Nicholas Sparks - Message in a Bottle

On their last sail together, Catherine and Garrett talked quietly for hours, enjoying the wine and dinner. The sea was calm, and the gentle rise and fall of the swells were comforting in their familiarity.

Later that night, after making love, Catherine lay by Garrett’s side, skimming her fingers across his chest, saying nothing.

“What are you thinking?” he asked finally.

“Just that I didn’t think it was possible to love someone as much as I love you,” she whispered.

Garrett ran his finger down her cheek. Catherine’s eyes never left his.

“I didn’t think it was possible, either,” he answered softly. “I don’t know what I’d ever do without you.”

“Will you make me a promise?”

“Anything.”

“If anything ever does happen to me, promise me that you’ll find someone else.”

“I don’t think I could love anyone except you.”

“Just promise me, okay?”

It took a moment to answer. “All right—if it makes you happy, I promise.”

He smiled tenderly.

Catherine snuggled into him. “I’m happy, Garrett.”

when the memory finally faded, Garrett cleared his throat and touched Theresa’s arm with his hand to get her attention. He pointed toward the sky. “Look at all this,” he said finally, doing his best to keep the conversation neutral. “Before they had sextants and compasses, they used the stars to navigate the seas. Over there, you can see Polaris. It always points due north.”

Theresa looked up into the sky. “How do you know which star it is?”

“You use marker stars. Can you see the Big Dipper?”

“Sure.”

“If you draw a straight line from the two stars that make up the tip of the spoon, they’ll point to the North Star.”

Theresa watched as he pointed out the stars he was talking about, musing about Garrett and the things that interested him. Sailing, diving, fishing, navigation by stars—anything to do with the ocean. Or anything, it seemed, that would enable him to be alone for hours on end.

With one hand, Garrett reached for the navy blue raincoat he’d left near the wheel earlier and slipped it on. “The Phoenicians were probably the greatest ocean explorers in history. In 600 B.C. they claimed to have sailed around the continent of Africa, but no one believed that they had done it because they swore that the North Star disappeared halfway through their voyage. But it had.”

“Why?”

“Because they entered the southern hemisphere. That’s how historians know they actually did it. Before then, no one had ever seen that happen before, or if they had, they’d never recorded it. It took almost two thousand years before they were proved right.”

She nodded, imagining their faraway voyage. She wondered why she never learned such things growing up and wondered about the man who had. And suddenly she knew exactly why Catherine had fallen in love with him. It wasn’t that he was unusually attractive, or ambitious, or even charming. he was partly those things, but more important, he seemed to live life on his own terms. There was something mysterious and different about the way he acted, something masculine. And that made him unlike anyone she’d ever met before.

Garrett glanced at her when she didn’t respond and again noticed how lovely she was. In the darkness her pale skin looked ethereal, and he found himself picturing what it would feel like to lightly trace the outline of her cheek. He shook his head then, trying to push the thought away.

But he couldn’t. The breeze was blowing through her hair, and the sight of it made something tighten in his stomach. How long had it been since he’d felt this way? Too long, for sure. But there wasn’t anything he could, or would, do about it. He knew that too as he watched her. It was neither the right time nor the right pace . . . nor was it the right person. Deep down, he wondered if anything would ever be right again.

“I hope I’m not boring you,” he said finally, with forced calmness. “I’ve always been interested in those types of stories.”

She faced him and smiled. “No, it’s not that. Not at all. I liked the story. I was just imagining what those men must have gone through. It’s not easy to head into something completely foreign.”

“No, it’s not,” he said, feeling as if she’d somehow read his mind.

The lights from the buildings along the shore seemed to flicker in the slowly thickening fog. Happenstance rocked slightly in the rising swells as it approached the inlet, and Theresa looked over her shoulder for the things she had brought with her. her jacket had blown into the corner near the cabin. she made a note not to forget it when she got back to the marina.

Even though Garrett had said he usually sailed alone, she wondered if he had brought anyone out besides Catherine and herself. And if he never had, what did that mean? She knew he had watched her carefully this evening, though he’d never been obvious. But even if he was curious about her, he’d kept his feelings well hidden. He hadn’t pressed her for information she wasn’t willing to give, he hadn’t questioned her about whether she was involved with someone else. He hadn’t done anything this evening that could be interpreted as being more than casually interested.

Garrett turned a switch, and a series of small lights came on around the boat. Not enough to see each other well, but enough so that other boats would see them approaching. He pointed toward the blackness of the coast—“The inlet is right over there, between the lights”—and turned the wheel in that direction. The sails rippled and the beam shifted for a moment before returning to its original position.

“So,” he finally asked, “did you enjoy your first time sailing?”

“I did. It was wonderful.”

“I’m glad. It wasn’t a trip to the southern hemisphere, but it’s about all I could do.”

They stood beside each other, both seemingly lost in thought. Another sailboat appeared in the darkness a quarter mile away, making its way back to the marina as well. Giving it a wide berth, Garrett looked from side to side, making sure nothing else would appear. Theresa noticed that the fog had made the horizon invisible.

Turning toward him, she saw that his hair had been blown back by the wind. The coat he was wearing hung to midthigh, unzipped. Worn and weathered, it looked as though he’d used it for years. It made him seem larger than he really was, and it would be this image of him that she could imagine remembering forever. This, and the first time she had seen him.

As they moved closer to shore, Theresa suddenly doubted that they would see each other again. In a few minutes they’d be back at the docks and they would say good-bye. She doubted he would ask her to join him again, and she wasn’t going to ask him herself. For some reason it didn’t seem like the right thing to do.

They made their way through the inlet, turning toward the marina. Again he kept the boat in the center of the waterway, and Theresa saw a series of triangular signs marking the channel. He kept the sails up until approximately the same spot he’d first raised them, then lowered them with the same intensity he had used to guide the boat all evening. The engine kicked to life, and within a few minutes they had made their way past the boats that had been moored all evening. When they reached his dock, she stood on the deck while Garrett jumped off and secured Happenstance with the lines.

Theresa walked to the stern to get the basket and her jacket, then stopped. Thinking for a moment, she picked up the basket, but instead of grabbing her jacket, she pushed it partway under the seat cushion with her free hand. When Garrett asked if everything was okay, she cleared her throat and said, “I’m just getting my things.” She walked to the side of the boat, and he offered his hand. Again she felt the strength in it as she took it, and she stepped down from Happenstance onto the dock.