It seemed impossibly soon that she was standing at her departure gate, watching the first passengers board the flight to Honolulu. Linda was waiting to see her off then had a few more hours until her flight to Auckland. They’d eaten the fruit they’d grabbed at the hotel since none could be taken where they were going. Carefully, with lots of little words, they’d not talked.

They’d not even said good-bye, though Marissa could feel them both shaking slightly as they waited, arms entwined.

Finally, she took the chance. “It wasn’t just pity, was it?” The boarding call came again.

“No, of course not.” Linda’s eyes had darkened but she kept their luminous depths trained on Marissa’s expression. “I wanted to love you. Why did you let me?”

“Because . . . I wanted you.” She had felt far more but she was too frightened to add, “I loved the way you made me feel, like nobody ever had before. I don’t want to go, I don’t want to lose the feeling.” She might have tried to put some of that into words, but even as she considered it, she realized that she couldn’t divide Linda from the emotions Linda brought out in her. Was it Linda who attracted her or the heady, addictive feelings of being desired and wanted? Was it both?

Her feelings were too confusing to risk more when they would be parted in only a few minutes. There would be time to talk, back in the real world.

They called her row and only a few passengers were left. Somehow, Marissa made her hands unclench, made herself walk away, but she couldn’t make herself not look back. Run back now and tell her you think you’re in love with her. But would that be the truth? This is a vacation romance, with a chance to be something more, Marissa told herself firmly. As they advised their clients, be patient.

She looked over her shoulder one more time. Linda’s gaze was filled with a soft wonder and a shimmer of tears. Be patient—and trust what you know you felt.

Linda stayed there, just the other side of attendant, as Marissa stepped through the door onto the baking asphalt. Crossing quickly to the shade of their plane, Marissa queued with the other passengers then hauled her backpack and herself up the stairs. It was so much harder to climb those stairs than it had been that cliff. At the top, just before she ducked into the aircraft, she looked back and Linda was there, on the other side of the glass.

Long after her plane was airborne, Marissa wondered if that last gesture had been a wave, or if it had been a blown kiss set free on the island breeze to follow Marissa on the long journey home.

Part Two

Chapter 6

Is that what someone would call a limitless sky? The grimy airport window couldn’t mask how big the heavens were. In what seemed like only minutes, Marissa’s plane was out of sight.