Chapter 157 Same Ocean

Chapter 157 Same Ocean
The villa sat on the same stretch of coastline as the one they'd honeymooned in, close enough that Tyler recognized the curve of the bay from the taxi window before the driver had even announced they were near, a year's worth of memory clicking into place at the sight of that particular fold of mountain meeting water.

He'd flown a lot of long hauls in his career, road trips that stretched across time zones until the days blurred together into one continuous ache of departure lounges and hotel beds, and none of them had ever felt like this one, exhaustion burning off almost the moment the ocean came into view, replaced by something closer to arriving somewhere that had been waiting for him specifically.

Sofia noticed too, going quiet beside him, her hand finding his across the back seat without either of them needing to say anything.

Their host met them at the gate, an older woman named Bonisiwe who'd apparently heard the whole story from Harriet months ago and greeted them like returning family rather than paying guests. "The anniversary couple," she said, beaming. "Harriet said you'd want the room with the mountain view. I upgraded you anyway, so now you get both."

"Both?"

"Mountain and ocean. Corner room. Best one on the property." Bonisiwe waved off Tyler's attempt to question the room upgrade. "Harriet's a good friend, and you two are apparently the reason half her arch-building business exists now. Least I could do."

The room had both views, floor-to-ceiling windows on two sides, Table Mountain rising flat and impossible on one horizon and the Atlantic stretching pale gold under the late afternoon sun on the other. Tyler set the bags down and just stood there a moment, taking it in, exhaustion from the flight fading fast against the sheer size of the view.

"We got married an hour from here," Sofia said, coming to stand beside him at the window. "I keep forgetting how close everything actually is. In my memory the whole trip feels enormous, days and days of it, and it was really just one small corner of one country."

"Big enough corner." Tyler wrapped an arm around her, pulling her back against his chest, chin resting against the top of her head. "Big enough that I still can't quite believe you agreed to marry me somewhere this beautiful. Felt like cheating, if I'm being honest about it. Getting married with a view like that helped my case."

"You didn't need the view's help." She turned in his arms, tilting her face up to his. "I'd have married you in a parking lot if that's what the timing had given us."

"Don't tempt me. I could arrange a parking lot renewal ceremony if you want variety."

She laughed, the sound bright in the quiet room, and kissed him slow and easy, no urgency to it, just the simple luxury of finally, actually being here, twelve hours of travel behind them and nothing but open time ahead.

They walked down to the beach that evening before dinner, sand still warm from the day's sun, the tide pulled far enough out to leave a wide dark stretch of packed shore perfect for walking. Sofia had taken her shoes off before they'd even cleared the dune, carrying them by the straps, and Tyler followed suit, rolling his pants to the knee, both of them laughing at how quickly they'd shed the careful presentation of travel for something looser, easier.

"This is the beach," she said eventually, stopping, looking back the way they'd come. "Not the exact spot. But close. I remember the shape of that rock formation from the ceremony photos."

"You want to walk to the exact spot?"

"Not yet. I want to save it for the actual day. Two more sleeps." She reached for his hand, resumed their walk, the sand cool now where the water had recently retreated. "I have a whole plan for the fourteenth, actually. You're not allowed to know any of it in advance."

"A plan. Should I be worried?"

"You should be excited. There's a difference, though I understand they can feel similar sometimes." She grinned up at him, echoing his own words back to him from the night of Carter's announcement without either of them quite realizing it, some phrases simply becoming theirs now, worn smooth between them like sea glass.

They walked until the light went properly gold, then properly pink, the whole sky over the water doing something Tyler still didn't have adequate words for even after seeing it once already a year ago. He thought about Diego, briefly, the way he still did in moments this beautiful, wondering what his brother would have made of a sky like this, and found the thought arrived softer than it used to, less an ache and more a kind of company, someone he still carried with him into every good thing life kept handing him.

A pair of gulls wheeled overhead, arguing loudly about something only they understood. Sofia laughed at the sudden ordinary silliness of it, the sound cutting clean through the weight of the moment before it. Tyler found himself laughing too, grateful for whatever instinct in her always seemed to know exactly when a feeling needed room to breathe instead of being held too tightly.

"You went somewhere," Sofia said, watching his face.

"Just thinking about Diego. He would have loved this. Would have had something smart to say about the color, probably made fun of me for getting emotional about a sunset."

"I think he'd be glad you still get emotional about sunsets." She squeezed his hand. "That's not something grief usually leaves intact. The capacity to still be moved by ordinary beautiful things. I think that's actually the part worth protecting most."Tyler pulled her in and kissed her temple, the ocean loud and steady beside them, the whole evening opening up ahead of two more days before the actual anniversary, three years of history and one entire ocean between them and everything that used to feel impossible.

They walked back to the villa slowly, in no hurry, the sand cooling further under their bare feet as the last light drained out of the sky. Tyler thought that if this was only the first evening, two more full days of this particular kind of happiness stretching out ahead of them. He had absolutely no complaints about how long the wait had taken to get here.