“He was always proud of you, you know. Maybe it was a twin thing, I don’t know. But the sun rose and set with you. That was something we always had in common.”
I flick the water with my fingers and splash Gabe’s face. “Cut it out.” I refuse to waste this beautiful day feeling sad.
“I wish I could.”
“That’s it.” I drop my knees beneath me in the water and lean up so that I can place my hands firmly on his sun-warmed shoulders. I look in his eyes and say, “Gabriel North, you are killing my buzz.”
“Your buzz?”
“Yes! I just swam to the sandbar for the first time in my life and I’m totally stoked! So, stop being a buzz-kill.” I shove his shoulders and fall back on my heels, but he catches my wrists, surprising me when he pulls me into his arms.
He dips me below the surface and pulls me back up. “If you want to play, I’ll play,” he growls, and the tone of his voice sends unexpected excitement coursing through me. Maybe it’s the endorphins from swimming out here, the seclusion of the sandbar, or the simple peace of the open ocean, but I haven’t seen Gabe this unbridled in a long time, not since before the accident.
I ecstatically squeal and try to get away from him, but every time I make it a few feet, he pulls me back into his arms and dips me again.
“Gabriel, stop it!” I squeal, but my laughing only entices him more. Roxy jumps up and splashes down in the water beside us, barking and biting at Gabe’s shorts. “Get him, Rox,” I shout.
“No, Roxy!” He laughs. “Stop it!”
I finally get my feet under me and run away from him, splashing through the water. He watches me for a few seconds and then he leaps to his feet and runs toward me.
“No!” I try to sprint through the water, but it’s nearly impossible. I don’t get very far before his arms are wrapped around my waist and he’s pulling me completely up out of the water. He throws me over his shoulder like a caveman and walks around the sandbar proudly.
“Put me down, you Neanderthal!”
He laughs and struts along the sandbar with me slung over his shoulder. Roxy is no help. She’s swimming a few yards away. I beat my fists against his back, but he squeezes my thighs tighter and holds my legs firmly against his chest.
“Gabe! Seriously! I mean it! Put me down this instant!”
He laughs.
“I’ll pants you!” I hook my thumbs inside the waistband of his shorts. “I’m not kidding!”
He ignores me.
“Ugh. You are so frustrating!” I decide to just shut up and go limp. Maybe if he thinks I’m dead, he’ll put me down.
After a few long seconds of silence, he finally does, and I push him away. I narrow my eyes and shake my head at him. “You think you’re so cute, don’t you, with your new muscles?”
He grins and gives me a cocky look, reminiscent of—I can hardly allow myself to think it—the old Gabe. And although I’m fighting it as hard as I can, I smile too. “I really hate you, you know.”
“No, you don’t. Told me so yourself.”
“No...I don’t. But, no more caveman, okay? I’m not a fan of caveman.”
“All right. No more caveman. I promise.”
After playing on the sandbar and collecting sand dollars for the next half hour, the water rises a few inches above my knees.
“The tide’s coming in,” Gabe says. “We should probably head back.” He whistles for Roxy and she comes swimming over to us.
Shit. I have to swim across the abyss again.
“You ready?”
“Do I have a choice?”
“No. Not unless you really do want to become shark bait.”
“Shhh! Don’t even say that!”
He laughs and takes my hand. “Come on, shark bait, you can do it.”
God, can’t he just carry me on his back? He probably could. For you, Brandon. I’m doing this for you. And you better think I’m a freaking badass!
“After you,” I say coolly.
Gabe dives in and I follow behind him, just like before, with Roxy in the lead.
My arms burn and my feet kick frantically behind me until they find the ocean floor again. I stand up and sway back and forth in the waves that churn around my shoulders. I kick off the ocean floor and swim a little further until the waves are at my waist, and then I march through the water on my feet.
Ow! Something stung me. I look down, but only see the grayish-blue water surrounding me. It stings me again. “Ow!” I shriek loudly. “Gabe! Something’s stinging me!” I run my hands over my legs, where the pain is coming from.
Gabe is by my side in an instant. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Something stung me. I need to get out of the water.” I hold onto his arms and grimace from the pain that’s now radiating up my thighs.
He scoops me out of the water and carries me to the beach. He lays me down in the sand and Roxy comes running over to us. She licks my face and starts whimpering.
“It’s okay, Roxy. I’m okay.”
“Good girl, Rox. She’s okay. Sit down.” Gabe scans my body. “What was it? A jellyfish?”
“I think so. I didn’t see it, but it feels like a jellyfish sting. It’s burning.”
“Where?” He scans my body again.
My legs are pressed together where it stung me—right between my thighs. This cannot be happening. “Gabe, can you just go get a lifeguard or something?”
“There aren’t any lifeguards. Just show me where it stung you. I have a first-aid kit in my truck.”
I groan, in part from the pain of the sting, but also because I know that I have to show him where it stung me. I’m sure you think this is pretty funny, don’t you, Brandon?
“It stung the insides of my thighs,” I cry.
“Oh. Okay,” he says sweetly. If he wants to laugh, he’s doing a good job of hiding it. “Well, can I see?”
I give him an incredulous look.
“Liv,” he says seriously, “it’s not anything I haven’t seen before.”
I’m not sure if that makes me feel any better, but I know that I need him to look at it. It feels like my skin is on fire. I pull my knees apart and watch Gabe’s eyes fix on my inner thighs. As soon as I see his reaction, all sexual inferences vanish.
“Oooo, Liv, it really got you good.”
I look down and see my thighs streaked with small red welts that go all the way up to my bikini bottoms. If I wasn’t sure before, I am now. I’ve been stung by a jellyfish. It’s a hazard of playing in the ocean that I’ve fallen victim to before. I know the marks and pain will dissipate soon enough. But damn it hurts.
“I’m going to go get something for it, okay?”
I bob my head. “Okay, hurry.”
“Roxy, stay with Liv.”
She nudges me with her nose and rests her face against my arm.
“Good girl, Roxy.”
Gabe returns thirty seconds later with some Benadryl and a tube of hydrocortisone that I pray will extinguish the fire between my legs.
“Okay,” he says, twisting the cap off and squeezing a little onto his finger. “This should help.” He dabs it onto the red streaks, slowly working the medicine all over my thighs.