Free The Mariner's Gift by Kaylie Newell

Prologue
     
    “Oh. My. Gawd. There he is.” Zola elbowed her best friend, Natalie, in the ribs.
    “Where?”
    “Don’t look.”
    “I kind of have to if you want me to see who this guy is.”
    Zola’s ears burned. They were probably an interesting shade of purple. In fact, they throbbed as if they had their very own heartbeat.
    “Over there. To the right. Tall, blond, letterman’s jacket. He’s with Freddy What’s-his-face.”
    “There? By the Coke machine?”
    There was a steady stream of kids filing into the gym for the afternoon spirit assembly. It was the last Friday before Christmas vacation and everyone was buzzing on sugar from their class parties. It was freezing outside and the amount of letterman’s jackets on parade was easily in the dozens. But as far as Zola was concerned, there was only one in the entire school.
    The gym was crazy loud. The band was playing Jingle Bells on the back row of the bleachers, and most of the junior and senior classes were being obnoxious and throwing things at the underclassman in front of them. The principal seemed blissfully unaware, yapping to the driver’s ed teacher who stood on the other side of the microphone, which hadn’t been turned on yet. Everyone seemed excited at the prospect of two weeks off. Except Zola. Christmas break meant not seeing this boy for a whole fourteen days…wait. Twenty days, counting weekends.
    Natalie half stood to get a better look, and stepped onto the backpack of the girl in front of her.
    “Hey! Watch it!”
    “Oh, don’t spaz,” Natalie said. “Keep your pants on.”
    Zola tugged on her sleeve. “Don’t look, Nat. Seriously. Don’t look, don’t look, don’t—”
    “I know that guy!” Natalie exclaimed. “He’s in my homeroom. Owen? Otis? Isn’t he a foreign exchange student or something? He is cute, Zo.”
    “Oliver.” Zola’s face followed the example set by her ears and caught fire. She never should have pointed him out in an assembly of all places. The band wasn’t nearly loud enough to drown out the sound of Natalie’s voice when she got excited. Now, a sonic boom? That might do the trick.
    “He’s looking up here, you know.”
    Against Zola’s better judgment, she glanced over. Her glasses were slipping off her nose—of course—and she pushed them back up in a move so practiced it had become almost like breathing.
    He was looking up. And he was beautiful and gorgeous and…smiling. He was smiling. At her?
    “Well, don’t just sit there, dummy. Wave!” Natalie’s normally sweet voice rang with a note of exasperation.
    Zola did as she was told and raised her hand which was shaking a little. Before she could even wiggle her fingers, Shannon Mahoney, looking exactly like an oversexed Tinkerbell in her cheerleading uniform, shimmied up behind him and slapped her hands over his eyes.
    “Guess who?” she squealed.
    Even three rows up, Zola could hear Shannon perfectly. She sounded like a dolphin stuck in a tuna net.
    “Oh God,” Natalie mumbled, then looked over and shrugged. It was a gesture that carried with it the sympathy only another seventeen-year-old girl could muster. “Shoulda waved sooner.”
     

Chapter 1
     
    Zola Mitchell stared straight ahead while the chilly ocean wind wreaked havoc on her short, brown hair. She ran a self-conscious hand through it, well aware that she was being watched from behind. She’d worn her best slacks and cutest waist-length jacket with a red, silk scarf tied around her neck. Very Christmassy. But totally inappropriate for a research trip to Alcatraz in early December. She was freezing her buns off.
    “Ready?” The male voice behind her was almost drowned out by the sudden roar of the boat’s engines.
    Zola grabbed the rusted railing as her footing suddenly shifted with the deck. She’d forgotten to take a Dramamine with breakfast and her stomach rolled. Great. The first time she’d seen Oliver in years, and she was going to be barfing overboard the