by Piper Shelly
I traced the direction of his arm and, holding my breath, I heard the sobs of a young woman. Cloey was sitting in the sand, out far enough that the waves brushed around her legs and waist. She’d buried her face in her folded arms, which rested on her bent knees.
Paralyzed, I stood and watched my cousin cry. When I found my strength again, I took a step forward. “Cloey,” I said loud enough this time for her to hear me over the crashing waves.
She lifted her head and looked into the flashlight, squinting. A nasty cut sat over her right eyebrow and blood streamed down one side of her face. “Samantha—” she said in a slurred way. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“You had a car crash. We came looking for you.”
Behind me, I heard Tony call the others, telling them where we’d found her. They would be here soon. I concentrated on my cousin again. As I walked closer, my heart knocked against the base of my throat. “Come on, we’ll take you home now.”
“Oh no…” she almost sang. Then she jerked up and walked away from me backwards, into the sea. “No! Go away. I hate you!” She stumbled, falling sideways into the water, but she climbed to her feet again. “I don’t ever want to see you again.”
I stopped dead, afraid to scare her even farther out. She sure had lost control over her body. In the pitch-black night, we would never find her should she disappear into the waves.
“Cloey, you’re hurt. And confused. Let us take you home to Aunt Pam. Your parents will take care of you then.”
“Noooh!” she screeched, almost deafening me. “They can’t know. The car is a wreck. Dad will kill me.”
“They won’t be mad. They’ll just be happy you survived. Now come out of the water, please!” I took another tentative step toward her, but Cloey immediately lurched back, and this time, she tripped, lost her ground, and fell completely under water.
“Cloey,” I yelled, running forward.
But she resurfaced before I reached the waves, spluttering water. “Fuck off, you bitch! You shit! Go away! Leave me alone! Why can’t you go back to Egypt and fuck off out of my life?”
My heart dropped to my feet. I didn’t take another step.
A gentle hand landed on my shoulder. Tony. I had completely forgotten he was there, too.
“Let me talk to her,” he whispered in my ear.
Shocked beyond words at my cousin’s reaction, I couldn’t answer, but let him just move forward.
Heartbreakingly softly, he said, “Hey, Cloey.”
“Tony?” She sounded like she didn’t trust her ears.
“Yeah.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I came with Sam. You had us worried.”
“Yeah, right!” She snorted a drunken laugh. “Like you’d ever care how I feel.”
“Why do you think I wouldn’t?” He cocked his head and took a step forward. Either she missed it, or she was fine with him coming for her, because she didn’t shout at him to stop. His feet were in the water now.
“Because you dumped me?” she said through gritted teeth, walking backwards again. “Because you never answer any of my calls or reply to my messages!” With clawed fingers, she raked her wet hair off of her forehead, pressing her palms to her temples, looking eerily insane. “Because you never fucking talk to me when we have training together!”
Slowly, Tony waded deeper into the waves. This time even I almost missed it. “I tried to be friends with you after…we dated. But you made it clear that a friendship wasn’t possible for us.” Two more steps. The sea drenched his jeans up to his knees. He was only two arm-lengths away from her now.
“Yes. Because I was in love with you!” She started to sob again, her arms dropping loosely back into the water. “And I can’t make it stop, even now!”
I placed both my hands over my mouth, horrified by her confession. Trashed like this, she probably wouldn’t remember any of it later, but it must have cost her to come out with it. Right now, I wanted nothing more than to take her in my arms and calm her. But the chasm between us was too deep.
“I’m sorry I hurt you so much. Let me take care of you now.” Tony walked on, and even though Cloey whined and told him no, she didn’t back away anymore. She just stood up to her waist in water and cried in the cold night.
What happened then hurt me deep in my soul. Tony reached out, took her face between his hands and pressed his forehead to hers. I didn’t hear what he said to her then, but I knew it was something very intimate and personal. Cloey reached up and closed her fingers around his wrists, shaking her head slowly, choking on her tears. He caressed her wet hair, then he pulled her tight against him.
At the sight of them being so close in the beam of my flashlight, my heart stopped and my throat tightened. Hold your shit together, I told myself. There must be a simple reason for this. But when Cloey put her arms around his neck and he let her, I wanted to drop to my knees and cry.
Tony bent and scooped her up in his arms, lifting her out of the water. Her hold on him grew even tighter as she buried her face in his throat. Turning, he carried her out of the sea.
My breath froze in my lungs as I watched them coming toward me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to shake this picture out of my mind for the rest of my life.
“Get her shoes,” Tony told me emotionlessly. He didn’t stop and wait for me. Heading back the way we had come, he carried my cousin through the night.
TONY
If I can’t have you, I don’t want to live any longer.
The words rang out in my mind time and again—all the way from the police station, where Sam and I had to give evidence about the events tonight, until we arrived at my aunt’s house. I cut the engine and pulled the key out, but I couldn’t make my body move to get out of the car.
“Are you cold?” Sam whispered. It was the first thing she’d said to me since the moment I’d walked into the sea to get her cousin out.
“I’m freezing,” I answered in an equally low voice, tilting my head back and staring at the roof of the car.
“You should go home and take a shower to warm you.”
“In a minute.” There was something I needed to tell her first. Something I hadn’t told the police or Cloey’s parents when they had found us down at the beach with Cloey. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Do you still hate your cousin?”
When Sam didn’t answer, I cut her a sidelong look. Her lips had thinned as she studied me silently.
“Do you hate her?” she asked eventually.
Tell me you love me. Tell me you love me, or I’ll drown myself tonight.
I—Love you.
“No… I feel sorry for her.”
After another long pause, Sam whispered, “Me, too.” By the sound of it, I knew she wasn’t telling the entire truth, even when she continued. “I’m just glad she finally told her parents that it was her who devastated my room and put the money and Scotch bottles there. And also about accidentally breaking her father’s watch and then hiding it because she was scared.” She sighed. “But she still hates me.”
“She’ll get over it. Just give her some time.”
“Yes, maybe. But will she also get over you?” And you over her? The unspoken question gleamed in her eyes.
I couldn’t answer her real question immediately. Because I didn’t want to lie to Sam. “Eventually, she will. But out in the sea, when I held her in my arms, I realized something.” Turning my head toward her, I swallowed, and it hurt my throat. Sam looked scared. I knew she’d been hurt when she saw me carry her cousin and hug her. “The way she feels about me…it won’t change for a long time. And I can’t drop out of her life completely. It was a mistake to think I could.”
Sam’s lips trembled slightly. “What do you mean?”
“Cloey’s unstable. I was the one responsible for what happened to her tonight, because I ignored her. She might do something reckless like this again.”
“You think she’s suicidal?”
I nodded.<
br />
“Then it sure isn’t your fault. You don’t owe her anything.” Her hurt gaze dropped to my hand on the gearshift. “Just tell me one thing.”
“What?”
“When you held her in the water…” She looked at me again. “What did you tell her?”
“I’d rather not say.” The words came out on a painful breath.
Sam chewed on her bottom lip. Then she sniffed. “I understand.” She turned away, opened the door, and stepped out.
Fuck.
I got out, too, rushed around the car, and caught her arm before she could walk away from me. “You don’t understand, that’s the problem,” I said, more harshly than I meant to. “I didn’t mean what I said to her. She needed to hear it, so I spit it out, but I—Fucking. Didn’t. Mean it. Because there’s only one girl in this world I really wanted to say it to at that moment. Or now, or yesterday, or last weekend, when I kissed you in the woods.”
Letting go of her arm, I cupped her cheeks and made her look at my face so she saw the truth in my eyes. “I’ve never said that to a girl, because I never felt it before. Not even for Liza. And it took you walking into my life to make me realize that, Sam.”
Her eyes grew wide, but in the next instant she pushed against my stomach, her expression tight. “Stop it. I don’t want to hear any of this.”
I knew she doubted every word I’d just said.
Oh girl, don’t make me fall to my knees in front of you.
“I don’t care if you believe me or not. Because it’s the truth, and whether you like it or not, you’ll have to fucking deal with it. I love you, Bungee. Only you.”
And then I kissed her so hard, she gasped against my mouth. It was time for her to see, hear, and feel what I felt for her. There was no place for doubts or an argument. She was my girl. And I didn’t intend to ever let her walk away from me again.
When her lips remained tensed and closed, I feared she was going to kick me in the gut. But not even that could stop me. I pressed my mouth harder against hers, stroking her cheeks with my thumbs.
And finally, she loosened up. The push of her small hands against my stomach eased, then she clutched my sweatshirt, pulling me tighter against her.
I swept my tongue across the seam of her lips, and she opened her mouth for me. This time, I didn’t go gentle on her. I couldn’t. I was so in need of this girl that it hurt throughout my body, centering in the tiny spot at the left side of my chest. I found her tongue with mine, played with it, danced with it, slid in and out of her mouth slowly, seducing her to love me the same way I loved her.
She tasted wonderful. Sweet. Soft. Like cherry candy and Sam. And when she lifted to her toes, wrapping her arms around my neck, I knew I had her. All of her. She was mine. No doubts left.
Her breath was hot on my skin as she yielded to my demands, exploring my mouth with her tongue in turn. Her delicate body pressed against my front, making me want to feel every inch of her. My hands dropped from her face to roam up and down her back; once, twice. The third time, I scrunched up her sweater between my fingers and shoved it up. Sam shivered as I touched her naked skin there, giving me one helluva good feeling.
I nipped her bottom lip. Then I broke off the kiss, staring into her eyes with only a couple of inches space between us. “Don’t go away from me,” I breathed. “It was so hard to win you.”
Sam took my face between her hands, pulling me toward her so she could place a brief, soft kiss on my mouth. “I’m not going,” she whispered and kissed me again, and again. “I’m not going, Tony. Never.” Her lips suddenly tasted salty and wet, but she wouldn’t let me look at her. She just kissed me, and the kiss turned deeper, harder, and hungrier.
Good tears, I told myself. They had to be. I licked them away from her lips, meeting her hunger with the same eagerness for another long moment. Time seemed so unimportant when I was with her.
“Scary how easily I can make you cry,” I said softly against her mouth then.
Sam’s lips stretched in a smile. “You only can because I love you.”
Thrusting my fingers into her hair, I pressed a kiss to her brow, then I cuddled her against my chest, resting my chin on top of her head. She was the perfect fit for me.
“I’m so tired,” Sam whispered against my shirt. “I feel like I could fall asleep standing right here.”
It was a good thing we’d all gotten excuses to stay home from school tomorrow. Sam could sleep in then. “Let’s get you inside and into bed, Bungee.”
She let me walk her up to the house, tucked under my arm. With the key Carry had given her today, she unlocked the door, then she turned to me. I was ready to say goodnight, but Sam didn’t release my hand.
“Could you sleep here tonight? Up there, with me. Not like…you know. Just beside me, so I won’t be alone?”
Carry sure wouldn’t mind, but I knew my mom was still up and waiting for me. I’d told her at the police station that I would only take Sam to my aunt’s house and then come home as well. I sent her a short message, saying that I would be home tomorrow morning.
Sam smiled at me when I put the phone back into my pocket. We sneaked upstairs into her new room, and she slumped onto the bed, dipping back. “What a weird day…” she drawled.
“Absolutely.” I pulled the wardrobe open, knowing that Carry always stored some spare clothes on the top shelf for the kids who came here. A white tee and light gray cotton shorts would do for tonight. Turning to Sam, I gave her a half-smile. “Mind if I rush into the shower? I feel wet to the bone.”
She didn’t look up, just waved a dismissive hand at me. “Go. I’ll get the bed ready in the meantime.”
With the clothes tucked under my arm, I went to the bathroom. For the next three minutes, I enjoyed the hot spray of water warming me from top to bottom. Hell, I’d so needed this. I toweled off, ran a hand through my damp hair, then slipped into the borrowed clothes.
As I came back into the room, the sight of Sam lying still on the bed made me smile. Silently, I walked up to her. Her eyes were closed, her breathing deep and even. She looked adorable.
Kneeling in front of her, I unlaced her boots and slid them carefully off her feet, one at a time. Her socks went next. Pants? I wondered, standing again. No one could sleep well in army pants. The way she lay only halfway on the bed, it wasn’t too troublesome to remove them without waking her. The hoodie provided a bit more of a problem, and it was then that I unintentionally woke her.
Her eyes opened to tired slits. “Tony?” she murmured, but I doubted she really saw me.
“Come on, baby,” I whispered as I scooped her up in my arms, carrying her around the bed and setting her gently down. Her head sank into the pillow. She had already drifted off again before I could drape the duvet over her body.
I turned off the lights, then slipped under the duvet, too. In her sleep, Sam turned around and nestled against me. I breathed in the beautiful scent of her hair as I fell asleep with my girl in my arms.
EPILOGUE
I woke in Tony’s arms. I always did on Saturday mornings. During the past four months he’d slept in my bed every weekend. Occasionally, I slept in his, too, but we both preferred to sleep in my room, because Carry was a lot less nosy and inquisitive than Eileen Mitchell.
Lifting my head from his chest, I looked at his gorgeous face. “Hi,” I said.
Tony smiled. “Hi, yourself.”
“What time is it?”
“Far too late to have some fun in bed, if you want to look all shiny and nice when your parents arrive.”
I tilted my head to glance at the clock on my nightstand. “Ten thirty? Shit! Why didn’t you wake me? They’ll be here in half an hour.” Winding out of Tony’s protesting embrace, I grabbed a pair of cut jeans and a snug-fit blue tee and rushed to the bathroom, where I hurried through my morning routine.
When I came out fifteen minutes later, Tony had made the bed, tidied up the floor, and got rid of our discarded clothes from last night. Dressed in
black jeans and a dress shirt, he stood in front of the mirror and tested which looked better, the top button open or closed.
I sneaked up behind him. Standing on tiptoes, I leaned my chin on his shoulder and met his gaze in the mirror. “Are you nervous?” I teased him.
Tony scrunched up his face in a way that made me want to kiss him. “I’m going to meet General Henry Summers in a few minutes.” He turned and wrapped his arms around me. “Somehow, I feel like I should shave my head and borrow some of your army clothes.”
I laughed out loud and said, “Oh no, Anthony Mitchell, you don’t.” I ruffled the gorgeous golden strands he’d combed to one side until they fell in their usual lovely way over his forehead again. Then I unbuttoned the collar of his shirt, giving him the chance to breathe and hopefully relax. “You worry too much. My parents are great. You’ll love them.”
“I’m sure they are. I’m just worried they might not approve of me as their daughter’s boyfriend.”
“Who could ever not approve of you?” Lifting to my toes again, I pressed a quick kiss to his mouth. Then I unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. “I can’t believe you picked a long-sleeved shirt. You’re not applying for a job with the government.”
I was done with the first sleeve when the sound of a car rolling up the drive to Carry’s house drifted in through the open windows. A rush of excitement gripped me by the nose. I beamed at Tony, then turned on my heel and darted out the door. Halfway down the hallway, I realized Tony wasn’t coming. I skittered to a halt, trudged back, and dragged him with me this time.
He was so reluctant, I felt like I was pulling a horse behind me. “Oh, come on, now,” I whined. “He’s not going to shoot you.”
Tony took a deep breath, but he didn’t move any faster. At the landing in the middle of the stairway, I heard the familiar voices of my parents greeting Carry, who’d met them outside. I couldn’t keep my excitement in check any longer. Releasing Tony’s hand, I skipped ahead and out the door. Down by the gate, my mom and dad stood next to Caroline, chatting, laughing, and shaking hands. My dad was in his usual army clothes and my mom wore a striking yellow spring dress she must have gotten recently, her hair tied up in a high ponytail.