“No, they weren’t wrong,” she said quietly. “As far as they knew, the damage to my spine and pelvis was too extensive to ever allow me to walk. But then this doctor I’d never heard of, Dr. Cortner, got in touch with my doctor and said she was developing a new surgical technique and thought I’d be a good candidate for it. Long story short, it worked.”
“You weren’t scared?”
“Not really. What did I have to lose? If it didn’t work, I’d just be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, and that’s what I already had.” She was quiet a minute. Somewhere lilacs were blooming, and their scent came to us on a light breeze. “Mom was scared,” Julia said. “She was afraid I’d get my hopes up and then be disappointed.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s really amazing. They did the surgery at Greenwood Hospital?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe I should have donated a new surgical unit instead.”
“You still didn’t answer my question about that. Why give to the hospital at all?”
“I wanted to give you something. I know, I couldn’t make up for what happened, but it just killed me that I was okay and you were…damaged.” She made a disgusted noise, but I plowed on. “When you’re rich, you can give people stuff. I gave my dad enough to quit his job and be comfortable forever, but he’ll never quit teaching. But for you, I knew money wouldn’t do it. You’re not the kind of person who really cares about money.”
I looked over at her, and she was chewing on the middle of her upper lip. I went on, “I kept wondering what I could do for you that would really mean something to you. I remembered you giving all your babysitting money to a bunch of different charities, and I thought, maybe if I gave to the hospital, some place that was important to you….”
“What? If you gave to the hospital, then I’d be your…friend again? Is that it?” She had a bitter edge to her voice that was not the Julia I remembered.
“Maybe! I didn’t think of it exactly like that, but I thought if I did something good in your name that maybe it would blot out what I did to you! That maybe we could find some way to, I don’t know, go forward. Together.”
She sighed. “Okay, Nick. Coffee once a week. That’s what I’ve got to give right now. Take it or leave it.”
Of course I took it.
~ ~
The whole time I was taking that walk with Julia after dinner, I kept flashing back to another walk we had taken together, that day of the accident so long ago.
Once I pulled her out of the water and knew she was going to be okay, it was like I couldn’t think any more. I felt this huge wave of relief, and all the feelings I had for Julia that I had been pushing down for so long burst out. I couldn’t hide them any more, couldn’t joke and tease my way out of them. I didn?
??t think, I just grabbed her and smashed our lips together. I wasn’t looking even one second into the future, so I didn’t stop to wonder if she’d push me away. What she did was kiss me back. All those stupid cliches about time stopping, the earth standing still, rocking your world, all that bullshit? All one hundred per cent true. With the right person, at the right moment, one kiss can change your life.
When our lips finally parted, I helped Julia stand up. We looked at each other, and this time, I kissed her on purpose. I took my time, first just brushing her lips with mine, then gradually opening, tasting, claiming her mouth for my own. And the miracle was, she was into it!
We broke the kiss, and she looked up at me with this smile on her face that was like the gates of heaven opening up.
“Julia, I—”
“Don’t you dare say you’re sorry!”
“I wasn’t going to.” I grinned right back at her. “I’ve never been less sorry about anything in my life. I’ve wanted to do that for a long time.”
“Oh god! Me too! Why didn’t you?”
“A million reasons. I thought you’d be grossed out, for one thing. Some people would say we’re brother and sister.”
“Step, though. Not blood relations. I looked it up.”
“You looked it up?” I laughed. This made me so happy. “I can’t believe it. What did you find?”
“Well, the law says we can…. I mean, we’re not doing anything illegal, that’s all that matters, right?”
“To me, it wouldn’t matter if it was illegal. I’d go to jail for this.” And then I kissed her again. We started to walk along the edge of the lake, where the water met the sand. I know, big cliche, right? Go try it with the love of your life and you’ll see why it’s in practically every movie ever made. The sun was behind us. I put my arm around Julia’s shoulder. I could touch a lot of her skin, and it was still cool on top from being in the water so long, but warm underneath. I squeezed her for a second—having that thought about her being in the water reminded me of almost losing her.
“So…” she said. “How long have you…felt this way?”
“Forever. The whole time. Ever since Dad and Lucy took us out to dinner to tell us about the wedding.”
“No way! It’s the same night for me too.”
“I even remember what you had. You ordered the escargot because you didn’t know what it was and thought it sounded fancy. I thought you’d chicken out when you found out it was snails, but you ended up sucking all the garlic butter out of the shells. I can still picture you doing it.”
“Oh great, what a romantic, ladylike image!” We were laughing. That walk was all laughing and kissing.
“What about you, what do you remember about me that night?”
“I remember you were really nice to my mom. I thought you had a good relationship with your dad. You just seemed good on the inside. You were wearing a chocolate brown sweater that was the exact same color as your eyes.” She turned to me then and put her hands on my face. There were little gold glints in her green eyes. I put my arms around her and she did the same. I could feel so much of her skin pressed up against me, from my thighs all the way up to my chest. She pushed herself against me, and of course I got wood.