Dead of Summer - Page 103

With my feet crunching through the underbrush as I wave the flashlight around in front of me, I’m definitely not as aware of things as I could be. That’s what I tell myself, anyway, when I realize that the extra sounds I’m hearing aren’t just weird echoes, ghosts, or monsters in the woods.

Please don’t be Shawn, I find myself thinking, just before I whirl around and point my flashlight up at face level. I’m not sure why or when he’s become the winning member of my ‘who I don’t want sneaking up behind me’ list, but sometime in the past twenty-four hours, he’s surpassed Kayde’s position there.

Though not by much. So when I see curly blond hair and slow blinking caramel eyes squinting in my flashlight, I scowl and drop the light to my side immediately. “You’ve been following me.” It isn’t a question, and I glance around us like Kins or Liza or a werebear is about to pounce out of the woods. “For a bit, right?”

His head tilts to the side, thoughtful, before answering. “Yeah,” Kayde admits, his voice neutral and unreadable. “For a bit.”

“Hmm.” That doesn’t quite make sense, but only because I know him well enough to know he can sneak up on me whenever the hell he wants. The shower had been proof of that, and with how much noise I’ve been making, I’m definitely not at my most observational tonight. “But you were making noise on purpose so that I heard you.” I flick the flashlight back up in his direction, as if inviting him to take his turn with the words.

Since I’m not willing to blind him at the moment, I can’t see the slide of expressions across his face that I would normally use to gauge his mood. Instead, I just have to wait, in the relative silence of the breezy night around us, for him to grace me with an answer.

“If I agree, then doesn’t that seem a little…sad?” Kayde asks at last, crossing the distance between us and crunching the leaves under his feet.

“Why?” This close, and with the light at my side, I can see just enough of his face to see the curl of his smirk.

“Because if I’ve been following you for, say, twelve minutes now and making all the noise that I can think to make, and it took you this long to notice me, then you really should’ve stayed in bed after the incident in the pool you didn’t tell me about.”

Whoops.

I definitely don’t feel bad about not telling him. In my defense, we hadn’t seen much of each other for the rest of the afternoon or evening. Even at the campfire, Kayde was occupied by a few members of his cabin starting a fight, then babysitting them in Liza’s cabin until their parents could come pick them up for bad behavior.

So frankly, I’m not at fault here. But I might be the only one who agrees.

“I don’t need to be in bed,” I sigh, whirling on my heel and setting off on the small path through the trees again. “I’m fine. And it was an accident, not an incident.” That’s what I tell myself, anyway, though the words feel sour on my tongue.

“Was it?” His hand brushes through my hair, a ghost of a touch, before falling to his side once more as he walks beside me. “Who had you pinned under the water again?”

He already knows the answer. I don’t need to confirm it for him.

“Besides,” I sigh, not looking at him as I move the flashlight around to see everything. It’s just routine at this point. I don’t expect to find anything other than maybe an owl if I’m lucky. “I told Kins I’d take her walk around tonight so she could spend the night with Liza.”

“And you’re really going to tell me, with all honesty, that she didn’t try to take her walk back after what happened?” His voice is a low rumble in his chest, and he sounds certainly less than pleased.

“No. I won’t tell you that. Not since I can take a very educated guess who told you what happened today.” I finally glance at him, offering Kayde the flashlight. “Here. You want this? Since you’re so determined that I am a weak and delicate maiden who can’t walk or carry a flashlight after being dunked in the pool.”

“Sweetheart.” He pushes my hand away, then digs in his pocket and comes up with a small flashlight that he turns on. It’s brighter than my big chunky one, and I grimace at the bright LED light, pulling all the color from anything it illuminates. “You were more than dunked. According to Kinsley, you were sucking in air when you went under, and you were under for a good twenty seconds.”

Had it really been that long?

It hadn’t felt like it, with my lungs burning and my brain clouding over with panic. It had seemed like both an instant and an eternity. But that sounds stupid as hell, so I’m definitely not about to say it.

“So you came out here to follow me around and make sure I don’t fall into a puddle?”

“I follow you around more than you think. I just don’t normally let you notice.”

The words are so…honest. Well, as honest as they are shocking. I come to a stop, nearly tripping over my feet as I stare at him. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You’re really surprised?” He flicks the flashlight in an arc around us, before turning to glance side-long at me. “You’re actually shocked about that, Summer?”

“Well…yes?” Because I never knew. Though if he’s as good as I assume he is, as I’m sure he is, at following people, then how in the world would I ever know? “Do other people know you do it?”

“Not at all.”

“Why do you do it?”

He doesn’t speak. Not for a few seconds as he stares at me in the darkness. Even when he starts walking again, clearly deciding he’s in the lead of our little stroll now, he still doesn’t say a word.

The silence stretches long enough that I’m uncomfortable with it, but just when I’m considering saying something else on my own, Kayde speaks.