Wake (Watersong Novels) (3 page)

“I am careful!” Gemma balled her hands into fists at her sides. “And it doesn’t matter what you say anyway. Dad says I can go as long as I’m home by eleven, and I am.”

“Well, Dad shouldn’t be letting you go.”

“Is there a problem, girls?” Brian called from the bottom of the stairs.

“No,” Harper muttered.

“I’m going to take a shower and go to bed, if that’s okay with Harper,” Gemma said.

“I don’t care what you do.” Harper held up her hands and shrugged.

“Thank you.” Gemma turned on her heel and slammed the bedroom door behind her.

Harper leaned on her doorframe as her father climbed the stairs. He was a tall man with big strong hands, worn from years of working at the dock. Though in his forties, Brian was rather fit, and other than the few gray streaks in his hair, he didn’t look his age.

Stopping in front of Harper’s room, her father crossed his arms and looked down at her. “What was that about?”

“I dunno.” She shrugged and stared down at her toes, noticing the bright blue nail polish had begun to chip.

“You’ve got to stop telling her what to do,” Brian said quietly.

“I’m not!”

“She’s going to make mistakes, just like you do, but she’ll be okay, just like you are.”

“Why am I the bad guy?” Harper finally lifted her eyes to look up at her father. “Alex is too old for her, and it’s dangerous out there. I’m not being unreasonable.”

“But you’re not her parent,” Brian said. “I am. You have your own life to live. You should be worrying about college this fall. Let me worry about Gemma, okay? I can take care of her.”

“I know.” She sighed.

“Do you?” Brian asked honestly, looking her in the eyes. “I know I’ve let you take on too much since your mom…” He trailed off, letting it hang in the air. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t be okay without you.”

“I know. I’m sorry, Dad.” She forced a smile. “I just worry.”

“Well, try not to, and get some sleep tonight, okay?”

“Okay.” She nodded.

He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “Night, sweetie.”

“Night, Dad.”

Harper went back into her room, shutting the door behind her. Her father was right, and she knew it, but that didn’t change the way she felt. For good or for bad, Gemma had been Harper’s responsibility for the past nine years. Or, at the very least, Harper had felt responsible.

She sat down on her bed with a heavy sigh. Leaving them would be impossible.

She should be excited about finally getting out on her own, especially considering how hard she’d worked for it. Even with working part-time at the library and volunteering at the animal shelter, Harper had managed to get a 4.0 all through high school.

The scholarship she’d been awarded had opened doors for her that her father’s budget couldn’t. Every college she’d applied to had been eager to have her. She could’ve gone anywhere, but she’d chosen a state school only forty minutes away from Capri.

Peering out through the curtains, Harper could see the light from Alex’s bedroom. She grabbed her phone from her bedside table, meaning to text him, but changed her mind. He’d been her friend for years, and despite the fact that she’d never harbored any romantic feelings for him, his growing flirtation with her younger sister weirded Harper out a bit.

The pipes groaned as Gemma turned on the hot water in the bathroom across the hall. Harper grabbed the blue nail polish so she could touch up her toenails and listened to Gemma sing in the shower, her voice soft like a lullaby.

Harper gave up after one foot and curled up in bed. Within moments of her head hitting the pillow, she was out.

By the time Harper woke up in the morning, her dad was already gone for work, and Gemma was rushing around the kitchen. It never stopped being strange to Harper that, even waking up at seven in the morning, she was the late sleeper in the family.

“I made some hard-boiled eggs this morning,” Gemma said through a mouthful of food. Based on the yellow crumbles coming out of her mouth, it looked like Gemma had just finished off an egg. “I cooked up the whole dozen, so you can have some.”

“Thanks.” Harper yawned as she sat down at the kitchen table.

Gemma stood next to the open dishwasher, quickly downing a glass of orange juice. When she finished, she threw the glass in the dishwasher, next to her dirty plate. She was already dressed in worn jeans and a T-shirt, and her hair had been pulled up into a ponytail.

“I gotta get to swim practice,” Gemma said as she hurried by.

“Why so early?” Harper leaned back in her chair so she could watch through the doorway as Gemma slipped on her shoes. “I thought practice didn’t start until eight.”

“It doesn’t. But my car won’t start, so I’m biking it there.”

“I can give you a ride,” Harper offered.

“Nah, I’m fine.” Gemma grabbed her gym bag and sifted through it, making sure she had everything she needed. She pulled out her iPod and shoved it in the pocket of her jeans.

“You’re not supposed to listen to that when you ride your bike,” Harper reminded her. “You can’t hear oncoming traffic.”

“I’ll be fine.” Gemma ignored her and tossed the earbuds around her neck.

“It’s supposed to rain today,” Harper said.

Gemma grabbed a gray sweatshirt from where it hung on the coatrack, and then she held it up for Harper to see. “Got my hoodie.” Without waiting for Harper to say any more, Gemma turned around and opened the front door. “See you later!”

“Have a good day!” Harper called after her, but the door had already slammed shut behind Gemma.

Harper sat in the kitchen for a few minutes, allowing herself to wake up before the silence annoyed her into action. She put on the stereo so the house felt less empty. Her father always kept the radio set on the classic rock station, and she spent a lot of mornings with Bruce Springsteen.

When she opened the fridge to get some breakfast, she saw the crumpled brown paper bag that contained her father’s lunch. He’d forgotten it. Again. On her own lunch break, she’d have to leave early to take it down to the docks for him.

After she finished eating breakfast, Harper hurried about her morning routine. She cleaned out the fridge, throwing away old leftovers, before starting the dishwasher and taking out the garbage. It was Thursday, and on the brightly colored chore calendar she’d made it said
LAUNDRY
and
BATHROOM
in big block letters.

Since laundry took longer, Harper started that first. In the process, she discovered that Gemma must’ve borrowed one of her tops and spilled a chili dog on it. She’d have to remember to have a talk with her about that later.

The bathroom was always a pain to clean. The shower drain was always filled with a disproportionate amount of Gemma’s golden brown hair. Since Harper’s hair was darker, coarser, and longer, she’d expect to see more of it, but it was always Gemma’s clogging up the pipes.

Harper finished her chores, then got herself cleaned up and ready for work. The rain she’d predicted earlier that morning was coming down, a heavy garden shower, and she had to run out to her car to keep from getting drenched.

Since it was raining, the library where Harper worked was a little busier than normal. Her coworker Marcy called dibs on putting away books and rearranging shelves, leaving Harper to help the library patrons to check out.

They had an automated system, so people could check out books without involving the clerks or the librarian, but some people never got the hang of it. Several other people had questions about late fees or reserving books, and a nice old lady needed help finding “that one book with the fish, or maybe a whale, and the girl who falls in love.”

Near lunchtime the rain had let up, and so had what little rush the library had seen. Marcy had deliberately been in the back aisles rearranging books, but she came out of hiding and sat in the chair next to Harper at the front desk.

Even though Marcy was seven years older than Harper and technically her boss, Harper was the more responsible of the two. Marcy loved books. That was why she’d gotten into the field. But she would have been happy to spend the rest of her life without talking to another person. Her jeans had a hole in the knee, and her T-shirt read
I LISTEN TO BANDS THAT DON’T EVEN EXIST YET.

“Well, I’m glad that’s over,” Marcy said, snapping at the bands on a rubber-band ball.

“If people didn’t come here, you would be out of a job,” Harper pointed out.

“I know.” She shrugged and brushed her straight bangs out of her eyes. “Sometimes I think I’m like that guy on
The Twilight Zone
.”

“What guy?” Harper asked.

“That guy. Burgess Meredith, I think.” Marcy leaned back in her chair, bouncing the rubber-band ball between her hands. “All he wanted to do was read books, and then he finally gets what he wants, and all the people die in this nuclear holocaust.”

“He wanted everyone to be blown up?” Harper asked, looking at her friend seriously. “
You
want everyone to be blown up?”

“No, he didn’t, and neither do I.” Marcy shook her head. “He just wanted to be left alone to read, and then he is. That’s where the irony comes in. He breaks his glasses, and he can’t read, and he’s all upset. So that’s why I eat carrots so much.”

“What?”
Harper asked.

“So I have good vision,” Marcy said, like it should be super-obvious. “In the event of bombs being dropped, I won’t need to worry about my glasses, and I can survive the fallout or zombie apocalypse or what have you.”

“Wow. It seems like you really thought that through.”

“I have,” Marcy admitted. “And everyone should. It’s important stuff.”

“Clearly.” Harper pushed her chair back from the desk. “Hey, since it’s slow, do you mind if I go on my lunch break early? I need to run my dad’s lunch down to him.”

Marcy shrugged. “Yeah, sure. But he’s gonna have to learn to remember that on his own soon.”

“I know.” Harper sighed. “Thanks.”

She got up and went back to the small office behind the front desk to retrieve the sack lunch from the mini-fridge. The office was for the librarian, but she was on her honeymoon for the next month, traveling all around the world. That left Marcy in charge, so it really meant Harper was in charge.

“There they go again,” Marcy said.

“There who go?” Harper asked as she came back out to find Marcy staring out the large front window.

“Them.”
Marcy nodded at the window.

Since the rain had stopped, the streets were once again flooded with tourists, but Harper saw exactly who Marcy was talking about.

Penn, Thea, and Lexi strutted down the sidewalk. Penn led the way, her long bronze legs seeming to stretch for a mile below the hem of her short skirt, and her black hair falling down her back like silk. Lexi and Thea followed right behind her. Lexi was blond, her hair literally the color of gold, and Thea had fiery red curls.

Harper had always thought her sister, Gemma, was the most beautiful girl in Capri. But ever since Penn and her friends had come to town, that wasn’t even close to being true.

Penn winked at Bernie McAllister as she walked past him, and he had to grab a bench to steady himself. He was an older man who rarely left the tiny island he lived on just off Anthemusa Bay. Harper knew him because he used to work with her father before he retired, and Bernie had always been fond of Harper and Gemma, giving them candy whenever they visited the docks. He even used to watch Harper and Gemma when they were younger and their dad was busy.

“Oh, that’s not nice at all.” Marcy frowned as she watched Bernie hang on to the bench. “They nearly gave him a heart attack.”

Harper was about to run out across the street to help him when he finally seemed to collect himself. Straightening up, Bernie walked away, presumably to the bait-and-tackle shop down the street.

“Didn’t there used to be four of them?” Marcy asked, her attention back on the three girls.

“I think so.”

Privately, Harper felt a small sense of relief at knowing there was one fewer. She’d never thought of herself as prejudiced against anyone, even pretty girls, yet she couldn’t help feeling that this town and everyone in it would be better if Penn and her friends left.

“I wonder what they’re doing here,” Marcy said as the girls walked into Pearl’s Diner across from the library.

“Same thing everyone else is doing here.” Harper tried to sound unfazed by their presence. “It’s summer vacation.”

“But they’re like movie stars or something.” Marcy turned back to face Harper now that Penn, Lexi, and Thea had disappeared inside the diner.

“Even movie stars need a vacation.” Harper grabbed her purse from underneath the desk. “I’m running out to the docks to see my dad. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

Harper hurried out to her old Mercury Sable, hoping to get to and from the docks without getting rained on. She’d just hopped in the car and started it when she glanced up. Penn, Lexi, and Thea were sitting in a booth by the window at Pearl’s.

The other two girls were sipping their drinks, behaving like normal customers, but Penn stared out the glass, her dark eyes locked on Harper. Her full lips turned up in a smile. A guy might have found that seductive, but Harper found it strangely menacing.

She put the car in drive and sped off so quickly she nearly clipped another driver, and that was very unlike her. As she drove down to the dock, slowing her racing heart, Harper once again thought about how much better it would be if Penn would just leave.

THREE

Pursued

Harper had been hoping to miss him, but lately it seemed that none of her trips to the dock would be complete without running into Daniel. He lived on a boat that he kept docked there, even though it was a small cabin cruiser, not really meant for habitation of longer than a day or two.

Brian worked at the north end of the bay, unloading barges that came in. Because that side of Anthemusa Bay was used for working ships, it was less appealing to tourists, and most of the privately owned boats were moored down closer to the beach. Of course, there were a few locals who still kept boats at the working end of the dock, and Daniel happened to be one of them.