Summer's Last Breath (The Emerald Series)

by Kimberly James

  His mouth crooked. “I don’t want to get your jersey wet.”

  We stood there staring at each other, making up for lost time. I wanted to absorb every detail in case it was another two weeks before I saw him again. There were too many two weeks between now and my eighteenth birthday.

  “Can I kiss you?”

  He’d never asked to kiss me before and he sure didn’t have to ask now.

  “Not if I kiss you first.”

  We met somewhere in the middle. The kiss started off sweet and like always, delved into something deeper. When I thought I couldn’t possibly take anymore, Jamie lifted his mouth and gathered me against his chest, holding me tight against his damp skin.

  “I miss you, Erin.”

  I hugged him tighter, burying my face in his neck.

  “You better go,” he said as he pulled away, dropping his arms to his sides. We were no longer touching, and it hurt to think how long it might be before I saw him again. I had the feeling this was a one-time deal. He wouldn’t risk defying my dad again.

  “Wish me luck.”

  “You don’t need it.” He slapped me playfully on my black spandex shorts. “This is what you do.”

  * * *

  The atmosphere in the gym was electric. Being a tournament, the stands were full. I’d been apprehensive when I’d first walked out of the locker room and seen the crowd, but instead of letting all the extra eyes intimidate me, I fed off of it. I was in the zone and nothing could distract me. It felt right. I knew before the warm-up was over this would be the best game of my life. I encouraged my teammates. Yelled the loudest during our pre-game cheers. I was ready. The team was ready.

  My mom and dad sat side by side in the stands. Whatever differences they had, they always put them aside in support of me. The guys were here, Lassiter, and Tate, and Ross. Even Donovan, who had pretty much fully recovered. Noah was sprawled out, munching his way through a box of popcorn. The only person missing was Jamie.

  I sat on the bench, facing the court, giving myself a mental pep talk. I reached up to readjust my ponytail when a voice coasted over the back of my neck.

  “Give’em hell, Shaw.”

  My head snapped around. I froze as Jamie walked past and climbed the bleachers, taking them two rows at a time to join my cheering section. What was he doing here? I mean, I was glad but I didn’t want him getting in trouble with my dad. My dad didn’t look surprised to see him though. They shook hands, my dad’s greeting reservedly welcome. My mom smiled in response to something Jamie said when my dad introduced them. Jamie plopped down between Noah and Lassiter, making a grab for Noah’s box of popcorn. I didn’t know how or why it was suddenly okay for Jamie to be here and I didn’t care. I was just happy he was. My gaze wandered over to my dad, eyes welling with a big fat thank you. He simply shrugged and gave me a thumbs-up.

  “Come on, Erin.” Ally looped her arm around my neck. “Quit mooning over Aquaman. We’ve got a game to win.”

  “Yeah, we do.” I tossed my towel on the bench and followed her onto the court. “And I wasn’t mooning.”

  “You were so mooning,” she said, tossing me a ball. We’d won the toss and I was up first to serve.

  Today was nothing like the first time Jamie had watched me play. From the very first serve, my timing was perfect. Every time I went up for the kill shot, it felt like I could fly. I was weightless, defying gravity. And giving the girls on the other side of the net hell. We all were. I never once looked over at Jamie. I heard his voice a few times and it was enough knowing he was here. The game flew by, and before I knew it, the referee was blowing her whistle, signaling the end of the match. We won in straight games.

  When I walked out of the locker room after taking a quick shower, my entourage converged on me, offering congratulations and accolades for our performance. I hugged my dad. I hugged my mom.

  “Thanks for coming guys,” I said as one after the other, the guys either hugged or high-fived me, starting with Tate and ending with Noah, who wrapped his arms around me and picked me up off the ground. I hugged him back, laughing.

  “My favorite part was when you beamed that girl right in the head,” he said.

  “Noah, that’s not nice.”

  “Well, you didn’t hear what she said about you on the bench. She deserved it.”

  “Her name’s Jessica, and she’s kind of had it out for me since volleyball camp last summer.”

  “Well, you certainly showed Jessica.” Noah released me, setting me back on my feet.

  My dad cleared his throat behind me, and somehow the moment morphed into an awkward one, because the only person who hadn’t congratulated or hugged me was Jamie. And I so wanted to hug him, but that didn’t feel right with everyone watching after all that had gone down. Whatever truce my dad and the guys and come to with Jamie, I wasn’t going to spoil it. I kept my hands to myself and so did he.

  We all, more or less as a herd, made our way out the gym’s entrance and into the parking lot. I waved my final goodbyes and turned for my Tahoe, wanting to put my gym bag in the back. The team was piling up in Coach’s SUV to go eat at Mellowmushroom to celebrate.

  And then Jamie was towering over me, bringing the smell of the ocean with him as he threaded my gym bag off my shoulder.

  “You don’t have to do that,” I said, peering at his face, ever aware of the eyes looking our way. So this was what it would feel like to be with Jamie out in public, for people to see us together. I liked walking with Jamie, having him beside me.

  “I know. I want to.”

  “How is it you’re here?” I still suffered from that same sense of awe I felt whenever he was near. Near enough to smell. Near enough to catch the little shoots of silver in his eyes mixed in with the green.

  “I asked Marshall at the last minute if it was okay,” he explained, a slight blush rising in his cheeks. I’d never seen Jamie blush before.

  “I’m glad.” About time my dad came around. I tried not to read too much into it, though, not wanting to get my hopes up.

  “You were great.”

  “Thanks. The team really came through. It’ll be tougher tomorrow though.”

  “I’m not worried,” he said, opening the hatch of my Tahoe after I’d unlocked it. He tossed my bag inside.

  My phone buzzed in my hand and I really wanted to ignore it, but I had a feeling it was Ally. I looked down. I was right.

  Ally: wipe the drool off your lip. say goodbye to the Hulk and get your ass over here.

  Jamie had closed the hatch and we stood nearly toe-to-toe, me straining to look up into his face.

  “I gotta go,” I said, wishing I didn’t. “The team is going to eat and Coach insists we’re all at home in bed by ten.

  “Guess, I’ll go,” he said, neither of us making a move to go anywhere.

  “Will you come tomorrow?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  * * *

  I was home by ten but not in bed. I was still wired from the game and ended up taking a swim in the pool to wind down. The stars were out in full array and I’d spent the last thirty minutes leisurely swimming laps.

  Finally feeling relaxed, I climbed out of the pool and reached for a towel, when my dad came out the back door.

  He started to say something then cleared his throat when the words got stuck. “Sorry, I’m a little hoarse from yelling.”

  “Is that what you call it?” I bumped him with my shoulder before sitting on the edge of one of the lounge chairs. He took the one opposite me, settling into his lecture pose, elbows on his knees, his fingertips pressed together.

  “I might have gotten a little excited.”

  “Oh, yeah Mr. Calm, Cool, and Otherwise Unshakable.”

  His eyebrows rose in speculation.

  “That’s the guy’s nickname for you.”

  He snorted. “One of many I’m sure. There are few things I lose my cool over, and you’re one of them. I won’t ever apologize for that. You’re my daughter. It�
��s my job to crack heads and bust balls on your behalf if necessary.”

  And that was the closest thing to an apology I was likely to get from my dad for forbidding me to see Jamie.

  “That was a hell of a game,” he said. “I’m proud of you. Even if you hadn’t won, I’d still be proud.”

  “Yeah, but we did.” My smile was unstoppable.

  “Yeah, you sure did.” He reached over and put his arm around my neck. Gently pulling me close, he kissed the top of my head. “In case I haven’t said it in a while, I love you.”

  “Dad, I love you too. And I’m sorry—”

  “Hey, it’s okay,” he said, cutting me off.

  “Thanks for letting Jamie come to the game.”

  “Well, he asked, and I needed to talk to him anyway.” He sighed, shoulders slumping. “He’s kept his distance like I asked, but I can see that it’s making you miserable.”

  My heart nearly stopped and my breath hitched as hope swelled at his words.

  “I know what it’s like to have feelings for the wrong person. I loved a girl once. She didn’t love me back, but if she had I probably would have defied anyone to be with her. Doesn’t make it right though. Wanting something, someone, doesn’t make what you and Jamie decided to do right. Going behind my back. Lying to me.”

  “I know, and I really am sorry,” I said, my voice so small it was almost lost on the breeze. “I miss him though.”

  “I know you do. And honestly, I miss him too. That’s why if you two are dead set on seeing each other, I’ll allow it.”

  “You will?”

  “I expect you to keep curfew. He’s not allowed in your room. He’s not allowed in the house if I’m not here, and that goes for his house too. Shit.” He laughed to himself. “I’m not crazy about the idea of you having a boyfriend.”

  I grinned. It was the first time I could ever remember him cursing in front of me. I patted him on the back.

  “It’ll be all right.”

  “Don’t stay up too late. You’ve got another big day tomorrow.”

  “I won’t,” I said as he made his way back into the house.

  “Hey, Dad.” He paused and looked at me over his shoulder. “Thanks. And who wouldn’t love you back?”

  “Lots of people, trust me.”

  I wasn’t ready to go back inside so I lay on the lounge chair, gazing at the stars. I wrapped my towel tight around my shoulders. I might not be able to sleep at all now. Noah had said Jamie rarely slept in his room and that he spent most nights on the beach. I wondered if he were out there now, gazing at the stars too.

  A shadowed face loomed over my head, and my heart suddenly took up an erratic beat, not in fear. I’d been expecting him, waiting, somehow knowing he’d come.

  “You’re here,” I said, looking up into Jamie’s face, his green eyes sparkling like the stars above his head.

  “You’re supposed to be in bed.”

  “Couldn’t sleep.”

  “Me either,” he leaned over me further, drops of water falling on my towel and cheeks.

  “I was laying here looking at the stars wondering if you were too,” I confessed, soaking in his presence, his smell, the sheer size of him.

  “I was. But I’d rather look at them with you, and I wanted to ask you a question.”

  “What?” I asked, my voice a little breathless.

  “Erin Shaw, will you be my girlfriend?”

  “Hmmm.” I pretended to ponder his proposal, gazing up at the stars that seemed all the brighter with Jamie here. My world was just better with him in it. He must have gotten tired of waiting. His head descended, his mouth taking mine thoroughly and completely and then I couldn’t speak at all. He lifted his lips and I chased them with mine, never wanting this kiss to end.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  Part Two

  Chapter Fifteen

  Volleyball was over for me, but my dad giving me permission to see Jamie took the sting out of our loss in the semi-finals of the tournament. I was taking a few weeks off and after that workouts would begin again. I had a tryout for a traveling club team in a couple of months, and I was determined to be ready. When I wasn’t at school and Jamie wasn’t training, we were together.

  Tonight he'd brought me to Pirates, his favorite place to eat. Pirates was a back-porch-style restaurant overlooking the Gulf. As the locals would say, it was where "those people" hung out.

  "Thanks, Joe." Jamie nodded at the basket of fried shrimp Joe, the owner/cook/waiter/busboy, put in front of him, then dug in with the relish of a starving man. Jamie consumed shrimp baskets the way most people drank glasses of tea. This was his third one.

  The place was empty with the exception of the guy who'd been leaning against the bar when we walked in—Sol Kelley. I'd never spoken to him but I'd heard of him. Specifically, my dad had told me to steer clear of him.

  Jamie had nodded to him when we'd walked in, but they hadn't spoken. Sol had oddly dark eyes and his silver-blond hair roped down his back in long coils. He was also a chain smoker, the pungent smell of whatever he was smoking tickling my nose.

  I watched Jamie finish off his third basket of shrimp, laughing as he covertly eyed my grouper fingers.

  "Go ahead," I said, scooting the basket across the table.

  "You sure?"

  "Yeah, I'm full."

  The amount of food he could put away in one sitting continued to amaze me.

  As Jamie dug into what was left in my basket, the door opened and a girl and a guy walked in, and though I tried not too, it was impossible not to stare. The girl was tall and willowy with long pinkish hair and sharp violet eyes, and somehow she made the combination look sophisticated instead of animated. The guy was similarly striking with deep brown skin and thick dreads over a pair of cobalt eyes I thought had to be contact lenses. The girl headed for the bar and sidled up to Sol. When Dreads spotted Jamie, he headed for us.

  "Hey, man," Dreads said, fist bumping Jamie then sliding onto the bench next to me.

  "Erin, this is Cree," Jamie said, slapping Cree's hand when he tried to steal his last shrimp.

  Cree was slightly intimidating and borderline mean looking with the blue-heat of his eyes until an easy smile spread over his lips. "What are you doing with stingy?"

  He made another grab for a finger, his elbow bumping mine in the process, drawing my attention to the outline of the eels winding around his forearm and elbow to the top of his shoulder.

  "Cool tattoo," I said, resisting the urge to scoot over because they looked so real and oddly .gif-like.

  "Thanks. I've got one more session to fill it in."

  Jamie snorted. I presumed he wasn't a big fan of tattoos. I knew some girls found them sexy, but I couldn't imagine wanting Jamie to cover up one inch of his gorgeous skin.

  "You're Marshall Shaw's daughter," Cree stated.

  My dad's reputation proceeded me. He was a friendly, one of the few in a position of authority, as limited as that authority was, and I guess that made me a friendly too.

  "Guilty," I said and blushed under Cree's open perusal.

  I felt welcome enough in this place that acted as a haven for Jamie and his kind—his tribe. None of them had made me feel like an outsider. That was until Sol sauntered his way over to our table wearing an insolent expression as though my presence here were barely tolerable.

  The pink-haired girl followed him, and for a split second I was terrified that Sol would take the spot Cree had vacated.

  "Erin." Sol inclined his head, surprising me by knowing my name. He kept those obsidian eyes on me, and unlike Cree's smile, there wasn't anything friendly about Sol's smirk. I shivered as he walked past before he ambled down the stairs off the back of the porch that emptied onto the beach.

  "Later." Cree saluted offhandedly and followed Sol, jogging to catch up.

  "Ignore Sol." The pinked-haired girl slipped onto the bench beside Jamie, close enough their shoulders touched. "He's like a shark. If you don't ac
t scared he'll get bored and move on."

  She reached into Jamie's basket and swiped a hushpuppy and I noticed he didn't slap her hand away the way he had Cree's.

  "I'm Quinn," she said, looking at me as she took a bite of the hushpuppy.

  "Erin." I wondered if I should stick my hand out. In the end, it stayed in my lap. "Nice to meet you."

  "You too." She sat forward, eyeing me clinically. "You're really pretty."

  "Thank you."

  "You eighteen yet?"

  "Not yet," I said as though the day I turned eighteen were imminent and not a year and half away.

  "Too bad. I need a model for a fashion design class I'm taking, but they have to be eighteen. You would have been perfect."

  "Thanks, I guess."

  "Orders up, Quinn!" Joe yelled from behind the bar, holding up a Styrofoam to-go box.

  Quinn slapped the table with both hands then leaned over and pecked Jamie's cheek. "Got to get back to work."

  She walked over to the bar and picked up her order, turning to Jamie on her way out. "Tell Noah we're getting together at the Res this weekend. You can come too." With a toss of her hair she was gone, and I found myself smiling after her.

  "She's nice," I said, taking an instant like to her. "And pretty."

  Stunning was more like it.

  Jamie shrugged neither agreeing or disagreeing.

  "Old girlfriend?" I hoped I sounded only mildly curious and not jealous, which I wasn't.

  "First kiss," Jamie said around a smile. "We were probably ten."

  "What did she mean when she said they were going to be hanging at the Res?"

  "Inside joke. The Reservation is a piece of Gulf-front property the size of a postage stamp some government agency provided us as a private playground." His words dripped with sarcasm. "Where we're free to be ourselves without drawing the ire of the locals or scaring the tourists."

  "You're joking, right?"

  "I wish I were. Gathering in large groups? Not encouraged."

  "I'm sorry." I didn't understand much of their situation. The plight of their species was a conversation that never seemed to come up, as though no one wanted to credit their existence. Prejudice and discrimination couldn't exist if they didn't exist.