Page 47 of Shy Girl
“I-I-I r-really d-don’t know the w-water all that w-w-well.”
The surf splashed his ankles and splattered my legs. His fingers interlaced with mine, tightening his grip.
“I got you, Dagny.”
The words, so simply spoken, nearly gave me a heart attack. How many years had I dreamed of those words? How many times when I was lonely, the world was dark, and my quiet heart wanted a hero, had I thought of him saying those things? He threw them out so carelessly now, as if the sentiment cost him nothing.
When, to me, it was everything.
“B-b-but—”
My protestation slowed when we slipped into the warm waves. They played around my calves and slid back, taking sand away from under my feet. The water was deliciously perfect and a silky caress on my bare skin. Humidity lay thick on the air as the sun slipped behind the storm cloud. Wind danced past me, a gentle breath on my cheeks.
Well, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad in the water.
“It is n-nice,” I said with a sigh.
“It’s better when you’re all the way in it.”
So many thoughts spiraled around me. The massive ocean, ready to drown me. The way the waves tugged and pulled. Undertows. Sinking and not being able to get back to the top. But it wasn’t as scary as it could have been, because he held onto my hand. He gently pulled me closer, keeping me near his overly-capable strength. Jayson was oblivious to the mental screaming in my head. He kept going into the water with a steady chatter that eased some of my tension. Hearing his voice, feeling his hand in mine? Yes, I’d head toward one of my greatest fears if he were at my side.
“See?”
The water lapped around my shoulders now. Unlike the reservoir, which was chilly in the summer, this felt like the perfect bath. I eyed the waves, but they were mostly gentle roars as they hurried by. He still hadn’t let go of my hand, which I’d locked into mine with a tight grip. I barely managed to keep from clutching him as close as possible.
“N-not bad.”
He grinned. “You don’t like water?”
“I d-d-do.”
“You never swam in the reservoir?”
My mom has a deathly fear of amoebas and dark water,I thought, but lightly said, “N-not much.”
A fastidious wave crashed over my shoulders and slopped around my neck unexpectedly. I gasped as water filled my ears. Drops dotted my lip with a salty tang. Jayson tilted his head back and laughed. Spray decorated his hair with a few sparkling glimmers, and all levity fell out of me like a bottom dropping out.
He was so beautiful.
He moved closer to me, no doubt in an attempt to help me feel safer, but it only made everything worse. My gaze darted to the empty beach and back. We weren’t far from the bungalow, and far enough out that people wouldn’t recognize us unless they walked into the surf. Based on the empty beach, I didn’t think that would happen.
There was no reason to pretend here, but I had a feeling hewasn’tpretending. And that was more frightening than anything else. Another wave slapped the side of my face and I gasped again.
He laughed again, but pulled me closer. Something in the pillar of his body next to mine stabilized me in the water, but it also set my heart to racing. One of his hands lingered near my waist under the water, and I felt an occasional brush from his fingertips. Chills skimmed my back everytime.
“They often come in three,” he said. “So there will be—”
His words drown in another crash of ocean water into my left ear, this one bigger than the others. Shocked by the sudden, wet slap, I sucked in a sharp breath. Water filled my nose as the wave swept me down. He tightened his hold and pulled me out of the water seconds after I dropped, but it still felt like a frightening eternity passed before I found air again.
“You good?”
Sputtering, I hold onto his forearms to regain my breath. My nostrils burned from sea water as the waves slid away until it was only waist deep again. The storm that had agitated the waves passed steadily through, but the ocean carried the rage from it now.
I tried to answer, but only coughed.
“Hold on,” he called.
His arms came around me as he braced his legs and put his back to the sea. Seconds after, another wave crashed into us, but he was immobile as a rock against it. We swayed in the movement together. He pulled away, soaked, but sparkling. A wide smile covered his face, and I thought the raw touch of his skin on mine would burn marks into me.
