Hard Edge - Tess Oliver Page 0,18
on the beach as Caden Stratton removes his shirt and unveils the master—” Her words fell off and her mouth dropped open as my shirt came off.
“Uh, I think you dropped your microphone, Kiki.”
“Jeez,” she muttered. “Let me just mention that the teenage Caden doesn’t hold a candle to the all grown up one. I like what you’ve done with yourself and the tattoos work too.”
“Glad you approve.” I lowered my hand.
She looked at it in confusion. “You don’t expect me to go in. This dress is dry-clean only and would be kind of impractical in the ocean.”
I lowered my hand. “Suit yourself, but the teenage Trinket, the star of the swim team and Kiki Dinklefrost’s alter ego, wouldn’t have given a damn about the dress.” I turned and lumbered toward the water.
My feet had just hit the froth that lingered along wet sand when Kenna went running past me, clutching the skirt of her dress, as she plowed into the water. Before I could catch up to her, she dove in and emerged out past the line where the waves were breaking. She smoothed her wet hair back and waved for me to join her. “Thought you were going swimming,” she called. “Not wading in like my grandma getting into the whirlpool at the gym.”
I dove under and swam toward her, popping up close enough to startle her. She splashed my face and swam out of my reach. Then she slowed down and floated up on her back. Her dress and her pale hair spread out around her as she closed her eyes. Another moment of sad silence swept over us. It had been like that all day, minutes in time where we smiled and thought about the past, temporarily forgetting. Then it would drag back over us, the bleak, hopeless feeling of loss and disbelief.
Kenna’s thoughts seemed to mirror my own. She didn’t look up or open her eyes as I swam closer to her. Her arms moved out like wings in the water to keep herself afloat in the rolling tide. “I feel as if my emotions are moving like the water. Up and down. For a second I’m able to tolerate the pain and then boom, it just hits me again like a bus plowing into me at full speed.”
She pushed her feet down. Salty water sparkled on her clumped together long lashes. Before I knew what was happening, she circled her arm around my neck and hopped up so that I was carrying her in the water. My heart thundered in my chest, and she had no idea.
“You were a good big brother to him, Caden.” She reached up and pushed wet hair off my forehead, another gesture that nearly sent me over the edge. “Just thought you should know that.” She leaned her head against my shoulder.
A wave rolled under us and we floated up as if on a cloud of air, then my feet touched the sandy bottom again. I held tightly onto her.
“Dad and I had an argument last night,” I started, not completely sure if I wanted to finish. But sometimes, it seemed Kenna could read my thoughts long before I said them aloud. When we were teens hanging out together, she always knew when I was twisted in knots about something. Even when no one else saw it, not even my parents, who thought my two sided, half life, where a block of houses separated my mom from my dad, was just fine. But Kenna saw it. She always knew.
“I’m sorry to hear that. What was it about?”
“Apparently, even in his grief, my dad has plenty of stamina to lecture me about my life choices. He’d had a few too many beers, trying to keep up with Sally’s Valium high, I guess. He rarely drinks, but when he does, the vampire teeth come out. He didn’t say it outright, but it was pretty obvious.” I thought about those few minutes in the kitchen and the expression on Dad’s face as we argued. His thoughts were so clear, it was as if they’d been typed above his head in a dialogue bubble.
Kenna lifted her head and looked at me. “What was obvious?”
I shook my head, deciding it was better left unsaid.
Kenna nudged me with her hand. “Tell me.”
“The wrong kid died,” I blurted, as if that would soften the harsh reality. “I know that’s what he’s thinking without him saying it. He’s thinking, why Grady? Why his favorite son?”
Kenna