It was a long swim back to shore, giving Cass too much time to worry what Selena wanted with Jason. Stalking him, luring him into dangerous water, trying to drown him...but she claimed she didn't try to drown him and she didn't seem evil, just angry and desperate. She definitely didn't seem like a murderer. But as Maggie had said, people weren't always what they seemed.
Somewhere along the way, Cass lost her orca escort. She felt a pang when she realized he was gone. It seemed like she should have noticed him leaving; it bothered her that she didn't.
By the time she reached shore, she was exhausted and ready to collapse on a sunny stretch of rock for the next four hours. She floundered through the shallows, scanning for her clothes; it took her ten minutes to figure out that they were gone.
She turned in a slow circle, certain she must be mistaken. She'd left them far enough from the waterline to be safe from waves and it hadn't been windy enough for them to blow anywhere.
An icy knot settled in her stomach. Selena. Selena must have taken them—after convincing Cass to trust her, however briefly. With Cass's clothes, she could almost pass for her. Not to Jen, not to Jason, but to anyone who didn't look too closely. And Cass had swallowed her ruse, hook, line, and sinker.
She couldn't march into town in underwear and a pair of sandals, but she might be able to reach the Andiamo if she kept to the water. Grimly, she set out for the harbor.
Anger powered her strokes as she settled in for yet another long swim. Selena had stolen her freaking clothes, made her wonder about Jen, convinced her that she was some kind of half-human monster, and given her nothing.
She was a half-human monster, she thought. She was freaking swimming in 45° water, had been for hours. She shouldn't be able to swim this far and she shouldn't be able to swim in water this cold. She didn't want to be some freaking Serra sea-person. She wanted everything to go back to the way it was....
And then she remembered Amak and knew she wouldn't go back even if she could.
An hour later, she ducked under the dock's shadow, wondering how to board the Andiamo without being seen. The boat was docked nose in, putting the ladder in clear view at the rear. Hopefully she was far enough from shore that no one would notice.
If she was going to keep stripping and jumping into the ocean, she needed to start wearing a suit under her clothes.
"Here goes nothing," she muttered. She hauled herself up the ladder, sheeting water. Arms wrapped across her ribs, she ducked low, crossed to the open hatch in three quick steps, and froze in the opening.
Jason. Jason was coming up the ladder.
She stumbled back a step and grabbed the hatch cover, holding it in front of her like a square wooden shield.
"Cass?" He squinted against the sun a moment before taking the ladder in two giant steps. "You're all wet. What happened? Are you okay?"
She clutched the wooden panel to her chest in sudden panic. She couldn't tell him what had happened. What would he think, if he learned that she had some weird mutation that let her survive the cold water, as if she were part orca? She already looked too much like Selena. He'd hate her. "I...I don't know," she stammered. A gust of wind hit her back and she shuddered with the chill of it. "I had to swim back to the boat, and my clothes were dragging at me, so I kicked them off."
He reached toward her then seemed to think better of it. "Swim back to the boat? Where were you?"
Cass shook her head. She didn't know what she could say.
"It's okay," Jason said quickly. He reached toward her again, hesitantly, as if she were a stray puppy. "I understand. It was probably that girl, or the woman you met yesterday. They can make you lose track of yourself and forget everything. But you've got to get dried off, do you understand?"
Cass took all this in with relief. Right. It was Selena's fault, in a way. She could let him think she'd been mind-controlled into the water.
"You're shivering. You should get below."
"You're kind of in the way."
"Oh. Right. Let me get you a towel."
He emerged a moment later with a bath towel, which she accepted carefully and wrapped around her sodden underthings while Jason held the hatch cover in front of her. "I'm not really indecent," she told him.
"Stop talking and go change," he ordered her. "You need to get warmed up or you'll get sick."
She gave a half-laugh. "You sound like Jen."
She retreated to her cabin and dug out dry clothes while Jason clanked around in the kitchen. By the time she emerged, he'd dug out the battered percolator and set coffee to brewing.
He hovered over her immediately, placing both hands on her shoulders to look her up and down, his expression worried. "Are you sure you're all right? You weren't at rehearsal last night. What happened?"
Cass grimaced. "I was so exhausted after the afternoon, I crashed as soon as we got back to the boat and didn't wake up until late this morning. I thought it was still yesterday afternoon."
"Good," he said, searching her face. "I thought maybe you were angry at me."
"Angry at you? Why?"
"The whole no-clothes thing," he said sheepishly. He dropped his hands and stooped to grab a fleece blanket and swirl it around her shoulders, a smile hovering on his lips. "Although now I realize it was just that you can't keep your clothes on around me—"
"Hey!" she protested. "If you didn't come barging into people's homes unannounced, it wouldn't have been a problem."
He raised one eyebrow. "We would have had the same problem on deck...unless you undressed because you saw me?"
Cass disentangled her arm enough to swing a punch at his shoulder. He caught her hand, laughing at her.
"Stop that. I come bearing gifts!" He pointed past her to a stack of hardbacks on the table. "Gramps said you were looking for books on island history. He has a whole library filled with everything about the islands, history and legends, but also information about plants, wildlife, geology, you name it. He called and asked me to bring them to the shop."
He poured coffee as she slid onto the bench to read the titles: Days of Rodger's Harbor, History of the San Juan Islands, Northwest Coastal Native Americans, Shipwrecks of the Pacific, Indian Legends of the West. "These are great!"
"I was planning to give them to you when you stopped by the store, but when you didn't show I thought I'd deliver." Coffee in hand, Jason slid in beside her. He put one arm around her shoulders, warm and protective, and pulled her close. "Drink this. It will help you warm up. Are you feeling any better?"
"Yes, thanks." She settled against his arm feeling oddly shy. His attention felt deliciously wonderful, but she couldn't quite relax into it. She couldn't stop thinking that didn't deserve his kindness. No one had forced her into the ocean, the way Selena forced Jason; he was only paying her so much attention because she'd let him think she'd been mind-controlled.
"I wanted to come look for you anyway," Jason said. "I was worried...and then I walked in on you with no clothes again—"
"Actually," she corrected him, relieved to change the topic, "I think I walked in on you this time."
"—and I was afraid you'd think I was stalking you."
At that, he fell silent, and Cass was pretty sure he wasn't thinking about her any longer. She elbowed him gently. "Speaking of which, have you had any more visits from stalker girl?"
"Yeah."
She twisted to look up at him. "Are you okay?"
He clutched at her hand beneath the table, squeezing too hard; from his expression, she didn't think he even realized what he was doing. "I put new locks on my door and on all the windows, but it didn't matter. I think I must open them during the night to let her in, even though I don't remember it."
Cass bit her lip. "She could actually be my sister." Her shirt stuck to her skin, which had grown clammy with sweat. "I talked to Maggie today, at the diner. I asked her about what happened, and about my family. She said I had a twin sister named Selena."
His face twisted; Cass felt as if she stood at the edge of a cliff, waiting for his response. There was something eerily disturbing about the idea that she might related to the person who had been making Jason's life hell. She hated admitting it to him.
"You should tell your grandfather," she said abruptly.
Jason blinked at her. "What?"
"You should tell him. He might be able to help."
"No. Gramps is crazy enough without me encouraging him."
Cass turned the words through her head. "What if he isn't crazy, though?"
"And my mother is still alive somewhere?" He gave a humorless laugh. "Right."
"You're not the only one whose mother died." The words came out with more heat than intended.
He ducked his head. "Sorry. It's just that I don't think Gramps could help even if I told him. I'd just put him in danger, too."
The veins on the back of his hand stood out, fat and blue; Cass traced them with one finger. "Did she take you underwater again?"
He nodded.
Cass opened her mouth to reassure him. Selena had said she wasn't trying to drown him, and she hadn't drowned him yet—and then she swallowed her words. It was bad enough that Selena might be—no, that she was her sister; she couldn't help that. But she'd listened to Selena's lies and believed every one. It made her feel like throwing up. If she told Jason, he would think she was the biggest idiot in the world.
Even worse was the feeling that she'd somehow betrayed Jason by swimming with Selena and talking to her. She'd even considered going with her. What would Jason think, if he knew that she was just as weird and mutant as the girl who'd been tormenting him?
He looked up, his face so close that she could see flecks of gray in the blue of his eyes. The haunted look in them made something seize up inside her. More than anything, she wanted to keep him safe. She would keep him safe.
"You're warmer now," he said. It wasn't a question.
She nodded.
"May I kiss you?" he asked.
For a heartbeat, she thought she'd misheard. "What?"
"May I kiss you?"
Cass laughed aloud. "Are you kidding?"
"No," he said, his tone wounded. "I didn't properly ask last time. You don't want guys just assuming you want to be kissed, do you?"
She shook her head, feeling an immense weight lift from her chest. He didn't hate her. She'd told him Selena might be her sister and he didn't care. "I just never had anyone ask before. Don't you usually...I don't know..."
As if in answer, a guitar riff blared from Jason's hip, making both of them jump. He dug his cell from his pocket and checked the number. "It's Gramps. Oh shit, I was supposed be back at the shop half an hour ago."
He started to move away but she reached after him. "Yes."
Confusion flitted on his face, so she slid across the space between them. Heart suddenly too loud, she lifted one finger to touch his cheek, tracing his jawbone.
He smiled, understanding, and leaned closer, but not to kiss her. With one hand he turned her face aside; his lips brushed her ear, sending a shivery tension across her shoulder blades. "Now you've promised me a kiss," he whispered, "but there's not time to collect it, not if it's to be a proper kiss."
With a wicked grin, he pulled back, slid out from behind the table, and sauntered toward the hatch. "Don't forget," he called over his shoulder. "We're practicing bike riding when I get off work. I'll see you at five!"
Speechless, Cass watched him go; the shiver traveled down her spine and buzzed in her stomach. A proper kiss, she thought,and grinned.
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A/N Hey, thanks so much for all the reads and votes! I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this story--you make me the happiest writing geek ever with all this love <3. Lemme know if you want to read more!
Cheryl