Blue Crush
Page 26
I laugh. “Deal.”
The chalet appears so peaceful from the outside, aside from the parking lot of cars in the driveway. The front door catches on Tyler’s giant duffel and I force it open, shoving several times until the bag moves out of my way. Jaeger, Cali, and Lewis sit on the couch, Tyler in the recliner, all four shouting at the television. Popcorn kernels litter the floor. Empty beer cans teeter in a pyramid beside the couch.
What is this, a man cave? What happened to our girls’ den?
Lewis finally looks up and smiles. I walk over and sit on his lap. There’s no other place besides the floor and he doesn’t seem to mind the easy access as he slides his hand up my leg. He hugs me close.
My major epiphany since the mudder was that I didn’t actually need to master the race to gain confidence. I simply needed to face my fears. My biggest challenge: letting Lewis in.
“What’s going on?” I whisper.
“We’re watching Australian rules football,” he says.
“Mark!” Tyler shouts.
“He fumbled it!” Cali counters. The guys jeer and yell at the screen.
Apparently, a mark is when the ball is caught in midair. The game itself seems to be a combination of soccer and American football.
I cuddle Lewis’s jaw. “This sport is crazy.”
“Isn’t it great?” he says, completely serious.
I shake my head and look at Cali. “Do you know what’s going on?”
“No idea. I just say the opposite of what they do and it gets them riled up.” She jams a fistful of popcorn in her mouth, and I realize she’s not even looking at the television. She’s goading the guys and that’s her entertainment.
I love this girl.
Lewis’s pocket vibrates, zinging my ass. “Gahh.”
“Sorry.” He lifts me with one arm and reaches for his phone, settling me back on his lap. “What’s up, Dad?” Lewis’s body jerks at a tackle on the screen before he stills and looks down. “Where did Mira go? Which place?” He pauses, then, “Shit.”
After the family intervention with his parents, Mira agreed to visit a counselor. She’s been going three times a week and making progress. She no longer scowls at me in group settings and seems to be gaining ground on working through her problems.
Lewis gently lifts me and stands, exchanging a few more words with his father before pocketing his phone and staring out the window.
I walk over and touch his arm. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Tyler lowers the volume on the television, his gaze trained on Lewis, body on the edge of his seat. He seems especially uptight at overhearing Lewis’s conversation. Cali and Jaeger look over as well.
Lewis turns to me. “Mira’s missing.”
THE END
Afterword
I hope you enjoyed reading Gen and Lewis’s story in Blue Crush. Please consider leaving a review at the site where you purchased it, or on GoodReads.
Cali and Jaeger’s story, Deep Blue, the first in the Blue Series, is available now on all major outlets.
Sign up for my New Release Newsletter - http://www.julesbarnard.com/newsletter - to be notified by email when True Blue, the story of Mira and Tyler, and other Jules Barnard new releases come out.
Author’s Notes
The Washoe (Wa She Shu) are a Native American Tahoe Basin tribe living in California and Nevada. I used creative license in reference to a few of their cultural and mythological beliefs depicted in Blue Crush, most notably, during the Cave Rock swimming scene. Lewis tells a story about a giant man-eating bird called Ong who attacked anyone that trespassed on Cave Rock. Actual legend dictates Ong nested in the middle of the lake, preying on villagers until a clever Washoe destroyed him. I left Ong’s existence open-ended and linked it to Cave Rock for the purposes of the story.
Cave Rock is in fact a sacred site to the Washoe, where healers, thought to possess special powers to cure the mind and body and believed to be conduits to the supernatural world, brought offerings for spiritual renewal. In the story, Lewis tells Gen that the Heavenly ski mountain was the location of water babies, but actual Washoe legend indicates water babies were sought at water sites like Cave Rock.
Any errors regarding the Washoe are mine alone and created for fictional purposes. To learn more about the Washoe tribe, visit: https://www.washoetribe.us/contents/.
Acknowledgments
As always, I’d like to thank my husband and children for putting up with me when I’m in the writing zone and for loving me anyway. A big thank-you to my critique partner and beta readers—Lia Riley, Jennifer Blackwood, and Marlene Relja—whose support is immeasurable.
The polish of Blue Crush would not be possible without an incredible team of experts. A special thank-you to my agent Laura Bradford for pointing out when my characters ran amuck in Blue Crush. I’d also like to thank Martha Trachtenberg and Shelley Bates for editorial, and Marina Anderson of Polgarus Studio for formatting. I feel fortunate to work with the talented Sarah Hansen of Okay Creations on cover design. Thank you, Sarah, for producing another amazing cover in the Blue Series.
A collective shout-out to the Rogue ladies, members of the Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay RWA groups, and all my friends and family who continually support my writing.
About the Author
Jules Barnard is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended UC Davis, whose college landscape often finds its way into her New Adult novels. She has a Master’s degree and spent many an hour running statistical analysis, until she realized her favorite part of the job was writing reports. She decided to cut out the math and add in some hot guys, and so began her career as a novelist.
Jules is a Northern California native living on the coast with her husband and two children. She has no impulse control around cupcakes and credits herself with the ability to read while running on the treadmill or burning dinner.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Epilogue
Afterword
Author’s Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Author