Deep Betrayal Page 0,40

on land. I’d heard Maris’s screeching accusations and Pavati’s seductive murmurs. I knew Calder’s, of course, and Dad’s best of all.

Although I’d heard no distinct words in the water before, only muffled sounds, I was convinced it had been all four of them I’d heard the other day.

“That’s my theory,” Calder said. “The other option is that they’re a million miles away. They feel like a million miles away. Especially now, when you’re here with me. And we’re not fighting. Now, can we talk about something else?”

“Are you and Dad going out again tomorrow?”

He sighed. “He wants me to, but after how Tuesday night ended, I told him I still needed to recharge, that I needed to spend some concentrated time with you.”

I choked on my words as I asked how my dad reacted to that. “Yeah,” Calder said, laughing a little. “That might have been more than he wanted to hear.”

“Don’t worry about me,” I said. “It’s okay if you need to go.”

Calder pulled back so he could see me fully. His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized my face, his nose twitched at whatever he was seeing.

I scrambled to put his mind at ease. The last thing I wanted to do was tell him about my experiments and apparently I was unable to disguise them completely. “I’ve got … things … I’m working on. If you and Dad need more time to train … I don’t want you to think I’m moping around. I got on fine before I met you. That was only a couple of months ago. I think I can figure out how to fill my day.”

“You don’t need to use reverse psychology on me. When I say I need to spend time with you, I mean it.” He placed his finger on the end of my nose and drew it over my lips, my chin, down my neck to my belly button. He grinned, then swallowed hard, his eyes closing.

I molded my body to his, feeling his muscles flex against me and his skin flushed with heat. I traced circles in his hair, lightly across his temples, watching his eyes flicker, then close. His muscles relaxed, and he sank heavier into the hammock, which barely swayed with his changing weight. His skin was smooth, taut, and packed with muscles and sinew and bone. I drew my finger along a pattern of scars on his shoulders, feeling his exhaustion, but also his contentment.

“Go with Dad,” I said. “When you get back, I’ll be here waiting for you.”

While I was generally oblivious to the light he saw in me, I could sometimes see traces of it on him. For instance, right then, I could have sworn the inside of the sleeping bag shimmered like the northern lights.

MY SCRIBBLINGS

Missed Opportunities

I am worth

y

and skilled

a force

you must reckon

with honey

and sweet wine is yours

for the taking

if you only knew

to ask.

TO DO:

Try to listen for Maris

Goal: 5-minute swim

16

NEWS

As soon as Calder got back from his morning expedition with Dad, he suggested we finally pay Mrs. Boyd a visit at the Blue Moon Café. I wished we hadn’t put it off because it felt awkward now that we’d been back for two weeks. Calder and I walked to the café hand in hand; he grinned, while I struggled to come up with several well-phrased apologies for having left her so abruptly. But when the bell over the door rang out and Mrs. Boyd looked up, I forgot every one of them.

“Hmph. ’Bout time,” she said, wiping the marble counter-top. “I wondered when you’d have the audacity to show your face again.”

Calder said, “Sorry, Mrs. Boyd,” before I could muster up any spit in my mouth.

“Sorry’s not going to cut it, mister. You left me high and dry. This place won’t run itself, y’know.”

She didn’t seem to be too upset with my desertion. I guess Mom had made a good enough excuse for me.

“It was rude of me to go without telling you,” Calder said.

“Rude? Rude is forgetting to flush. What you did was irresponsible.”

Calder led me forward across the black-and-white checkered floor. I guess I was dragging my feet because his pressure on my wrist increased. I looked sideways and saw the intensity in his face. His eyes trained on Mrs. Boyd’s. What was he doing? We weren’t here to reapply.

Mrs. Boyd stammered and lost her train of thought. Her fingers shook and went to her silver-streaked hair pulled back into a loose knot. “I suppose you’ll be wanting your job back,” she