Wake (Watersong Novels) (18 page)

“Three dollars here and there adds up, especially as often as he forgets his lunch,” Harper explained.

“Not to mention you wouldn’t get to see me.”

“I wasn’t…” She trailed off, since she’d obviously been waiting for him today. “That isn’t why. I do bring his food out to save him money. Okay, so today, this one time, I was hoping to run into you, but is that so terrible?”

“No. That’s not terrible at all.” He stood up straighter and gestured to his boat. “Do you want to come up and talk, then?”

“On your boat?” Harper asked.

“Yes. On my boat. It seems much more civil than talking down to you, doesn’t it?”

Harper glanced toward the end of the dock where her father worked. She had probably ruined his lunch anyway, and Brian could easily grab a hot dog. But she still wasn’t that sure she wanted to hang out on Daniel’s boat with him.

Yes, she wanted to see him, but going up on his boat—it felt like admitting something that she didn’t want to admit.

“Oh, come on.” Daniel leaned over the rail and extended his arm to her.

“Don’t you have like a landing plank or anything?” Harper asked, just staring at his hand.

“Yes, but this is quicker.” He waved his hand at her. “Take my hand and come on.”

Sighing, Harper took his hand. It was strong and rough, the hand of a guy who’d spent his whole life working. He pulled her up easily, as if she weighed nothing. To get her up over the rail, he had to pull her into his arms, and he held her there for a second longer than he needed to.

“Don’t you own a shirt?” Harper asked when she pushed herself back from his bare chest.

He wore only a pair of shorts and flip-flops, and Harper purposely wouldn’t look at him once she’d stepped away from him. She could still feel his skin on hers, warm from the sun beating down on them.

“My shirts have hit you in the face before, remember?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah. Right.” She glanced around the deck, and then, since she had nothing else to do with it, she held out the lunch sack to him. “Here.”

“Thanks?”

He took the bag from her and opened it. He rooted around inside, finding a smooshed ham sandwich, apple slices, and a pickle.

“Apple slices?” Daniel asked, holding them for her to see. “Is your dad a first-grader?”

“He has high cholesterol,” Harper said defensively. “The doctor wants him to watch what he eats, so I make his lunch.”

Daniel shrugged, as if he either didn’t believe her or didn’t care. Carefully, he took everything out of their plastic Baggies, which was more difficult for the sandwich, since it had been so severely mashed.

Once he was done, he threw all the food out onto the dock and balled up what was left of the garbage.

“Hey!” Harper yelled. “You didn’t need to waste that!”

“I didn’t.” He gestured to the dock, which was now covered in seagulls fighting over the food. “I fed the birds.” Harper still didn’t look pleased, so he laughed.

“I guess.”

“Let’s go belowdecks and talk,” Daniel suggested. “It’s cooler down there.”

He went down without waiting for her protests. She paused for a minute, reluctant to follow him. But it was hot outside, and the sun wasn’t making it any better.

When Harper climbed down, she noted that the boat wasn’t dirty so much as messy, and that surprised her. He did have stuff strewn all about, but that was in large part because it was such a small space he didn’t really have places to put anything.

“Have a seat.” He gestured around him.

His bed was the most cleared-off spot, but she didn’t want to give him the wrong idea. She leaned against the table instead, preferring to stand.

“I’m fine.”

“Suit yourself.” Daniel sat on the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Uh…” Harper was at a loss for words because she didn’t really know what she wanted to talk about. All she knew was that she’d wanted to talk to him. It didn’t matter what it was about.

“Gemma hasn’t been around lately, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Daniel said, and she was grateful that he’d brought up an actual topic so she wasn’t left gaping at him.

“Good. She’s not supposed to be going anywhere, since she’s grounded. But that hasn’t really been stopping her.” Harper shook her head.

“So she’s still sneaking out to the bay?” Daniel asked, but he didn’t sound surprised. “You can’t keep that girl away from water. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she was part fish.”

“I wish she was just going to the bay,” she admitted wearily and leaned back. “That I could deal with. But I don’t even know what she’s doing anymore.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s so bizarre. Those girls came over last night to get her, and—”

“What girls?” Daniel asked. “You mean Penn?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. “They came to get her, and I told them to get lost. But Gemma insisted on going with them. She pushed right past me, and then they just left.”

“She willingly went with them?” His eyes widened. “I thought she was afraid of them.”

“I know! So did I!”

“So what happened?” Daniel asked. “Did she come home last night?”

“Yeah, she came back a few hours later.” Her face scrunched in confusion, and she shook her head. “But it doesn’t make any sense. She’d left the house in shorts and a tank top, and she came back in a dress I’d never seen before, and she was soaking wet. I asked what she’d done, but she wouldn’t tell me.”

“At least she came home okay,” he said.

“Yeah.” Harper sighed, thinking. “She didn’t come home right away. She stopped at Alex’s first—that’s the neighbor kid, and he’s her sorta boyfriend, I think. I asked him if he knows what’s going on, and he says he doesn’t. I believe him, but I don’t know if I should.”

“I’m sorry,” Daniel said, and Harper looked up, surprised to see that he meant it. “I know that it’s hard having someone you care about doing reckless things. But it’s not your fault.”

“I know.” She lowered her eyes. “And it doesn’t feel like my fault, but … I have to protect her.”

“You can’t, though.” Daniel leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “You can’t protect people from themselves.”

“But I have to try. She’s my sister.”

Daniel licked his lips and lowered his eyes. When he wrung his hands together, a thick silver band on his thumb caught the light. He didn’t say anything for a moment, and Harper could see he was struggling with something.

“You’ve seen my tattoo on my back?” Daniel asked finally.

“Yeah. I can’t really miss it.”

“Do you see what it’s covering up?”

“You mean your back?”

“No. The scars.” He turned away from her, so his tattooed shoulder and back angled toward her.

Whoever had given him his tattoos had done a very good job. The ink was thick and black, and it wasn’t until she looked closely that she saw the branches weren’t shadowed to look gnarled and twisted. They had been drawn that way, along the lines of several lengthy scars.

Not all the branches covered scars, and the long, thick trunk that followed his spine didn’t appear to have scarring underneath. But there were enough to show he’d been through something.

“And right here.” He turned his head to the side and moved his hair. An inch or so into his hair, buried underneath his shaggy haircut, was a thick pink scar.

“Oh, my gosh,” Harper gasped. “What happened?”

“When I was fifteen, my older brother John was twenty.” Daniel moved so he was sitting normally on the bed again, and he stared out the window. “He was wild and reckless, never looking before he jumped. He would just drive right into everything.

“And I’d follow him. At first because I thought he was cooler and bold and brave. But then, the older I got, I was following him so I could catch him.

“My grandfather had a lot of boats, this being one of them.” He motioned around them. “He loved the water and thought kids should be free to roam about it. So anytime we wanted to, we were allowed to take the boats out.

“The night I got these”—Daniel gestured to his scars—“John had gone to a party, and I’d tagged along. He got drunk, I mean totally shitfaced drunk. That wasn’t unusual, because John was almost always drunk.

“There were a couple girls at the party he was trying to impress, and he got it in his head that if he took them out on a boat, that would do it. I went with because he was so drunk I knew he couldn’t drive. If I was there, I could take control. That would make everything okay.

“So it was John, these two girls, and me on a little speedboat.” He sighed and shook his head. “John kept going faster. I told him to slow down. The girls were screaming, and I tried to get the controls from him.” He swallowed. “He drove right into the rocks at the end of the bay.

“The boat flipped. I don’t know what happened exactly, but I was under the boat, and the propeller got me.” He gestured to his scars again. “John got knocked unconscious, and I couldn’t find him…”

“I’m sorry,” Harper said quietly.

“Both of the girls survived, but John…” Daniel shook his head. “It was over a week before they found his body washed up on shore two miles down.

“And no, I’m not happy that he died. I never will be. I loved my brother.” He looked at Harper then, his eyes deadly serious. “But nothing I did that night stopped him from drinking or getting on that boat. None of my begging or pleading or fighting with him saved him. All it did was nearly get me killed.”

“Gemma’s not like that.” Harper looked away from him. “She’s going through something, and she needs my help.”

“I’m not saying give up on her or stop loving her. I’d never even suggest that, especially not for Gemma. She seems like a good kid.”

“Then what are you saying?”

“It took me years to accept the fact that it wasn’t my fault that John died.” His shoulders slacked. “I don’t know if I’ll ever truly forgive myself for what happened. But that doesn’t mean you should feel the same way.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that you can’t live somebody else’s life for them. They have to make their own choices, and sometimes all we can do is learn to live with them.”

“Hmm.” Harper let out a long breath. “When I stopped by today, I didn’t realize I’d get such a profound life lesson.”

“Sorry.” Daniel looked embarrassed and laughed a little. “I didn’t mean to like go all … dark on you.”

“No, it’s good.” She scratched her head and smiled at him. “I think … I think I needed to hear that.”

“Good. Glad I could help,” he said. “So, what did you stop by for anyway?”

“I…” She briefly considered lying, but after he’d been so honest with her, she couldn’t. “I don’t really know.”

“You just wanted to see me?” Daniel asked with a small smirk.

“I guess so.”

“Are you hungry?” Daniel got up before she could answer.

There wasn’t much of a walkway in the boat, so just the act of standing up brought Daniel disconcertingly close. He moved closer so he stood right in front of her, mere inches from touching her.

“You want anything?” Daniel asked as she stared up at him.

“What?” Harper asked, and she had no idea what he’d even asked her. She found herself strangely mesmerized by the flecks of blue in his hazel eyes.

To open his fridge, he had to bend over and lean to the side, and he brushed up against her as he did. Even when he opened the door, he kept his eyes on Harper as he pulled out a couple of cans of soda.

“You want something to drink or eat?” He straightened up, holding out a can to her.

She took it, smiling thinly at him. “Thanks.”

Daniel didn’t move, though, instead staying right in front of her. When a boat sped by, causing a wave to rock his boat, he fell forward a bit. He caught himself by putting a hand on either side of Harper. As he pressed up against her, she could feel the warmth of his bare chest through the thin fabric of her shirt.

“Sorry,” Daniel said, his voice low, but he still didn’t move away from her.

His face hovered right above hers, and Harper could feel him leaning in to her, as if she were pulling him into her orbit. His eyes searched hers, and she didn’t know how she’d never noticed how beautiful his eyes were before.

He smelled of tanning lotion and shampoo. Somewhere in the back of her mind she’d been expecting him to smell sweatier and muskier. Instead, it was strangely sweet.

Through her shirt, she could feel the smooth muscles of his chest and stomach, and suddenly an intense urge to throw her arms around him took hold of her.

Daniel closed his eyes, and with his lips about to touch hers, Harper finally acted on her impulse. Or at least she tried to.

She moved her hand, meaning to wrap her arm around him. Instead, she only managed to shove the ice-cold can of soda into his side, making him jump back from her.

“Sorry.” She grimaced and shook her head. “I forgot I was even holding the soda.”

“No, it’s okay.” Daniel smiled. “It was just cold.”

He stepped back toward her, like he meant to go in for the kiss again, but the moment was broken, and Harper once again remembered how stupid it would be to get involved with him.

“I should probably get back to work,” she said, moving away from him and toward the door.

“Sure.” He put his hands on his hips and nodded. “Of course.”

“Sorry,” Harper mumbled, feeling apologetic.

“Don’t be. You can stop by anytime you want. My door is always open for you.”

“I know.” Harper smiled. “Thank you.”

Harper headed back up on deck. After being in the dim light of the cabin, the sun was blinding. She squinted up at it and walked over to the railing.

Since Daniel refused to use the plank, he had to help her down onto the dock again. He wrapped an arm around her so he could lift her up over the rail, but before he did that, he held her to him for a moment. Harper already had one arm around his shoulder, bracing herself for when he lifted her.

“I’m glad you stopped by.”

Then he lifted her up and dropped her gently down on the dock. He stayed out on the deck of his boat, watching her as she walked away.

SEVENTEEN

Falling