Page 2 of In the Pursuit of Haven
I tried to will it to cook faster.
The sound of a volleyball thudding against the ground made me look up to see Jessie had tossed it off to Zak and was making his way over the sand to join us. This guy had the confidence of a mythological war god. He brushed past Scrooby with broad shoulders. Part of his built stature came from genetics, part of it came from all the dangerous deep-water fishing his family did.
They’d moved on from the crabbing business long ago… fromeverybusiness when they’d finished fleecing their neighbors of everything they were worth. He came from a long line of ancestors who had a habit of making it big off the backs of others and then carelessly losing all their earthly belongings in unrighteous living and fires… lots and lots of fires.
The blazes that followed Jessie’s ancestors all around Salem had single handedly ruined every business they’d ever thrived in—the shipbuilding industry, the shoe industry, the island resort industry.
According to Aunt Haven, his family deserved that and more. They’d ruined her family back in the ’70s.
What would happen to poor Salem if the Crabbs tried to go into tourism?
Jessie slid into Scrooby’s recently vacated chair next to me. He turned his intense gaze on the fire. His hands pushed into the front pocket of his hoodie.
Every part of me was aware of his exact movements. We weren’t really supposed to be this close. Of course, I was more worried about my aunt’s reaction if she saw me with him than I was of Jessie. I could handle myself.
I swallowed, trying to think up my excuses to get out of there.
“You getting ready to run?” he asked me.
My gaze flew to him.Yeah, but how did he know?I scoffed back at him so he’d never guess it, “Why? Do you know something I don’t?”
He grinned and put his hands up to the fire. “Don’t worry, Lady Liberty. I won’t be saying anything to your aunt if you don’t.”
My back turned prickly, especially when Ruth’s whispering to her friend grew louder in response. I caught snippets of “unbelievable” and “she doesn’t belong.”
Now my pride was keeping me in place. My aunt Haven would get over it. Yeah, she’d be livid, but we had a good relationship. It was nothing like Jessie’s with his father. I was surprised Jessie had the nerve to talk to me too.
His eyes went back to mine and that’s when my breath caught at the warmth I found there. Someone with his blood ties wasn’t supposed to have depth like that. “I’ve seen you around,” he said. “Nice to finally meet you.”
Funny that this was the first time we were talking, even though I knew exactly who he was. Judging by the way he watched me, he also knew more about me than he should. Aunt Haven always hurried us away from the docks while Jessie’s dad yelled at him and his cousins for being so stupid. The hardened fisherman was constantly cussing the boys out. “That’s just the way some drunks act,” Aunt Haven had whispered in my ear.
Now Jessie turned that warmth I’d detected earlier to my raggedy Greek dress. “Sorry if we’re all acting like idiots around you—I never knew the Statue of Liberty could be so pretty.”
He’d stunned me. Before I could respond, a beautiful blonde wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind. His sober expression immediately changed into bright smiles. “Abby!”
I recognized his sister from the docks. She was a few years younger than Jessie and tiny like her mother. “I escaped!” she informed him. “It was too loud over there by the boats. I got tired of sending off all those fireworks.”
His brow went up. “What about… uh… Dad?”
“Are you kidding me right now? After all that liquor he’s drowning in? He’s not waking up for days.”
Jessie ducked his head at that, slanting a quick look at me in embarrassment before his heavy brows lowered protectively at his sister. “You can stay at my place if you need…?”
Say what? What was Jessie doing with his own place? He was still in high school!
“I’m fine,” Abby said. She threw her hands on her hips while she swiveled to me. “Roxy Story! How’d my brother get you over here? He’s always trying to figure out how to get you to stay long enough to get you stuck in a conversation.”
The way she talked it sounded like I was a household name. Wait, was I?
“It was me!” Scrooby said. He spiked his roasting stick into the sand, turning on the “flirt” again, but this time with Jessie’s sister. “I needed someone to practice my s’more-teaching skills on before you got here.”
Jessie frowned at him. Apparently his sister was off limits.
“Guess Roxy can leave now that Abby’s here!” Ruth’s bright red hair flew as she twisted away from her friend at the bonfire. She was tired of her spiteful whispers getting ignored. “Your aunt won’t like you talking to strangers, Roxy!”
Jessie groaned. “We’re hardly strangers. Roxy’s been here every summer since she was five.”
Once again… he knew way more about me than I thought.
