Free Underwater by Brooke Moss Page B

passed. I ducked my head when we crossed underneath brush that ruffled his mahogany waves and watched in silence as they raked across the toes of my useless feet. The only sound as we walked was the sound of his gentle breathing and the beating of his heart.
    Or maybe that was mine.
    We veered off of the trail and carefully made our way toward the beach. The trees parted in front of us, and my breath caught in my throat at the sight of the lake. The mouth of Moon’s Bay opened up to the vast body of water that was Pend Oreille Lake. Like a long green ring that opened up at one end into miles of indigo water. I’d not been to this area since before the accident, hadn’t even realized how much I missed it. In an instant, all of my self-consciousness melted away, and I felt more comfortable in my own skin than I had in months—years even.
    I brushed a piece of hair back as the wind off of the water whipped me across the face, nearly taking my breath away. “Holy crap, this is so beautiful.”
    He carried me right to the edge. I could see four feet of rocks underneath the surface, and then it dropped off into endless black. It occurred to me, as Saxon stood there holding me, with the wind gusting against his body, that if we took one wrong step we would fall straight into the lake. And if we slid past the rocky embankment, we would be in water that was hundreds of feet deep. Worse yet, if his arms gave out, I would drop straight into the lake.
    He must have felt my arm tighten around his neck, because he turned his face into mine. “Are you nervous?”
    Laughing manically, I shifted in his arms. “I…well…yes, if you must know. Now put me down.”
    “Fine.” He crouched down and rested me on a boulder facing the water’s edge. I adjusted my lower legs so they were crossed neatly and then zipped my hoodie up tightly to protect myself from the wind. He sat down on the rock next to me, and his leather-clad arm rubbed against mine, making shivers dance up and down my spine. “That wasn’t so bad, was it? Me carrying you?”
    “No, not really.” I fiddled with the end of my sleeve. “Don’t tell my parents.”
    “Your parents are protective.” Saxon looked out at the water with a content sigh. “They sound like good parents.”
    “They are.” I wiped rain droplets off my sleeves and nudged him with my shoulder. “What about your folks? What are they like?”
    He shook his head, his damp waves flopping on his forehead. “My parents are hard to describe.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “They live far away, and…” He blinked a few times, and his full lips pulled into a line. “They have some very intense expectations of me. Expectations I don’t think I’ll be able to live up to.”
    “Wait.” I put my hands out in front of me to stop him. “They live far away? Where?”
    He turned to face me, his eyes so filled with angst, it hung like a cloud in the air between us. “It’s really hard to explain.”
    “Try me.”
    “I want to.” Saxon took my hand in his and stroked his thumb across my knuckles. “It’s just really hard to explain.”
    All of the walls I’d stacked up all around me started chipping away piece by piece. Turning my hand over, I laced my fingers with his and allowed the tingles to dance up my arm. “Why don’t we start with the obvious.” I lowered my voice into a whisper. Saxon’s gaze went down to our united hand and then back up to my face. “Why don’t we start with where you live? So…word on the street is that nobody lives in the house at the end of my road.”
    I paused, but he didn’t say anything.
    “So where do you really live, Sax?”
    He shook his head slowly. “I can’t tell you that. I’m sorry.”
    Reality settled in my stomach like a stone dropped into the lake, settling at the bottom of my gut. Boy, when my mom said she was afraid I’d fall for a bad boy someday, she was right. Only I’d taken it one step farther. I’d fallen for a homeless guy.
    I