by Ginger Zee
The truth of his accusation hit home. “I’m sorry. If you tell me Johnny’s a good guy, then I’ll believe you.” She avoided his eyes when she apologized, though, because Andy always knew when she was lying. And she knew nothing he said would make her trust Johnny. Gut instinct refused to let her.
Instead of looking at him, she looked over at the other tent. Mia had her hand on Trey’s arm, and they were laughing together. A flare of jealousy lit within her. She looked away, only to find Sam watching her. His ice-blue eyes locked onto her sea-green ones for a long moment—long enough for her to forget to breathe, for her heart to race as fast as a hummingbird’s, for heat to flush her cheeks. The rush threatened to overwhelm her. She wrenched her gaze away. “I’ll get the rest of the stuff.”
She was digging in the trunk of Sam’s car when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Startled, she whirled around to find Trey grinning at her.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you!” he said. “But Mia just told me that it’s your birthday in two days. Why didn’t you say something?”
Helicity handed him a sleeping bag and a battery-operated lamp. “I forgot, actually,” she confessed. “There’s just been so much going on.”
“Well, the only thing that’s going to be going on two nights from now is an amazing birthday party for you!”
Helicity protested that she didn’t need a big celebration, but Trey wouldn’t listen. “You won’t have to do a thing except show up. Mia and I will do the rest.” Then he paused. “Except for the cake. We’ll get Suze to do that. But everything else”—he dropped a pretend grenade—“boom! Done!”
Trey was as good as his word. Two nights later, Helicity stood in the Beachside parking area with a bandanna covering her eyes, waiting for Mia to escort her to her party.
“Is this really necessary?” she growled, plucking at the fabric.
“Yes,” Mia answered. “You know how I like a big reveal. Now, hold my arm.”
Helicity sighed but did as she was told. Mia seemed to be leading her in crazy circles over hard-packed dirt, grass, and sand. When the sand deepened beneath her feet, she realized she’d moved onto the beach. Mia stopped her several steps later and whispered in her ear. “FYI, Trey did most of this himself. You ready?”
Helicity nodded.
Mia whipped off the blindfold. “Happy birthday!”
“Oh…wow!”
Helicity had been honest when she said she didn’t need a big celebration. But now she was glad Trey hadn’t listened. Mia, Sam, and Suze stood surrounded by a ring of lit tiki torches. In the middle of the blazing circle was a picnic table set with a white tablecloth. A bucket of sand with a single fat white candle served as the centerpiece. Scattered around the bucket was shiny dolphin-shaped confetti. The beach-mobile was parked nearby, playing pop music from a sound system someone had hooked up to its battery.
Trey stepped forward holding something behind his back. Helicity suspected it was a bouquet of flowers. She was wrong.
“Sparklers!” she crowed.
Grinning, Trey handed her a thin metal stick tipped with a small bulb of chemicals that, when ignited, would send up a shower of brilliant white sparks. He quickly passed out sparklers to Mia, Suze, and Sam.
“Wait,” Helicity said. “Where’s Andy?”
“Um, he’s on his way,” Mia replied. “Said to start without him.”
Helicity’s happiness dimmed, but only for a moment. Then Trey fired up a match and touched it to her sparkler. The tip sputtered to life.
“My turn!” Mia cried. Trey lit hers, and she grabbed Helicity’s hand. “Remember what we used to do with these at Lake Michigan?”
“You know I do!”
Still holding hands, they sprinted toward the Gulf, blazing sparklers held aloft. When they reached the water’s edge, they stopped short. Their eyes met.
“I will if you will,” Mia dared.
“Let’s go!”
Hand in hand, they dashed fully clothed into the surf, splashing and whooping and flailing their sparklers through the air. The water reached their knees. They kept going. Up to their waists and deeper still. Then as one, they dove under, dousing their sparklers but reigniting something within themselves they’d lost.
They surfaced together, falling against each other and laughing so hard that tears sprang to their eyes and mingled with the salty water. Helicity hugged Mia tightly. “Thank you,” she whispered. “For everything.”
Mia touched her forehead to Helicity’s. “That’s what best friends are for.” She grinned. “Now let’s get out of here before a shark gets us.”
As they raced out, Helicity saw that Sam had his video camera trained on them.
“Happy birthday…Fifteen,” he said as she darted past.
Pizza had arrived while she and Mia were in the water. She wrapped herself in a towel, sat down, and reached for a slice. Suddenly, she heard someone bellowing out the birthday song in a badly off-key voice.
“Andy!” She rose up—and then sank down again. “And Johnny.”
“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!” Andy half-warbled, half-garbled. “You smell like a monkey, and you look like one, too!” He burst out laughing as if the botched song was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. Johnny slapped him on the back, guffawing.
“Hilarious,” Trey muttered. “I haven’t heard that one since first grade.”
Helicity set her uneaten pizza on her plate. “Andy, what—”
“No time to talk!” he interrupted. “Time for presents!” He pulled a wrinkled piece of lined paper out of his back pocket and handed it to her with a flourish.
This entitles bearer to a dinner out with her big brother, the paper read. There was an asterisk at the bottom: Not to be redeemed until her big brother gets his first paycheck!
“You wanted to spend time with me.” Andy jabbed a finger at the paper. “This guarantees you can!”
“Yeah. I got that,” Helicity mumbled. The gift should have delighted her. Instead, the hastily scrawled note made her wonder when he’d remembered it was her birthday. An hour ago? Fifteen minutes? Embarrassed, she folded the paper into a tight square and set it carefully on the table. “Thanks. Really.”
The others had presents for her, too. Her parents had sent a check—“mad money,” her mother called it, to be spent however she wished. Suze and Mia had gone in together on a pair of silver dolphin earrings. Trey’s gift was a visit to his mother’s lake house the following Tuesday.
“She has a motorboat and a sailboat we can use. It’ll be great,” he promised.
“Is the invitation just for Helicity?” Mia asked innocently.
“Oh, uh, no, of course not,” Trey replied. “You and Sam, too. And Andy, if he’s free,” he added doubtfully.
“Yeah, maybe,” was Andy’s only reply.
Sam’s present was last. Helicity gasped when she peeled back the wrapping paper. Inside was a framed black-and-white photograph of a lightning bolt.
“It’s a still shot from the video I took of the thunderstorm,” Sam told her.
“I remember it,” Helicity murmured. The image was incredible. It captured the moment the lightning branched across the sky. The clouds were part bright white, part dark shadow, and below them was a tiny sliver of silver ocean.
“Sam, it’s stunning,” Suze said, clearly impressed. “I wouldn’t mind having a copy to display in the Beachside common room. Where guests could see it. Paying guests who might like a souvenir that isn’t made of plastic or encrusted with seashells,” she added significantly.
“No way,” Andy said skeptically. “People would buy something like that?”
“Definitely,” Suze said.
Helicity only half-heard their exchange. She’d discovered Sam had written something on the back of the photo.
You’ll return Lana’s lightning bolt someday. But this one is yours to keep.
She traced the words with her fingers, then sought Sam with her eyes. She wanted to
thank him, to tell him how much the picture and inscription meant, but the words couldn’t get past the lump in her throat.
She didn’t need to say them out loud, though. He drank in her look and with a smile, mouthed back, You’re welcome.
Sam’s photograph was the first thing Helicity saw when she woke up the following Tuesday morning. Dangling over the frame was Lana’s necklace. She stared at both for a long minute, a small smile playing about her lips.
Mia burst in then, bubbling with excitement for their visit to Trey’s lake house. “Which suit goes best with boats?” She held up two equally teeny bikinis.
Helicity laughed. “The boats don’t care, and you shouldn’t, either.”
Mia nodded. “The red one it is, then.” She tossed the reject on her bed, then moved into the bathroom to brush her teeth. “Oh, by the way,” she said through a mouthful of foam, “did you take some cash from the tip jar? I figured we’d want some money today, but the two tens we got from that nice family last week aren’t in there.”
“I haven’t touched it. Maybe Suze needed it?”
“Yeah, that’s probably it.” Mia retreated into the bathroom.
Helicity reached for Lana’s necklace as she did every morning, then paused. Better to leave it here than risk losing it, she thought, Sam’s line about returning it to Lana fresh in her mind.
Dressed in swimsuits and cover-ups and with beach bags containing sunscreen, phones, and towels in hand, the girls headed down for breakfast. Suze had the news on with the volume down low.
“So, what’s happening in the great wide world?” Mia asked as she took a seat at the kitchen island.
“Not sure about the world,” Suze replied, “but there’s a bit of trouble around here.” She clicked off the television with a frustrated sigh. “Been a rash of break-ins up and down the peninsula. No suspects yet, unfortunately. Police are warning everyone to keep car doors locked and valuables out of sight. Helicity, you should make sure Sam and Andy know about it.”
“On it,” Helicity said, pulling out her phone and sending both boys a text.
“Besides the robberies,” Suze went on, “the only other interesting tidbit is the tropical depression forming out in the Atlantic.”
Helicity sat up straighter. “A tropical depression? Where in the Atlantic is it? What are the wind speeds?”
Suze looked amused. “Yeah, sorry, I stopped paying attention after they said they don’t know if it will amount to anything. But it is hurricane season, so…” She shrugged and smiled. “Nothing you need to worry about at the lake today, anyway.”
After breakfast, Helicity and Mia went onto the deck to wait for Sam. Trey was already at his lake house, having gone up with his mother the day before. Andy had made a half promise to join them, but a late-night text crushed Helicity’s hope he’d follow through.
Got 2 work, was all he’d written.
“Seriously?” Mia said when she heard. “He couldn’t take off one afternoon?”
Helicity rose to her brother’s defense. “You know Andy. He’s a responsible guy. He’s not going to ditch work just to spend time with his little sister.”
“I guess,” Mia said grudgingly.
On the deck, Helicity pulled out her phone to look up the tropical depression Suze had mentioned. Six hours earlier, the disorganized cluster of thunderstorms had sustained wind speeds of twenty-seven miles per hour. That number was now at thirty-three, a clear indicator that the storm was gaining energy from the warm waters below. Satellite images showed the thickening clouds swirling counterclockwise, as all such disturbances north of the equator did. Those to the south spun clockwise.
A honk of a car horn snapped her away from the satellite image. Sam had arrived.
“About time,” Mia complained as she climbed in the backseat.
“Sorry,” he said. “I had to wake Andy up. Then I had to take him to work when Johnny didn’t show up.”
“Johnny’s been driving him?” Helicity asked in surprise, buckling herself in next to Sam.
“Yeah, since last week. Just made sense since they were both going to the same job.”
Helicity couldn’t argue with that logic, though the idea of Andy spending even more time with Johnny turned her stomach sour. But thoughts like that promised to ruin the day, so she pushed Andy and Johnny from her mind.
Helicity was surprised at how effortlessly Sam navigated his way off the peninsula. Then she remembered he spent most mornings exploring the area before meeting up with her, Mia, and Trey on the beach. They’d set up the campsite together, then play Frisbee or two-on-two soccer on the flats, go beachcombing, or just sit on the sand and talk.
And they swam. After their birthday dunk, Helicity and Mia had rediscovered their love of the water. Sam was a decent swimmer, but Trey moved in the waves as if born to it. Helicity sometimes caught herself admiring his smooth, powerful strokes as his arms sliced through the surf. She also caught Mia raising her eyebrows and smiling at her knowingly when she saw her watching Trey.
“Tell me the truth,” Mia said in their room a few nights after the party. “You like Trey.”
Helicity traced the seashell pattern on her bed’s comforter. “I do,” she confessed. “He’s funny. Confident. Easy to be around. And—”
“Easy on the eyes?”
“I was going to say uncomplicated.” Helicity smiled. “But yeah. Easy on the eyes, too.”
But it’s more than that, she wrote in her journal later. I like being with Trey because he’s completely unconnected to my past. He’s—
She paused, fumbling for the right word.
He’s present. Right here and right now. He listens but doesn’t pry into what happened back home. Trey is just…here.
She couldn’t deny that being with someone who made no demands on her felt good. But she also couldn’t deny that her attraction to Sam was as powerful as ever. Had Mia asked about her feelings for him, Helicity would have given a one-word answer: complicated.
Two hours after leaving the Beachside, Sam pulled into the driveway of a modest two-bedroom cabin on Lake Livingston, the second largest body of freshwater in Texas. Boats of all sorts, from canoes, kayaks, and Jet Skis to sailboats, luxury power craft, and party barges dotted the waves.
Trey bounded out of the house with his mother, a fit middle-aged woman with her son’s deep brown eyes and curly blond hair, right behind him. They led their guests to the dock, where two colorful boats bobbed in the water. One was a sailboat with a bright purple hull and a crisp white sail with a number 3 in the center—for Trey, Helicity assumed. Next to it was a red-bottomed dinghy with an outboard motor. Both were just big enough for two people.
“It’s windy out there today,” Mrs. Valdez warned, “so keep your life jackets on.”
“We will, Mom.” Trey moved to the sailboat.
Sam held out his hand to Helicity and smiled. “Dinghy?”
That smile brought butterflies to life in her stomach. She tried to tamp them down, but when she took his hand, they went crazy.
A fleeting look of disappointment crossed Trey’s face. But he shook it off and helped Mia into the sailboat. He guided the craft away from the dock. Wind caught the sail, and he and Mia zipped away toward open water. Helicity admired Trey’s masterful maneuvering of the sailboat.
Sam, meanwhile, was struggling to get the dinghy started. “You would think after years of mowing lawns, I’d get this on the first try.” He pulled the ripcord attached to the motor so hard he nearly fell off the boat.
“Need help?” Mrs. Valdez yelled from the back porch, where she had retreated, glass of wine in hand.
“No, no…I…have…got this,” Sam replied through gritted teeth. The engine finally purred to life.
Helicity sat sideways in the dinghy’s bow, her legs tucked underneath her and her orange life vest snug around her neck and upper body. She tried not to think about the last time she’d worn one. But she couldn’t stop the images. Sam, dazed and bleedin
g from his forehead, clinging to the top of Lana’s SUV. Sam being pulled on a line through the water to shore. Lana rushing out to get her, gripping her life vest, trying to tell her something, vanishing beneath the churning waves. The nightmarish memories flooded her brain with the same powerful force as the floodwater itself.
“Hey. You still with me?”
Sam’s voice brought her back. She reached for her necklace, then remembered she’d left it in her room. She closed her eyes briefly, visualizing its lightning bolt. This time, the necklace mingled in her mind with Sam’s photograph.
“Yeah.” She opened her eyes and smiled. “I’m totally with you.”
Sam raised his eyebrows, then guided the dinghy farther from shore.
Out in the open water, the wind plucked at Helicity’s hair. Grinning, Sam reached forward, captured a strand between his fingers, and gave it a quick tug.
The water was choppier the farther out they got. The sun played peekaboo with the clouds, making the waves sparkle and darken by turns. They putted around for a while, neither saying much, both content to simply be.
Then Helicity broke the quiet. “Sam, where did you go after you left the hospital?”
Sam cut the motor. Waves rocked the boat, making a hollow thump as they slapped against the hull. It was a desolate sound that matched the faraway look on Sam’s face.
“You remember that old guy at the nursing home where my dad works?” he finally said. “The one who bought your Memorial Day tornado photos?”
She nodded. She also remembered that Sam had sold him those photos without her permission. But she didn’t mention that now.
“He’s a weird old dude, Mr. Chalmers, but…well, I like the guy. He loved being out in nature, seeing stormy weather, like me. Like us. Anyway, when I got home after the hospital, Dad told me Mr. Chalmers wasn’t doing too well. I knew his kids lived too far away to visit. So, I went instead. Every day for a week, actually.”
“Did he…is he…?”
“He improved a little bit each day, thank God,” he said. “That’s why I kept going. Seeing him get better gave me hope that Lana would, too, someday.” He gave a little laugh then. “He was feeling so much better, in fact, that he told me to stop coming around.”