Breathe

by Abbi Glines

  “He isn’t a boy I am dating. He is just a friend. He is from around here and wants to hang out today.”

  She smiled and took a bite of cereal. She’d barely swallowed when she said, “I can’t believe you talked to someone enough to make a friend. Or is he a recluse too?”

  I stood up, not in the mood for my mom’s teasing. She loved to remind me how I lacked social skills.

  I started back inside, and she laughed. “I’m just teasing, Sadie. Don’t get so upset. I’m glad you’ve got a friend. Just don’t forget about me and stay gone all day. It gets lonely around here.”

  I hated it when she laid on a guilt trip. “You have a car. Go somewhere and do something.”

  She gave a melodramatic sigh. “I do need to go get a pedicure, since I can’t see my toes anymore.

  I shook my head. “No, something where no money is required. Like go for a walk down the beach.”

  She rolled her eyes this time, and I went inside. I made a beeline for the stashed money I’d saved for bills and hid it somewhere else. I didn’t need to come home and find she’d spent all our money. After the cash was secured, I went to get ready for my day with Marcus. I needed to wash my hair and coat myself with sun block. The sun here could be brutal. But first, I needed to find a swimsuit and something to wear. I checked the time. I had thirty minutes until he would arrive to pick me up. I needed to be ready so Jessica didn’t answer the door and find some way to embarrass me.

  “Good morning,” Marcus said when I opened the door.

  “Good morning to you too! Hold on just a sec and I'll grab my purse.” I turned, went back into the living room, and picked up the purse I’d left on the coffee table.

  “I’m gone. Get out and go do something,” I said to my mom before I walked back to the door.

  “What, you’re not bringing him in?” She was still dressed in her black nightgown, which stretched over her stomach.

  “No, Mom, not with you dressed in your nightgown.”

  She laughed, and I rushed back to the door.

  “You ready to see this place from a local's eyes?” he asked grinning.

  I nodded, excited. “Yes, I am.”

  He opened the truck door for me, and I climbed in. He ran around, jumped in, and slid on a pair of dark sunglasses. “Do you eat raw oysters?”

  “No way!”

  He grinned. “I should have guessed: you’re a Tennessee girl. But it’s all right, they are also grilling burgers, corn on the cob, and ribs.”

  “I love burgers, corn, and ribs.”

  “Ah, good. Well, we're going to a friend’s house. They're grilling out today, with raw oysters on the half shell as the appetizers.”

  I grimaced at the thought of raw squishy slimy blobs on a shell people were actually going to put in their mouth.

  He laughed at my face. “I guess when you grow up around here, it doesn’t seem so bad.”

  I didn’t respond because I wasn’t sure how anyone could get use to eating slime.

  “Rock has been my best friend since elementary school. You’ll like the bunch over at his house. We’re going to grill out, and then go water skiing. They have a boat and we’re going to go launch it at the marina. Ever been water skiing?”

  “I’m afraid not, but I would love to try.” It seemed to be the thing to say because a huge grin broke out on his face

  “I can teach you. You’ll be skiing before the day’s over.”

  We pulled up to a single story house on stilts, like most of the houses around here. It wasn’t fancy, and it appeared to have survived a few hurricanes. The siding had been patched up quite a few times.

  Marcus met me as I got out of the truck and slid a pair of sunglasses on my face. “You’re gonna need these. Without them, the sun will give you a headache.”

  “Do you carry around women’s sunglasses on a regular basis?” I asked teasingly.

  He laughed. “No, I have a sister.”

  I didn’t know anything about his family. I liked knowing something about him other than the obvious.

  “Please tell me you put on sun block. Even the best tanners get burnt in this sun.”

  “Yes, I'm slathered up.”

  “Come this way,” he said, pulling me behind him through some really tall grass, which grew in the sand. A simple rectangular in-ground pool stood in the center of the yard, surrounded by guys in swim trunks and girls in bikinis. They were slinging back slime from a shell, and I reminded myself not to grimace when they talked to me and ate those things. Marcus squeezed my hand and pulled me into the party.

  “Marcus, it’s about time you got here. All the shells are almost empty,” called a guy with long, brown dreadlocks.

  Marcus smiled down at me and whispered, “I won’t eat any in front of you, I promise.”

  I shook my head. “No, really, it’s fine.”

  He laughed and pulled me over to the group of guys standing with the dreadlock guy. Several people called out to Marcus, and he waved and nodded. My stomach churned with nervousness when I realized the majority of the people here were staring at me.

  “Hey, guys, this is Sadie, Sadie this is Rock,” a rather large muscular guy with a shaved head, “Preston,” what I considered a beach bum, with long blond hair and dark tanned skin, “and Dwayne,” the dreadlock guy, who also happened to have several tattoos and piercings. “We’ve been friends since second grade.”

  Dwayne flicked the dreadlocks out of his eyes and grinned. “Ever since Rock beat the shit out of Preston and ol’ Marcus here jumped in to take up for him, who then started getting pummeled by Rock, until I jumped in, and about that time we all got suspended from school.” The four of them laughed at the memory, and I tried to picture them all as little boys fighting.

  “Our parents were all so proud. They had elementary school delinquents.” Dwayne grinned and flipped back an oyster.

  “Dwayne will reminisce all day if you let him. Don’t act like you enjoy his stories. He won’t stop,” Marcus said, smiling.

  The friendship between these four made me feel warm inside. It wasn’t something I could relate to.

  “So, Sadie, how did ugly butt Marcus here find a beautiful blind girl,” Rock asked as he flipped a burger.

  I glanced at Marcus to see him smiling at me. “We work together. He came to my rescue on my second day there, and my eye sight is 20/20.”

  One of them let out a low whistle, and another laughed wickedly.

  “Marcus is a regular ol’ knight in shining armor, I tell ya,” Dwayne said with a flick of his dreadlocks. Marcus shoved him playfully, and Dwayne burst into laughter.

  “I’m going to take her to meet other people, if you three can’t behave.”

  “What did I do?”

  Marcus sent him a mock glare before turning to me. “Are you thirsty?”

  Dwayne reached into a cooler behind him and held out a soda. I took it, thanked him, and listened to the four of them talk about a beach volleyball game going on next weekend between them and a rival team. They would ask me questions or bring me into the conversation occasionally, but mostly they just planned and strategized. I had no idea beach volleyball was such a serious sport.

  A blond in a hot pink bikini, which barely covered the important stuff, walked up behind Rock, wrapped her arms around his waist, and kissed his neck.

  “Sadie, this is Trisha, Rock’s fiancée, and Trisha, this is Sadie, a friend of mine.”

  Trisha smiled at me and ran her hand over Rock’s head. “If you get bored with this bunch’s conversation, you are welcome to come lay out with me and the girls.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  “Are you bored? Want to go in for a swim and cool off?”

  I wasn’t really sure I wanted to take off my sundress in front of all these people. My hand me down red bikini wasn’t nearly as skimpy as the ones the other girls were wearing, and I didn’t fill one out like they did either. I thought of my long skinny legs in comparison to the curvy large-c
hested girls lying out and wanted to keep my clothes on. However, I also wanted to make friends and not let Marcus down, so I needed to lay out or swim. Since swimming kept me covered most of the time, I decided it would be the best option. “Swimming sounds good.”

  He grinned and pulled his tee shirt off to reveal a very tanned and muscular chest. I swallowed hard and wished I didn’t have to do this but I knew I would have to sooner or later. So I slipped the sundress off and laid it beside Marcus shirt. I didn’t want to make eye contact with anyone and wished I could just go jump in the water without having to actually walk calmly over to it and get in.

  A low whistle from behind startled me and I heard an “ouch.” I turned to see Marcus glaring at Dwayne and Preston.

  “Sorry, Sadie, these two have no manners.” He took my hand again. He always held my hand casually. It’d never bothered me before, but being half naked made it uncomfortable.

  “Come on. Let’s go swim.” He grinned at me and didn’t even pay attention to my body.

  It relieved and embarrassed me at the same time. I didn’t want Marcus to like me as anything more than a friend, but I also didn’t want to be so boyish in my bathing suit he didn’t notice me at all. I decided to stop thinking about everything so hard, and I followed him into the water via the stairs. We joined in on a game of basketball with a floating goal in the middle of the pool. I stunk at it, but no one other than Marcus and a guy name Rick seemed to be any good, so I didn’t worry too much.

  After racing Marcus the length of the pool and winning one out of three times, we got out to get something to eat. I walked over to my sundress about the time Marcus came up behind me and wrapped a towel around me. “Thank you.”

  He smiled. Our friendship was working out nicely, and it made me smile a little brighter. Maybe my personality wasn’t as bad as Jessica said.

  Marcus leaned down and whispered into my ear, “Burger, ribs, or both?”

  I thought of the mess ribs make and all the people in the small backyard. “Burger,” I whispered back.

  He nodded and made his way to the grill. He got me a burger and a slab of ribs for himself.

  We walked over to a table set up with stuff to put on the burger, and I added a little ketchup and cheese. Marcus grabbed us both a drink, and we headed over to an unoccupied shaded area. We sat down and ate in silence for a few minutes. I watched him go through at least fifteen napkins and laughed when he reached for more and all the

  clean ones were gone.

  “You think my mess is funny, huh?”

  I shrugged and let out another laugh I couldn’t hold back. I reached under my plate and handed him my napkin.

  “Thanks.” He took the napkin and cleaned himself up. “Are you having fun?” he asked after he cleaned the barbecue off his face.

  “Yes, I am. I feel like the youngest one here, but I am having fun.”

  Marcus nodded. “You are the youngest one here. I forget my old crowd has all aged just like me.”

  “No, I have really enjoyed myself.”

  Preston, whose attention seemed to be focused our way, shook his head.

  “I'm afraid my friend over there likes you. You’re going to have to just ignore him.”

  I frowned. “He likes me! With all these older, more attractive women around?”

  Marcus cut his eyes back at me and studied my face a minute, and he smiled. “You really believe that, don’t you?”

  “Believe what?”

  “You believe the other girls here are better than you.”

  I laughed and shrugged. “I’m not blind, Marcus.”

  Marcus raised his eyebrows. “Either you are blind, or you don’t have a mirror at home. Keep doing stuff as sweet as blushing, and you’re going to have Preston singing love ballads outside your window.”

  I laughed and shook my head. “I seriously hope not.”

  Marcus looked at Preston. “He really likes legs, and you happen to be attached to the best pair I’ve seen in a really long time. But I think you hooked him when you batted your baby blue eyes at him and smiled.”

  I frowned. “I don’t recall batting my eyes at anyone, and my legs are just long and skinny.”

  Marcus smiled. “I hope you always stay this way. Sweet and innocent. But I want to be the one to enlighten you. Your legs are sexy as hell, and your eyelashes are so thick and long that when you blink it looks like you’re batting them, and it is very attractive.”

  I wasn’t sure I believed him but I smiled anyway. “You’re a nice guy. Thanks for trying to make me feel better.”

  “Is that what I’m doing?” he asked with a teasing grin.

  I smiled. “I think so.”

  He laughed and shook his head. “Sure, whatever you say, Sadie.”

  * * *

  Chapter Four

  On Wednesday night, Marcus came to find me in the garden. “Hey, Sadie, the Stone family is dining at a friend’s house tonight, so I'm heading out early. How much longer until you get off?”

  I glanced over at Mr. Greg who seemed to be really suffering from his arthritis today and I knew I couldn’t leave early. It wouldn’t hurt me to ride my bike home this evening. “You go on ahead. I have some work left here. Besides, I want to stop off at the grocery and pick up a few things on my way home.”

  Marcus frowned at me as if he were trying to decide something. Finally, he said, “I really don’t like the idea of you riding home after dark, and then trying to ride a bike with bags of groceries.”

  I started to argue with him and assure him everything would be just fine, but his gaze left mine and landed on something behind me.

  I turned and saw Jax Stone coming toward us from inside the gazebo. I hadn’t even seen him go inside it.

  “I agree with you on her riding home in the dark with groceries. I’ll supply her a ride home. You may leave now. She’ll be safe.”

  Marcus stared at me with concern. I smiled at him as if to reassure him I liked this arrangement.

  “Uh, um, yeah, sure, Mr. Stone, thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow, Sadie,” he said with a wrinkle between his eyebrows. I could tell he was unsure about this.

  “See you tomorrow,” I replied and watched him reluctantly turn and walk away. Not because I wanted to stare at him longer, but because I needed to compose myself before I faced Jax. Somehow, I’d become as pathetic as the rest of the teenage world. I’d seen glimpses of Jax outside the past two days, and every time he glanced my way, he smiled at me. My traitorous heart did a little flip. Before I knew it, I would have a stupid poster of Jax on my wall.

  “Thank you,” I managed to say without tripping over my tongue.

  He gave me one of those grins meant to melt girl’s hearts everywhere. “If I’d known you were riding a bike to get to and from work I would have done something about it a long time ago. I’m glad I have such thoughtful employees. But then again, he is your friend, isn’t he.”

  I smiled at him. “Marcus is a nice guy.”

  Jax leaned in and said quietly, “And what about me...am I a nice guy?”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to this, so I decided to just be honest. “I don’t know you, really, but I do know you sign my paycheck, so I'm not exactly sure how to answer this.”

  Jax threw back his head and laughed. I caught myself smiling. He seemed almost touchable when he laughed. He offered his arm and held it out to me to hook my hand through.

  “Well then, Sadie White, why don’t you do me the honor of a stroll down by the beach so we can talk. Then maybe you can decide for yourself if I’m a nice guy or not.”

  I frowned and eyed Mr. Greg. “I don’t know if I can, you see, Mr. Greg has arthritis, and he needs me for the weeding whether he wants to admit it or not. Getting down on his knees is not easy for him and very painful.”

  “Really?” he asked with concern on his face, and he turned and went over to where Mr. Greg stood pretending to work, though I knew he’d been watching Jax and me.

  I couldn’
t hear what Jax said, but Mr. Greg seemed to like what he heard and nodded, shook Jax's hand, and appeared to be putting away his things. Jax walked back over to where I stood. “Mr. Greg has decided to take the afternoon off and rest up his bad knees. He also wanted me to tell you he could wait until tomorrow for your chess game.”

  I grinned at the older man whom I’d come to care about. He winked, and I shook my head at him. Jax once again offered his arm, and I hesitated before I slipped my hand inside his bent elbow.

  “Okay.” I wasn’t sure what to say and I wondered if he could hear my heart racing in my chest.

  “Let’s see, you not only worry over old men’s knees, but you also play chess with them in the evenings.”

  I stiffened and stopped walking. Being teased about my relationship with Mr. Greg bothered me.

  “Easy there, tiger.” He patted my hand. “I wasn’t making fun of you. I’m actually impressed. I haven’t met a girl with compassion before, and I am intrigued.”

  I relaxed. “I would imagine in your world, girls are much different than here in the real world. I’m sure if you spent some time with the everyday girl, you would find I am not unique.”

  He grinned at me. “The everyday girl is who writes me fan mail and buys out my concerts. They are the girls who yell my name and run after me like crazed animals. You’ve not even tried to sneak into my room and squirt your perfume on my pillow.”

  I hesitated, my jaw dropping in shock. “Please tell me those things haven’t happened before and you made them up.”

  Jax shrugged and shook his head. “I am afraid they have. They are only a few examples. I left out the ones not suitable for a young girl’s ears. You don’t even want to know the extent girls go to get my attention. It is one of the reasons I need this summer getaway. If I didn’t have this, I would have gotten out of the business a long time ago.”

  We reached the shoreline and stopped.

  He waved a hand over the white sand at our feet. “Care to sit down?”

  I sank down into an Indian-style position. He sat down in such a smooth way it made me feel clumsy. Why did I care? I never thought about the way I sat down before. I didn’t need to start thinking of him as more than anything other than a guy. A guy who signed my paycheck.