CHAPTER SEVEN:
The day Zack's ship departed, the harbor was a chaos of voices and ropes and rushing feet. Vanessa stood on the pier, arms folded tight across her chest, watching as a sailor hauled crates and shouted orders. Zack moved among them with practiced ease. Commanding the scene as if the sea itself had lent him authority.
She hated how right he looked there, confident, alive, exactly where he belonged.
When he finally reached her, the noise of the harbor seemed to blur. "Vanessa." His voice was steady, but she caught the flicker of reluctance in his eyes. "I'll be back before you know it."
She forced a smile. "I'll hold you to that."
He cupped her face, thumb brushing her cheekbone with a tenderness that unraveled her. "You don't know how much I wish I could stay."
"Then don't go," she whispered, surprising herself.
His jaw tightened. For a heartbeat, she thought he might say yes. But then he keened in, kissed her hard, and pulled away before she could stop him. "I'll come back to you," he promised.
And then he was gone up the gangplank onto the deck, swallowed by sails and ropes and wind. The ship eased away from the pier, and with it, Vanessa felt a part of herself drift into the horizon.
The weeks that followed were harder than she expected. At work, she buried herself in blueprints, her hand busy but her mind elsewhere. Night was worse in empty rooms. Cold sheets, memories of Zack's laugh echoing like waves in her chest.
At first, she told herself not to care, not to wait. But then the letters began to arrive.
Short, messy, often smudged with salt, they carried his voice across the miles." Vanessa, the sea is calm tonight, but I can't stop thinking of your fire. I swear I see your eyes in every storm. Don't forget me."
She wrote back, reluctantly at first, then with a hunger she couldn't hide. "Zack, I don't know how you've done this. One night, one kiss, and I can't shake you. Come back soon, please."
The distance hurt, but the letters built something unexpected, an intimacy deeper than stolen glances and heated nights. In his words, she discovered a man who wasn't just bold and reckless, but vulnerable, loyal, and raw.
And though the sea kept them apart, Vanessa began to realize that her heart was no longer her own.