“Do you believe in that? Not the swimming part, but the love of your life part? That someone—anyone—loves for a lifetime?”

“Absolutely.”

“So you’re a romantic.”

“I wouldn’t have thought. My own parents have been married over thirty years, and not just because they have four children and are used to each other. They love and enjoy each other.”

“You have siblings.”

“I do. A brother and two sisters, so my mother’s fond of saying, she balanced it all out well with two of each sort. And that was enough of that.”

“It’s nice, a big family.”

A deaf man could have heard the wistfulness, Bran thought. “It is, yes.”

“Do you get back to see them?”

“I do, of course, and they travel to me from time to time. We’re a noisy bunch—not quiet and peaceful at all—when we’re all together. And here we are, at the bottom.”

She’d barely noticed the rough climb down. “You kept me talking so I wouldn’t panic.”

“You don’t panic so easy.” The last step was a drop. Bran jumped down easily, turned to take Sasha by the waist and lift her down. Then stood, testing both of them, with his hands on her. “Do you, fáidh?”

She knew the taste and feel of his mouth on hers, the way his hands moved on her skin, the angles of his body under her own.

And the need to know all that outside of dreams was far too strong.

“Maybe,” she said, and stepped away.

“There’s something you’re not telling me. I can see it.” He tapped a finger between her eyes. “Why is that?”

“We all have secrets, and when we find the other two, they’ll have them. I guess trust doesn’t run deep enough yet.”

“Hardly a wonder in this short a time. Well then, we’ll take what we have.”

What they had was golden sand and blue water. People, yes, but only a few sunning under the warm spring rays or sitting under the shade of an umbrella. Some children digging with plastic shovels, others wading in the surf.

“I expect the beaches closer to Sidari are more crowded than this, though,” Bran continued. “From what I’ve read, there’ll be plenty who’ll jump from the seawall into the canal, hoping to find their true love. That would make a fine painting, I’d think. The rock, the water, the hopeful who take the leap.”

Intrigued by the idea, Sasha stopped, looked back. The colors, the textures, the angle of light. A figure, she imagined, poised to leap, another caught on the jump between wall and water. Perhaps one more with speared fingers just meeting the surface. She should have grabbed her sketch pad, then she could—

She saw a flash, something shimmering like jewels in the sunlight sliced out of the water. An instant, an instant only of sparkle and foam, of swirling blue, then gone.

“Did you see that?”

“See what?”

“In the canal. Something . . . It came out of the water, then in again.”