Tethered 02 - Conjure (19 page)

I put my mug in the microwave and started the timer. “So, what time are you leaving, Mom?”

She leaned back in her chair and took another sip of the coffee that had come from Paisley’s too. “In just a bit actually. I need to get back before your father, so I can clean the house a little.”

The microwave beeped and I retrieved my mug. I stirred a spoonful of honey into my tea as I walked to sit with them. There was one chocolate éclair in the bag. I carefully pulled it out and placed it on a napkin in front of me. “I don’t know why you even bother cleaning. You know he’s just going to come home, unload all his stuff, and the house will be trashed again.”

“I know.” She sighed.

“I hope you have a safe trip back. It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Harmon,” Callie said politely.

“Nice to meet you too, sweetheart. It’s nice to see Addison has made such great friends in the short time she’s been here.” Mom smiled. “I really need to gather up my stuff now. Excuse me, girls.”

I waited until she was out of the room and her footsteps could no longer heard before I spoke. “So, what are your plans for today?”

“Nothing really. I’m supposed to meet up with Adam in a little bit.”

“Doesn’t he work?” I asked.

“Yeah.” Callie chuckled. “We all do, but for our parents.”

“What are you guys getting into later?” I really wanted to do something. I needed to let loose and give my mind a break.

“We were supposed to go surfing today. Think you and Kace would want to join us?”

“I’ll come watch you guys, but I probably won’t surf,” I said.

“Okay.” Callie stood. “I should probably get going. I need to help Mom out at the shop. Sundays are always busy with everyone getting out of church and all. I’ll talk to you later.”

“See ya,” I said with a small wave.

After seeing Mom off, I was finally able to spend some time alone. I changed out of my jeans and into my bathing suit, poured myself a tall glass of ice water, grabbed my cell phone, and scooped up the zombie novel I’d bought at a bookstore back home before coming here. I hadn’t had a chance yet to just sit and read like I’d wanted to. Heading out back, I laid everything down on the porch steps while I set up my folding chair in the backyard. I was ready to catch some rays and enjoy the salty breeze of the ocean without being crammed in like a sardine with all the tourists.

I’d only managed to read for about an hour before someone sent me a text. It was Kace.

Ready to attempt surfing, are you? Do I get to be your teacher for the day?

I grinned like a fool at the text as I reread it, and tried to think of something witty to reply back with. I could think of nothing.

I don’t know about that, but I am ready to watch you.

I pressed send and bit the edge of my thumbnail, anxiously waiting for his response.

Ah, so you’re one of those girls who enjoys watching, huh? Wink. Wink. I can get down with that.

My cheeks flamed even though there was no one around to see, and I chuckled as I thought of what he was implying. What a horn dog!

I’m sure. So what time are you guys headed to the beach?

Getting ready now. And don’t think you’re getting off the hook that easily. Be prepared to at least try surfing once.

My heart hammered against my chest. Hadn’t I told him I didn’t know how to swim? I was sure I had, but maybe that had been Callie?

We’ll see.

I tossed my phone back on the ground beneath my chair, where it was in the shade, and thought of how horrible my afternoon might end up being. There was no way in hell I was going surfing.

Kace, Adam, and Callie showed up about forty minutes after I’d sent my last text. They were decked out in their bathing suits and riding in a black Jeep Wrangler with surfboards strapped to the top. I grabbed the beach bag I’d gotten ready while I’d been waiting for them and followed them to the Jeep, being sure to lock the house up behind me as I went. Adam climbed in the driver’s seat and Callie slid in beside him.

“So this is your Jeep?” I asked Adam as I slid into the backseat with Kace.

His bright green eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. “Just so happens, it is, why?”

“No reason. Just one Jeep driver admiring another’s Jeep,” I said with a shrug.

“Aw, how sweet. You guys found something in common finally,” Kace teased in his best imitation of a girl voice.

I smacked him playfully across the chest and closed my door. Adam drove us down to the public parking area where Kace helped him unload the surfboards. I stood to the side with Callie, observing as the guys flexed their muscles while straining to release the boards. It was a pretty sight. Even though Adam wasn’t my type, it didn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate a leanly sculpted body when I saw one. And the two in front of us were fine specimens of the male species.

“Are you sure you don’t want to try it?” Callie asked me in that sweetly soft voice of hers. “You can borrow my board. It’s the shorter one. Some say the long boards are easier to balance on, but I think the short board is easier to maneuver.”

I scrunched up my nose. “I think I’ll pass. I’m not much of a swimmer, let alone a surfer.”

“It could be fun…” she pressed.

This was the moment where I revealed my big secret. It was also the moment when the person I told it to gasped in disbelief. “Actually, I’m not so sure about the fun part. I can’t swim.”

I cringed internally as I admitted that little truth aloud, waiting for the knee-jerk reaction that always seemed to ensue. Positive Callie was going to have a dumbfounded expression plastered on her face, I glanced around, looking anywhere besides at her while my words sunk in. I must seem like such a tourist now.

“Oh, I didn’t realize…” she trailed off, fumbling her words. “I mean, I guess I should have. Fire is your element.”

“I’m not sure that has anything to do with it,” I said, finally gathering the courage to look at her.

She hadn’t reacted like I’d thought she would. Most people were shocked that an eighteen-year-old still didn’t know how to swim. I wondered how shocked they’d be when I hit sixty and still didn’t know how, because at the rate I was going, that’s how it would be. I didn’t care to learn how to swim. Plain and simple.

“It might,” Callie reassured me. “I could teach you, you know. I actually was a toddler swim teacher for a summer and I was the lifeguard for a few summers at Kace’s parents’ hotel pool. Is it that you’re scared of water or that you just don’t know how to swim?”

How were those two things different? If someone doesn’t know how to do something that requires them to either do it or risk drowning, I’d say there’s a level of fear involved regardless. I adjusted the beach bag on my shoulder before I spoke.

“Both, I guess.”

Callie’s eyes narrowed with concern. “Did you have a bad experience with water growing up or something? Was there anything that made you afraid of it, or is the thought of being surrounded by water not pleasant?”

I glanced at her. “First, I’m gonna say you should consider being a swimming counselor or something instead of a vet. Do they even have those? I feel like I’m talking to a shrink.” I laughed.

“Sorry.” She chuckled.

“To answer your question, yes, I did have a bad experience when I was little.”

“What happened?” she asked, her blue eyes filling with concern.

“You ladies ready?” Adam interrupted as he held out the short board Callie had claimed was hers.

“Yeah, but I’m not carrying that. That’s what you’re here for.” Callie grinned at Adam.

I’d never seen her speak that way to him. Maybe she wasn’t as shy and timid as I’d initially thought.

“Got it, babe.” He winked.

We walked across the concrete parking lot and toward the public access bridge. Callie and I fell behind a little.

“So, what happened?” she asked, adjusting her oversized sunglasses on her nose.

I tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear and thought about the incident. “I was eight. I’d gone tubing in a wide creek with my parents and some of their friends. All the other kids were riding in their own tubes, and I wanted to be like them instead of sitting with my mom, so I made her get me my own. Somewhere along the creek ride, my tube flipped over in an area that was pretty deep. I remember struggling to get back on my tube and flopping around in the creek as it carried me along. My foot got tangled in a branch of some sort and I was stuck, belly down, while the water rushed over my head, struggling to breathe, to get free.” I shuddered at the vivid memory as it flashed through my mind.

“Oh my God, that’s horrible!” Callie said. “No wonder you’re scared.”

I shrugged a shoulder and swallowed hard. “Yeah, well…there’s that and I think I was probably drowned in a past life,” I said, using my all-time favorite break-the-ice line.

Callie laughed just like I’d expected and I felt myself relax some. Most people stopped pushing the I’ll-teach-you-how-to-swim cause after hearing that line and left me alone about it all.

“So, my offer to teach you still stands. Let me know if you ever want to try.”

“I will. Thanks,” I said as I stepped off the bridge and stopped behind Kace and Adam.

They laid the boards they’d been carrying down and began peeling off their T-shirts and slipping out of their flip-flops. Kace chucked one of his at me. It hit me right in the face and I gaped at him.

“What the hell?” I laughed, shocked.

He smirked like a fool. “I thought you saw it coming.”

“Nope,” I said, making my P pop. “Not even a little bit.”

Kace’s laughter rang loudly in my ears. He rushed to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. Scooping me up, he nuzzled his head into my neck. “I’m sorry.”

“Put me down.”

“How about I just toss you in?”

“Don’t you dare.”

Kace tightened his grip. “I just might,” he said as he walked toward the water, taking me with him.

“Kace, no. Please don’t.” I pushed on his arm and attempted a playful laugh, but it lodged itself in my throat.

“Put her down, Kace,” Callie said, coming to my defense.

“I’m just teasing her,” Kace insisted from where he stood, nearly knee-deep in the water. He swung me from side to side a little, like he was readying himself to toss me in as he made his way farther in. “I wouldn’t really do it…or would I?”

“I don’t know how to swim!” I shouted. I squeezed my eyes shut. “Please don’t. I don’t know how to swim.”

Kace froze. “Are you serious?”

“Dead,” I muttered.

Kace let me down gently. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay,” I said, feeling my face flame through twenty different shades of red.

“You’re like the first person I’ve ever met who doesn’t know how to swim,” Adam said, dumbfounded, from where he stood on the beach. “I mean, even babies know how to swim. What the hell happened to you? Did you forget how or something?”

“Adam, leave her alone,” Callie scolded. “She had a bad experience with water once.”

“So what, you’re like petrified by it or something?” Adam laughed. “I mean, Jesus, look how deep the water you’re standing in is. Did you think you’d drown if Kace threw you in or something? It’s like…not even three feet deep.”

“Forgive me if I don’t see the humor in this.” I stomped out of the water and back onto the sandy shore.

“What the fuck, Adam?” I heard Kace yell to him as I stormed off. “You’re such a dick sometimes, I swear.”

“What?” Adam shrieked, feigning innocence. I didn’t have to look at him to know his lips were still twisted into a dickhead smirk.

I guess some things never change. In my experience growing up, there was always some ass who made fun of me for not knowing how to swim. As an adult, I could see that was still the case. The weak still get picked on no matter your age. Awesome.