In the Footsteps... Part 2

​After a rocky first meeting, Kane and Ellen meet again by chance on the banks of the Charles River. When Mr. A. and I first visited Boston years and years ago, it happened to be the day before July 4, and we were drawn out of our hotel room to follow the crowds to the river and one of the best fireworks displays I’ve ever seen. Things were quieter this time around, but they were just as perfect.

Kane meets Ellen and Cabo here.

The day was fresh and the sun shone on the water. We even had rowers, silently coming down the river from the Cambridge side. We could have sat there all day.

The pontoons were a pleasant surprise.

Kane comes out to run in the park that winds alongside the river, and finds Ellen with her friend’s dog, Cabo, who is not behaving.

"Picking up his baseball cap, turning his back on the curve in the river, on the fading leaves—peak fall foliage had come and gone without him noticing—he began to jog back along the path to the Esplanade. To the Clamshell, you lazy bastard, he told himself. At least to there." Here's the Clamshell Kane was trying to get to. *Spoiler*: He doesn't get there.

Later—after shenanigans that make Kane sure he’ll never see her again—Ellen comes back to this spot to find him. This is when she takes that first step to letting him into her life. I hope you like it.

It was ridiculous to imagine that she already knew which outline was his in the dark, but she was standing before he got into the pool of light.
He slowed down as soon as he saw her. She pushed her hood off and pulled down the scarf so he could see it was her. Her heart was lodged in her throat, or she would have said his name.
Kane stopped altogether, still several feet away from her. “What are you doing out here?” he said, his voice quiet but carrying in the cold air. “It’s so late.”
Aware that she was changing many things about herself with each step, she walked up to him, dropping her pepper spray and keys into her pocket as she did so. “I couldn’t call you through Anna,” she said. He was in a sweatshirt this time, and he still smelled delicious to her. “And I couldn’t think of any other way to see you.”
Even sitting here, alone, in the dark, had broken her self-imposed rules. And she had been afraid. She’d been on high alert for every minute of those two hours a night. But this was more important: standing in front of him, accepting that looking up into his eyes was about the most exciting thing she could do, that the heat coming off him was curling into her chest and making her want to lean into him, to be the one to push that forelock of hair out of his eyes.
She needed to apologize. Everyone made fun of her for how easily she said sorry. But she just stood and looked at him and breathed him in, and inside she trembled with how badly she wanted to kiss him.
Instead, she said, “Can I buy you dinner?”
“Now?” He looked down at himself.
With his head down, his hair was right in front of her. She lifted up one hand to touch it, but he’d already raised his eyes back to her. “Just…” she said, leaving her hand in midair. “Just to a pub, nothing fancy. I… I meant to pay for half the other day. So I owe you.” For more than a meal.
“All right,” he said, still looking at her very hard. Then he took her hand and tucked it through his arm. “All right?”
“Uh-huh,” she answered, giddy with the pleasure of letting herself be next to him. They walked a few steps out of the light, toward the street. This was the first time in four years that she’d been completely alone with a man, the first time in forever that a man had made her legs feel like noodles just from the smell of him.
In for a penny, in for a pound. She turned to face him. As Kane gave her a puzzled smile, she reached up and pulled his mouth down to hers. ​

Next time, let's eat!