He didn’t. He was still looking around at the water. Still holding meagainsthim.
Of all the things… “Something touched me,” I admitted, sounding just as sheepish as Ishouldhave.
Hegotit.
He stopped, his head rolling up slowly while I was there, for all intents and purposes, on top of him. One of his eyebrows went up and he asked, taking his time with every word, “Somethingtouchedyou?”
Way to go, Rubes.I fought the urge not to cough and almost lost. I wanted to look away too, but I’d done this to myself. I had to own up to it. “I think it might have been a fish…,” I mumbled just loud enough so chances were in my favor that he didn’t actuallyhearme.
He did. It was the way he swallowed that told me he’d heard. I could see a brown iris move in my direction. I could feel the tension in his upper body as he kept talking slowly, “There’s no fisharoundhere.”
“It’s the ocean. Of course there are fish around here. He might have just swam offreallyfast.”
I didn’t need to look directly at his eyes to know he was blinking. His voice was a little hoarse. “Youthinkso?”
He was so fullofcrap.
“Maybe.”
Those lips went tight together, so tight there was a line of white where they met. His throat bobbed and I knew,I knewhe was trying not to laugh. “Ruby,” he practically whispered my name. “Honey, how many times have you been in theocean?”
I felt myself deflate just a little even though he’d called me honey.Honey. What you’d call a sweet little kid who fell off her bike and eaten asphalt. “A lot.” I cleared my throat and gave him a strong side-eye, seeing him just well enough. “But I’m more of a pool person usually. You know, Houston. You don’t exactly go to Galveston to swim forhours.”
He was pinching his lips together tighter as he nodded, his grip still firm. He’d stopped blinking at some point. The fingers on my hiptightened.
I could tell.I could tellhe was about to make a joke about it, so I beat him to it with a “Shut up” that had him swallowing even harder than any timebefore.
His eyes were closed and he was smiling like an idiot when he said, “The only fish I’ve seen were minnows by the edge of thewater.”
“Sure,” I agreed, not hiding my frown of shame as I extended my legs, wanting to get down, and he slowly, finally lowered me until my feet dipped back into thewater.
He was still grinning and trying so hard not to laugh when he pointed toward Des and Brittany further ahead of us, already deeper in the water, dog-paddling. He snickered, his voice shaky, “Safety innumbers.”
All I did was give him a dirty look, deciding I deserved that, but walked beside him further into the water until we met up with his friends, my paranoia right there. Brittany smiled brightly at me, her head slightly propped out of the water, from where she was now partially floating on her back. “Did you getstung?”
“Excuse me?” I asked like anidiot.
“Did you get stung by a jellyfish? We heard you yell,” sheexplained.
My face turned red; without a doubt in my mind, it had to have. There was no way it hadn’t. Where was a big wave when I needed one? “Oh, uh, no. I stepped on something,” I gradually managed to get out, looking straight forward and not at the man atmyside.
“It was sharp,” Aaron breathed out from where he stood not even a foot away. “Reallysharp.”
If Des or Brittany saw me kick him from the side, neither one of them saidaword.
* * *
“Iknow,Mom. I loveyoutoo.”
The sigh that came over the receiver had me shaking my head. “If you loved me,” she started to say for about the tenth time in the last fifteen minutes we’d been on thephone.
“I do love you. I’m fine, I promise,” I assured her from my spot sitting cross-legged on the bed of the room that I’d be sleeping in for the rest of the week. “I’m having a good time and you’d like everyoneI’mwith.”
My mom made a noise that said she didn’t want to believe me, but… “Fine. Okay. I know you’re not a liar, Rubella. Not like these other kids who only call me when they want something.” She muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like Jasmine’s name. “Be careful and text me at least onceanhour.”
Isnorted.
“Okay, okay,” she countered, and I could hear the smile in her voice. “Text me at least and let me know Jaws hasn’t come andeatenyou.”
