eyes, flushing. To keep her mind off of her thoughts, she all-but yanked off her jeans, throwing them next to her tank top.
And then, as she walked to the end of the dock, she suddenly thanked god she had worn cute underwear that day.
Even more mortified at her thoughts, she turned back to Will, who finished tossing the contents of his jeans onto his t-shirt and stood to face her. He grinned and approached her at the end of the dock.
“Ready?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted, laughing as she peered into the darkened water.
“That’s a pity.” She squealed as she was suddenly hoisted up into his arms. The next moment she was flying through the air, everything moving in slow-motion, and then she was plunged into darkness, surrounded by warmth.
She came up sputtering, Will already in front of her. He grinned and shook wet hair out of his eyes as she grabbed onto his shoulders to keep herself afloat. Apparently it wasn’t deep enough that he had to tread water like she did, because his legs were still. “You suck,” she told him, holding onto his shoulders with one arm as she wiped the water from her face.
He laughed. She let him go when her face was as dry as she could get it, and then he stepped back, until it was clearly too deep for him to stand. She followed, slowly, keeping her head above water.
“You’re not going to suddenly get a cramp and drown, are you?” she teased.
He smiled impishly at her. “Would you save me if I did?”
“Nope. I’d steal your car keys.”
He disappeared almost instantly under the water, and alarmed, she looked around, her heart beat picking up. “Will?” she asked. “Are there alligators or something in the wa—“
She broke off as a hand wrapped around her ankle, yanking her down into the darkness of the water. She tried to scream, but her mouth just filled with water. Panicked, she pushed off of the rocky, grainy lake bottom and went surging back to the top, quickly pushing her hair out of her face as she looked around furiously for Will, who to her fury was treading water just a foot or so away, grinning mischievously.
“You scared me half to death!” she cried, splashing water at him. “I could have drowned!”
“You weren’t going to drown,” he assured her confidently, wet hair curling in his twinkling eyes. He looked so pleased with himself that she felt some of her anger fade, but she continued to frown at him. He swam over to her and held her close, looking up at her as he lifted her slightly. “I wouldn’t have let you drown,” he promised. “You’re wearing my shirt.”
She splashed him and he laughed, tossing her out of his arms and into the water on her own. For a long time they swam around like children, until Annabelle’s body was exhausted from exertion and every bad thing from the night before seemed just like a distant, faded memory.
To her vast relief, Will kept blankets in the trunk of his car, and oddly enough, a duffel bag of clothes. As he pulled it out of the trunk and began rifling through it, she had to laugh.
“Do this often?” she teased.
Will looked up at her through pieces of wet hair. He offered a half-smile. “Remember that barn I showed you?”
She felt her heart skip. “Yeah.”
“Sometimes I stay there when I don’t feel like going home.” He emerged with a t-shirt and held it out to her. “Here.”
They changed on opposite sides of the car, Annabelle’s mind racing as she went over his words in his head. Will stayed in that drafty old barn? But why? Things at home couldn’t be that bad, could they?
They tossed their wet clothes into the back seat and climbed into the car, Will closing the top on the convertible and blasting the heat.
She forced herself to shove the thoughts from her mind, holding her hands over the vents to warm them up. By the time they were home, her hair was nearly dry, and she was so happy and full of cold energy that she thought she would burst. Will helped her scale the tree back up to her room, and once in, she grinned at him through the window.
He grinned back.
“I had fun tonight,” she said softly. “Thank you.”
He nodded. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Such a simple word… Tomorrow. But hearing him say “tomorrow” instead of “later” made her heart skip with happiness and she nodded back,