She makes an effort to stand, but I say quickly back, “No,” my voice firm before it softens and I say, “I mean, I’m not going back to the cottage. I can use the one in the pool house,” as if last time I didn’t refuse.
She stares too long. She looks to the other side of the pool, where Daniel just was, and then she looks back to me. “I thought you didn’t like that one. You said it was disgusting.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did.”
“I didn’t,” I say again, and then I ask, “Are you really not going to let me pee?” walking away without waiting for her to say.
Daniel is waiting for me on the other side of the pool house when I get there.
“What was that all about?” he asks, looking past me, glancing around the edge of the building as if he can see Emily from here.
“What was what all about?”
“Your mom,” he says. “Was she giving you shit?”
“It’s no big deal. She just wanted to know where I was going.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I was going to the bathroom.”
He makes a sound under his breath. “You can’t even go ten feet without her wanting to know where you are?” he asks, getting angry, and then he echoes again, “This is a family vacation. You’re supposed to be with family.”
He laughs, but it has an edge.
He beckons for me to come closer then, hooking me in with his finger. When I get close enough for him to reach me, he reels me in by the arms and says, “You’re almost eighteen, and then you can do anything you want.”
I nod, holding in a smile as he puts his finger under my chin, as he lifts my face to him.
He says, “I can’t stop thinking about you. All day, all I’ve been thinking about is you.”
My cheeks glow. He leans down to kiss me then. It’s soft, gentle. He reaches up and runs his hands over my hair. “I dreamed about you last night. Is that weird?” he asks, pulling back, and I grin and say no, feeling butterflies in my stomach.In my whole life, no one’s ever dreamed of me before. No one has so much as thought about me before. I wonder what I was doing in his dream, but I don’t ask.
“I can’t believe you don’t have a boyfriend yet,” he says, and I smile again. He smiles back, telling me he likes it when I smile before saying something that makes me laugh, and I think of the quizzes Skylar and I used to do, about how to tell if a guy likes you. Do you find him staring at you in a room? Does he find reasons to touch you? Does he try to get you alone and does he tease or compliment you? Does he make you laugh?
Daniel likes me. I just don’t know why.
When he steps back, he asks, “Meet me by the beach again tonight, on the pier?”
“I’ll try,” I say, thinking of Wyatt and wondering how I’ll get out of the cottage without him finding out. It’s not just Emily and Nolan I have to worry about anymore. It’s him too. “If I can.”
Daniel draws back. He lowers his head all of a sudden, cocking it to the side, his eyes looking down like he’s hurt. “Don’t you like me?” he asks, his voice vulnerable, his smile nervous now, like he thinks I might really not like him, and I wonder in what world a girl like me would ever turn down a guy like him.
“Of course I do,” I say.
“Then come,” he begs. “If you like me, you’ll come. Meet me on the pier.”
I know I have to do whatever it takes to be there.
Courtney
Elliott takes the car, driving around town to see if there is vacancy in another resort, despite Ms. Dahl’s telling us there wouldn’t be any. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt marginally relieved for him to leave, feeling unsure about many things, but none more than the picture of Reese on his iPad. I want to ask him about it, to know why he took this picture of our niece, but then I see him last night, rolling me briskly over on my back in bed, askingWhat do you think, Court? ThatIkilled them?
Of course he didn’t, I tell myself. Elliott wouldn’t do that. There’s another reason for it.
Cass wakes up after he’s gone, emerging from the bedroom in a daze. When she sees me for the first time today, she pauses, asking again what happened to my face and I have to say the same lie about how I ran into the door in the dark, watching Wyatt out of the corner of my eye to see if he has any reaction to it, but he doesn’t.
