Page 25 of Until We Break

“Well, since you asked, Margot…I went to the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut. I put in for my legacy spot at the base here and was granted orders on the first try. I became a rescue swimmer and I’ve been back here ever since.”

Margot looked up. “Shit.”

“What?”

“You’re really doing it.”

“Doing what?”

“You want me to do that conversational thing. The part where we pretend we just met or some bullshit like that?”

“I’m just talking, Margot. That’s all.” There was a long pause, and I didn’t know how to fill it anymore. I gave up. “Want to see if the kid’s done with the tests?”

TWELVE

Margot

He thought he wanted to get to know who I was now. He thought the charm and the flirting would untwist everything inside me. Make the dark shades lighter. Make the shadows fade. Caleb didn’t know any of it. How could he? He already thought I was someone I was not. Some girl he remembered seven years ago.

“Yeah, we should probably go see if he’s back,” I answered. I wanted to break his hope. For a second, that thought flooded me with guilt. What kind of person wanted to trample hope?

Caleb waited for me next to the table. We tossed our empty cups in the trash and followed the maze of hallways back to the emergency department.

“Oh, there you are. I’ve been looking for you.” The receptionist was waiting for us. I could tell she touched up her lipstick. It was shiner than before. “I have a message for you. They called about ten minutes ago. I really was looking everywhere.”

Caleb took the memo paper from her hand and read it. His eyes darted to mine. “They have someone who claimed the Sunfish.”

“Oh my God. That’s great. Who?” My heart beat faster. Maybe his parents were on the way here.

His face fell. “It’s a rental. Shit. It’s not a lead. There’s nothing here. Damn it. Nothing.” He crumpled the piece of paper in his hand, making a hard fist.

“But someone had to rent it for him, right? No one lets a kid that age rent a sailboat. That’s what you said. He’s too young. You told me he was too young.”

It’s now that I realized Caleb was more concerned than I gave him credit for the entire afternoon. He hadn’t answered any of my questions. His eyes were dark and stormy. The receptionist was still standing there, and I wanted to push her out of the way. She kept batting her eyelashes at Caleb.

“I think your phones are ringing,” I spoke tersely. I would have said almost anything right now to get her away from us.

“Right.” She shrugged and walked off toward her post with a quick glance at us over her shoulder.

“The rental? Do they know who signed for it?” I asked a lot of questions that likely weren’t spelled out in the handwritten message from the base. But I had this urge to keep Caleb from shutting down on me. Even though he had been here, pushing me, pulling me, annoying me. He also anchored me. He had kept me moving through the murkiness. From the pier to the docks to the store to the truck, to the emergency room. He had been here. I didn’t want him to shut down on me.

I realized that now.

I circled my hand around his clenched fist. He shuddered at first when our skin touched. Our eyes met. He let me unfurl his fist and I slowly took the balled-up message from his palm.

I read it three times, but there were no more details than what he had already told me. I shoved it into the Velcro pocket on the back of the board shorts. I slid my hand into Caleb’s. His fingers tangled against mine and I felt anchored again. What was he doing?

“Coming through! Watch out!”

We were immediately separated, and I lost the heat from his palm when two nurses wheeled the little boy between us.

“All done with tests,” they reported.

My chest tingled and my heart raced. My eyes locked on Caleb’s on the other side of the hall. He was pressed against the wall like I was. I didn’t know what just happened. Between us. The bitter pit had evaporated. The rough edges of anger were smoothed over like beach glass. I only knew that I wanted to touch him again.

Ilistened as the doctor rattled off the test results nearly an hour later. I sat next to the kid. He had a concussion and enough swelling from where the mast hit his head to induce the coma, but she believed it would be temporary and as soon as the swelling came down, he would wake up.

I thought his mother should be here, not me as I watched him sleep. They were going to admit him to a private room. The hospital was too small for a pediatric wing, so he was going to beon a regular hall. I wondered if he should be moved to a pediatric facility, but I couldn’t make that decision. I doubted I could even make that suggestion. I was no one in this situation.

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