Winnie nodded, smiling softly, and followed Jesse down to the dock. He helped her in the small boat and silently handed her the fishing pole. As he pushed off the dock, the sky was turning a bloodshot red and twilight set in. They glided along as Jesse's deep strokes cut through the waters soundlessly, only the crickets disturbing the still night.
Winnie dragged her fingertips along the glassy surface of the pond, watching the water bugs skid away. She was comfortably aware that she was being watched and she looked up and their eyes locked. Jesse had a faraway look on his face as he stared at her.
"Why'd you do it, Winnie?" he said softly, barely audible over the crickets.
"Do what?" she asked him.
He looked as though he was struggling through an internal battle with himself. "Why'd you drink from the spring?" Jesse said, clarifying.
She looked startled. "I thought – you asked me – you said you'd love me till the day you died. I wanted to be with you – I thought you wanted that too," a frown was etched upon her porcelain face as she stared at him.
"I did, Winnie!" Jesse said, resting the oars on the side of the boat and leaning forward. "I did want you to stay with me forever, but I realized that all I was asking you to do was curse yourself with the same fate us Tucks have. I was selfish and foolish and I wasn't thinking about what was best for you at all, I was only thinking about what I wanted."
"Do you think I didn't consider all of that, Jesse? I knew what I was doing. I knew I would have to wait years for you to return. But I didn't care – I don't care – I want to spend the rest of forever with you, Jesse! I want us to see the world together!"
He watched her breathlessly. "I love you, Winnie," he whispered, brushing his fingertips across her smooth cheek. "I'm sorry I made you wait so long," he said, leaning closer with every word. "I missed you so much. I needed you. I wasn't whole without you there. I need you, Winnie." There faces were centimeters apart. She could feel his soft breath on her face as he spoke. She thought she would melt under his intense gaze of longing. He put both hands on his face and his lips connected with hers. Each feeling the touch they had longed to feel for thirty-five years.
Winnie breathed in the essence that was Jesse, she placed her hand on his chest and leaned closer to him, begging for more. Jesse wrapped his arms around her waist possessively. Wherever his skin touched hers, felt as thought it was on fire. She pulled him closer, if possible, feeling the desire they both shared.
"How's the fishing coming along?" a voice carried clearly across the pond.
Jesse and Winnie broke apart with a start. They could see Miles' outline on the dock, standing with his hands in his pockets. Winnie felt her cheeks rise with heat.
"Get out of here, Miles," Jesse said loudly.
Winnie heard him chuckling as he made his way back to the cabin. Jesse looked back at Winnie and smiled sheepishly. "They're probably hungry," Winnie said.
"Right – yeah – fish," Jesse said, hooking a piece of fat to the pole and lowering it into the water.
A half hour later, Jesse had caught plenty of fish and he took them back to the shore. As Jesse paddled them back, he watched Winnie who kept her eyes anywhere but the bucket of fish in the bottom of the boat. "Still don't like watching things die, then?" he asked kindly.
"I'm getting used to it," she said, trying to sound casual. "I just don't enjoy it."
"I know what you mean," Jesse said. "But like Tuck says, it's all a part of the Wheel, right?"
Winnie nodded.
After a few moments silence, Jesse spoke again. "Winnie, you know you're not part of the Wheel anymore." He paused, then, "You should be a part of the Wheel."
"Why?" Winnie asked, defiantly. "So I can be a lonely, fifty year old woman with no friends and no husband? No thank you."
"You could have had a husband and a big family too, instead of living alone all those years."
"I wanted only one man as my husband," she said quietly. "And if I were to have continued with the cycle, I would have never been able to have him. I needed to have him. I knew that I would never be happy if I married a different man than the one I loved. I wouldn't have lived my life the way I wanted to."
She could tell he was still unconvinced, but he pressed no further. They bumped gently with the dock and he helped her out. "I suppose there's nothing we can do now but enjoy it," he said taking her hand to pull her up. "What's done is done."
She smiled at him and she took the hand that wasn't carrying a bucket of dying fish, and they walked back to the cabin together, reunited after thirty-five years of separation.
