Surfacing - Book One in the Swans Landing Series

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

In the moment that Josh’s lips met mine, the entire world changed. Whatever the song was in the forest around us, it seemed magnified as we kissed, the sound thundering in my ears. My own heartbeat matched its melody, my breathing rising and falling with the voices in the night beyond us.

Inside the trees, it was only us, wrapped in a cocoon of wind swirling through the branches and leaves brushing by our feet. I forgot my mom, myself, everything—except the feel of Josh’s warm lips pressed to mine, our tongues dancing around each other’s in exploration. His hands squeezed my body, trying to press me closer to him, and I responded the same.

I didn’t know how long we stayed like that, but it seemed as if a thousand years had passed in the blink of an eye. By the time Josh broke away and I realized the song had finally faded, I shivered with a cold sweat. He released me, letting his hand slide down my arm to mine.

And then, I slapped him.

The crack of my palm connecting with his cheek echoed through the woods around us. He rubbed his injured face with his free hand, glaring at me.

“What was that for?” he asked. He sounded as breathless as I felt.

“That’s for making out with me uninvited,” I snapped.

My phone’s light cast his smirk into shadows. “I didn’t hear you complaining while I was kissing you.”

I shot him a deathly glare. “Don’t flatter yourself.” My body still buzzed with the after effects of his kiss, but I wasn’t going to show him that. Especially not after seeing Elizabeth cuddled up to him the other night outside the Variety Store. “Do you always make a habit of sexually harassing girls in the woods?”

“I didn’t want them to hear us,” he said.

“Who?” I asked. My mouth suddenly felt extremely dry and my tongue was sandpaper against my gums. I looked toward the trees, remembering what I had seen before he started groping me. “Where did she go?”

But Josh didn’t answer my question. “Has anyone ever told you it’s a bad idea to be wandering the woods alone at night?”

His tone, like he was berating a young child, and the fact that he wasn’t answering any of my questions fueled my irritation. “I could ask the same of you,” I snapped. “At least I’m not the one skulking around, hiding in the shadows and sneaking up on people. Did you follow me in here?”

“If anything, you followed me,” Josh said. “I’ve been here for an hour already and heard you stomping down the path. If your intention was to surprise me, you failed miserably.”

“My intentions had nothing to do with you,” I said.

“Oh really? That’s not how it felt a minute ago.”

I snatched my hand from his, even though I immediately missed the warmth of his skin. “I’m going to find my mom. She was here.”

But Josh shook his head, his eyes sad and watery. “She wasn’t.”

“I saw her.” I lifted my phone, casting light through the darkness. “She was right there. I tried to get to her, but you held me back.”

“Because she wasn’t really there,” Josh said. “It was your imagination.”

I hadn’t imagined it...had I? My mind swirled and my knees still shook.

“I saw her,” I said again. But my voice was weaker this time and the statement sounded more like a question.

“It’s not real,” Josh said. “Nothing you see on this night is real.”