Eternal Eden by Nicole Williams Page A

no longer slight—it was radiating from him. “I did,” he said, looking over at me. “I don’t know about the miracle worker thing, but I took a liking to him.”
    “I wish I could have met him, too,” I said, ignoring his curious amusement on the topic.
    “I’d wager my soul he would have wished so as well,” he said, looking like he was choking back a fit of laughter.
    He pulled into the public parking lot in Newport a few minutes later, and the burning question I’d kept to myself the entire trip suddenly seemed impossible to keep locked inside me. It was as if my soul superseded my brain and forced my mouth to open. “Who are you William—really? I’ve been patient. Time for answers.”
    I cursed myself the moment the words were out. Who asks that kind of a question? Sure he’d been evasive in answering just about every question I’d asked him, and yes, he was more the thing of fantasy that Oregonian college boy, but here was the scary thing: I didn’t care.
    I didn’t care that he’d showed up out of nowhere to save me from a couple of suit wearing thugs in a way I guessed a comic book hero would, or that he knew what kind of coffee I drank, or that when he looked at me, I would have sworn he was looking at the most precious thing he’d ever seen. I also knew this should have scared me—how much power he had over me so soon—but it didn’t. It felt as natural and unforced as the expansion and contraction of my lungs.
    He put the Bronco in park and killed the engine. He gazed in front of him, looking as if his thoughts were greyer than the swirling clouds dancing in the sky. “There are some things I can’t fully explain to you right now. They wouldn’t make sense, and would only further frustrate your inquisitive mind. I promise though,” he vowed, turning and staring into my eyes, “that I will, one day soon, answer any question you have for me. But today,”—his eyes shifted to the swelling ocean waves beckoning in front of us—“let’s enjoy the surf, okay?”
    “You said that two days ago,” I reminded him.
    “I promised to tell you when the time was right,” he said.
    “You promise, you’ll answer any question I have for you?” I asked, not letting him off the hook right away. “With more than yes or no answers?”
    He tried to control his smile, but lost. “I swear it.”
    Something about the way he said the words made me believe him without another thought. “Well . . . what are we waiting for?”
    He grinned in response. “Nothing—we’re not waiting for anything anymore.”

 
     
    CHAPTER SIX
    MYSTERIES

    “I can’t believe how fast today went by,” I said, as William cut the ignition in front of my dorm a little past midnight.
    “There’s always tomorrow,” he said, holding out his hand for me as I exited the cab.
    “And the day after that,” I added, still not sure where the day had gone. In the matter of a mere sixteen or so hours, I’d officially become a surfer (according to William, although I had my doubts), I’d gleaned more tidbits about the man of mystery (he circumnavigated the globe by boat with one of his brothers a few years back, is a die hard Pink Floyd fan, could eat grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches everyday, and loathes reality TV), and added even more fuel to the fire that William is not your everyday twenty-two year old male when he managed to leap from his board to mine every time I’d been about to topple into the water.
    “Thank you for . . .”—his eyes stared unheedingly at me. The look in them made me dizzy—“the best day ever.”
    “Ditto that,” I replied, sure I was smiling and blushing unabashedly.  
    He curled his fingers around my hand and led me up the sidewalk.
    “Good evening, William.”
    One moment I was beside him, holding his hand, and the next, I was behind him, as he struck a defensive position in front of me. The voice was different, but I was sure it would be a foreboding male dressed in a suit