Footprints in the Sand
Reid’s gaze never left me as I jogged over.
As soon as I reached him, he immediately pushed through the throng of girls surrounding him. I got a few side eyes, but ignored them.
Reid reached for my elbow, leading me away from the crowd before he spoke.
“What’s up? You okay?” he asked when we were in a quieter place. I glanced over my shoulder, seeing Norah and Emma watching us intensely.
“Yeah. I just… um…” I momentarily forgot why I had run to talk to him, now realizing he was once again shirtless in front of me. I cleared my throat, my mouth going dry.
But I wasn’t the only nervous one. Reid reached up and pulled on his ear. His eyes told another story, though, and I watched as they skimmed down my body. I had on what I thought of as an old bikini, a plain black one from last summer, plus my jean cutoff shorts. There was nothing special about it, but Reid seemed just as eager to look at exposed skin as I had been to look at him.
A chill ran through me as his eyes returned to meet mine. “Do you, um, need some sunscreen? Your face is getting a little red.”
Immediately, it flushed even more, probably appearing like I had the worst sunburn of my life. It wasn’t the sun, though.
“What’s wrong?” he whispered, his voice hoarse.
I blinked a few times, trying to remember. “Oh! The clue! Remember you said you had a theory about the clue and being at the beach. About lifeguards? That you’d tell me when we got here so you could show me instead of trying to explain it?”
His brows furrowed, as if he couldn’t comprehend the subject change I just threw at him. But after a moment, he shook his head and grinned.
“Right! Remember the line about friendships being guarded?”
I nodded. It was the line I had the most trouble figuring out. He told me to add ‘lifeguard tower’ to my theory list, but didn’t want to expand until we got here this afternoon.
“Well, Emma’s text made me think of something.” Reid turned, shielding his eyes from the sun, and pointed toward the lifeguard tower, where Liam and Livvy were about to get off duty. “She said something like, you guys can guard me.”
The lightbulb went off. “Oh! Whoa, you’re right! Friendships are guarded—the lifeguards! They’re literally our friends.”
“That, and the seagulls playing, and—”
“Footsteps! Wow, how did we not get that sooner? We practically live here. Well, technically I do, but you know what I mean,” I said with a laugh.
Reid knocked his shoulder into mine. “The clues are clever. They require thinking out of the box and inside it at the same time. But you got that first one while I struggled, remember? I know you would have connected these dots soon enough.”
I flushed again, turning to face the water so he couldn’t see. “So… we need to get to that tower. But what if it’s like Charlotte’s playroom and the location isn’t the real spot? We can’t just go rummaging around everything up there.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Reid answered with a sly smile. He extended his hand to me, palm up, in an offering of solidarity. “Follow my lead.”
We walked hand in hand toward the tower, passing by a slack-jawed Norah and Emma, until we reached the guards.
Once we got there, he let go of my hand and made a twirling motion with his finger, like he was going to circle the tower. I nodded, understanding what he meant, and we went separate ways.
I waved up to a guard when I approached the front. “Hey, is someone going to let the twins go soon? We’ve been waiting, like, forever!”
He shook his head and laughed at me. “Marlowe, you’ve been here for less than ten minutes. I’ll let them go as soon as they finish their reports.”
I pretended to pout. “But Liam is such a slow writer,” I joked back.
Knowing Reid and I only had another minute or so set me off on my quest again. I casually glanced out of the side of my eye to see Reid still circling the tower in the back, scanning the underside of the deck and all the poles for an envelope.
I did the same on my side, trying to look casual about it, but probably failing. We met in the middle, on the opposite side from where we started.
“Anything?” he asked, sounding hopeful.
“Nope,” I said, popping the p at the end. “Only that the twins will be down in a second.”
“So it’s definitely like the dollhouse in the playroom. What are we missing? We’re here during the day. The footprints are in the sand. The seagulls meant the beach…”
I narrowed my eyes and looked around, following the wooden posts up to the base of the tower. One of the two lifeguard chairs extended slightly off the side, a ladder coming down from it for easy access to the beach.
“Friendships are guarded,” I whispered, mostly to myself. That was it. Friendships were guarded because our friends were the guards. Literally, they would guard us from the chair.
Without warning, I sprinted around the corner again and pounded up the stairs. My breath came in small spurts now that I was on a mission and full of adrenaline.
“Marlowe? What are you doing—” Livvy said, stepping in front of me.
“One sec!” I exclaimed, sliding past her. “Sorry! Ignore me!”
I didn’t look back. I just continued to the chair she usually occupied. She liked the right side of the tower, and Liam liked the left. If it wasn’t here, then his spot was next, but I had a feeling…
And I was right. Bending down, I stuck my head under the lifeguard chair and found a small envelope taped neatly to the seat toward the back. It couldn’t be seen from the sand; only if you were looking for it.
“Yes!” I cried. Instead of taking the stairs down, I swung my leg over the chair and climbed down the ladder, skipping the last few rungs, and jumping into the sand.
A pair of big, muscular arms greeted me, keeping me upright, then circling around me. Reid pulled me in close and lifted me into the air, twirling me around.
“You’re a genius! Again! You are absolutely amazing, Mars.”
As soon as he put me on my feet, we both realized what we did. We had gotten swept up in the hunt, overjoyed by the result. He jumped back a foot, brushing his hands on his thighs as he cleared his throat a few times.
“I mean, great job. Are you going to look at it now?”
I tucked a few escaped curls behind my ears. “No. Not with everyone around.” With that comment, Reid pulled at his ear again before looking over at them.
They were all staring. Livvy and Liam had joined the group, Caleb sitting on the volleyball in front of Norah.
“This should be interesting,” I mumbled, shoving the envelope in the pocket of my shorts, glad I still had them on instead of just my bikini.
Reid stepped closer to me and gestured toward them. “You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to. It seems like Emma probably knows something is up from the way Storms acted in the cafe. But has she asked about it?”
I shook my head. I didn’t think of it before, but she hadn’t said a word. She was great about keeping private things private, though.
We started toward them, and I watched as everyone turned and looked at Emma at the same time. Her face was stern, the kind of expression that said don’t mess with me.
She was warning them. Of what, I wasn’t sure, but it was probably something I would be grateful for.
The second we got back, Liam tagged Reid in for a game of volleyball with him and Caleb, grabbing one other guy from the beach a few feet away. The four of them went to play while the four of us girls laid out on our towels.
No one said a thing about what they saw. Not from the moment I left to right now. It was like it didn’t happen. Even though I knew they all had to be dying to ask, I was grateful they didn’t. I would tell them in due time. Probably either when it was all over, or I had other news to announce…
Not twenty minutes later, Livvy was asleep. Norah placed an extra towel over her so she didn’t burn. Emma had dove into her book, ignoring the entire beach somehow.
I hadn’t done anything but stare. The crowd of girls had come back, especially after Liam joined the game. All four boys on the makeshift court were a sight to behold. I would never think more of Liam or Caleb, just like Emma flirted relentlessly with Liam but would never make a move. Reid on the other hand…
I had already been there. I had him once. But that was before he looked like this. Last summer, he wouldn’t have been on the court flirting with all the girls. He would have scored a point, then come to give me a kiss instead.
But now… he seemed to play harder and better with every compliment someone shouted at him. When he scored against Caleb again, he flexed his biceps, allowing a blonde to reach out and hang from it for a second.
He lowered his other arm to help her regain her footing, his hand trailing over the small of her back while she looked up and beamed at him. He returned the smile, and suddenly, I felt like vomiting.
“I’m going to go,” I said out loud to no one in particular. Emma was in her own world, and Norah had been watching a group of Baysiders come close, see us, then turn around. Maybe it was her intense stare, maybe it was them remembering Sean’s warning, but they hadn’t come any closer.
“Going where?” she asked, not bothering to look at me while I gathered up my stuff.
“I forgot I have something to do. Just gotta go,” I said quickly, unable to make up a lie at this point. It took all my energy to gather my belongings as quickly as possible and not look over at Reid. If I did, I for sure would lose my lunch. I had taken a few nibbles of the food Reid had ordered from Gennie’s after finding the clue, but even those small pieces threatened to make a reappearance.
“Forgetting something?” Norah said as I got to my feet. I looked down at her, then at the spot I had occupied, finding nothing left. “You came with Reid. He drove,” she pointed out, literally pointing at Reid.
I didn’t follow her direction. “Oh. No big deal, I’ll nab a tourike. I have my card with me.”
The thought of being seen riding a tourike, the rent-a-bikes all the tourists used, across the island made me cringe, but it was better than interrupting Reid in his flirt-fest.
At the main beach entrance, I entered my details and grabbed a bike, settling my bag over my shoulders and turning toward Bayside Boulevard.
What in the world was wrong with me? If Reid could act like all of this between us was perfectly normal, why couldn’t I? Why did it make me physically ill to see him smiling at those other girls?
There was only one reason why, and I knew what it was. I just couldn’t bring myself to think it again. Not after seeing Reid on the beach like that. If I had thought our almost-kiss in the car had meant something, I had just been proven wrong.
All I had to do was hold out until his parents came back. Then, I wouldn’t have to see him every day. I wouldn’t have to live with him, with him doing all the little things I loved so much. The way he remembered my lunch order. Making me coffee every morning, even though he hated it. All the things.
That was it. After I left his house, it would be like every other summer when we hung out. I would see him occasionally, when we were with the group. We could be normal friends, like we always had been.
And at the end of the summer, he would go back home. Across the country.
Leaving me once more.
Except this time, it wouldn’t hurt as much. He wouldn’t be breaking up with me under the defense of being far away.
We would say our goodbyes and move on.