Page 59 of The Second Kiss
Nathan nods. I direct him down a long road at the far end of town, toward the water. I point to a driveway. “Turn here. This is Jasmine’s house. They left for Mexico this morning.”
“They aren’t home? Are we going inside?” Nathan looks a little scared. I guess he’s much more of a rule follower than Gage.
“No.” I laugh at him, then feel guilty. “Just park here. I want to show you something.”
I guide him down the walkway until we reach a little path in the trees. The path gets steeper and my boots slip. He reaches to steady me. I cling to his arm and don’t let go.
A break in the trees reveals water with a full moon reflected in it. It’s almost as bright as daylight. This is one of my favorite places—a little beach at the far end of Puget Sound.
“Are you sure we should be here?” Nathan points to a sign that says the beach closes at dusk.
“It’s fine.” I tug on his hand. “C’mon, Nate, live a little.” I pull him to the edge of the water.
I sit on a gnarled log that must have drifted in a long time ago. I take off my boots and roll up my jeans. Nathan looks at me like I’m crazy. “Are you going in the water? It’s freezing out here.”
“Just a little way. It’s not that cold, Florida boy.”
He looks skeptical. “Maybe, but I’m guessing the water is full of sharp rocks and shells that you can’t see in the dark.”
“I'll be fine.” I know from experience that he’s right, but I can see the bottom pretty well in the moonlight. I wade out into the water. “You coming?”
“Naw, I’m staying where it’s warm and dry.” He picks up a rock and skips it across the water.
“You always play it safe, huh?”
He pauses with another flat rock in his hand. “Pretty much.” He throws the rock. It skips across the water, leaving ripples in the moonlight.
“You know, Nathan, you could learn a lot from your younger brother.”
“Gage?” Nathan looks at me like I’m crazy.
His reaction makes me laugh. “Okay, so he could learn volumes from you—mostly about taking things seriously and being responsible, but you could learn things from him too.”
“Like what?”
I study the water. As mad as I am at Gage, I keep thinking about how he makes me forget all the baggage I’ve been carrying around from Brad and Lexie. He makes me feel like it's okay to have fun, to just be a dumb teenager and not worry about what everyone thinks about me. “About having fun, taking risks, living life. About doing what you love.”
“I can’t think of anything that Gage loves except for girls and goofing off.”
I laugh again. “Good point.”
Nate’s right. The water is freezing. In a few steps my legs are numb, but I don't stop. I wade farther from shore, bend over, and watch the bottom. A little crab scurries by in the moonlight. I step to one side to avoid crushing a sand dollar. I look up at Nathan. “So, what do you love?”
He gives me a funny look. I guess it’s a strange question. He rubs a rock between his fingers. Finally he answers, “Order.”
“Order?” I resist the urge to laugh.
He pauses. “Order. Kind of like this.” He sends the stone skipping across the water. I’m impressed. I’ve never seen a rock skip that far. “The way the rock travels, how far it skips and when it sinks are all determined by a thousand factors—the angle it hits the water, weight, surface tension, wind speed, how hard I throw it. But it all comes down to order. Change one of thevariables, and you change what happens to the rock. It’s not just random, even if it looks like it is.”
I feel like I’m finally getting Nathan. “You’re studying to be an engineer, right?”
“Yeah. I like to figure out how things work. I like to see it all put together in my mind.”
“Like Jacob when he’s fixing cars.”
“Kind of like that.”
“And Gage is what? Chaos?”
