I looked up to find Tara Wilson standing next to our table with an order pad in her hands.
The look on her face was venomous. I felt my stomach sink into my shoes. There was no way I could order their squash-filled ravioli now. She would probably spit in it. I calmly pasted a pleasant expression on my face so that she wouldn’t know that she annoyed me.
"Oh, hi, Tara. I didn’t know you worked here."
"I just started last week. And I wouldn’t have ... if I had known that you came here."
So that was how it was going to be.
I could feel Jade’s surprised gaze on my face as I met Tara’s cold stare.
"Look, Tara. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all water under the bridge. You’re with Derek now. I’m with Gavin. There’s no reason for drama. It doesn’t matter anymore." I could see from her set expression that my words had fallen on deaf (or ignorant) ears.
"Sure and if you would just stop calling my boyfriend, it wouldn’t matter to me anymore, either!"
I could practically feel my mouth drop open and I slowly shook my head.
"Um, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I haven’t called Derek in a very long time.
He’s all yours."
"You’re right. He’s all mine," she snarled. "Don’t forget it."
She turned to Gavin. "I don’t know what you’re doing with Macy. You’re way better than her."
He stared at her coolly. "You know, you make me forget that my mother taught me to be a gentleman."
She smiled a trashy smile at him. "Well, I could teach you lots of things that your mother can’t. Call me sometime." She laid her stubby hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. I flinched.
"No, thank you," he answered, removing her hand. He edged past her and got out of the booth.
"If you guys don’t mind, I don’t like the atmosphere here anymore. Let’s go somewhere else."
Jade quickly murmured her agreement and we all scrambled out of the booth and tried to keep up with Gavin as he strode for the car. Jade glanced over her shoulder as Tara watched us leave. As soon as we piled into the car, Jade turned to me.
"What was that all about? What did you do to her?"
"More like ... what did she do to me? My ex-boyfriend cheated on me with her last year."
Her head whipped back around and she stared at me agape.
"With that? That’s ... um ... insane."
"Thank you," I replied with some satisfaction. I was glad people could see how trashy she was. "It’s okay. I’m way over it."
"As you should be. It’s obvious that you traded up," Gavin smirked. I laughed and the mood was broken. The negative fog that Tara had brought down on us lifted.
"Come on, guys. That girl shouldn’t ruin our night. Let’s eat in Santa Monica, hmm?"
And with that, the tension was gone. I could hear Jade and Noah chattering in the back seat as I sat in the front, enjoying how the fall breeze blew over me. Gavin reached over and squeezed my hand and I pulled his hand up to kiss it, then held it snuggled into my lap. Being with him felt so incredibly right and it was easy to put Tara and her stupid games out of my mind. I hung my right arm over the side of the door and the hour drive passed quickly.
Instead of eating in a sit-down restaurant, we decided to grab hotdogs on the boardwalk and eat on the beach. The Pacific stretched far and wide from one side of our periphery to the other, sparkling in the evening sunlight and luring us down to the water. After we grabbed a blanket from the trunk of my car, we headed down to the beach.
"I’m not even going to ask why you have a blanket in your car," Noah laughed suggestively as he leaned around Gavin to nudge me. I shook my head.
"It’s not what you’re thinking. I also carry jumper-cables, water and flares. My mom insists on it. Can you say over-protective?" I popped him on the arm and almost lost my hot dog in the process. I recovered it and took another big bite.
"Like your little car is going to break down!" Jade rolled her eyes. "Now, my car on the other hand ..."
Gavin reached over and wiped a drop of mustard from my chin, then leaned in and kissed the same spot.
"Now you’re all dirty. Wanna go swimming?" he asked softly, his dark eyes gleaming in the dying sunlight. I glanced out at the choppy water. The sun was hanging on the edge of the horizon, enormous and amber. I decided that nothing was more beautiful than a sunset on the ocean right before I decided that the water was too rough to swim in. But I didn’t want to admit that part.
"I don’t have a suit," I pointed out primly.
"So? Swim with your clothes on. You’ll dry off before we drive home," he coaxed. "Come on ...you know you want to."
And I did. I had been a swimmer since the time I was small, but actually, I loved the water in every life. When I was Charmian, I swam in the bay by Alexandria, in the sparkling turquoise water of the Mediterranean. The water was soothing and warm and .... I shook myself from the memories. I was in California now.
"Well, I definitely would but I don’t know how to swim," Noah announced.
I stared at him slack-jawed. How in the world could a big, strapping athlete like him not know how to swim? I asked him as much and he looked sheepish.
"I don’t know. When I was little, my mom had this irrational fear that I would drown, so she never wanted me to learn. And as I’ve gotten older, I guess I just felt stupid going to swimming lessons with the five year olds!" he laughed, but quickly added, "And don’t look at me like that, Lockhart. I could learn in a second, if I wanted to."
I rolled my eyes and Jade giggled, her eyes snapping.
"Prove it!" she demanded playfully. "See that buoy out there?" She pointed to a buoy two hundred yards from shore. "Swim to it."
I wondered how in the world Noah was going to get out of this one. Like most of the football players that I knew, his ego was out of control when it came to his athletic prowess.
He was staring at Jade thoughtfully now, his blue eyes contemplating her.
"I could, you know," he insisted.
"Oh, we know," I interrupted. "But I want to be around to see it and right now, I want to go for a walk with my boyfriend."
"That must be my cue," Gavin drawled. "And I had just gotten comfortable. Oh, well. I’d rather stroll the beach with a beautiful girl, anyway." I reached down to help him up.
"Sorry about your luck ... you’ll have to settle for me."
"I know. The most beautiful girl in the world." He leaned down and kissed me on the tip of my nose.
"Ugh. Puke. Get a room!" Noah gagged. Gavin laughed.
"Come on, woman. We’ve got a walk to take." I froze for a moment, because that was exactly what he would have said as Hasani. And I didn’t know why I was surprised. They were the same person. It was just always so startling when he said something uncanny like that. I couldn’t help it.
I smiled and took his hand and we strolled along the beach barefoot. As I looked around us, it truly seemed like something out of a travel brochure. Sea gulls flew overhead, their screams filling the air. There were hardly any people here and the quiet as serene. It was perfect and something that we’ve done together in so many different lives.
We walked silently for awhile, enjoying the soothing crash of the ocean, before Gavin spoke.
"What do you think about Jade and Noah?"
I smiled. "I think he’ll bore her to tears soon. What do you think?"
"Same. I like her, though."
"Yep, me too."
We sat down on a piece of driftwood and watched the water as he held my hand. He gazed down at me with his melted-chocolate eyes and my insides turned to mush, as the butterflies in my stomach started flying. He always had the same effect on me.
I snuggled up close. The sea breeze was just a little bit chilly as it came off the water and I shivered. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me even closer. I melted into his warmth. And then he stiffened.
"What the hell?" he exclaimed, pointing back the way we had co
me.
I looked in the direction that he was pointing and immediately tensed up, both as a result of Noah’s actions and the pain that was shooting from my wrist. Whatever he was doing, it was wrong, wrong, wrong. I clutched my wrist and stared.
Noah stripped off his shirt and waded into the Pacific, the pale expanse of his back reflecting the dying light of the sun. Gavin and I rushed back to where Jade was standing on the shore, all while Noah continued to walk straight out to sea. The pain from my birthmark was almost crippling.
As we got closer, Gavin shouted, "Noah, what gives?"
Noah turned around and grinned. "I’m no chicken, Chase."
"Who said you were?"Gavin shouted back.
Noah pointed at Jade and turned back around, plunging himself into the waves. I sucked in my breath. The current was known to be bad here. If an inexperienced swimmer got caught in it, it could be bad. Very bad. I grabbed Gavin’s arm.
"Gavin, make him stop!"
Jade interrupted. "I didn’t really mean to call him a chicken. He just started talking about swimming again and I was joking. I said, ‘Well, if you ever stop being a chicken, you can put your money where your mouth is.’ It wasn’t a real challenge ... I was joking." Her eyes were wide and nervous and I squeezed her elbow.
"It’s not your fault. You didn’t know that he could be such an idiot." I looked back out at the water. He was chest-deep now.
"Noah, get your pathetic butt back here!" I shouted. "I mean it!"
He looked at me one more time, a huge grin plastered on his face.
"You can’t make me, Lockhart. You don’t have my balls in your purse!"
He turned back around and kept walking. And then suddenly, I couldn’t see him anymore.
He was just gone. I gasped, gripping Gavin’s arm.
"Where is he?" I cried. "Can you see him?" He had not reemerged.
Gavin pulled off his shirt and strode toward the water. Jade and I followed close on his heels. The water was cool, the tiny rocks and sand under my feet actually felt good as we waded out toward the buoy. Noah still hadn’t resurfaced and I started to panic, my heart pounding loudly in my ears.
Pushing through the water, I dove under the waves and started to pull with long, strong strokes through the choppy current. The farther out I got, the murkier the water became and I couldn’t see. I had to stop every few seconds to surface and look around. Gavin was directly in front of me and Jade was behind me.
And Noah was nowhere.
I reached the orange and white buoy and held onto it for a moment, bobbing with the waves as I looked around.
"Do you see him?" Gavin asked urgently, as he treaded water next to me, scanning the horizon.
"No," I answered.
But then something caught my eye and I turned back. A glint of white flashed just beneath the surface to my right. Letting go of the buoy, I took off like a rocket. 30 seconds later, I reached it and thrust my hand under the water. I hit something fleshy and human.
"It’s him!" I cried. Gavin reached me at just that moment and floating together in the waves, we turned Noah over so that his face was above the surface. His eyes were shut, his mouth was hanging open.
"Oh, god," I whispered.
"We’ve got to get him to shore."
Gavin was already swimming with Noah tucked under his arm. I followed, trying to help him keep Noah’s body afloat. It was difficult and awkward, even swimming with the current.
Noah was entirely inert. I gulped hard and tried not to panic.
As soon as we reached the shore, we stretched Noah out on the sand as Jade dropped to her knees beside us.
"This is all my fault," she wailed, grabbing Noah’s hand. "He’s so cold!"
"It’s just from being in the water, Jade. Calm down," I instructed.
I quickly felt for a pulse and was actually surprised to find one. It was weak, but it was there. But he wasn’t breathing. I pinched his nose closed and tilted his head back, blowing into his mouth.
Nothing.
I did it again. And again. And again.
Still nothing.
I watched his chest fill up with air every time I breathed into him, but he wouldn’t breathe on his own. My heart started racing, pumping adrenaline throughout my body and I felt my fingertips start to tingle with it. I could hear Jade on her phone calling for an ambulance but all I could focus on was breathing into Noah.
And just when panic was really setting in, he started coughing and spewed sea water all over me. I leaned him to the side and he vomited salty water all over the sand. I took a shaky breath and slumped into Gavin, virtually collapsing with relief. My hands were shaking but the pain in my birthmark had stopped.
Noah wiped his mouth with his hand and propped himself up on his elbow.
"Lockhart, you know, if you wanted to kiss me, you could have just asked."
My relief was overwhelming and I smiled, but then just as quickly wanted to punch him in the face. Or shake him. Or shoot him. Or possibly strangle him. But I settled for just yelling at him.
"Noah! Oh my god. How could you have done that to us? You almost died. I’ve never seen such a stupid thing in my whole life."
Jade was sitting next to him, stroking him lightly on the back. She looked up at me.
"I’m sorry, Macy. It was my fault. I didn’t realize that I was challenging him. It was stupid."
Her gorgeous eyes were watery and I stared at her in shock.
"Seriously? Um, no. You are not going to accept the blame for this. This ... this was the result of his own stupidity."
"You’re right," Noah answered quietly. "I’m sorry, guys. It was stupid. Sometimes I don’t think things through."
"You’ve got that right!" I shot back. "As in never!"
But my anger was fading. At least he understood that he was stupid. As I simmered down, I realized that Gavin was staring at my chest. My agitation reared its head again.
"Um, hello?" I gestured to my face. "Up here, please?"
He shook his head, smiling a little. "I thought we already ascertained that I’m not a dog? I was looking for your necklace. It’s not there."
My hand flew to my neck and realization hit me like a brick wall. He was right. My bloodstone was gone. I wanted to hyperventilate, but had to pretend that I was fine. Not an easy feat. My bloodstone was everything. I jumped to my feet.
"I’ve got to find it," I announced. "I’m sorry but that necklace is special to me and I----"
"I know," Gavin interrupted smoothly. "Calm down, sweet. Let’s go find it. Jade, can you keep an eye on Noah?"
She nodded, by this time holding Noah’s head in her lap. He was milking it for all it was worth. I rolled my eyes at him and he grinned back. When Jade glanced down, he quickly closed his eyes. I rolled my eyes again before heading back toward the ocean. Good grief. I had been all the way out to the buoy so my bloodstone could be anywhere. If I lost it, I couldn’t imagine the consequences. The Moirae would kill me. Maybe literally.
Gavin grasped my elbow from behind. "Macy, calm down. We’ll find it."
I had my doubts, but I followed him into the water.
"Let’s retrace where we were, starting at the point where you found Noah," he called over his shoulder. "It probably got pulled off when we were wrestling him to shore."
I dove under the water and started combing the sea floor, coming up ever minute or so to breathe. There was pretty much everything else you could think of ... broken glass, a marble, an old can, a Frisbee, a shoe ... but not my necklace.
Dread formed in the very depths of my belly, but for reasons that I didn’t understand, my birthmark was silent. It wasn’t hurting in the slightest. Odd. I dove back under and scoured the ocean bottom again. As I patted the sand and silt with my hands, I suddenly felt something metallic and then an electrical jolt. I couldn’t see through the murk, but I innately knew it was my pendant.
Closing my fingers around the chain, I shot up to the surface and the light from
the sun hit my bloodstone. I sighed a long sigh of relief and clutched it tightly to my chest. Yelling to Gavin that I had found it, I headed back to shore. I crawled onto the sand and collapsed into a heap. The emotional and physical stress had drained me. I literally felt weak.
Gavin dropped next to me as I picked slimy seaweed out of my pendant’s thick chain.
"I’m so glad you found it," he murmured. "I know how much you love that necklace.
Here, let me fasten it for you." Before I could stop him, he reached over and pulled the pendant from my hands.
And he grew instantly still and stiff, his eyes fixated on the distant horizon, as if I was no longer even there. I knew exactly what