I hadn’t smiled or laughed so much in a long while, and I was finding it healing.

“You are good, sir. Not just wicked hot, but you know exactly what to say to turn me into a big, soft mess of girl pudding.”

“Once you’ve spent time on a battlefield, you get good at seeing into people’s souls. The poor girl has some dark stuff going on. Not quite sure what, but whatever it is, she’s here at Rockwood Beach trying to get away from it. Leaving shadows behind isn’t easy though. Another thing I learned as a soldier. You can’t erase the bad once it’s been etched in your memory. Seems like we hang onto the bad a lot longer and harder than the good.”

“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just wish there was a way to bottle your laugh. I’d wear it on a chain around my neck. That way, I could listen to it anytime.”
“That is so darn poetic and unexpected. Nothing about you makes sense, Ledger. Do you know that?”
“Learned that long ago, unfortunately.”

“That laugh—” I said it out loud, only I wasn’t completely sure I’d meant to.
“I think it’s kind of shrieky.”
“No, it’s not. If there’s a sound that can add years to a man’s life, it’s the sound of your laugh.”

But since I was always looking at her, I caught those flickers of despair every time, and every time, I felt her pain in my very core.