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“I’m not late, am I?” I say by way of greeting, glancing between them.
“Oh, no, not at all,” Jenn replies with a smile, and then bumps her shoulder against Aurora’s. “We were just early.”
“Yes.” Aurora shoots her sister a look full of mischievous teasing. “Because someone is a time pessimist.”
Jenn matches that look. “Better than being a time optimist.”
My insides twist a little with jealousy at their easy banter, and I try my best not to look towards the river while I fiddle with the strap on my watch.
“No bodyguard today?” Lionel asks, his eyebrows raised in surprise as he makes a show of looking behind me.
That thankfully cuts off the sibling banter between Jenn and Aurora. Letting my hand fall away from my watch, I draw in a breath to steady myself and then give Lionel a smile.
“Oh he’s here,” I reply.
Twisting slightly, I look over my shoulder. As if on cue, Jace appears. He crosses his arms over his broad chest and levels a hard stare on Lionel that I can feel from all the way over here. Lionel scoffs.
I turn back to the three of them and then motion towards the building on my right. “Though I have to say, I’m a little surprised. Where on earth did you find a venue here? I thought these were all residential houses.”
Jenn blinks, looking confused. Then realization pulses across her features, and she lets out a breathy laugh. “Oh, right. You left before we…” Her gaze darts to Lionel, who was as much at fault for my leaving as Jace was. “Anyway. I wasn’t talking about a building.” With a bright smile on her face, she sweeps out her arm in a theatrical way and gestures towards the river. “I was talking about this.”
My heart stops as I turn to look at what she’s pointing to.
A boat. Or rather, a yacht. But it doesn’t matter how big it is. What matters is that it’s on the river. My heart starts pounding in my chest. I don’t want to be here.
“It’s owned by a friend of the family, so we can borrow it for a night,” Jenn says. “I figured we could park the car here on the street right by the boat, and then bring all the other items onto it so that…”
She keeps talking, but I can’t hear anything over the roaring inside my head.
An arm is suddenly linked with mine.
“Come on, I’ll show you what it looks like on deck,” Jenn says.
Her voice sounds like it’s really far away even though I know that she’s right next to me. I want to scream at her to stop, but I can’t make my voice work. So all I do is to try to control my breathing as she leads me and the others onto the yacht.
Blood pounds in my ears. I draw in shallow breaths.
“Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking,” Jenn begins.
Then she slips her arm out of mine. It leaves me standing right next to the railing on the boat’s outer side. Right next to the open river.
My heart beats so hard that I think it’s going to crack my ribs.
“What if we put a drinks table here?” Jenn says, motioning with her arm. “And then…”
Her voice fades as memories crash over me. Throwing out a hand, I grip the railing to keep from toppling over.
My gaze snaps to the watch on my wrist.
Then to the water right below.
Blue eyes stare up at me.
My lungs freeze and ice spreads through my veins.
Waves lap against the side of the boat. The water looks gray in the gloomy light from the overcast sky. And I swear I can see him there. Floating. Bobbing in the water. Lifeless blue eyes staring unseeing up at the sky.
I can’t breathe. I can’t?—
