Prologue #3
“Oh my God.” Every follicle of hair on my head electrifies, but I force a scowl. “Gross. Shut up.”
He laughs again, but I can feel the blush on my cheeks. When I was eight years old, I declared my devotion for him, but now I just feel embarrassed.
Even if butterflies are taking flight in my stomach.
Right now, I feel like I belong.
I only feel like that when he’s around.
Tilting his head back, he peers up at me. “How do you—”
But his voice is cut off as Kade bellows, “Quiiiinn!”
I round my eyes. He’s close. Is he coming to the kitchen?
“I’m turrrning off the lighhhts!” he taunts.
I suck in a breath, turning my head side to side. My skin crawls at the thought of the things that come out in the dark. Bats and spiders and clowns.
Lucas puts a knee on the table below again and pushes himself up, about to close the hatch.
But something on the little door catches on his shirt and he hisses. “Shit.”
He jumps down, the nail nearly tearing the T-shirt off his body.
Long, jet black lines fall down the back of his right shoulder. Like an upside-down V but curved like branches, arms splitting off from the main limb.
“Lucas, what is that?” I burst out.
I’ve never seen him with a tattoo. Did he have it this summer when we were all swimming? I would’ve noticed.
He slips out of the shirt and yanks it down off the nail, causing it to rip. He turns, his back to the wall. “It’s nothing.”
He avoids my eyes, inspecting the shirt in his hands. Shooting back up, he closes the hatch, but he gives me a wink as he hides me away again. “You got this,” he whispers.
I smile.
“Quinn, come on!” Kade bellows.
But Dylan barks at him, “Just forfeit.”
“Well, why don’t you?”
“I’m bored,” Hawke mumbles.
A door creaks open downstairs and several pairs of feet hit the floor.
“Where is she?” Jared growls. “Now!”
“Ugh,” someone groans.
“Fine, we give up!” Kade shouts. “Come out! I forfeit.”
I release a breath and race to the attic door in the great room, whipping it open. Climbing down, I hop onto a long dining table and dust off my clothes, everyone turning to look at me. Not Lucas, though. He’s gone.
“What the…” Kade runs over.
Dylan smiles. “Hey!”
“What were you doing?” Madoc and everyone else follows, all of my brothers’ brows etched with aggravation.
But Hunter pushes past his dad and climbs onto the table. “I didn’t know that was there! Let me see!”
Kade, Dylan, and Hawke rush over as I jump down and out of the way.
“We’re tearing it down to open up the room,” Jax tells his brothers. “There are yards of rafters up there.”
Madoc peers up through the opening. “I wondered if there was a second level or something.”
Jax shakes his head. “Just empty space.”
“Who told you that you could play up there?”
I look up at Jared. His voice is curt.
Before I can answer, Dylan speaks up. “Oh, Dad. Leave her alone.”
“Do you know how thin these boards are?” Madoc gripes at me. “What if you fell?”
“Then I would’ve gotten hurt,” I point out. “And Dad would’ve blamed you.”
Madoc steps in. “Why you little—”
Jax pulls him back, clamping a hand over his mouth.
Dylan giggles, and I fold my lips between my teeth. I can’t believe I said that.
“Let me up!” Hawke yells as Hunter pushes Kade through the opening.
“I want to see next,” Hunter says.
But Dylan takes my hand, and we run as Jax grabs the twins by the waists of their jeans. “You two, come here.”
Dylan and I race outside onto the porch and down the steps.
I did it. I didn’t forfeit!
“Kade has to steal the keys now,” Dylan brags.
It won’t be hard for him, unfortunately. But I’ll admit, it’s nice to see him lose. He never does. Especially against me.
The lake ripples with the light breeze, and I spot Lucas’s torn shirt on the beach. Dylan runs, joining her mom on the sand as she bounces James, Dylan’s baby brother, in her lap.
Where’s Lucas? I walk down the dock, scanning the water, and then I turn my head left and right, looking down the beach. I want to tell him I won.
Of course, that means I still have to go ATVing, which sucks.
Sliding off my sneakers, I sit down on the dock and dip my feet into the water.
I study the island out on the lake. Maybe a little smaller than a football field, it’s filled with trees and large boulders trailing up the hills.
There’s a cliff you can jump into the water on one side, and I even heard there’s a small cave somewhere.
A canoe sits on the beach. Is that where Lucas went?
But just then a phone rings, and I look behind me, seeing a couple of people in the parking lot. I squint through the sun in my eyes and put my hand over my brow to see. Lucas?
The next thing I know, something grabs my ankles, pulls, and I’m flying forward off the dock. “Ah!” My heart leaps in my throat, choking my cry just before I hit the water. I flail, screaming, but it’s just bubbles coming out of my mouth underneath the surface.
I kick, but I’m hauled backward and quickly lifted up.
I cough and sputter as Lucas holds me by the shoulders.
“You big…” I struggle for breath. “…jerk.”
He presses a finger over his lips. “Shhh…”
I wipe the water out of my eyes, both of us crouched down and hidden underneath the dock. He casts his eyes upward, completely drenched himself.
“That wasn’t funny,” I whisper-yell.
He murmurs, “It was kind of funny.”
Footfalls hit the dock, and he goes still.
So do I.
“What?” I mouth.
But he just gestures, “Shhh!”
Are we playing hide-and-seek again?
The dock creaks under the footsteps, and I think I see two figures through the slits in the wood. Madoc and Jared, maybe?
They don’t say anything, and I try to move to get a closer look, but Lucas keeps hold of me. I gaze up at him, his golden hair and long lashes over blue eyes.
There’s two of them up there. And two of us. A pair.
Finally, they retreat, but Lucas waits another minute or so. Eventually, he releases me and swims backward out from under the dock. “Later, gator.”
My hair is plastered to my cheeks. “I hate you,” I gripe.
He grins wide. “But you’re making me pizza tonight back at Madoc’s, right?”
“Yes.”
But I pout about it, not sure if I’m mad at him for getting my clothes wet, or mad that I’m never really mad at him.
He beams. He loves my pizza.
I wish we could play hide-and-seek as a team, but…
We never get another chance.
A year later, he’s gone.
Leaves town. Doesn’t text. Doesn’t call.
He’s grown up, and I’m not. I guess we weren’t a pair, after all.