She pushed on toward the harbor, and before they reached the place where they’d swum the day before, Karim had fallen asleep.Just as well that he hadn’t seen the water.That would have killed any hope of a nap.
As she stopped walking, Libby gazed at the horizon.The water looked so beautiful, twinkling and glittering like that.Then something caught her eye, floating behind the harbor wall.
Two feet.
Two large, manly feet.
Then the rest of Cranky Jones, sea star shaped, floated by.
Libby pushed Karim to the wide harbor wall, flipped on the brakes, and peered below.
“I had every intention of asking you for an interview,” she said, startling the crap out of him.Good.“I don’t sneak around.I don’t eavesdrop.And I helped you when you were sick because you needed help.I thought I could help you further.I thought I could make you realize that youcanstill be a hero.”
She waited for him to look up at her, but his eyes were still fixed ahead, as if she wasn’t worthy of his attention.
“I was wrong,” she said.“You’re not a hero.You’re just a self-centered prick.”
Dandunkedbelowthesurface, water roaring in his ears, but still, he couldn’t drown out Libby’s voice or her scathing words.
Scathing words he might’ve deserved ifhe’dbeen the one secretly making notes onher.
A self-centered prick?
What the hell did she know about his life, anyway?She couldn’t possibly understand what he’d been through these past few months.
By the time he came up for air.Libby was gone, and the Christopher Mac Gang stood in her place.
Great.Just what he needed.
“She doesn’t like you,” they said, giggling.They dropped into the water next to him like exploding bombs.Dan swam away from their splashing and sat on the shore.
One by one, dripping children came to sit with him.He lay down.They did too.A line of kids of various sizes flat on their backs, staring at the clear blue sky.
“You need to send her flowers,” one child said.
“Or chocolates.”
“And perfume.”
“Why would I need to do that?”Dan huffed.
“To show her how sorry you are.”
“What makes you think I’m the one who should be apologizing?”
“She wouldn’t have thrown you out of the house if you’d done nothing wrong,” Christopher Mac said.
“I wasn’t thrown out.I walked out.”
Some of the younger kids sniggered.
Dan huffed again and got to his feet.“Okay, let’s go.”The quicker he got these children the ice cream they were waiting for, the quicker he’d be left alone to stew over Libby.
All this time, she’d been using him.
And yet, something chewed at him from the inside out.
Hadn’t he been the one using her?
