A Touch of Scarlet Page 0,2

was awash with red and pink streaks, reminding me of an old fisherman’s proverb.

“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight,” I said.

“Red sky at morn, sailors take warn,” Gray said.

“That’s a good omen, right?”

“Of course.” He smiled reassuringly, but I felt a shadow of doubt descend. “Let’s go to the lighthouse,” Gray said, grabbing my hand as we crossed the street. “I want to give you your present there.”

We drove to the lighthouse and parked along the beach road, tumbling out of the Jeep into a dusky violet night. The lighthouse sat on a crest of the beach a few hundred yards away. We held hands as we walked the dune path toward it. A bronze placard showed the image of a Labrador retriever named Rex who had guarded the lighthouse for fourteen years, greeting visitors, providing companionship for the keeper, and chasing off ghosts. This part of the Massachusetts Bay was known for being treacherous; there were dozens of tales of sailors and keepers who had lost their lives along this coast and still haunted the dunes where we stood.

And nine years ago, my mother had killed herself on her birthday by walking into the ocean.

I shivered, pushing away the memory of my mother as we walked out onto the beach. The surf was pounding on the sand, moaning and hissing like a living thing. Coming to the lighthouse had sounded romantic when Gray suggested it, but now that we were here, I felt edgy and sick. Trying to quell my unease, I turned to face Gray, who was pulling something from his pocket.

He gazed at me sweetly and handed me a small box. “I know you always wear your mother’s dragonfly,” he said nervously, “but I wanted you to have a part of me, too.”

I opened the clamshell lid and lifted up a dog tag hanging from a silver chain. Gray always wore his uncle’s dog tags, but I knew him well enough to know he’d never surrender those, not even to me. I brought the necklace closer and inspected the tag, etched with the small image of a scorpion.

“It’s your zodiac sign,” I said.

“Look at the other side.”

I flipped it over and read the inscription out loud: “To Emma, the only antidote for my sting.” Tears welled in my eyes before I could stop them.

“I’m wearing yours, too,” he said, pulling his collar away to reveal a dog tag he’d added to his chain, this one showing the profile of a woman with wings.

“The Virgo angel,” I said.

“I was hoping you’d be my guardian angel while I’m away.”

This made me lose it completely, and then I was sobbing and sniffling into his shirt in a completely undignified manner. Gray pulled me into a hug, and I melted into him, inhaling the comforting scent of his skin mixed with cologne and laundry detergent. Gray’s particular smell had always reminded me of the ocean, which was fitting now that he had decided to spend the rest of his life on it.

“You okay?” he said after I’d wiped the last tears from my cheeks onto his sleeve.

I looked up at him, studying his downturned eyes and stubbled jaw. He cupped my face with his hands and brought his lips down on mine in that way that never failed to render me senseless. His hands followed the contours of my summer dress, pausing at my hips, then gripping my waist. My body lit up like a pinball machine.

Before I knew it, I was lying on the ground, my dress hitched up around my waist, with Gray’s body shifting on top of mine—all rock-hard 170 pounds of him. I was so stunned by the intimacy of it that I barely felt the sand jabbing into my elbows or the cold breeze creeping up my bare legs.

I tore at his shirt, trying to undo the buttons with cold, nervous fingers, then traced the lines and curves of his stomach as he arched above me. Part of me wanted to go for it—to lose myself in this moment and not think about tomorrow. But the smallest reminder that a new day was coming—a day without Gray—paralyzed me.

He must have sensed my hesitation, because that quickly he was moving off me, and I was turning from him, overcome with emotion, adrenaline, and a shrieking sense of doom. My breath was thick in my throat, my face and hair soaked with sweat and sea air. Gray collapsed onto the sand behind me, wrapping his arms around me