzing her. "Maybe."
"Not maybe; it's true."
"It was different for me, Sam. Growing up, you and Tessa had each other for support. I didn't have anyone."
"You had friends."
"I didn't have a relationship like the one you and Tessa had. What was it about her that made you want to be with her every second of the day?"
He thought about her question for a moment. "Tessa was an incredible storyteller," he said finally. "We'd sit for hours in the treehouse and Tessa would talk about climbing the Pyramids and shooting the rapids and coming face-to-face with wild tigers in the jungles of Africa."#p#分页标题#e#
"Like any of that would actually come true," Alli said scornfully.
"It didn't matter. The story was enough."
"Did you really want to do all those things—shoot rapids, hunt tigers?"
"At thirteen, yeah. But there was one thing Tessa wasn't good at—"
"You mean there was one thing? I'm in shock. Catch me if I faint."
"Tessa never figured out how we were actually going to get to the African jungle, especially since at the time we didn't even have a driver's license." He laughed at some memory that was not hers, and it hurt. But Alli couldn't let him see that, because then he'd stop talking, and she needed him to talk, she needed to understand why he loved Tessa so much.
"You could still do it, Sam. You and Tessa could travel around the world, see all those things that you never got to see."
"And what about you? What about Megan?" His eyes grew more serious as he looked at her. "Wouldn't you miss me? We've been together for nine years. And they weren't all bad. Is it really so easy to send me away, Alli?"