"He's tied to this place, just like you are."
-David, To Have and To Hold

"He's tied to this place, just like you are."
It was the second time David had said that to me. I remembered that as we stood by the pond together, looking at the water and not at each other. It had been in this spot that he had said that too, only that time he had been speaking about Lundy. It felt like a lifetime ago.
Now he was speaking about Neil.
"I love it too, but not like you do. I don't feel bound to it, but I think you did from the start."
David was looking at me now, but not in the way he used too. I raised my head to meet his eyes, which looked so sad. He took my hand, and I knew his heart must be breaking to feel the little gold band etched in Gaelic that now rested on my finger.
"I'll always care for you Christy. I don't think I'll ever be able to stop caring for you, which is why I'm leaving."
His face was so sad. It didn't have the anger I had expected, the emotions that ran so high within him that I had anticipated. He and Neil were funny like that. They were so similar. So passionate for the things and the people they loved.
"I don't want you to leave," I said.
"I know," he glanced down at the ring, "but it's for the best. I'll see you again someday I hope, but I need to leave."
"You'll meet someone," I said, though I knew I was just "mouthing a platitude," "You'll meet someone someday, David, and you will be so happy. And when you do, I want you to bring her back to the Cove so I can meet her."
He tried to smile. He was trying so hard, I could tell.
I expected him to give me a hug or a kiss on the cheek, or something, but he simply looked at me one last time, pressed my hand, and let it fall. I stood by the pond and watched as he mounted his horse, then I walked over to the bridge to watch him as he rode off down the path, the path that he had cleared brush away from and made himself two years ago.
I stood on the bridge and felt Neil come up behind me. He had waited by the mission steps.
"Did it go all-right?"
I nodded. It was funny, how that was all Neil needed and all I had to do. With David, it had been the complete opposite. I was still sad however. I had lost a friend and a person I cared so much about, just not in the way he had wanted me too. I leaned back into Neil's frame and his arms wrapped around me.
"I love you very much Christy Huddleston," he whispered.
"Not half as much as I love you," I whispered back.
I could see his face, but I could feel him grinning. "That is a score we will have to settle sometime." I turned my head and looked up so I could see his twinkling eyes. How I loved those eyes.
We stood there on the bridge, watching David ride away. I didn't expect him to look back and wave one last time. But he did.
And I smiled.