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Je
Dusk settled over the water, elongating the already malevolent shadows.
Kids no more than sixteen or seventeen, preoccupied with tearing each other’s clothing off, and stumbled into the clearing, kissing and pawing at each other.
Neither one saw the beast rise out of the water, but Je
“Run.” The word came out in a rush of an exhale; her lungs screaming in protest at letting the last of the breath go.
The kids didn’t notice until it was upon them. The screams cut off as soon as they began.
“Je
Her eyes refocused on him, darting between Tracy and Steve, her breath coming in tortured hitches in her chest.
“Breathe,” Steve said calmly. “Just look at me and breathe.” He kept eye contact with Je
Tracy immediately obeyed.
“Two teenagers. It got them,” she wheezed after Tracy disappeared into the kitchen.
“Breathe,” Steve demanded.
Je
“Jesus, Jen,” Tracy said, setting a hand on her forehead.
Je
“You sure you want to go?” Steve asked.
Je
“I got her from here,” Tracy said, escorting Je
Je
“Bull. The last time you did that, you saw Tom die.” She scooted Je
“Get Steve,” Je
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tracy said and walked over, switching the light on inside. She looked back at Je
“What do you want to wear?” Tracy stepped inside.
“I don’t know,” Je
Tracy glanced at the clothing and pulled out another pretty spaghetti strap sundress, pale blue-green like the waters in the Caribbean. “I like this one,” she said and grabbed the matching flip-flops on the floor. As she rose, she heard a faint voice from the back of the closet.
“Bring her to me,” it said.
Tracy shook her head. She left the closet, closing the door behind her and smiled at Je
“The closet freaked you out.”
”It’s cold in there,” Tracy conceded. “I’ll have my Dad send someone up to look at the air-conditioning.”
“There isn’t an air-conditioning duct, I looked.”
“I’ll still have him send someone. There’s got to be some sort of issue. You don’t just get drafts like that from nothing.” Tracy headed out of the room.
Pressing her back to her door, Tracy stared at the lake. She shook her head again. “No,” she said aloud, and then changed into a sundress similar to Je
When Tracy came out, Je
“I think I’m going to pass so I can make di
“You sure?” Je
“I’m positive, you two go, have fun and I’ll see you later.”
The dryer sounded in the background. “You think the clothes are dry?”
“Go check,” Je
Steve disappeared. He came back a few minutes later in the clean, mostly-dry clothes. “We don’t need to stop,” he said, pulling his shirt over his head.
“I need to make a quick stop at the mall to pick up a birthday gift for my Mom,” Steve said as the settled into his car. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. I have to pick up some lotion anyway, so this is perfect,” Je
Steve nodded, although he would have preferred not to have her in the mall at the same time. “You can grab what you need while I pick up something for my mom and then I’ll meet you in the food court.”
“You don’t want my help?”
He smiled. “I’m just going to get her a charm for her bracelet, but if you want to come with me, you can. I just thought if we separated, it would be much quicker and I could get you down into the salt air quicker.” He sent her a wink.
Je
At the mall, Steve stood looking at the directory with Je
He waited until she was out of sight and took off to the right, to the jewelry store three spots down on the main floor. He walked inside sca
“I’d like to see that set,” he said, pointing to the pair of rings and praying his voice didn’t shake with the bundle of nerves that attacked.
The clerk beamed and took the set out of the case and put them on the velvet holder for Steve to see. “These are exquisite. The center diamond is one carat and flawless. The clarity is a B, which is excellent. The smaller diamonds around the band total to another carat, each being roughly a tenth of a carat itself all packaged in twenty four carat gold.” He smiled. “The diamonds in your band are roughly an eighth of a carat each for a total of a carat and a half. The pair is on sale today for six thousand dollars.”
Steve nodded. “That wouldn’t happen to be a size five and a half, would it?”
“Unfortunately, no. It will take a couple weeks to resize the bands to that size.” The clerk took out the ring measure and measured Steve’s ring finger. “I would need to resize yours as well.”
Steve glanced at the mall and nodded. “Fine.”
The clerk wrote each item up and took the credit card Steve handed him.
“You don’t happen to have student discounts on top of the sale?”
“Not on engagement rings,” the clerk replied and sca
Steve whistled and signed the slip. He scribbled his cell phone number on the slip. “Let me know when it’s in.” He tucked the papers away in his wallet.
“Thank you, Mr. Williams. I would expect them to be ready in a week or so. We’ll give you a call.”
“Thanks.” Steve found a bench facing the food court and sat, waiting for Je