“You are not helping. We have a big test Friday. You should be studying too.”
“You’re right,” I say softly, nodding my head with my hands up in surrender. Rae pops a piece of gum in her mouth and narrows her blue gaze on me. I trudge slowly out of the bayou pretending to reach for a towel. Instead I lurch for Rae and toss her over my shoulder. She squeals and laughs while slapping my ass and back.
“Sy, no! Put me down,” she gasps, laughing loud as hell.
I pull her back in front of me and hook my hands under her arms then toss her back, deeper into the bayou. She breaks the surface of the dark water shaking her head but smiling all the same. I swim to her and gather her in my arms. God, she feels amazing. I’m the luckiest bastard in the entire school.
“How’s this for chemistry?” I whisper, grinning like a lunatic.
“My new favorite subject,” she breathes against my lips.
“Pop quiz. Think you’ll pass?” I ask brushing my lips lightly against hers as my hands explore her waist then hips then her perfect ass.
“I’m pretty confident I know the material,” she breathes seductively and I feel her legs tighten around my waist urging me onward. This is what we do. This is the magic we make, and it comes so easy. Conning Raegan Potter into falling in love with me is my greatest achievement to date.
The sound of radio chatter steals my attention from the memory of the raven-haired girl that used to love to swim with me.
“This is Year Ten to Lou, come in.”
“Sylas best get your tail off that water, son. Nasty storm bands comin’ in from the southeast. Radar looks awful bad and growing worse by the minute.”
“Roger that Lou. Headed to the marina now.” I hang the mic back in its cradle and fish a dry shirt out from beneath the center console. I tug it on and toss another dry shirt to Rae. “Put this on. And put this on,” I instruct tossing a life vest into her lap.
“Is this entirely necessary?” The look of trepidation in her blue eyes makes my stomach knot. Raging bitch-zilla or not, she’s still important to me.
“Hope not.” I shrug.
“That’s reassuring,” she mutters with her face turned toward the churning sky then to the water, which is growing choppy and rough. Rae wastes no time turning away from me and peeling off her wet shirt to replace it with a dry BCF T-shirt.
I slip the throttle forward and put Year Ten’s three outboard engines to work. They scream to life and put us on plane skipping over the surface of the water in no time. Rae’s white-knuckled grip on the edge of her seat doesn’t go unnoticed.
“You’re okay, Snow. I got you,” I shout over the motors. Rae’s azure eyes find mine but she’s silent and expressionless. The water grows choppier as the storms outflow wreaks havoc on the bay and though I cut through it as best I can Year Ten still rocks and hits heavily against the rough seas.
By the time we arrive at the slip we’re both soaked to the bone. The rain pelts down on us as I secure the dock lines and fenders to the sides of Year Ten. Rae just stands there on the dock, shivering and staring at me. I hop off Year Ten and loop my arm in Rae’s all but dragging her back to my truck.
“I have a place here. We can go get dry there and wait for these storms to clear out.”
“Just take me home Sylas,” Rae says nothing more than that. No insults, no jabs, no snide remarks. I’m immediately on defense. A quiet Rae is a scary Rae. My truck carries us the four miles to my cabin in no time. Only a few minutes after pulling out of the marina parking lot, we are driving down the pea gravel driveway leading to my cabin. I park the truck and hop out headed for Rae’s door but she’s beat me to it. She jumps down and slams my truck door shut then crosses her arms over her chest in the pouring rain.
“What?” I bark. “You’ve been stewing and rude, then laughing, then back again all day. Now suddenly it’s all radio silence. Say whatever it is you gotta say! Get it over with!” I shout over the wind and rain.
She looks around at my property and throws her hands up. “Home, Sylas. My home, in Palmetto Grove. I didn’t even want to be here, yet here I am. I’m supposed to be on my way back to DC but here we are, and you haven’t told me why. You tease and joke like we can just pick up where we left off like nothing has happened. Like this isn’t the world’s most awkward—” she huffs shaking her head. “There’s a pattern with us. Why is everything with you a goddamned train wreck? You’re a walking bad omen for me!”
“Everything with me is a train wreck? I’m a bad omen? Have you taken a look in the mirror lately, Ice Queen?” I march toward her stopping only inches away. “Last I checked, Rae, you were the one leavin’ me in your dust every chance you get, and without an explanation. You have always been the one pissin’ on the wheels of progress so don’t stand there spewing your bullshit at me. You’re also the one that needs to lighten the hell up so excuse me for trying to help you accomplish that. You want to talk about the heavy stuff instead? You think I don’t know that you’re hiding something from me?”
Just then lighting glows making a wicked spider web cross the sky above as thunder booms then leads into trailing rumbles.
“Home,” she growls with her mouth twisted into a furious bunch.
“Take a look around Rae! We aren’t going anywhere until this shit passes,” I boom stomping one boot into a puddle while tossing my arms outward in no particular direction. The muddy water splatters against both of us. Turning on my heel, I leave Rae standing in a growing mud puddle.
“This is exactly why I shouldn’t have come back!” she yells from behind me. “Everything about me is a joke to you! A conquest! I have always been some kind of sick hobby for you to pass the time, to pick at. You never took me—us—serious like I did. My life past, present and future is mine, Sylas and definitely not up for grabs to some asshole from high school.”
Anger and hurt curls its talons around my gut and I turn to face her, glad for the rain hiding the pain welling in my eyes. I’m a proud man but I’m not a robot. She’s the love of my life from high school and to her I’m just some asshole from high school? Her words hurt like hell. “A joke? You think this is a fuckin’ joke, Rae? Asshole from high school? You think every day I have felt empty without you is a joke? Is that how some high school asshole feels? Is that how an asshole who wasn’t serious about us feels? Think they all pine for their first love well after being a grown ass man? You think the jealousy this asshole felt every time I even consider you with some other man is a joke? You think the misery I have felt not having my best friend by my side is a joke? I can’t even call you on the goddamned phone, miss high and mighty!” I yell, shaking with anger or several other emotions I can’t name at present.
“Sylas—”
“Don’t! You don’t get to just say rotten shit like that and expect me to take it on the chin. I get that I hurt you by leaving and I kick myself every single day over it but you hurt me too. And as far as your past and present and future goes, all that’s mine too, and I dare you to try convincing me or anyone else, yourself included of anything different. You may not give in, and you can tell yourself one lie after another, hell you may even start to believe your own bullshit but you’ll never erase history, you’ll never erase us, and you’re a goddamn fool for trying.”