B0075M2D1U EBOK (8 page)

Oh no. My eyes got wide and my breath caught in my throat. Oh no, no, no.

He did
not
just say that. I quickly looked over to Jeremy, whose face instantly lit up and I gave him a warning look. At that same moment, Leo and Brennan began laughing even harder, almost falling down right there on the greens and a look of confusion spread over Nick’s face. Nick was holding out his golf ball for Jeremy. I looked down and put my hand up to cover my face and slowly shook my head. I was not going to explain the faux pas he just made about allowing Jeremy to “play with his balls.” Clearing her throat loudly and trying to calm everyone down, Anya announced, “Come on! Let’s finish the game.” And with that, she dragged Leo and Brennan with her onto the last hole. I walked over to Nick, letting my club swing gently in my hand. Just before I approached, I looked straight at Jeremy and said, “Remember. Hands off.” Jeremy’s eyebrows went up as he gave me his best innocent puppy dog eyes look while he grabbed the golf ball out of Nick’s hand. I shook my head as I walked by and stuck out my arm for Nick to take. He looped his arm through mine and we followed Anya, Brennan and Leo to the last hole with Jeremy trailing behind. We finished our game (with Nick just watching me play, since he had so graciously given his golf ball to Jeremy) and then our friendly little group walked back into the main building to turn in our equipment. We all lingered in a line while the pimply, greasy-haired boy behind the counter counted up all the clubs and then went down the line as we all handed him our golf ball…“Uh…You’re short,” he said, looking accusingly at Nick, who had given his golf ball to Jeremy so he could finish out the game. Leo spoke up as he flipped his shaggy blonde hair to the side of his face so it was out of his eyes and said, “Oh, mannn! You would not believe it! We lost a golf ball in the waterfall.” (As far as pimply, greasy kid knew, Jeremy only lost one ball, not three.)

“
Couldn’t you just reach in and get it?” the pimply, greasy kid said.

At this moment, Jeremy spoke up. “No,” he said with complete certainty as he shook his head back and forth, then glanced over at me before he firmly stated, “
His balls are irretrievable
.” I caught the double-meaning instantly and tried to hide my smile as I looked away from Nick. Jeremy’s “irretrievable balls” comment made Leo and Brennan practically fall down with laughter. Even the ever-gracious Anya stifled a giggle with her hand. Nick just shrugged, and the pimply greasy kid behind the counter looked annoyed.

We finished up, and Nick and I followed the others outside. It was a clear night, with a bright, silvery glowing moon. I glanced up and could see about a million stars sparkling in the purplish-blue dark sky. I heard muffled sounds of the other golfers in the distance and the crunching footsteps of my friends on the gravel parking lot ahead of me. That’s when it happened.

Nick grabbed my hand and stopped me dead in my tracks. His sudden touch startled me, and I stumbled slightly as I turned back to face him. He put his other hand lightly on my lower back and gently pulled me towards him, all the while staring into my face with those gorgeous emerald green eyes of his.
Oh my
. I tried to take a deep breath, but I couldn’t breathe. I think I forgot how. I was so surprised by his sudden move I literally stopped breathing. My heart was pounding and my mouth went dry. Just then, Nick leaned in, and gently pressed his lips to mine. Everything around me stopped. I let my eyes slowly close as he pressed his soft lips harder and I started to kiss him back. For a few seconds, the world around me went away. All I could feel were his soft lips moving slowly on mine and his strong hand pressing gently into my lower back. Then, with his other hand, he laced his fingers through mine, tightening his grip on my sweaty hand. He pulled away gently and broke the kiss first. I slowly opened my eyes and smiled at his smoldering face, as he slowly curled his mouth into his trademark smile.

The others were already at the car, and Anya once again cleared her throat loudly before announcing, “Are we ready to go?” Jeremy was already sitting behind the wheel and Leo started making soft puking sounds as he stood next to Anya. Real mature. Brennan was standing, holding the back door open for us, smirking at me as we walked towards him. Then, in barely a whisper, so that only I could hear him, he smugly said, “Stuck in a tongue tornado, huh, Kansas?”

“
Guess so,” I snarkily answered as I scooted into the back seat. I wanted to stick my tongue out at him, but thought that would look too immature with Nick so close behind me. Brennan nodded his head to Nick as Nick slid in next to me, then he walked around the other side of the car to sandwich me in again. I don’t know why he didn’t just get in and sit next to Nick, but maybe it’s a guy thing? I suppose he didn’t want to sit all squished up next to him. As Jeremy backed the car out of the lot, Nick casually draped his arm around my shoulders which sent a volt of electricity through my entire body. I sucked in a quick breath as I sat up a little straighter and I saw Nick smile out of the corner of my eye. I smiled and eased into his side, resting my body lightly against him. Brennan ignored us, which was fine by me.

The drive home was quieter than the ride there, and Anya, Leo and Jeremy did most of the talking. Brennan was unusually quiet, and I was in heaven. Leaning comfortably against Nick, with his arm still draped around my shoulder, I tried to calm the butterflies still fluttering around in my stomach as I thought about his muscular, tanned body which I was now utterly close to. I didn’t feel the need to talk much, as I was too preoccupied thinking about kissing Nick again. We dropped Nick off first, so he simply leaned down gave me quick peck on the lips and then wrapped his arm a little tighter around me for a quick squeeze. He lingered at my ear and whispered, “I had fun, Ruby. I’ll call you.” And with that, he said thanks to Jeremy and climbed out of the car. I slid over to the door and dreamily looked out the window so I could watch him walk inside his house. I let out a big sigh. Could anyone be more perfect?

Brennan interrupted my daydreaming when he smugly said, “Does his vocabulary include any words other than ‘cool’? I thought huma – ah – American teenagers had stronger linguistic skills than that.” I looked over at Brennan with my best squinty evil-eye look and retorted, “Oh whatever, Brennan. Like you’re so smart. You acted verbally challenged most of the night!” Once again, he had stumbled over his phrasing while speaking. If he wasn’t more careful, Jeremy or Leo were most certainly going to start catching on to his foreign fairy-ness. He always was goofing up like that… saying things a normal human teenager wouldn’t say. Anya quickly interrupted us by saying rather loudly, “So, do you guys think we’re going to get another storm tonight?” Leave it to Anya to try to quiet the squabbling and change the subject.

“
I don’t know,” Jeremy shook his head as he glanced up towards the skies, “But I hope not. The one the other night caused quite a mess.”

“
Really?” Anya asked.

“
Oh yeah!” Leo interjected, you shoulda seen all the messed up boats!” Anya turned quizzically at Leo. I piped in from the back seat, “Oh, that’s right, Nick told me about that yesterday when he stopped in to see me…You had just left Anya.”

“
What happened?” Brennan demanded as Anya tried to crane her neck around to look at me.

“
Well, apparently, the storm flipped over almost all of the boats in the marina the other night. Good thing it’s still early in the season and not too many people are docked there yet…but can you imagine what it must’ve looked like and how much damage it caused? I wonder if that thing I saw in the water had anything to do with it.”

Anya sat staring at me with wide eyes and slowly said, “What. Thing?” Brennan got that furrowed-brow-lip-pressed-together serious look on his face again. I looked back and forth between them and slowly continued on, “Ohhh…nothing I suppose. But, remember last Saturday when we were at the beach, and I thought I saw trash or something in the lake?” Anya nodded. “Well…maybe it was something else? Like, maybe there’s some weird school of fish or something that caused some funky whirlpools or currents and made the boats tip.” Anya gave a worried look to Brennan. Leo laughed at my comment from the front seat and chimed in, “Yeah! Like some crazy catfish with boat envy! Ha! You know what though? I saw some dudes catch a catfish that was nine frickin’ feet long! Can you believe that? It was on the Discovery Channel. Now
that
mutant fish could totally cause some damage.”

I snickered and rolled my eyes. My brother is such an idiot. Mutant cat fish. Seriously? Maybe I’ll Google it. He did say it was on the Discovery Channel…

“
YOU watch the Discovery Channel?!?” Jeremy exclaimed, interrupting my silent, sarcastic, wandering thoughts of my idiot brother.

“
Not really, but my dad does. And there were some hot chicks on the show,” Leo shrugged while he fiddled with the radio. I noticed that Brennan was unusually quiet again and Anya’s head was still twisted around, staring intently at him. I looked at Brennan and quietly asked him, “What’s wrong?”

“
Nothing,” he answered, staring straight at the back of Jeremy’s head. Then, he looked over at Anya and as his eyes met hers, he said, “We have to go home.” She nodded once and turned to face the front again. I stared at Brennan, as he turned to silently stare out the window.

Chapter 10

I had another restless night again. First, my stomach was still reeling from my first amazing kiss with Nick. Just thinking of Mr. Hotness made me feel jittery all over again. I wondered if he would call like he said he would. And when would he call? It was Thursday night and Friday and Saturday nights were typically the busiest nights at Martino’s Pizza. I’m sure Nick will be working. Will he invite me up to hang out with him during his break again? Or will he wait until Sunday to call me? And will he kiss me again? Ohmygoshhhhh. That kiss. That amazing, palm-sweaty, heart-beating, stomach-churning kiss. As soon I could put the taste of his yummy lips out of my head, my thoughts would wander to Anya and Brennan. I couldn’t shake the worried looks on their faces. When Brennan insisted that he and Anya had to return home, I knew they didn’t mean to the cottage. They were going back to Fey. But why? Were they afraid? Were they hiding? Were they in trouble? Were they going for help? They seemed to be really concerned with what had been happening in our town lately. First, there were all those fires and then the weird incident at the marina. But why would those things worry them so much? It’s not like it was happening in Fey. Did it really have anything to do with that hump thing I saw in the water a week ago? I had never seen Anya and Brennan so serious before. Fairies, by nature, were normally quite happy and carefree.

I tossed and turned all night, wondering if the mysterious hump in the water had something to do with burning down half of the Frederick’s tree farm. But if it lived in the water, how could it be connected? The tree farm was nowhere near the lake. Maybe there were some crazy fairies hiding out in the woods causing all of these disturbances. Anya had said not all fairies were alike, and I’m sure there were some crazy ones out there. That would certainly explain why Anya and Brennan were worried. Forests surrounded the all of the lakes and since the fairies dwell in the forests, it’s possible that some psycho fairies got bored lighting fires and decided to go boat-tipping for some excitement. All it would take is a little fairy magic and, bam, a boat is flipped over or a fire is started. Although, I couldn’t imagine any fairy being so cruel and malicious. The fairies I’ve encountered didn’t seem to have a devious bone in their bodies…If they even had bones. I’m not quite sure about fairy anatomy. Ah! Can you see why I had trouble sleeping? Between wondering about Nick’s impending phone call, the possibility of another kiss, crazy renegade fairies in the woods, the seriousness of Brennan and Anya, and Brennan’s insistence that they return home, it was enough to make me crazy! I was going to have to ask Anya and Brennan about all this crazy stuff going on the next time I saw them…
if
I saw them again. Their cryptic comments about needing to go home kind of freaked me out.

It’s no wonder I was a tad crabby all day on Friday while I was at work. How is a girl supposed to be cheerful and helpful to snotty little kids who knock down the entire art supplies display while reaching for the stupid sidewalk chalk, or to not lose patience with old Mrs. Anderson when she gets lost looking for the yarn aisle every two minutes? This day couldn’t be over quick enough for me, and unfortunately, I had to close the store again. I think it’s my manager’s idea of a cruel joke…to make the teenager close up shop on Friday night. I mean, hello? Some of us want to have a social life.

The sun had begun to set after I had painstakingly put back all of the fishing lures that had been knocked off their respective hooks by some annoying 13-year-old boys that had come through the store. Finally, I had a few minutes to sit behind the register and relax before I closed up. As I headed up the main aisle back to the front counter, I heard the tinkling bells of the door. My heart began racing. Could Nick be stopping in to surprise me again? After all, he came to visit me on Wednesday night, then we had that delicious kiss, and then he said he would call me. If he did try calling me, my parents or brother would’ve told him that I was at work. I held my breath as I waited to see whoever came through that door come around the other side of the displays blocking my view of the entrance.

Drat.

It wasn’t him. It was Jeremy. I let out a huge sigh as I schlepped back up to the counter.