Free Prophecy by Julie Anne Lindsey Page B

wall around himself, warning people away, and the next he wanted a friend. Why me?
    When detention ended, he didn’t move.
    I arranged things unnecessarily in my book bag, stalling for time. “Are you swimming today?”
    “Yes.”
    “Okay. See ya.” I smiled, satisfied, and hurried to change.
    The thrill of anticipation grew to combustion levels when I entered the pool area. I spoke with Coach, explaining about detention, then dove in and swam four laps before my mind got the best of me. My senses were on high alert. The smallest sound broke my concentration. My head popped up a dozen times, expecting Liam’s arrival.
    An hour later, disappointment flattened me. Time to go home.
    Coach didn’t bother telling me how bad my times were, and I didn’t ask. My head wasn’t in it. I’d fumbled every turn, missing the firm plant of my feet against the pool wall, shoving awkwardly and gliding slowly into each lap.
    He clapped my shoulder as I toweled off. “Shake it off, Ingram. Everyone has a crap day sometime.”
    On the equally slow walk home, I evaluated an endless list of reasons Liam would lie about swimming. I didn’t like any of my ideas because they all involved dodging me. His giant frame came into view the moment I turned onto our street. He sat on his front steps, flipping through envelopes. I was still thirty feet away when he saw me. My breath hitched and my feet moved more quickly over the crumbling sidewalk, stupidly in a hurry to talk with him.
    His hair was darker, wet. His eyes were brilliant in the waning sunlight.
    “Hey.” He stood as I approached. An easy smile spread over his lips.
    “Where were you?” The words rushed over my tongue with more force than necessary. He didn’t owe me any explanation, but curiosity pushed me ahead. “You said you were swimming today.”
    He ran a large hand over his tousled hair. “I did.”
    “No,” I argued. “I did. You didn’t.”
    His smile widened. Unless he had invisibility working for him, I’d have seen him in the pool.
    “I swam here.” He turned at the waist, looked at his house, and then back at me.
    “You don’t have a pool.”
    “Inside.”
    “You have an indoor pool?” My jaw dropped. I could swim three hundred and sixty-five days a year if I lived there. My gaze ran past him to the enormous manor at his back and goose flesh rose on my arms. “That’s what the semi-truck brought last week. I didn’t see it. I assumed a moving truck, not a water truck.”
    “Twelve thousand gallons of salt water. Do you want to see the pool?” He wet his lips, a sudden look of unease lined his forehead.
    My heart stopped. No. I didn’t want to go inside Hale Manor. Ever. Not even to see a pool. I blinked hard to erase images of his great-grandmother swinging from a rope over a grand staircase.
    “Uhm.” I stalled.
    Palpable tension built between us.
    I didn’t want to decline his invitation, but I wasn’t ready to walk away. “Are you joining the swim team next month?”
    “No.”
    “No? Why not?” I moved closer, drawn in for no good reason.
    He tapped the envelopes against his open palm, looking conflicted.
    “I planned to swim while Oliver attended football practice. It seems he doesn’t need me for a ride home, so there’s no need for me to stay after school. Plus, I prefer salt water to chlorinated.”
    “Oh.” I’d never swam in a salt water pool. My thoughts dove back to Liam on deck at my pool. “What does the symbol on your chest mean? How did it get there?” I pressed my lips together, barricading a deluge of questions. One at a time, Callie .
    Shock crossed Liam’s face so briskly I almost missed it. He settled on his signature frown. “What do you mean?”
    I huffed. It was bad enough I wanted to know. Worse that my traitorous mouth asked. Now I had to explain? Yes, I’d haunted his family’s cemetery and ogled his bare chest. I was a crazy person. Obviously.
    “They look like scars, but aren’t. I recognize them