He said it quickly, the way he did when he was nervous, a fact I knew about him so very well after thirteen years together. I marveled at that, at how one person could come to know another person so intimately that their quirks and tiny traits simply were. They required no thought at all.

“Yes,” I said. Yes. As easy a yes as when he asked me to share his banana split the night we met. As easy a yes as when he asked me to marry him. As easy a yes as when the doctor asked if I was ready to bring Iris home from the hospital. Above me a million stars shone, showing off for the flower moon, as if declaring that they still belonged amid its fierce beauty.

Bill pulled away from me and looked down at my face. “Yes? Just like that?”

“Just like that,” I said. “Sure, in some ways it feels like we’ve plunged into an alternate universe, but it’s a universe where, against all odds, I want to stay.”

If you had asked me, even during the chaos of the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, if I would move to a sleepy beach town in North Carolina, my home state, I would have said no way. Not a chance. But here, now, I felt like I had found where I was meant to be.

We were a family here. We were happy here. We were part of a small town that, somehow, seemed like it could protect us.

That’s the thing about protection, though. It’s fleeting. Because the people who know best how to protect you also know the very thing that will rip your heart out.

At that moment, though, I only knew the happiness of the sand beneath my feet, the water lapping my ankles, that mesmerizing flower moon. And the cicadas singing me into complacence, chanting a lullaby that I would hear forever, even in my dreams.

JUNIPER SHORES SOCIALITE

@junipershoressocialite

Sharing bad behavior and delicious drama in North Carolina’s most exclusive coastal zip code. DM with tips, pics, and juicy deets.

AUGUST 24, 11:08 A.M.

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You didn’t hear it from me, but…

PIC 1: Which hunky investment guru’s multimillion-dollar waterfront gem is covered in caution tape? If you guessed Bill Sitterly’s, you guessed right. Juniper Shores’ beloved Member Guest Golf Champion is socializing at a brand-new club: Club Fed. Can’t pay the Amex Centurion bill? No biggie. Just swipe from your clients’ retirement funds! But the big question remains: With Bill, um, otherwise occupied and their house a crime scene, where are Charlotte and Iris Sitterly?