Indulgence (222 page)

“I think this is working, Vincent.”

“What’s that?”

“You bringing me here. It’s working; my memory is coming
back.”

“I knew this place would help you; you always loved it
here.”

“And why do I love it here so much?” I couldn’t help but
ask. Back at my house, Vincent had indicated this was a place I enjoyed and
figured I would be more comfortable here.

Vincent paused. “You said it was a place for you to escape
from it all. When you are here, you can forget your past and look forward to
your future.”

I let the words sink in. I guess I could see how this island
was an escape. Very few people could get on it and there was nothing around but
nature.

“Well it seems you know best. How can I ever thank you?”

“Oh I’m sure I’ll think of something,” Vincent toyed. “But
for now, it’s late; let’s get you to bed.”

I wasn’t really tired, but Vincent was right; it was late
and I should try to get some sleep. After all, I did have an exhausting day
coming home from the hospital, learning that I had a new home and boyfriend and
the trip to the cottage. Not to mention I was imagining moving trees.

I excused myself to the bathroom, dug through my bag and
found a pair of black silk pajamas. I washed my face and stared at myself in
the mirror. My reflection looked different to me but I couldn’t quite pinpoint
exactly what was different. The color of my hair seemed more vibrant as did the
yellow flecks in my eyes. Then my mind turned to what could potentially happen
next when I went back to the bedroom. Would Vincent let me sleep or would he
try to bring back more memories – intimate ones? I had flashes of the two of us
together like that but wasn’t confident I was ready to relive that right now.

I walked back into the bedroom and Vincent was in bed, eyes
closed, apparently already asleep. Guess I didn’t have to worry about his
intentions. It had probably been an exhausting day for him, too. I gently slid
into bed so as not to wake him and turned out the light. It was twelve
forty-seven in the morning.

I lay there for what felt like forever. I didn’t want to
roll around and risk waking Vincent so I stared at the ceiling and found shapes
in the wood grain on the beams and hoped this mundane task would eventually
knock me out. It didn’t. On top of my sleeplessness, I was also burning up. I
felt like a coal furnace pumping out intense heat. My silk pajamas were soaked
and uncomfortable and I couldn’t stand it any longer. I slid my legs over the
side of the bed to remove the sweaty mess. I reached in my bag and found a
cotton shirt that I slid on. I went back to the bed and looked at the clock. It
was four seventeen in the morning.
Terrific
, I thought,
I’m never
going to fall asleep
.

“Troubles sleeping?” Vincent called out, his bare back to
me.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you. I can’t sleep.”

“You didn’t wake me,” he said and rolled over. “I wasn’t
sleeping either.”

“Really? You appeared out.”

“No, I’ve been up since we went to bed, I think. I didn’t
want to toss and turn to find a comfortable spot and wake you.”

“That’s funny,” I said, “because I was doing the same
thing.”

Vincent stretched out his arm towards my face. He gently
grabbed it and pulled my head towards him.

“Oh,” he cooed, “you’re burning up.”

“I know, right? But so are you,” I whispered back. But
unlike me, Vincent was just hot, not a sweaty mess. His hand was extremely hot
against the side of my face. We lay there and stared at each other for several
moments. Vincent seemed to study my face.

“What?” I asked, embarrassed by all of the attention.

Vincent sighed. “I was just thinking how odd it was that we
both can’t sleep and are burning up. But I suppose it’s nothing, just a
coincidence. Let’s get some breakfast.”

He was out of bed quicker than a blink of the eye and pulled
a shirt over his bare chest, much to my dismay. He was quite the eye candy with
perfectly chiseled abs and arms. I pulled on a pair of pants and a robe and
followed him into the kitchen as I pondered Vincent’s observation.

“Tea?” he asked.

“Yes please, but hold the breakfast.”

“Tea but no breakfast?” Vincent questioned inquisitively.

“You heard me,” I jokingly said.

“But you didn’t eat dinner last night. You must be
famished.”

“Nope. I’m not hungry…for food at least.”

Vincent stared just a bit longer, as if not believing what
he heard. I almost couldn’t believe I made the suggestive comment. “Okay,” he
resigned, and placed the eggs back in the refrigerator.

“What do you want to do today?” I asked.

“That, my dear, is up to you,” Vincent said as he sat down
across the table from me. He handed me a mug as he sipped his.

“Jog my memory; what is there to do on this island?”

“Well, we could go hiking, or take the boat out, but it’s a
bit chilly for that.”

“No kidding,” I interrupted. “The cold air might feel good
on my hot skin now but I’ll be freezing cold later!”

Vincent smirked and looked at the ground for a moment before
returning his eyes to me.

“Yes, me too,” he added.

I thought it was an odd comment since no one seemingly got
as cold as I did during the daytime. “Or,” he continued, “we can walk the
cliffs, or…”

“Or what?” I asked.

“Or we can just stay in,” he replied with a wink.

I gasped, not knowing how to respond. The proposition was
tempting…staying holed up inside with this flawless person and do who knows
what all day…but I wasn’t quite ready for that. Though my memories were coming
back and I felt comfortable around Vincent, I wasn’t ready to go
there
;
something inside me told me to wait.

“Um,” I choked out, flustered. “How about hiking?”

“You sure about that?” Vincent asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, why?”

“Just checking. We have to leave tomorrow so I want to make
sure we do something you
really
want to do.”

“Why do we have to leave tomorrow?” I quickly asked,
ignoring his suggestive tone.

“Work. I left an important client when I came to see you
after the accident.” Vincent was uncharacteristically tense in his response.

“Oh, I see. Somebody more important than me?” I joked.

“No one is more important than you, Allison.” Vincent’s tone
turned serious then softened a bit. “But it is something important nonetheless
that I have to take care of.”

“Okay, that’s not a problem,” I playfully toyed. “I get it.
You have work to get done and can’t spend all of your time entertaining me.”

Vincent got up and walked behind me and wrapped me in an
embrace. His touch was noticeably cooler than it had been when we first woke.
“I would love to spend every waking minute with you and have you all to
myself.”

Vincent took me to his favorite spot in the woods on the
east side of the island to watch the sunrise. This area was particularly dense
with pine trees and shrubs that ever so slightly thinned as we neared the
shore. It was apparent that Vincent knew the spot well as he walked directly to
our destination without the assistance of a path.

“Here we are,” Vincent said looking up the trunk of a tall
pine. The tree looked like a staircase with branches spiraling from the base up
into the sky.

“Here we are,” I repeated looking around. The horizon was
hidden by the landscape and didn’t appear to be the best spot to see the sun
rise.

Vincent chuckled at my sarcasm. “I’m telling you, this is
the perfect place to watch the sunrise.”

“I could see how it would be perfect…if only we could see
the horizon.”

Vincent laughed harder. “Oh Allison, come on,” he beckoned
as he leapt onto a branch, extending his hand to me.

I gawked at his hand. “You can’t be serious?”

Vincent shook his hand towards me and nodded his head in
encouragement.

“You want me,” I paused in disbelief, “to climb a tree, to
watch the sunrise?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Me? Clumsy little ole me?”

“Yes, Allison. Trust me, you can do this. And the view is
worth it!”

I scoffed at the ground, not knowing what to say. Vincent
was patiently waiting for me to grab his hand. He looked confident in what we
were about to embark on, his chin strong, his eyes glowing with excitement.

“Well, all right. But if I break an arm, you have a lot of
explaining to do to Jenna.”

We both laughed as I grabbed Vincent’s hand. He pulled me up
to the branch he was standing on. His touch sent a tingling sensation over my
cold skin.

“Just go slow,” I pleaded.

“You don’t give yourself enough credit, Allison. You can
keep up.”

Vincent bounded to a branch above us and then to another
above that. I cautiously grabbed the next branch which looked like it could
snap under my weight. I hoisted myself up and then grabbed the next branch and
lifted myself onto it. Vincent peered down at me from his perch with an
approving nod.

“I know you can move faster than that,” he teased.

He then took off, appearing to hop about ten feet up
vertically, but I knew that was impossible. His motion was fluid and graceful,
quite the opposite of my guarded ascent. But I was up for a challenge. If he
was going to showboat, then I was going to try to give him a good performance
as well.

“All right smarty pants,” I whispered.

I crouched on the branch and grabbed it with my hands,
launching myself at the next branch. But instead of landing on the next branch,
I landed next to a beaming Vincent. His smile stretched tightly across his
face, his eyes almost beckoning me to follow him. Before I even had a chance to
contemplate what I had just done, or figure out how I had done it, Vincent was
gone. He moved up the tree at a steady pace and then disappeared from sight. I
stared up the tree looking for any sign of him.

“You better hurry or you are going to miss the sunrise,” he
called.

I scoffed, again not knowing what to make of this situation
but didn’t think about it too long. I hunched down and sprang up a few
branches, bouncing off of those to the next and then another. I felt like I was
flying, like nothing could stop me.

“Hey, where you going?”

I stopped and looked around. Vincent was a few branches
below me.

“You keep going to the top of this tree,” he warned, “and
you’ll tip it.”

“Oh,” I sighed, perplexed about how I had just sprung up the
tree so fast. “How did I pass you?”

“Must be the adrenaline,” Vincent joked. “Come here.”

He held out his hand and assisted me down to where he stood.
A sense of calm and relaxation washed over me, and I chalked it up to the
beautiful view. I looked out to the east over the treetops and spotted the
horizon. The blue gray sky had a hint of purple and seemingly stretched on for
miles. The lake was calm and smooth like a piece of polished glass. Seagulls
drifted through the air. The slightest hint of yellow began to peek over the
water’s edge.

“This is amazing,” I breathed.

We sat there and watched the sun slowly rise as if it were
emerging from the water itself. The yellow tinge turned into a perfect half
circle, then into a brilliant orange ball. It rose high into the gray autumn
sky, casting its warmth over the lake. Birds gleefully danced through rays that
slowly skimmed their way over the lake, reaching the island’s shore. A
welcoming warmth landed on us. It was a brisk, cool morning and the sun’s heat
felt good against my cold skin. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in
the moment. What a perfect way to start off the day. I looked over at Vincent.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. The side of his face was covered in
a rash.

“Oh, just a little sensitivity to the sun, you know. It
makes my blood boil.”

I noticed my neck had started to burn like it had yesterday
when Jenna drove me home from the hospital. I rubbed and scratched at it hoping
for relief but it only made it worse. “I know what you mean,” I responded.

“Let’s go,” Vincent said.

“Yeah, before we both get sunburns!”

Vincent chortled, “Yeah, something like that.”

It was an ideal day to hike the woods on Rattlesnake Island.
The gray sky was frosted over with a thin layer of clouds that shielded our
sensitive skin from the sun. The temperature was cool, typical for this time of
year, with a chilly breeze blowing in over the lake.

Vincent and I talked about everything; it was like meeting
him for the first time. In fact, he told me so much about me that if felt like
I was meeting
me
for the first time. We talked again about how we met
and several of our dates thereafter. Vincent had flown us to New York on our
first date to see a Broadway play. I learned more about Vincent’s medical
supply business. He was a very hands-on business owner traveling all over the
world to meet personally with his clients. He explained that when he was gone,
I frequented the coffee shop where we had met. It was there that I sat curled
up on the couch by the fire reading. He also insisted that I did take up
gardening to help pass the time, and my yard was living proof of that.

We talked about family; me being an only child, he having
four siblings. Both of our parents were deceased and family was very important
to us both. Vincent was close with his siblings, three brothers and one sister.
They were so close that the siblings joined Vincent in his business. I asked if
I had met his siblings in the past year but Vincent explained that they lived
all over the world supporting the family business and I hadn’t met them yet. I
commented how close I used to be with Matt’s family, since I didn’t have any
siblings. Vincent didn’t seem to mind that I brought up Matt’s name. In fact,
we talked about Matt, at least what I could remember. However, Vincent was
already aware of most of what I told him…how Matt and I met, when we got
married, where we lived in Buzzard Hill. Of course I didn’t remember sharing
any of this as these memories were buried somewhere in my mind, blocked by the
impact of my accident. Vincent was even able to fill in a few details for me,
mostly around Matt’s accident.