Sweet Water

by Lena North

  “Heh. He tried to. Told him to go fuck himself,” Olly chuckled.

  I laughed too then, thinking that I would have wanted to see that.

  “I bet that went down well?” I asked.

  “No,” Olly stated, and I thought he wouldn’t elaborate, but then he suddenly did. “I thought he’d hit me. I braced and hoped I wouldn’t have to hurt him too much, but then he suddenly stepped back, glared at me and walked out of Johns.”

  “Really?” I whispered, thinking that this didn’t sound like Dante.

  “Muttered something about bringing soy yogurt before he left,” Olly added, and I felt his chest move with laughter again. “Got a tub of it in the car,” he added.

  Wow. I was still angry with Dante for making my girlfriends stay away, but he’d, at least sort of, allowed Olly to come.

  “Did he tell Mac to stay away too?” I asked.

  If Wilder weren't allowed to come then Mac would stay away, I thought, and this was another disappointment. I would have wanted to see him, and thank him for helping me.

  “Mac’s here,” Kit cut in. “Hawker too. They’re in the village talking to Dante and another dude. Blond curly hair, sharp eyes?”

  Aha. That explained why Daniele wasn’t at the building site this morning.

  “Okay,” I said, looked around at the crew still working around the house, and called out to them, “Hey, guys!”

  They all stopped what they were doing and gathered around me, shuffling their feet and clearly sensing something was happening.

  “Danny’s not coming today?” I asked sweetly, and added, “Where can I find him?”

  “Now, Jinx,” one of the older men answered after a short silence. “They're at the Mayor's house, but Dante and Danny specifically said that you were to remain here with us today, installing the final bits of the security system.”

  “Oh, really?” I asked, still sweetly, but it wasn’t a question, so no one replied.

  The big, manly men apparently had a secret get-together going on in the village, and they wanted me to stay away. I knew they were concerned about me, and I had been sick, but I was neither helpless nor useless. The thought of them trying to protect me by shuffling me to the side hurt. I decided that I’d have to stand up for myself, and if Dante got angry, then I’d find it in me to yell at him.

  “What are they talking about?” I asked Kit.

  “Jinx…” he said, again in that placating voice.

  “Never mind,” I snapped. “Start checking the security system, or get the shit you brought into the pool. I’ll be back,” I muttered, and started marching toward the village.

  Heavy steps followed me, and I snapped over my shoulder, “You can’t stop me, Olly.”

  “Wasn’t planning to,” he murmured as he came up next to me. “Told them it was stupid. Want to watch you tell them too.”

  “Huh,” I snorted, and then we walked in silence until we’d reached the center of the village.

  I stepped into Dante’s father’s house, and sure enough, there they were.

  “Mac. Hawker,” I nodded to the visitors and turned to Dante. “Can I have a word with you?”

  “Jiminella now is not –”

  Dante stopped speaking when he saw the look on my face, and for a few long seconds, we remained silent. I was seriously unhappy with him but didn’t want to fight, at least not in front of Hawker and Mac. I decided to settle for a compromise, and took a few quick steps, put my hand on his shoulder and leaned down a little to face him.

  “I am not happy with you. At. All,” I stated, putting as much acidity into my thought as I could.

  He winced, and I knew I’d communicated my displeasure clearly enough.

  “Jiminella,” he murmured again.

  “I will let you continue with your little meeting, but you should know that I expect a full recount later and if you make any decisions concerning me that I don’t agree to then those decisions are null and void.”

  His eyes softened, but I went on.

  “Then you’ll have to call Hawker and tell him that.”

  “Okay,” he said calmly.

  “Okay,” I repeated, turned and looked at the others.

  They looked surprised, but Olly was grinning widely.

  “Gentlemen,” I said calmly, and then I marched across the room.

  When I reached the door, I turned.

  “Hawker,” I snapped. “Tell Wilder I miss her, and that next time I invite her, I expect her to come.”

  His yellow eyes softened, and his mouth formed a small grin.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, although it sounded mostly as if he was mocking me, so I turned and left the room.

  Olly followed me, and we walked in silence for a while. I was still angry and had also scolded both Dante and Hawker, so my legs shook a little. When we’d passed the gate and started toward the house, I stopped.

  “Give me a second,” I muttered.

  Without waiting for a reply, I turned toward the water, moved my shoulders and head a little to loosen the muscles. Then I raised my chin slightly and took a deep breath, pulling in air through my nose and slowly exhaling it through my mouth. The tangy smell of the ocean filled me, and as I kept breathing calmly, I felt myself relax. The knot in my belly eased away, and as it did, a small smile turned the tips of my mouth upward. Since Dante had shown me how to do it that day on the beach, I’d practiced, with him and on my own. It still puzzled me how a simple thing like breathing in the ocean air could calm me down when my brain geared up and my thoughts started to race too fast through my head. I would have to move back to my condo in the city, or my house in the mountains, eventually and it worried me. I wasn’t sure what I’d do then because it worked best if I was by the water, and even better if Dante was with me, but I had learned how to manage quite well on my own so I was hoping I’d find a way to manage.

  “Good, you already know how to breathe,” Olly rumbled behind me.

  I’d been lost in my thoughts, and he startled me. I turned to look at him, and he nodded silently, but his lips curved into a small smile.

  “Who taught you?” he asked as we started to walk.

  “Dante,” I replied, and he stopped abruptly.

  “Really?” he asked.

  “Of course,” I replied. “Why are you surprised?”

  “Dude seems pretty mellow, didn’t strike me as someone who needed relaxation techniques,” he replied.

  I was silent for a while but then I decided that Olly should know about what kind of man Dante was, and how lucky I was to have him as my friend.

  “You’re right, he doesn’t, not in the least. He searched the net, though. Learned,” I said, and added in a whisper, “For me.”

  “Huh,” Olly muttered.

  We’d almost reached the house when a thought struck me. Olly had known about what I should eat, had given me a salve for my ribs, and he understood what my breathing was about.

  “Who taught you, Olly?” I asked gently.

  Our eyes held for a long time and then he sighed.

  “Mom. Long story, Jinx, and not for now.”

  “Okay,” I said, not wanting to push him but still eager to know. “Will you tell me one day?”

  “Sure,” he muttered.

  Then he turned abruptly and walked away to talk to the builders. I went over to where Kit was perched up on a ladder, and helped him with the final checks on the security system. Then we moved on to the inside and the huge water-filled pool.

  Once the crystal was safely locked into a thick metal box we’d designed, we lowered it carefully to the bottom of the pool, Kit changed into a pair of swim trunks, and I put on the bikini I’d gotten in the village store.

  Then we slipped into the warm water and attached our testing equipment. As the first step of our tests, I’d put together a circulation system to move air into the box, so we fastened rubber hoses on both sides. I had a hypothesis about the wavelengths of the energy transmitted from the crystal, and
how they changed the composition of the air, so the outlet passed a huge cupboard full of measuring equipment. Danny and the builders had made the cabinet, and they’d crafted it very nicely to match the long benches that ran along the back wall. The room didn’t look like a lab at all, and I wondered if I should ask one of the carpenters to make a few deck chairs, and maybe a small table for the patio outside, and –

  “Hey, you’re getting out of there or what?” Kit asked, and I blinked slowly.

  I was hanging with my arms up on the edge of the pool and moved my legs slowly through the warm water. I had completely forgotten what we were really there to do.

  “I forgot about work,” I said and grinned at him.

  He smiled too and took a step away.

  “You’re different, Jinx,” he said slowly and continued speaking before I had a chance to ask him in what way. “I don’t know what it is exactly, but it’s good. Are you happy?”

  “I’m working on it,” I answered.

  “Fair enough,” he muttered and stretched a hand down to pull me out of the water.

  I shook my head and heaved my torso up over the edge. Then I swung one knee up, and after a small struggle, I made what probably wasn’t the most graceful exit from a pool. It got me out, though, so I turned to grab a towel and noticed that both Kit and Olly had lowered their eyes.

  I realized immediately what they had been looking at and I snorted.

  “You were looking at my butt, weren’t you?” I asked.

  “Well, yeah,” Olly replied calmly as if my question was borderline stupid.

  “Kit, really?” I asked.

  “I wasn’t the only one,” he murmured quickly and tilted his head a little to the side.

  The building crew had apparently entered the lab, and when I glared at them, they all looked in all kinds of directions that wasn’t directly at me. All of them were grinning sheepishly.

  “Guys, come on…” I said, but then Dante pushed through the crowd.

  He had a huge towel in his hand and a scowl on his face.

  “Dry off before you get cold,” he muttered.

  I snatched the towel out of his hands and covered my front with it. Dante kept his gaze aimed straight over my shoulder, and I lost the sweet and happy feeling I’d gotten when I realized the flattering fact that they’d all appreciated how my behind looked. The only man I actually wanted to find me, and my butt, attractive didn’t even glance at it.

  “See,” I said quickly and pasted a cheeky grin on my face to cover up my disappointment. “Dante is a good friend and a perfect gentleman. He doesn’t gawk at me in such a disrespectful and chauvinistic way.”

  A few of the men chuckled, although they tried to cover it up with coughs. Kit laughed outright but ended it abruptly when Dante speared him with a hard glare.

  “That’s right, Nellie,” he murmured. “I wouldn’t dream of gawking at you in any disrespectful way at all.”

  “Right,” I said, wrapped the towel around me and made a shooing motion with my hand. “Out, everyone. I need to get dressed.”

  They all trooped out of there, and I turned to pick up my clothes when a huge hand gripped my shoulder softly and turned me around.

  “There’s no need for you to have that look in your eyes, Jinx,” Olly said quietly.

  “There’s no look in my eyes,” I said confidently, trying to cover up and wishing he’d leave me alone.

  “You were standing here, and he was standing where I’m standing,” Olly said, and before I could confirm that his assessment of our positions was indeed correct, he nudged me softly to turn around.

  The sliding doors to the back patio were right behind me and the lights reflected in them, making them into huge mirrors. I remembered how Dante’s eyes had seemed to lock on something behind me and realized what he’d been looking at. My eyes met Olly’s reflection in the mirror in front of us, and I started to smile.

  “Just thought you should know,” he rumbled, and then he walked away quietly.

  I stood still for a long time because a small swarm of butterflies was tickling my stomach and I couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot.

  The smile remained on my face all the way back to the village, and it widened when I saw a familiar car at the gate.

  “Mary!” I called out.

  She had been in an argument with Tony, but when she heard my voice, she turned and then she came running. Her long beautiful hair was flying in the air, and as she got closer, she threw out her arms to wrap me up in a tight hug. Neither Wilder, nor I were the hugging kind of girls, but Mary was, and it was never the fake kind of hug where you barely touched and made fake kissing sounds in the air. With Mary, it was full-on bear hugs that always made me feel like a little of her warmth and happiness seeped into my soul.

  “Oh my God, Jinx, you look so much better,” she said when we’d ended the hug, and she stepped back.

  “Really?” I whispered, because I had thought so myself but hearing her say it felt good.

  “You’ve gained weight, and it looks good on you, but that’s not it,” she said. “You used to look…”

  “What?” I asked when she stopped speaking and just looked at me.

  “Haunted,” she murmured. “Even when we were having a good time, and you were laughing… It was as if you were bracing, expecting something bad to happen, and it was always there, that haunted look in your eyes.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t been like that, had I?

  “Anyway,” she said cheerfully, “You look happy now, and you’re getting chubby,” she added with a wink.

  Since my ribs were still sticking out in a way I knew wasn’t exactly attractive, I knew that she was teasing but didn’t want to discuss my state of mind with Tony hovering around, so I took the bait.

  “Do not,” I huffed.

  “Do too,” she grinned.

  “Mary,” a deep voice said behind me, and I jumped.

  I had not heard Dante walk up to us and the look on his face told me immediately that he was not in a good mood. I stretched my hand out and touched his arm.

  “I’m so happy she’s here,” I told him.

  His face was blank, and he was about to say something, but Mary interrupted.

  “I’m not staying. I’m just stopping by to deliver a present.”

  “You’re leaving?” I asked, not trying to hide my disappointment.

  “You’re welcome to stay, Mary,” Dante said, sounding more resigned than excited about the prospect.

  I smiled at him and whispered a silent, “Thank you,” and his face finally softened.

  “Oh no, Dante. You were right, and I won’t stay. I’ll come back in a few weeks instead,” Mary said. Then she moved to the trunk of her car, yanked it open, and stilled. Her eyes met mine, and there was her usual warmth in them, but also apprehension.

  “I might have been wrong, Jinx, but there’s no going back now,” she said and shot me a sunny smile. Mary was the happiest girl I’d ever met, and she’d talked about her parents, so I knew well where she got her bright outlook on life from.

  “What?” I laughed, but she was busy getting something out of her car.

  “Come, boy,” she cooed and made a soft kissing sound. Then she motioned for me to come. “You’ll have to get over here, Jinx. Someone is a little shy.”

  I walked over to her and peeked into the trunk of her station wagon. Instead of her usual stack of canvases and boxes of paint, there was a pile of things pressed up to one side, and next to it sat a big dog.

  When I stepped closer, he raised his head, and we looked straight into each other’s eyes. He didn’t move an inch, and I’d never had any pets, but as I looked at the huge golden animal, I knew instantly that this was my dog. His sleek fur looked soft, shiny, and it was a pale yellow color, almost golden where the afternoon sun reached inside the trunk. His big eyes were dark brown, almost black, and they held my gaze.

  “Hey,” I whispered, and his ears shifted slightly
. “Oh, but you’re beautiful,” I murmured and stretched out my hand toward him.

  He shifted until he was on his feet and after a quick sniff of my hand he gave it a lick, jumped out of the car and sat down next to me. He leaned into my leg, and I put my hand on his head, caressing it softly.

  “Thank you,” I said to Mary and raised my gaze, but she wasn’t looking at me. She was watching Dante.

  “That’s a water dog,” he said, and his voice sounded strained.

  God, I hoped he didn’t hate dogs.

  “He’s not supposed to be yellow,” Dante added, still in that strange voice.

  “I know,” Mary said. “He’s a bit more than a year, and the breeder didn’t have the heart to put him down so she kept him, hoping that someone wouldn’t care about the color.”

  “What are you talking about,” I bristled. “He’s not yellow, he’s golden, and he’s perfect.”

  “Yeah, I thought you’d think so,” Mary whispered, and added softly, “He’s got your eyes, though, Jinx.”

  I grinned at her because, in a way, he did have the same dark eyes as I did.

  “What’s his name,” I asked.

  “It’s dorky,” she replied. “You have to give that dog a new one.”

  “But he’s had it for more than a year? I’m sure I can live with it even if it’s silly,” I said.

  You couldn’t just give a dog a new name, could you?

  “No, Jinx. That’s what the lady called him. Dorky.”

  My mouth fell open, and I decided immediately that one could indeed give a dog a new name because there was no way I’d call this beautiful animal Dorky.

  I crouched down to put my hands on the sides of his head.

  “Hey,” I murmured as I let my fingers sift through his soft fur and down his sides. “Don’t worry sweetie, I won’t call you that silly name.”

  He didn’t move as I slid my fingers into the soft hair just behind his ears, and I’d read somewhere that you weren’t supposed to stare a dog into the eyes, but I couldn’t help myself. Then I leaned closer to nudge the side of his head with my chin, and whispered, “Joe. Your name is Joe, and you’re mine.”

  I knew that he couldn’t have understood, but my words suddenly made him press closer and then he was licking my face frantically. I leaned backward, and he stepped even closer, putting one paw on my lap. His tail was wagging frantically, and I could have sworn he was grinning.