Page 44 of Undertow

The phone dims while I look at it, but then it brightens again, and I see three bubbles on his side to indicate he’s typing.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get to finish our date,” he says.

“So am I,” I type back, but it makes me feel sad.

“I really want to see you again.”

I sniffle and type back, “No. I’m sorry.”

“I understand,” he says.

This feels more like a breakup than my lastactualbreakup did. I want to keep talking to him so I don’t feel so heartbroken, but I know it’s just delaying the inevitable.

I type outGood night, Hayden,but then I backspace it and send a message that reads, “Goodbye, Hayden.”

I wait for him to answer that one, but he doesn’t.

The screen dims, and still I wait.

I don’t want him to say goodbye back, but part of me does because I need to know he understands I really mean it this time.

Before, it may have been hard to resist him. I said no and knew Ineededto mean it, but this time, it’s different. This time, Imean itmean it.

I wait, and I wait.

I fall asleep with my phone in my hands.

But he never texts back.

Chapter Thirteen

Gemma

Life gets back to normal in the days that follow.

I’m off work for two weeks between summer recitals and the start of my fall classes. I always schedule it that way so Parker and I can spend a lot of time together before she goes back to school, knock out any shopping that needs to be done, cram in a few last late nights of staying up watching movies or bad TV shows we won’t have time for once school starts.

Parker notices I’m staying in every night and assures me that I don’t have to. “I’m fine,” she insists. “I’ll keep the door locked. I bought a Taser. I don’t want you to be afraid to go out and live your life just because I go to school with a lunatic.”

I smile faintly. “I’m not afraid,” I tell her, but that’s a bald-faced lie.

She doesn’t have a child, so she can’t understand the helpless terror I felt that night when I saw those missed messages. Before I knew the entirety of what had happened, and the absolute worst-case scenarios were playing out in my imagination. When I thought for a horrifying moment that I was being felt up on the beach by a man whose son may have been hurting my daughter, or even worse.

I don’t know Landon Atwater. I don’t know what he’s capable of.

“You just…” Parker starts, but trails off unhappily before she can finish.

I glance over at her. “I just what?”

She shrugs, looking at me. “You seemed happy.”

Tears sting behind my eyes all of a sudden, but it must be my period coming on because there’s no way I’m getting emotional over this.

I force a smile and grab a Twizzler. I tell her Iamhappy, and she lets it go, but I can tell it’s still on her mind.

I’m so reluctant to leave her home alone that I put off grocery shopping until Friday. We’re out of food to make dinner, and Parker wants to spice it up with chicken tikka for dinner tonight, so I have to make a supply run.

I make my rounds as quickly as I can, and when I return home, Parker is at the table playing around on her laptop. She seems extra cheerful, and I wonder why, but when I ask, she just smiles, closes the computer, and helps me put the groceries away so we can get started on the prep for tonight’s dinner.

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