The Seventh Day (17 page)

If he’s right, my dad knew and never came for me. So
to me, that makes Kyle completely wrong.
No matter what.

I sip the coffee as Lee gets in the backseat.

Kyle leans over, giving me his smug grin. “You
okay? Did I scare you too badly?”

I shake my head. “Just the right amount.” I can’t
stop grinning back at him, even if I think he’s a
fat-headed
jackass who plays pranks at the worst moments. “I’m still going to get my
revenge.”

“I expect nothing less.” He toasts by clinking our to-go
cups together. I can’t help but notice he stares at me for a second longer than
I would consider normal. The stupid grin on his face doesn't leave. It makes me
nervous so I ask the first thing I can think of, “How did you heat the coffee?”

Lee leans forward, splitting our conversation with
her slim body. “They had some crazy propane grill in their staff room so we
heated the bottled water and grabbed the instant coffee packets. Yours is
pumpkin spice.” She hands me a bag of nuts. “We found these too.”

I crack open the bag and savor the salty goodness
of the roasted nuts.

Kyle takes one and looks back at the window
impatiently. “Man, they are taking forever. They need to hurry that action up.”
He gives Lee a look. “Don't get me wrong—your sister seems nice.”

I swat him but Lee just rolls her eyes. “She’s
flexible, morally.”

Her answer makes him laugh. When he smiles,
genuinely and not like a jerk, he’s cute. His brown hair and green eyes are a
pretty deadly combination.

Not that it matters now. Nothing matters. It dawns
on me then, staring at that perfectly cute boy with a crazy sense of humor,
that it won’t ever be a matter of living life and wanting simple things like
falling in love or going to college. I have a terrible feeling it will always
be a matter of survival.

If everywhere is like here then the whole world is
broken, and I’m only seeing it now, as if I can see the flashes of disaster
playing in his eyes like a TV. There is no way to fix what’s been broken. The
mess is too large and there just doesn’t seem to be enough of us who aren’t
ruined.

Movement behind him catches my eye again but it’s
not what I think it is. I expect something, not someone. I expect the worst,
and in some version of my mind it is. It’s Miles and Erin, smiling away at each
other. The way they’re looking at each other and brushing hands against one
another’s makes it look like they’re strolling on a beach. Miles says something
and Erin shoves him, laughing like they don't have to fear every shadow around
them. They don't even see the shadows; they’re making their own light and even
I can see it.

Kyle follows my gaze, looking behind himself. “Oh
damn. You scared me. I thought something was creeping up the way you were
looking behind me.”

Erin and Miles are laughing as they climb in the
backseat, tossing bags of snacks and bottles of water and juice in the very
back of the Hummer. Miles slaps the back of the driver’s seat. “Let’s do this.”
Suddenly the guy who didn't think this was a good idea is excited we’re here.

“We were just waiting on you two,” Kyle mutters as
he starts the vehicle and throws it in gear, revving the large engine through
the silent night. I can imagine the sound reverberating off the buildings and
streets. In the streets we pass by the shadows that move, filled with the
things that go bump in the night. I don't know where we are, but I know the farther
we get from home, the more convinced I am that everything is gone.

“We’re here.” The words make me open my eyes,
instantly shocked to see the bright blue of the sky and the ocean. I blink
several times, caught up in the white fluffy clouds hovering in the sky and
branches on trees swaying, in what I imagine is a warm ocean wind. It’s the
West Coast; it’s always a little warmer than home.

I lift my head, seeing the tired eyes of Miles
standing in the open door of the SUV. He nods at the mansion to the right of
me. “Let’s go. Let’s go see if we have found the place you girls are so
convinced of. I really hope your dad’s there, Lou. He’d be a real asset in a moment
like this one.” He runs his hands though his auburn hair, scratching his head
roughly. “You know, I always wanted to be him. Going off on his cool missions
to save the world. He’s still my hero.”

I nearly sigh as I undo my seat belt and climb out,
stretching and shaking my head. “Yeah, me too. Where are we?”

Miles shrugs. “The West Coast. Some island. The bridge
was still intact so we came here. This house is vacant and the road was empty.
No biters. That road trip was brutal, huh? No fast food. No cell phones or GPS.
I bet we took the long way a couple times.”

I lick my lips and nod. “And this is the last leg
of the journey. Thank God. We really need somewhere safe to be for the
littles.”

He lifts a hand to my arm, brushing against my
jacket. “Hey, even if your dad isn’t there, I just want you to know everything
will be okay, Lou. I’ll always keep you safe. The rest of the world might fall
away into chaos but as long as we stay together, we’ll be safe.”

I want to take it the wrong way. I want it to mean
that he cares about me in the way I care about him. But he doesn't. He cares
about me the way he cares about Jamie, Sasha, and Joey. He doesn't imagine
touching my hair or smelling my neck. He doesn't imagine what it would be like
to kiss me with his eyes closed, and not on the cheek. I nod again blankly,
because I don't want him to know that I have loved him since he saved me in
elementary school.

Kyle rounds the corner of the house, lifting his
finger to his lips. “No one’s here and the boat
is
bigger than even I thought it would be. Let’s roll. It’s feeling too calm and
too easy. This never ends well in the movies. Look at
Die Hard with a Vengeance!”

Miles smiles at me once more. “Let’s go see if your
dad made it back from Russia, before Kyle starts acting out the scenes for us.”
He turns and walks past Kyle who stands there, leaning against the house with
his middle finger in the air. After a moment I have to assume he’s waiting for
me. He grins, watching me as if he knows what I’m thinking.

“What?”

He shakes his head. “Nothing.”

“No, you’ve been staring at me a lot. What’s up? Do
I have something on my face?”

“I was just wondering if you were missing
World of Warcraft
?” He laughs.

“Shut up.” I roll my eyes and saunter past him,
toward the water.

“No, seriously. I miss it.” He turns, walking next
to me.

I glance over, doubt plastered across my face. “Oh,
you play too, huh?” I shake my head and walk down to the water, my eyes scanning
constantly for movement. He mutters something but I don't pay attention.

Lee waves at me from the dock at the bottom of the
massive yard belonging to the huge house. It’s the nicest waterfront home I’ve
ever seen—expansive is the word that it brings to mind. Lee’s golden
curls glow in the sunlight as she bounces up the grass to us. “Hurry up. Erin
found a map on the boat. That land right there is the island. The military base
is right across this sound from us.”

Kyle points at the land across the water from us.
“We’re on Camano Island, if I read that old paper map I found earlier correctly.
The naval base is in the north of Whidbey but on the other side of the island. If
the island has been saved from the biters, then we should be safe the moment we
touch down on that soil.”

I give him a look as Lee bounds to us. “Then we
make the long journey home to get my sister and my friends.”

“I never said the safety was going to last forever.
It’s overrated anyway.” He winks, being cocky again, and saunters down to the
huge silver boat in the water. I can’t even imagine him playing WOW. He seems
like he might play rugby or those snooty horse games with his rich East Coast friends
and wear collared shirts when they all eat later in the country club. It isn’t
even the rich-boy antics. He’s also a frat boy extraordinaire—there’s no
denying that. The only part of him that fits WOW at all is all the
Die Hard
quotes. He’s obsessed with the franchise
more than I ever expected a snooty WASP like him to be. All the guys on WOW
talk about movies like that.

Lee stops in front of me, beaming. “I’ve never seen
the Pacific before.” Her eyes dart up to the house behind me. “How amazing is
this place? My grandpa has a house like this in Chicago but not on the water
like this one. If the world really is over, we have to find something like this
to live in.” She’s still talking, something about a friend with a house in
Nantucket, but I stop listening the moment I see Miles and Erin talking on the
boat. She lifts her face, tilting it to the side. Her black hair ruffles as a
cool breeze blows over us all. He raises a hand and runs it through her hair,
smiling before he lowers his lips onto hers and something cracks in my chest.

It reminds me of tenth grade when Miles was dating
a girl named Sabrina Holt. They kissed all the time, but the first time I ever
saw it was the moment Sasha and Jamie figured out how I felt about Miles. They
saw my face and they knew instantly.

Lee is no different. She stops talking and looks
back with me. “Oh, yeah. So that happened along the road trip. I imagine it was
in Starbucks. They were very sure me and Kyle should head back to check on you.”
When her eyes meet mine again I can tell she can see it all. “Oh damn, dude.
I’m so sorry. She can’t help it, ya know. She’s just so pretty and funny and
cool. It’s like a moth to a flame.” She winces. “Erin was tall and beautiful from
the moment she was born. She was always the dark-haired beauty, even as a baby.
She was a model at six months old. It was so
unfair,
my whole life has been spent shorter with frizzy hair. My pale skin didn’t tan,
no matter how hard I tried. I burnt and peeled, only to reveal brand new white
skin. But she would spend an hour outside and look like she had summered in the
South of France.” Her soft words floated around in the wind. “Sometimes I made
fun of the fact we were like that movie
Twins
with Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. My mom made us watch it and all I
saw was
us
—her looking perfect and me, not so
much. But having her for a sister was like being a part of her cool club and
admission had been closed to the public the minute I was born. It’s not all
bad. She’s an amazing person.”

I feel every word she says and I’m a little sorry
for her. I would never say Lee isn't pretty, but she just clearly isn't Erin. I
can’t imagine a life spent measuring up to that—that being the bar for
me.

She smiles bitterly. “I could have hated her. It would
have been easy but in truth she is the best sister in the world. And it is never
her fault that all the guys fall for her. They can’t help it. She’s a pretty
perfect person. All round.” She doesn't say another thing but I know at least
once there has been a guy—one Lee must have loved and Erin never knew. I
can hear the rest of the story there, in the silence.

“I think you’re prettier than she is.” My words are
soft. She laughs, not believing what I’m saying so I look her straight in the
eyes and nod. “You are pretty in a way that people don't see right away. It’s
the kind of beautiful that's still there, even when the looks fade. The kind of
pretty that when you do see it, it shines brighter than anything.” And it’s
true. Her vulnerability, and yet strength, make her who she is. The way she
laughs and cares and befriends everyone with a pulse. She’s easygoing, and yet
complicated in the right ways. The kind she doesn't share with other people.
She is pretty in a way that I can see is attached to who she is. She carried
her sister when she was sick. She begged for her life. She risked her own life and
didn't even consider that’s what it was. I could have shot her or turned them
away. Or worse. Had I been Danny Hillman she would have suffered trying to save
her sister. But she still would have done it. She has come all the way across
America looking for her father. She is exactly the sort of person you want to
love you. And, unfortunately, I suspect Erin is as well. They are both good
people. They would die for each other and to me that's the mark of true love
and loyalty.

“If he is only interested in her for her looks, you
don't want him anyway.” She leans in and hugs me. “Now let’s go see if this
place is safe.”

Forcing Miles out of my head, I nod. I need to be
excited about the possibility that my father might be there on the island.

I saunter behind Lee down to the water, focusing on
the important stuff. The boat is large, allowing all five of us in the cab.
Kyle starts it up, grinning as the engine roars. “I have always wanted to drive
one of these.”

“Watch for deadheads.” Miles slaps him on the back
but his eyes never leave Erin. I don't know what that is but I assume it’s bad.
Deadhead sounds like a shark or something.

Kyle scoffs. “Please.” He backs the boat away from
the dock slowly and then guns it, staring right at Miles with a smirk.

Having only been on small boats, I’m not prepared
for the jostle or unease in my stomach as we get out into the middle of the
ocean. I slump into one of the chairs and watch out the window. My stomach gurgles
as Lee drops into a seat next to me. “I hate boats, unless I’m wakeboarding,
and even then I prefer lakes.”

I nod, shuddering. “The water is really rough
compared to the lakes back home.”

“This isn’t so bad. I’ve been on worse. After a
hurricane on the East Coast is pretty intense.” Kyle glances back, grinning
until he sees our faces. “Ohhh, you girls look bad. You are both green—really
green. Man, that was fast.”

When I look around, my eyes fuzz a little. My ears
are drawn to the back of the boat, following a muffled laugh. Out on the back
of the boat Erin smiles wide, dazzling even me, and says something to make
Miles grin in anticipation. I wish, just once, he would look at me that way.
Just once.

Warmth encases my hand as my attention snaps back
around to Kyle gripping and tugging me gently. “Come up here.” He pulls me from
the seat and puts my hand on the steering wheel. “Hold it tight and watch the
waves.” His arms encircle mine, making my entire back shiver with heat. “See
that dark spot, right there?” He lifts one hand and points in my line of sight.

I let my feelings all fall away, all of them, and
nod. “Yeah.”

“That's a deadhead.
Like a log or
some kind of debris.
We need to move to the right and avoid it.” He puts
a bit of pressure on the wheel with me, making me turn it slightly. The boat
leans to the right, avoiding the dark spot I can tell is a log when we get
close enough. My stomach starts to feel a bit better being distracted so I look
back and nod at Lee. “Come help me steer. It’s making my seasickness go away.”

She jumps up, ignoring Kyle’s hands and stands next
to me. Cool air rubs against my back as he steps back, leaning against the wall
as we drive. “You ladies got this?”

“Don't go too far. I don't swim as well as one would
need here.” Lee smiles weakly at him, looking ever so slightly less green
around the gills.

I give her a look. “We got this—” Kyle’s body
is instantly around mine as he swerves the boat and grins at Lee. “Yeah, we got
this.”

She laughs but I look out the back at the thing I
nearly hit. Just as my eyes land on Erin and Miles, Kyle steps in my way. “What’s
the plan, once we get to the other side, champ?”

I lift my face, seeing a mocking spark in his
stare. “Why am I the champ?”

He cocks an eyebrow. “Jamie said you kept those
little kids alive and saved Sasha. That's pretty intense. She said the heavy
artillery was yours too. That's badass for such a little girl.”

“I’m not a little girl and the guns aren’t mine.
They were my dad’s. I stole them from his gun locker.”

The gleam brightens in his green eyes as they dart
from me to the water as he helps Lee steer. “But you can shoot? And you can
drive.”

I shrug. “Most kids around where I live can shoot,
and everyone has to know how to drive.”

He laughs softly. “You just can’t take a
compliment, can you?”

“I don't think I’m a champ, and I think you’re
mocking me so the compliment is less than sincere.”

“Girl, please.” Lee smiles, no longer green at all.
“You are. You’re totally
champ
worthy.” She gleams at
Kyle. “How do you know how to drive a boat?” She bats her lashes and I realize
she has a look in her eyes.

“My family has a summer house on the water. We
drive boats all over.” He lays it on thick. If she didn't know his family was
incredibly rich before, she does now.