"I…I don't think you know what that means, Peter."

"I'm never wrong."

"But, Peter…" Wendy held her shawl so tightly that her fingers started to tingle. "I don't mean to say that you are wrong. But I believe you don't know what exactly marriage involves." Now she'd done it. She didn't have any way to escape this explanation.

He sniffed. "Tell me, then."

"Well, first…" She looked at the blackness below. Oh dear, this was going to be awkward. "We cannot get married without a priest." Yes! That would slow him down.

"I know that is not true, Wendy." He leaned forward in the darkness, his words kissing her earlobe. "Even your stories said that captains can marry people."

Wendy swallowed hard. "But Hook is dead!"

"I'll have to bribe Captain Smee, then."

"Captain Smee?" That peculiar, ancient man had become captain? She scrambled to think of another block.

Peter leaned back once more. "That old fart took over after Tick Tock ate Hook." He snorted. "The mermaids said Hook's hook gave Tick a raging upset stomach."

"Then he probably doesn't know the right words for the ceremony, since he's a new captain."

"Nonsense!" Peter jumped to his feet, the boards bucking under Wendy's seat. "You can give him the words. You've said it and stories and have been to weddings before."

Wendy tried to sit very still. This was all happening so very quickly. She wanted to be excited, but the thought of marrying Peter Pan frightened her because of a long, buried memory. "A long time ago, you said something to me. I'm not sure if we could ever be married because of it."

"Alright. What is it? I'm sure I can fix it." Although she couldn't see him, she was sure Peter's eyebrows pulled down, trying to remember what he had said.

"Love. Even the sound of the word offends you."

The nighttime sounds of Neverland came alive, yet Peter remained silent, unmoving.

"And Peter, marriage must have love." Wendy took a shaky breath in, held it and released a measured sigh. "It was why I called to you that night at the window. I couldn't bring myself to marry Mr. Fitzsimmons."

"Because you don't love him?" Peter whispered.

"He has the finances my parents need to secure their future. And the future of my brothers." Wendy's voice faded into the darkness and she swallowed hard. What would happen to the Darlings without her? Father had grown more sullen as the years passed.

Wendy only learned about the financial strain a year ago, when she'd passed her parents' room on the way to the toilet and heard Father's bark. "Well, I have no way to remedy it this time. We will lose everything, including the house." She'd heard enough friends' scuttlebutt to know that tiny details weren't necessary. Any marriage her parents arranged would be for the good of the family.

Peter eased his body down beside her. "I have treasure. We can take it back to your family so they can be rich."

"But you've said it yourself, that adults are not meant to leave Neverland and return. Your crash landing with me proved that." The side of her mouth turned up.

"True." In the moonlight, Wendy watched as Peter stroked his bare chin, like an old grandfather contemplating wisdom to dispense. "Hook had to have passed over. I bet it's how he found his crew."

"I'd never thought of that." She shifted to face him. "Do you think Smee would know the secret?"

He gazed toward the sea. "Dunno. Maybe Hook kept it in a book."

A pregnant silence settled between the pair, broken by the Neverland nocturnal creatures. Wendy's eyelids sagged and she tried to stifle a yawn.

"I don't think that word offends me anymore."

Wendy suddenly was wide awake once more. "Go on."

"I used to always want to be a boy and have fun. Now, I'm grown up, but still want to have fun. Is love fun?"

"It certainly can be." Wendy thought of the times, when she was younger, and her parents would sing in the parlor together. Father would gaze at Mother so intently that Mother would blush a pretty shade of pink. Or the times they would steal a kiss when they thought the children weren't looking.

Peter's skin was nearly blue from the moon. He pulled at the nonexistent beard again. "I do enjoy your thimbles. And married people give each other lots of thimbles, right?" His head swiveled to Wendy, their noses nearly colliding.

"Oh, the cleverness of you," she breathed. Wendy was tempted to lean in and give him a thimble-kiss right then and there.

Dawn's early light spilled into the bright night. Peter's eyes bounced all over Wendy's face, taking in her hair, eyes, resting on her lips. His face screwed into determination. "So we've got to bribe Smee to marry us. Send treasure to your family. Not be offended by love. Give thimbles to each other often. Is that all of it?" He ticked off each point on his fingers.

Wendy blanched. There was no way she would explain anything of the personal nature to her future husband. "Yes. I believe that is it," she choked.

"Good…"

"No, wait!" She grabbed his wrist. "A ring. You must give me a ring to wear to show everyone we are married."

"What kind of ring? I'm sure the mermaids have loads of them. I'll ask for one."

The sun peeked over the mountains. Wendy saw why Peter rubbed his face—red stubble had broken through his smooth skin. She reached up to touch it. "You have to pick a ring for me. I don't pick it. But hopefully it is one that makes you think of me when you see it." She dropped her hand and watched the first rays stretch across the jungle below.

"I can do that. Easy."

"Peter? Might I ask if you can take me back to the hideout for a nap? I'm terribly exhausted." She eased her tired body up, clutching the shawl. Her nightgown seemed entirely transparent the way he looked at her.

He grinned a Peter Pan smile, slanted and mischievous. "Not today." He turned to the enormous tree trunk and shimmied up some branches. "Today, you will be a bird," he called down through the leaves. "You will sleep in your nest, high above the ground, where nothing can disturb you." Grunting, his foot, then leg, reappeared.

Wendy admired his muscular calf. "My nest?"

A bundle of blankets and furs dropped onto the platform just before Peter thudded to the boards. He busied himself, arranged the menagerie near the tree, between two branches as big around as a horse's body. When satisfied, he stepped back with a flourish. "Your nest!"

Exhausted, she shimmied between the layers, sleep pulling at her eyelids. "Thank you." Wendy scooted close to the tree, a thought nagging her grown up mind. "How will I keep from falling out of the tree?"

"I would never let you."

Her eyelids pried open as he knelt on the corner of her bed. "Peter! You…you cannot sleep with me." Her body, frigid from the Neverland evening, now radiated heat. She squirmed until her back pushed against the tree.

"Why not? There is only one bed."

"We are not married."

His eyebrows burrowed together. "We are going to be. Besides, I've done it loads of times with the Boys."

"I am not a boy." Wendy's cheeks felt like they were on fire.

Peter scootched into the furs. "I know that. You're my Wendy Bird."

They faced each other in the nest, high above Neverland. Wendy pulled both arms in front of her chest, pulling her shawl into a protective cocoon. "Just this once. And you must stay over there."

He peeled down the blanket so she could watch as he crossed his heart.

"Goodnight, Peter." She could smell him. And it made her body and brain want to cling to him, like she'd done in the lake. Instead, she closed her eyes, even as he stared.

"Good day, Wendy."

Caught between awake and sleep, she wasn't sure if it was a dream or he'd kissed her forehead.