“It’s the most incredible bathtub in the entire world, and I’m pretty sure I’m moving in. Your folks won’t mind, will they?”
“As long as you don’t mind sleeping in here too, I’m sure they’ll be on board.”
“Perfect.” My voice is barely a murmur. These episodes completely zap my energy, leaving me a battered husk only good for bad jokes and propping doors open. But my eyes pop open when I remember the whole reason I ran over here like a moron. “Hey! What happened with the show? It’s gotta be past four by now.”
She waves me off, and I get my first lucid look at her since I showed up on her porch. She must have just changed for her acting thing because she’s dressed up in a sundress that ties behind her neck, showing off her delicate shoulders and throat. Half her dark hair is piled on top of her head while the other half lies in shiny waves down her back. Her face has more make-up than usual too, bringing attention to her full lips and sky-blue eyes. She not only looks beautiful, she looks older than the sixteen I know her to be. I swallow hard.
“Don’t worry. They said they’d wait for me.” She busies herself checking her dress in the mirror.
“How did you pull that off?” I distinctly remember the guy’s casual comment on the phone that Jill could easily be replaced. I’m pretty sure his bored tone was the very thing that sent me running my ass all the way here. This opportunity is important to Jill—in fact, it’s everything to her from the way she’s been talking about it for the last few weeks. It’s always the Brothers this and the Brothers that. Even in the middle of her lesson on clearing a diving mask, she had to surface from the water twice to tell me some “hilarious” stories about a cast pool party she’d snuck out for. Not my cup of tea, but whatever. And if it grates on me a little when she talks about those two actors who star in the show, it’s only because I think a show about vampire siblings solving crimes is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I’m not jealous. It’s not like Jill and I are dating or anything; we’re just friends. And being a part of that show makes her happy, so that’s the important part.
Jill shrugs and lets her eyes skip around the room, completely avoiding my eyes.
“What did you do this time?”
She furrows her brow and finally looks at me. “Nothing. I told you they said they’d wait for me. No big deal. But we might want to step things up here ’cuz I need to be there in thirty or I really will get fired.” She taps her wrist and then steps back. “How do I look?”
I want to say fucking gorgeous, but I don’t. She’s hiding something. “What did you do?”
She frowns and drops the act. “Fine. It’s no big deal. I just told him I’d go out with him.”
I sit up so sharply that my torso cramps and water sloshes over the edge of the tub. “What?!” Jill scrambles for some towels and covers the puddles before they can spread.
“Jeez. It’s no big deal.” She drops to her hands and knees on the tile to clean the mess. “He’s been bugging me to go out with him, and I figured, what the hell.”
I pull in a deep breath, and when it doesn’t hurt too bad, I turn to her. “I’ll tell you what the hell.” I’m trying not to seethe, but know I’m failing. “That guy has got to be in his twenties, and you’re sixteen!”
Her eyes flash up from the towels. “But he thinks I’m twenty-two, remember? He also thinks my name is Jenna but I prefer being called Jill.” She rolls her eyes like this is one big joke.
I lean closer. “You need to call this off. It’s dangerous, not to mention you didn’t even need to do it in the first place. I was fine. You should have just gone in at four.”
She snaps her eyes to me again, this time only a foot away. “You weren’t fine. You looked like you were dying.” Her chin wobbles, and a sheen of tears washes over her eyes. My chest immediately constricts, only this time it’s not from my injuries.
I take pains to calm my tone. If she starts crying, I’m a dead man. That day on the pier when she wiped a tear away, I wanted to punch myself for putting it there—and I promised myself I’d never do it again. “It looks worse than it is, Sunshine. I promise.” I don’t mind lying if it will make her feel better.
“Are you just lying to make me feel better?” She completely calls me out.
Before I know what I’m doing, I reach a hand out and cup her chin with my thumb and forefinger, not caring that I’m dripping water on her pretty dress. “Never,” I lie again, and then we’re both leaning in.
The reality of what we’re doing doesn’t hit me until we’re maybe an inch apart and my fucking phone rings, pinging the sound around the huge bathroom, taking advantage of its ridiculously awesome acoustics. We both jump back and Jill springs to her feet to grab the phone from the counter where we left it. I stand in the tub, letting the water drip from my board shorts and t-shirt I didn’t bother to remove before getting in. I know I need to get out of here. What if her parents walk in? They’d probably call the cops on me. And what was I doing almost kissing her? She doesn’t belong with me.
“It says it’s someone named Rayna.” Jill holds the phone out toward me with a frown. I open my mouth to tell her Rayna’s just a friend and to let it go to voicemail, but then I watch as her eyes drop down my body. I realize too late that my shorts have ridden up, exposing almost my entire right thigh and the very worst of my wounds.
The doctors said the blades of the propeller took out probably a pound of tissue from my thigh. I told them it looked more like a shark attack than a boat accident. They didn’t disagree. The blades shredded the skin of my calf, the right half of my torso and back, and kept on going up my arm, shoulder, neck, chin, and head. It was a miracle I didn’t lose a limb—or worse.
Her gasp isn’t at all unexpected; I’d just been determined to avoid it. I yank down the leg of the shorts to cover as much as I can and then do my best to exit the tub without falling. Jill comes toward me to help, but even in my peripheral vision, I can see she’s reluctant to touch me. Hell, I’m actually kind of impressed she didn’t pass out like my mom did when she first saw it.
“Milo.” Her voice is quiet, so I fill the void for her.
“Hey, I gotta go. Thanks for the soak—it did wonders.” I paste on a fake smile but still don’t look at her. The leg isn’t nearly as tight as I thought it would be, so I’m able to make it down the staircase alone. She doesn’t come after me, and I don’t even try to apologize for the trail of water I leave in my wake.
She’s got a show to get to, and I don’t belong here anyway.
Chapter Eighteen
JILL
The lights are still on when I park the ancient Toyota Tercel in the gravel drive. Milo wasn’t lying about the clutch, but it was kind of fun driving this old thing around town. It reminded me of a particular night halfway through my junior year in high school when I did some very naughty things in the backseat of a car eerily similar to this one. What was that guy’s name anyway? Nate something. Nate Mathers. That was it. I told Jenna and my mom about it the very next day and almost got whiplash with the speed at which my mom hauled my ass to the gynecologist to get me on the pill. Jenna was home for some reason I can’t remember and spent most of the following week either scolding me or just frowning at me, but I was happy to be rid of my virginity. I know she couldn’t understand why I’d just give it away to some guy I wasn’t serious about, but I didn’t see it as a big deal.