“You’re kidding.” The lake was huge and it was dark. He’d never find them.
“Take her to the car. I got this.” With that, Noah dove back into the water.
I escorted a teary Ally up the dock and settled her into the back seat of my Tahoe. She wrapped herself in a towel, and I was about to suggest she should maybe catch a ride with someone else, when Noah came running through the grass, my keys dangling in his hand.
“Found ’em.” He tossed me the keys and slid into the front seat. I didn’t ask how he’d managed to find them because it didn’t really matter. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at the rather extraordinary things he could do. I threw him a towel then closed the door on Ally and climbed behind the wheel.
“You okay to drive?” he asked, wiping his face and hair, his squishy shorts getting water all over my leather seats.
“Yeah.” My hands only shook a little and I’d only drunk half my beer. And someone getting attacked by an alligator was a definite buzzkill.
“Thank you, Noah,” Ally said once we’d joined the procession of other cars headed for the hospital. “Jax will never say it, but he knows you probably saved his life.”
Noah stared out the passenger side window. “Yeah. Let’s hope he keeps his arm, or he’ll blame me for that too.”
* * *
Like in so many small communities, news traveled fast. Especially bad news. The more sensational, the better, and someone’s arm almost being severed by the jaws of an alligator qualified as sensational. Especially if that person’s last name was Harrison, which was synonymous for “stinking rich.”
By the time Ally and I walked into the emergency waiting room, it was crowded with students and parents alike. Ally and I had gone to school with Jax since elementary school. We’d been friends for as long as I could remember and so had our parents.
“God, that was the scariest thing ever,” Ally said with a slight quake in her voice.
“You were great.” I patted her arm as we found a spot on the wall and leaned against it. I wasn’t in the mood to sit and most of the chairs were occupied anyway.
Conversation flowed as people told and retold their version of what had happened as though they were involved in a giant group therapy session.
“You kept calm when half the girls were crying all over themselves. And you really helped Jax.”
“Yeah, he’s definitely not a frog. I just don’t know what made him get in the lake in the first place.” Her shorts and shirt were stained and sticky with Jax’s blood. I wished I’d thought to get a t-shirt out of the back of my car for her.
“Some freshmen dared him to swim across the lake and back,” Katie Keller said from the chair closest to us, her eyes red and puffy. She’d been one of the criers. “He almost made it.”
Ally sighed and closed her eyes, her head thumping the wall behind her. “If Noah hadn’t been there…” Her voice trailed off, unable to complete the thought. If Noah hadn’t been there, Jax probably would have drowned. As it stood, he still might loose an arm.
Mrs. Reynolds, Ally’s mom, showed up a few minutes later, armed with a disapproving look and a duffle bag.
”Girls,” she said, giving Ally and then me a brief hug. “Are you all right, Ally?”
She held Ally at arms length, her smooth face cataloging Ally’s disheveled appearance. Her hair had gone flat and her makeup was smudged from crying. She’d called her mom on the way to the hospital to fill her in on what had happened. I’d called my parents too. If my mom hadn’t been in Atlanta at market scoping out the latest trends in home decor, she’d have been here as well, rallying around the Harrisons with the rest of the community.
“Yes, mother. I’m fine,” Ally replied, her tone distracted. Despite her calculated pursuit of Jax, she appeared genuinely distraught, and I could only assume she actually cared for him. In the back of my mind, I’d kind of thought Ally’s interest in Jax was for her mom’s sake. While hanging at Ally’s house, I’d heard Mrs. Reynolds enumerating Jax’s seemingly endless qualities, saying how perfect they were for each other. I wondered if she was going to add dumbass to the list, because only a “dumbass” would swim at night in a known alligator haunt on a dare.
“Well, you look horrible. I brought you some clothes. You should find the bathroom and freshen up,” Mrs. Reynolds said, and I swear I heard her cluck her tongue like the hen that she was. I felt sorry for Ally, because she was this beautiful, talented, and smart girl who only heard words like “big” and phrases like “not the brightest bulb” from the lips of her own mother, even after dropping thirty pounds last year and earning a spot on the varsity volleyball team. And she was scheduled to take the ACT yet again on Saturday because she was only one point away from breaking into the elusive club with a score of 30 or higher. At sixteen, Ally possessed more drive than most adults I knew.
Ally took the bag her mom offered and let it fall to the floor as though it were too heavy.
“I’m going to go talk to Jenny and see if she wants to help with some food for the family,” Mrs. Reynolds said, then trotted off in her three-inch wedges, wearing a dress that looked more appropriate for a cocktail party than a hospital waiting area.
We took a while in the bathroom. It was like the inner sanctum of waiting rooms. Clumps of girls talked around the sinks, reapplying lip-gloss. Charlene was smoking a cigarette in one of the stalls. Few were actually using the toilets other than Ally, who was changing into the skinny jeans and over sized t-shirt her mother had brought her.
By the time we emerged from the bathroom, the news that Jax would keep his arm was spreading around the hallways and everyone in them breathed a collective sigh of relief. Disaster averted. The doctors were still stitching up his arm and they wanted to keep him overnight for observation. Infection was the biggest concern now, reminding me Noah was still waiting for me. He could wrestle alligators and find a set of keys in the deep dark, but walking into a human hospital and exposing himself to any germs that might be present would be too much of a risk.
Since Ally’s mom was here, I didn’t feel the need to hang around, so I hugged Ally’s neck, said goodbye to a few other people, then headed for the automatic doors and the parking lot.
My Tahoe was parked under a streetlight—a habit my dad had ingrained in me when parking after dark. Noah was standing outside the passenger door and he had company. Derrick and Tyler had joined him. I watched Tyler slam his fist squarely into the center of Noah’s stomach and broke into a sprint, more of an instinctual response than out of any real fear they could hurt him. Tyler and Derrick were hardly a threat to Noah and I knew it. Noah knew it. Derrick and Tyler knew it, but it somehow made them feel bigger and badder to ignore the simple fact that Noah could kick both their asses while blindfolded with one hand tied behind his back.
“What are you afraid of, Jacobs?” Derrick taunted when Noah did nothing but stand there, blond hair falling in his face.
I thought it was obvious Noah wasn’t afraid of much of anything, including alligators. He certainly wasn’t afraid of Tyler and Derrick, or their fists.
“I don’t like spiders much,” Noah said and grinned through a busted lip as if there was something he enjoyed about getting punched. His tongue darted out and he licked a drop of blood from his bottom lip, which was a tad plumper than usual. Anger fueled my progress across the parking lot. I’d seen enough blood and gore for one night. I’d also seen Noah fight in earnest and he could have easily deflected that blow from Tyler.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I zeroed in on Derrick since he was closest. “Noah saved Jax in case you didn’t notice.”
“Well, no one asked him to. We could have handled it.” Tyler returned his attention to Noah and shoved him in the chest with both hands. “So stay the hell away, Fish Boy.”
“Cut it out, Derrick. You’re being a jerk.” I shouldered my way between them, my fists balling.
Noah laughed. “Is that the best your gray matter can come up
with? Fish Boy?”
“One day Jacobs, I’m going to enjoy seeing your gray matter splattered all over the pavement.”
“Grow up, Derrick. You should be thanking him. Jax is alive and still in the possession of both arms, so back off.”
“I guess Fish Boy has his uses,” Derrick said, piercing me with a hard look, lip curled in distaste. “You better choose your friends wisely, or you might end up without any.”
I was pretty sure I had.
The Jacobs’s house was what you’d call “Old Florida” style. Built of mostly cinder blocks and painted white, it was nestled on a small stretch of government-owned beach. The oyster shell driveway crunched under my tires and wound its way through a thick stand of scrub oaks and long-needle pines.
When we pulled up to the house it was after midnight, and I didn’t know whether Jamie had been watching for us or it was coincidence he came out of the house as soon as the Tahoe’s headlights swiped across the door. Shirtless and only wearing a pair of gym shorts, he strode straight for the driver’s side door. I rolled down the window, and his hands fell over the door as his eyes took me in with a quick sweep before gravitating toward Noah.
“What the hell happened to you?” he asked. Noah wiped a dribble of blood from his swollen lip.
“Jax had a run in with a gator,” Noah said, staring at the blood on his hand.
“What?” The muscles in Jamie’s chest constricted as his grip tightened around the door. “A gator did that?”
After several beats of silence from the passenger seat, I said, “No. Noah saved Jax from an alligator. We were at the hospital. The busted lip was Derrick and Tyler.”
“You okay?” Jamie’s tone lost its initial gruffness.
Noah ignored him, and instead of answering, he reached for the door handle and got out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him.
Voice pitched low, Jamie asked me, “Is he okay?”
“Yeah, I think so.” I watched Noah through the windshield. He stopped on the other side of the hood, right in the beam of the headlights, and I saw what I'd missed in the dark. Blood soaked his shirt and underneath a rip, I could just make out the jagged red flesh of his stomach. He’d told me it was just a scratch.
“Don’t tell Mom,” Noah said, and he swayed a little in Jamie’s direction. Jamie’s hands slipped from the door as he walked over to Noah and lifted his shirt. I gasped.
“Tyler and Derrick didn’t do that,” Jamie said, an edge creeping into his voice. I opened my door and sprang from the seat.
“It’s just a nick,” Noah said. This time he was a little less convincing. I should have known.
“I see guts, Noah,” Jamie said, exaggerating. At least I hoped he was exaggerating. “How big was this gator?”
Noah shrugged. “Eight feet.”
Oh, yeah. No big deal.
“I’m going for a swim.” Noah stripped off his shirt, and while I didn’t see guts, I did see a pretty significant amount of mangled flesh. He hadn’t said a word about it during the ride to the hospital. Or the ride to his house. The wound had to hurt, but he’d been stoically silent. He hadn’t so much as flinched when Tyler punched him in the stomach.
“Come on, little brother.” Jamie slung his arm around Noah’s shoulders, but Noah shook him off.
“Don’t baby me. I said I’m fine.” With that, Noah disappeared around the side of the house, leaving Jamie and me alone.
Jamie ran his hands through his hair, and when he looked at me, his pale eyes reflected the light, and he looked lost, as though he were asking me what to do.
“They make it hard for him,” I said. “Jax was lucky Noah was there, but somehow it's Noah’s fault. I didn’t know he was hurt.”
“Yeah, he thinks he’s tough like that,” Jamie said, his affection for Noah clear in his voice. His eyes skated over me and I could tell he was torn between going after Noah or staying with me. As much as I wanted Jamie to myself, Noah needed him more. There was more going on with Noah than a scratch on his stomach and getting beat up by a couple of d-bags. “I have to go with him.”
“I know.” My phone buzzed from inside the Tahoe and I crawled back onto the seat, checking the screen. It was my dad. Again. “My dad’s been blowing up my phone. He wants me home ASAP.”
“Be careful driving home,” Jamie said, closing the door, his eyes full of apology.
“Just make sure Noah’s okay.
Chapter Six
My dad was up waiting for me when I got home. No surprise there. After I gave him a quick rundown of what had happened and assured him I was okay, I went straight up to my room. I ended up taking a shower, and after I slipped on a tank top and boxer shorts, I went to my window to shut the blinds behind the curtain.
My eyes caught on a shadow on the dock. Someone was sitting on the edge. My tiredness fled at the sight of the strong, muscled back. I dropped the curtain and silently padded down the stairs, checking to make sure my dad was in bed. His bedroom door was shut, the light turned off.
I turned off the security system then slowly slid the back door open. The security lights clicked on when I walked around the apron of the pool. I took the stone path that led to the dock, my bare feet hitting each one. The stones were smooth and still warm from the afternoon sun. When I was ten, not long after my mom moved out, my dad and I spent an entire Saturday laying these stones. And still that night, I’d cried in my bed, because no matter how many distractions my dad found for us, I missed my mom. I missed our family. I’d tried to be quiet, but my dad had heard me anyway. He’d come into my room and sat down on my bed. He was that kind of dad who wasn’t afraid to hug and hold on tight. He reassured me that my mom leaving and their marriage ending wasn’t my fault, saying sometimes, bad stuff happened and you might never know the reason why.
“Jamie, what are you doing here?” The dock gave a slight shake when I stepped on it.
“I wanted to make sure you got home okay.” Jamie turned his head and followed my progress until I was standing over him.
“You could have texted me. Or called.” I sat beside him and set my hands on either side of my thighs, dangling my legs over the dock’s edge.
“I don’t have a cell phone to text and this is better than a call. I wanted to see you.”
Way better than calling. My whole night had just taken a turn for the better even though technically it was morning. “And you were hoping I’d look out my window?"
“Yeah. Not a very good plan, but it worked. Here you are.”
Here I was. Here we were together.
“How’s Noah?”
“Good as new,” he said. The pool of light from the single lamp didn’t quite reach us. Jamie’s eyes were dark with uncertainty in the shadow of his face. “Physically at least. I worry about him, though. Since my dad died, I don’t know.” Jamie’s eyes scanned over the bay, dark as the sky. “He just doesn’t seem to care about anything. It’s all my mom and I can do to keep him in school.”
“Well, it hasn’t been that long. I think he needs more time.” Mr. Jacobs had died a few years ago. I hadn’t gone to the funeral, but my dad had. It wasn’t long after that when Noah and I became friends. His dad was the one thing he never talked about.
“When I went after him earlier, he hadn’t even gotten in the water. He was sitting on the beach, staring at the Gulf. I had to make him get in, like physically force him. It’s like he’s trying to make things as hard for himself as he can.”
“He’s lucky he has you.” I wanted to take his hand and lay my head on his shoulder and tell him he was doing a good job and that I knew firsthand how much Noah looked up to him. Instead my fingers curled around the wood, and I watched the ripples my foot created in the water.
Sitting next to Jamie, my head reached to the top of his shoulder. He lifted his hand and picked up a piece of my hair, studying it as if he’d never seen hair before. It was still wet from my shower and the smell of my shampoo bloomed under his fingers. He leaned in
close, his breath warm on my shoulder and inhaled.
“You smell good,” he said.
“I took a shower.” My mouth quirked.
“It’s not that. You smell good.” He dropped the strand of hair, and it fell down my back.
I leaned toward him and smelled him in turn, my nose running over the rounded curve of his shoulder. His skin was still slightly damp from his swim over. I tried to calculate how far our houses were—the bay behind my house connected to the Gulf a good ten miles south—but it ended up being too much for my brain to figure out with Jamie so near. The pearl at the base of his throat seemed to glow as if by some inner light and I resisted the urge to touch it. “You smell good too.”
He smiled. “Well, it’s good to know we like each other’s smell.”
“Yeah, I think that’s important when starting a relationship,” I said, and ducked my chin shyly. I wasn’t sure what this was yet, besides everything, to me at least.
“Erin.”
Something about the way he said my name drew my gaze back to him.
“That morning on the beach? I shouldn’t have kissed you like that.”
“You’re sorry you kissed me?” So this was the part where he told me it had been a mistake. That we were over before we’d started. “Just the first time? Or the second and third too?”
He laughed and the tone was self-depreciating. I thought I saw a blush rise on his cheeks, which seemed very un-Jamie-like. “You’re making me sound like a jerk. Hell, maybe I am, a little. I said I shouldn’t have kissed you. Just like I shouldn’t be here now, but I’m here anyway. I just didn’t want you to think I go around kissing random girls. I don’t. And I don’t consider you a random girl. It’s just for a while, I thought you were Noah’s girl.”
“We’re friends,” I said. “He’s probably my best friend.”
“He did put me on notice. If I do anything to hurt you, he’ll kick my ass.”
“Can he?” I raised my eyebrows teasingly.
Summer's Last Breath (The Emerald Series) Page 5