Page 147 of The Otherworld

“One kiss per ticket.”

She laughs, giving me a shove. “That’s not fair!”

“Okay, fine. You can pay me back later,” I say, looping my arm around her shoulders and steering her to the back of the arcade. “Let’s go get your prizes.”

I’m expecting Orca to go crazy over all the “otherworldly” things in the prize section, but in the end, she points to a cassette player under the glass and says, “That one.”

I raise my eyebrows at her. “You sure?”

She nods. “I can take it back to the lighthouse and listen to your music. It’ll be like still being here. Kind of.”

“You’re already thinking about leaving me? Jeez.” I shake my head in dismay, though I’m smiling for her sake. “Cassette player it is, then. You know what that means.”

“What?”

“You need music.”

After leaving the arcade, I take her to the music store, where we look for all the tapes I’ve been playing in my Mustang since she first arrived.

“Something tells me your dad wouldn’t approve of AC/DC,” I say, snatching Back in Black off the shelf and handing it to her. “Or Pink Floyd. Or Queen.”

Orca grins, giving me a suspicious side-eye. “Something tells me you take pleasure in doing things Papa wouldn’t approve of.”

“You found me out,” I whisper conspiratorially into her ear.

She shoots me a stern look.

“Oh, come on.” I drop one more tape into her hands. Dark Side of the Moon. “Don’t pretend you’re not enjoying it, too.”

Orca looks down. “Perhaps I am… Only now, it’s more complicated than it was before.”

It’s impossible not to notice the shadow of remorse in her eyes. The betrayal written all over her face.

“Because your dad didn’t tell you the truth about your mom?”

She nods slowly. “Adam says he probably did it to protect me and to protect himself… because he didn’t want to relive the pain of it all.”

“I don’t give a shit what his reasons were. It was wrong. And if I were you, I’d never want to go back to him.”

Orca frowns. “I don’t resent him, Jack. I just… don’t understand. I thought I knew him better than any other soul in the world. And then, to learn that he kept such a monumental secret from me… It’s just a lot to take in.”

“I know. But let’s not think about it anymore, okay? You’re supposed to be having fun. Letting all your worries fade away.”

She manages a half-hearted smile. “You’re remarkably good at distracting a girl, Jack Stevenson.”

“Baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

She laughs. I pay for her cassette tapes and notice all the ones she picked out—Adam’s favorites. It shouldn’t feel like a splinter in my brain, but it does. After the music store, I’m on my last ten bucks—just enough to take her out for burgers, and that’s about it. But it’s only eight thirty, and I don’t want to take her home yet. I don’t want to take her home ever.

So instead, we drive to the marina, where I spent the morning cleaning and polishing rich people’s yachts. The harbor is mostly abandoned at this time of night—a perfect place to take your girl dancing when you have a cassette player and no money. Sailboats rock gently on the low tide, glistening in the pale light of the full moon overhead.

Orca follows me down the docks, her tape player in hand. “Where are we going?”

“Shh. You’ll see.”

The docks are no better than a maze in the semi-dark, but I know every boat in this marina like the back of my hand. I stop at the stern of the Aphrodite and hold out my hand to Orca.

“Isn’t this the one we almost got caught on?” she asks, hopping aboard.

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