Page 40 of Shadows of Before

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Boy, they had fun. The water on Onondaga Lake was nearly 80. Katie had looked it up on the way over. She watched Will take off his shirt and put on sunscreen. His skin glistened in the rays.

He studied her. “Come on, take your clothes off.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” She unbuttoned the first button of her bathing suit cover, then the second and when she finished, she let if fall to ground.

“Holy Mother of God. It’s…fits like it was painted on you.”

That was true. She’d chosen a speedo with a high back to cover most of the bruises. But it hugged her in all the right places. For the first time since Annie was kidnapped, Kate wanted to show off.

She walked toward him, her hips swaying. They were in a public place. He grabbed her and pressed up against a tree. Kissed her hard. When he stepped away, he said, “Now we’re even.” He took her hand. They ran toward the beach. Hit the water together. “Let’s swim out to that raft.”

“You’re on. Wanna race?”

“Yes—and he was off. He got a head start on her.”

But she caught up and went ahead. He caught up. They see-sawed for the lead but Kate touched the raft first. Hefted herself up…oh, what…she went in the water as he dunked her.

She came up sputtering. “Poor loser.”

He laughed.

They sunned themselves on the deck. The warm, warm rays felt good on her wet body. She got even warmer when he took her hand. “Your back’s better but still discolored.”

“It feels a lot better.”

They sunbathed for an hour, lost in their own thoughts, or making small talk. At one point, Will sat up. “Look at the grass beyond the sand.” She sat up. “A flock of swans. How cool.”

“I used to come up here with my high school friends. There are turkeys around here, too.”

She laid back down. “What mischief did you get into up here?”

“I’ll never tell.” He glanced over at her. “Didn’t you ever go to the lake?”

“Yeah, with kids at school, too. And I dated a guy whose family had a boat in the marina. They let us take it out.”

He turned over and braced his arms on either side of her. For a minute she was overcome at how free she felt, how much she liked this normality.

“Who was the guy?”

“Jeremy Halston.”

“Halston? Your class president?”

“Uh-huh. We got pretty serious.”

“How far did you two go?”

She looked up into his teasing face. She’d never seen him like this. “I’ll share salacious details if you tell me about all the girls you had sex with.”

“No, never mind. I don’t want to know. It’ll drive me crazy.”

“Hmm. I think I like that.”

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“Hi, Chief. Thanks for seeing me.”

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