Waiting for the Storm (13 page)

“How do you know?” Kennedy asked, blond brows arching over the white rims of her sunglasses.

“I don’t sleep well at night, so I…ended up there last night,” I explained.

“Alone?” Kennedy asked.

I shuffled from foot to foot, the dry grass crunching under my feet.

“You went with Ezra,” Miranda said. It was a statement rather than a question. When I simply nodded, she nodded too. “He doesn’t sleep well, either.” She said it quietly, thoughtfully, and I wondered how much she knew about Ezra. They’d all grown up together—had they known or perhaps guessed that Ezra’s dad was an abusive drunk? Did they know how hard he had to work just to keep on top of everything?

“I think you two will be good for each other,” Miranda said.

Kennedy let out a strangled sound of disbelief. “How can you say that when you know I’ve been crushing on him forever?”

Miranda waved a dismissive hand. “Girl, please. You know you are
so
not his type. If he hasn’t asked you out by now, he’s not gonna.”

Kennedy huffed, and I could feel her eyes on me behind her dark lenses. “Fine,” she said at length, raising her chin a notch. “You have my blessing.”

I wanted to laugh, but somehow didn’t think it would be appropriate. “Umm, thanks?”

“You’re very magnanimous,” Miranda told her, sending a smirk my way.

“That better mean something good,” Kennedy said, sitting up a bit straighter.

Miranda sighed, and I took that as my cue to leave. I told them I’d see them later, and their chattering voices followed me through the still air as I made my way back to my bike.

*****

That night, half an hour or so before sunset, I looked out my bedroom window and saw someone swimming in the lake. I didn’t often see people going beyond hip-deep, so I was surprised to see someone so far out, their head bobbing along before ducking under the surface.

The person swam toward shore, and when I saw the dark head and tanned shoulders, I realized it was Ezra. Excited to see him out so early, I slipped my sandals on and hurried outside. I had seen him earlier when I returned from the library, and he’d been pleased I was going to be volunteering and writing for their blog. He’d promised to see me later on the beach, but I hadn’t expected it to be so soon.

I sat on the sand hill, and when he saw me he swam in my direction. As he stood and waded toward me, he wiped water from his face, shaking out his hair and sending glistening droplets everywhere. My body began to tingle at the sight.

“Hey, baby girl,” he called. Surprised and ridiculously delighted with the unexpected term of endearment, I grinned like an idiot and got to my feet. “I’ll get out and join you.”

Despite his words, he stopped at the edge of the water and stood there, looking at me. Unconsciously, I took a few steps forward and stopped just before my feet reached the water’s edge.

He took my hands and held onto them. “Do you trust me?” he asked softly.

I nodded without hesitation. He knew my secrets; how could I not trust him?

“Kick off your flip flops,” he told me. I did, and let him lead me slowly into the water. We were just barely more than ankle deep when he laughed quietly, and said, “Breathe, Charlotte.”

The air whooshed from my lungs and I met his eyes with an embarrassed smile.

“Talk to me,” he coaxed. “Why are you afraid of the water?”

“Fish.”

He laughed, and the sound of it had my lips curving in response. “Fish?”

“Yes.” He continued to lead me deeper, and stopped when the water touched my knees. “I almost drowned when I was little,” I told him, clutching his hands in a death grip. “But I don’t think that’s it, not really. The water’s just so…vast. Who knows what’s out there? My heart starts to race just thinking about it.”

He raised his hand to my chest, laying it over my heart. His hand was wet, and despite being warm, the contact made me shiver. My heart gave a little flutter, then started beating even harder.

Ezra’s eyes rose to meet mine.

“Part of that is just my regular reaction to being close to you,” I told him quietly.

His answering smile was slow and sexy, and had my toes curling into the wet sand. He pulled me close and kissed me. His lips were soft and gentle at first—a bare, teasing touch—but they soon turned insistent, and he deepened the kiss. His hands slid down my body to grip my hips tightly and pull me closer until I was flush against him. My clothes were getting wet, but I didn’t care. I matched his intensity, kissing him back just as hungrily.

When we pulled apart, I wrapped my arms around his neck and he entwined his around my waist, lifting my feet off the bottom of the lake. I giggled and held onto him tighter, burying my face in his neck. Ezra’s heart pounded against mine, and I was relieved to know I wasn’t the only one who had a case of the heart flutters.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Ezra’s phone beeped and he glanced at the screen. “That’s my cue.”

My stomach sank as I watched him get to his feet and brush sand from his shorts. Earlier in the evening we’d spent about five more minutes in the water, watching it turn red from the bleeding light of the setting sun, and then Ezra had carried me—
carried me!
—onto shore. He’d disappeared into his house to change out of his swim trunks, and had returned with two bowls of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

We’d been sitting there since, talking and laughing, but I knew it was only a matter of time before he got a message to pick up Adam.

He looked down at me expectantly. “You coming?”

I stared up at him in disbelief. “You want me to go with you?”

“My secret’s out now, Charlotte. You’re going to be up all night anyway, right? Why not be up with me?”

Up all night with Ezra. Oh, there were those heart flutters again. A slow smile spread across my face, and I held my hand out for him to help me to my feet. “You make a convincing argument,” I told him.

He laughed and slung his arm around my waist, pulling me close as we crossed the beach and headed for the Impala.

Just like last night, our first stop was Adam. We found him in the same place on the couch, but the girls on either side of him were different. I just barely managed to contain a laugh as he extricated himself from their eager hands and followed us out to the car.

“So are you, like, Robin to Ezra’s Batman now?” Adam asked me after he’d climbed into the backseat and Ezra had ordered him to put on his seatbelt.

I glanced at Ezra, whose eyes were alight with amusement. “Are you in the market for a sidekick?” I asked him.

“I wasn’t until you came along.”

I couldn’t help the smile that crept onto my face.

“That’s a yes then?” Adam called from the backseat. “You’re lucky, man. Sidekicks usually aren’t as hot as yours.”

I started to laugh, but Ezra shot Adam a narrow-eyed look in the rearview mirror. “Watch it,” he warned.

Adam held up his hands defensively. “Dude, in case you didn’t notice, I have no problem with the ladies.”

I bit my lip and slid a glance in Ezra’s direction. When our eyes met, we both cracked up.

Adam popped up between our seats as he had last night, and I jumped, laughing harder.

“Have I told you how much I like you?” Adam asked, grinning drunkenly at me. “You’re, like, awesome. I can’t remember the last time I saw this guy smile, let alone laugh.” He punched Ezra lightly on the shoulder.

Ezra looked at me out of the corner of his eye, probably trying to gauge my reaction. What did I say to that? Until Ezra, I hadn’t laughed this way in months. I’d almost forgotten it was possible. I didn’t want to say that in front of Adam, though.

“Tunes time,” Adam announced, reaching forward and turning the radio on.

“Put your seatbelt on, Adam,” Ezra and I said at the same time.

Adam laughed and fell back into his seat. “The two of you are, like…sympatico.” He held his hands in front of his face and intertwined his fingers to illustrate his point. When his eyes crossed, he dropped his hands and started bobbing his head along to the music, eyes closed.

The drive didn’t seem as long this time, and after we dropped Adam off at his house, the car seemed to ring with the sudden silence.

“Does he always sing that…enthusiastically?” I asked as Ezra pulled back onto the street.

“Always,” he replied wearily. “Somehow it’s marginally more tolerable with you here, though.”

“Because misery loves company?”

Ezra laughed loudly, and the unexpected sound of it was so amazing, it made me grin. “Something like that.”

We drove in silence for a while, then he asked, “Why don’t you drive?”

The question was as unexpected as his laugh from a few moments before. “I guess it kind of goes back to the whole fear thing,” I said slowly. “Mom was supposed to teach me, but…”

He slid me a look that was part understanding, part sympathy.

“I never really had much interest in driving,” I confessed. “In the city we live near trains, buses, streetcars, or within walking distance of whatever we needed. The only reason I agreed to let Mom teach me was because it was something she wanted to do, but then when she got sick it just didn’t happen. Now…I don’t know, it’s like open water—there are so many unknowns, so many scary possibilities.” I looked out into the dark night and shook my head. “I’m sure that sounds absolutely ridiculous. What almost-eighteen-year-old doesn’t want to drive?”

“It’s not ridiculous,” he said. “My mom never learned to drive.”

“Really?” He hardly ever volunteered information about his mother.

“Yep. Didn’t see the need, she always said. Everything she needed was right here on the island, and if she needed to leave there was always someone willing to take her.”

A few moments of silence passed while Ezra seemed to be thinking something over. Finally he said, “I could teach you. I know it wouldn’t be the same as your mom teaching you, but…”

“Okay,” I said, touched by his offer. I remembered back to my first week on the island when he would disappear at night and give me an ‘assignment’ to accomplish while he was gone. Was taking me into the water and teaching me how to drive an assignment for me or for him?

He pulled over onto the shoulder of the road and turned the engine off.

I looked at him with wide, bewildered eyes. “You didn’t mean right now?”

“Sure. Why not?” He unbuckled his seatbelt.

“Uhh, because it’s dark,” I said slowly, as if speaking to a child. “Pitch dark. Unfamiliar roads. And there could be…animals out there.” I waved toward the wooded area on the other side of the road.

Ezra laughed. “Animals? What do they have to do with you learning to drive?”

“They could run out onto the road!”

Ezra’s lips twitched, but he managed to hold in another laugh. “Look, I won’t make you go far. I’ll just teach you the basics and then we can head out sometime during the day if that’ll make you feel better.”

“What would make me feel better is not doing this at all.” I could feel the panic rising, and it was making my voice snappish. I took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down.

“Charlotte,” Ezra said quietly. When I didn’t look at him, he grasped my chin with his thumb and forefinger and tugged my face gently in his direction. “You don’t have to do this. I’m not going to make you. But if you don’t do it now, then
when
? You can say ‘some other day’, but what are the chances you’ll keep putting it off because you’re too scared?”

I grumbled under my breath. He was right, of course. Damn him anyway.

He smiled slightly. “That’s what I thought. So we’re going to do this now, and we can stop whenever you want.” He reached to unhook my seatbelt, then opened his door. “You shift over and I’ll go around and get in your side…you know, in case there are any animals out there that might be attracted by your presence.”

I laughed despite myself and swatted at him, but he was too fast. I scooted over into the driver’s seat and did up my seatbelt, feeling the warmth left from Ezra’s body.

When he’d closed the door and fastened his seatbelt, he motioned toward the ignition. “Start the car,” he told me. I turned the key hesitantly, and the engine roared to life. “Good, now the basics. Check the rearview mirror and make sure you can see behind you.”

I stretched in my seat, but the mirror was angled too high.

“It doesn’t really matter tonight since you can’t see much of anything anyway, but we’ll go over that again during the day,” Ezra assured me. “Same with the side mirrors. Okay now put your foot on the brake…that’s the left pedal…” I shot him a look and he laughed. “Sorry, but you’d be surprised how many people need to have that pointed out to them.”

“Done this before, have you?”

“Not exactly,” he said slowly.

“Who taught you how to drive?”

“Lilah. When I was about fifteen, she gave me lessons so that by the time I was sixteen I was ready to get my license.”

“It was you who needed to be told which was the brake and which was the gas, wasn’t it?” I asked.

He scrunched up his face in embarrassment and nodded.

“That actually makes me feel better.” I pressed the brake and put the car into drive. “Now what?”

“Ease your foot off the brake and onto the gas. It’s kind of touchy, so don’t press too hard.” I did as he said, but the car jerked forward, eliciting a cry of surprise from me. “Easy,” he soothed, and I let up on the gas and coasted forward. I was going at a crawl, but I was doing it, and that’s what mattered. “Good, now give it a little more gas. You’ll need it to get up that little incline there.”

With my hands clutching the wheel and my eyes fastened to the road ahead of me, I pushed the gas pedal a little harder and managed to get us up the hill. “I’m doing it!” I took my eyes off the road for a second to glance at Ezra, who had a huge, proud smile on his face. I quickly returned my gaze to the road and realized I was going too fast for comfort considering I could barely see a few feet in front of the car.

Panicked, I slammed on the brakes and we both jerked forward.

“Jeeze, what happened?” Ezra asked, yanking on his seatbelt where it must have cut into him from the abrupt stop.

Cheeks flaming, I leaned forward and rested my forehead on my hands, which were still clutching the wheel in a death grip. “I’m sorry! “It’s so dark, and I just freaked out, and…”

Ezra touched my back tentatively, then began to rub it in slow, comforting circles. “It’s okay,” he said quietly. “It was a bad idea. I shouldn’t have pressured you.”

I sat up, but not enough to make him remove his hand. “No, you’re sweet to want to help me. I really appreciate it, I just…I guess I’m not quite ready.” I put the car in park and unfastened my seatbelt. I cringed when I realized the car was in the middle of the road, and thought it was a good thing there was little to no traffic at this time of night. “I didn’t hurt you did I? When I slammed on the brakes?”

“Hurt? No. Traumatize…maybe.” His eyes danced with mirth, and this time when I went to swat him, my hand connected with his arm. “Is that any way to treat someone you just traumatized?”

I leaned over and kissed his arm where I’d hit him. “Better?”

His expression turned serious, and he shook his head. He unbuckled his seatbelt and shifted to face me, taking my face in his hands and kissing me thoroughly. “
Now
it’s better,” he murmured against my lips.

It was suddenly hard to breathe. My lips tingled and my blood thrummed through my veins, pulsing loudly in my ears. It was a good thing our little driving lesson was over because I was starting to get lightheaded.

Ezra grinned, as if aware of the effect he had on me. But unless I was mistaken—and I didn’t think I was—I had the same effect on him. It was a heady, power-rush kind of feeling.

“Switch,” he said.

“I’ll get out this time,” I told him. “I’m suddenly not so afraid of the animals.”

I climbed from the car, and as Ezra moved back to the driver’s seat, he called out the window, “You probably scared them away when you slammed on the brakes anyway.”

“Har har,” I replied dryly, making a face at him as I passed through the beams of the headlights.

We drove to the diner, finding the same crowd as last night. We ordered mozzarella sticks to share, and were halfway through when Ella walked in on the arm of a guy I’d never seen before.

I slunk down in my seat and Ezra turned to see what I was looking at. His expression darkened, and he twisted back to face me. “She has a knack for picking the guys with the worst reputations on the island.”

My mozza stick suddenly tasted like ashes in my mouth. “What’s wrong with him?”

“You know how you thought I was a dealer before you found out what I really do at night?” he asked. “Well,
he
really
is
a dealer.”

I groaned. “Where does she meet these guys?”

“I saw him on the beach the other night with another girl,” Ezra told me. “Must be where they met. He’s from Kingston, but he and his family rent a beach house here every summer. Kids around here do a fair bit of drinking, but not many are into the drug scene. Doesn’t stop him from trying to push his stuff, though.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. I wasn’t sure what Ella was even into these days. When she partied with my old crowd back home, I’d heard she had almost gotten out of control a few times, and I’d wondered if she’d taken drugs, but I was never sure, and it’s not like she would tell me if I came out and asked. She was impressionable and wanted to fit in, so it wouldn’t have surprised me if she did whatever it took to keep up her image.

She and the guy headed back for the door, carrying take-out bags. I really didn’t want her to see me, so I slid even further in my seat, and as I did, she looked across the diner and our gazes locked. She paused for a second, her eyes narrowing, and a nasty smile spreading across her face. It was like I could read her mind—she was pleased to find me trying to hide from her. She saw it as some sort of messed-up victory over me.

Before I could move, the guy with her said something and she looked up at him adoringly. I almost gagged. He looked in my direction and asked her something. Ella’s expression turned hard, and I read her lips as she said, ‘That’s just my sister’. He stared at me for a minute, his dark eyes giving me the heebies. I was afraid he would convince my sister to come over to our table, but she tugged impatiently on his sleeve, and the two of them left.

I let out a long breath and straightened in my seat, pushing the plate of food toward Ezra.

“Want me to take you home?” he asked.

“So I can sit and worry about what a mess my sister’s making of her life? No.” I shook my head resolutely. “I’ve spent enough time doing that. I’d rather be with you.”

One corner of his mouth lifted. “Good. I’d be pretty lonely without my sidekick.”

*****

A shrill sound pierced the silence. It was somewhere between a kettle shrieking and that incessant squeak of a swing set in desperate need of oiling. I pried my eyes open and blinked against the brightness of my room. The sunlight was soft and sparkly—early morning light—and I knew I couldn’t have been asleep long.