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I didn’t want to even think of what might happen if I failed.
UNEXPECTED GUESTS
When we returned, the guys were gone except for Nathan, who was pulling a few sleeping bags into the tent.
Silas went in and I followed. Their big tent was one huge room, with a little extra tunnel-like space in the front for the entryway. At the opposite end of the door, along the largest length of tent wall, was a series of cots, foot to head parallel to the wall. More cots had the head facing the wall, the feet to the door, taking up space in the middle.
“I thought Kota said to put them all along the sides?” I asked.
Nathan rolled out a sleeping bag on one of the cots. “We had them all around the edges, but adding an extra cot made it more complicated.”
“An extra cot?”
“The one for you,” he said.
I was going to say I was sleeping in my tent tonight, but then I realized later this week, I might need a cot in the big tent. They would have had to rearrange everything. I counted the cots. “There’s only eight.”
“Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green have their own tent away from us,” he said. “Where family leads sleep.”
“Shouldn’t Kota be with them?” Silas asked.
“Kota wanted to stay here,” Nathan said. “He’ll join the family leads when it’s time.”
“Kota’s a...” I broke off, not sure what it was okay to ask.
Silas and Nathan looked at each other. Nathan shrugged and responded. “There’s two leads in a group,” he said. “Mr. Blackbourne’s our main contact for the Academy, he tracks the jobs we go on and lets us know what jobs are available.”
“Then there’s a family lead and that’s Kota,” Silas said.
“It used to be the doc,” Nathan said. “But when Dr. Green got into his final year of medical school and had to be away so much and then had to do his internship thing, someone else needed to take over. That was Kota.”
“What’s a family lead?” I asked.
“We might need to wait,” Silas said. “She’ll learn it all this week.”
“It doesn’t matter if she learns some in advance, does it?” Nathan asked. When Silas shrugged, Nathan turned back to me. “A family lead is the person who keeps tabs on all of us. So like Kota checks in with Gabriel at home and makes sure things are running smoothly. He’d get groceries delivered to you if you were too busy with stuff that week. He makes sure everyone’s bills are paid on time and everyone that needs a job has one.”
“It’s a lot of work,” Silas said. “If we’re too tired to do an Academy job, he’ll veto it, even if we say it’s okay.”
“He rarely ever does that,” Nathan said. “He usually keeps us pretty together. And if we need help somewhere, he’ll go along rather than have us cancel.”
There were more responsibilities on Kota than I had realized. No wonder he was so stressed. “He has to do that alone?”
“He’s pretty good at it.” Nathan smoothed out the sleeping bag and then found a pillow. “Sang, North’s over by the beach. You wanted to go, didn’t you?”
I nodded, trying to summon up some good feelings after the earlier intense discussion with Silas, and now learning about Kota having so much on his shoulders.
“Go run on ahead. I’m almost done.”
“Which way?” I asked.
Silas moved to the small pile of items inside the tent, ready to be put into place. “Let me take care of this,” he said to Nathan. “You go and show her.”
Nathan nodded. “Thanks, man.”
We left the tent and Nathan walked with me from the campsite to the road, holding my hand along the way.
We were quiet for the first part of the walk.
“Did you get a chance to talk to Kota much?” Nathan asked.
“Not yet.”
“You’ll get more of a chance tonight,” he said. “I tried when you were at the bathroom, but he kept saying his was busy and would talk later.”
“Gabriel said he doesn’t stop talking about me around him.”
Nathan looked ahead, his blue gaze intense on the woods around us. “He used to be the same way when he spoke about you with me. But now, he’s not.”
Maybe Gabriel wasn’t talking with Kota about the same things.
He squeezed my hand and focused on me. “You’ve got all week to change his mind. Hang in there.”
We had to walk a while before we got to a clearing in the woods where the gravel path turned into sand, stretching out between sand dunes.
The beach.
I jolted forward in excitement. I released Nathan and broke into a stumbling run, climbing the dune.
The ocean met with a river to the north and the rest of the island to the south had really wide stretches of beach. This beach was much bigger than Folly Beach where I’d been before. The ocean rolled over on itself over and over in gentle waves. The breeze picked up, chilling my nose and face, so I zipped up my jacket again. I breathed in the salt and the moisture; it was so much better than the woods. Why couldn’t we have our tents out here?
There was a picnic table on a dry patch of sand. Nearby, North stood next to a barbecue grill. He was bent over, opening up a bag of charcoal.
I ran toward him. He saw me coming and tensed, shoulders rounding out, but he held still. I jumped onto his back, circling his neck with my arms, holding to him for dear life.
“North Star,” I said, my legs dangling off of his back.
“Sang Baby,” he said, and he lifted the bag of charcoal, carrying me along with it as if I were just a scarf around his neck and not a person.
“Can I go touch the water?”
“Hell no.”
I pouted, but since I was behind him, he couldn’t see it. “Please?”
“The last time I took you to the ocean, you fell in.” He shook charcoal from the bag into the grill. “I don’t want to save your ass today. The water’s freezing.”
“I won’t fall in,” I said. “There’s no undercurrents here, right? Please?”
“I don’t know that and no.”
I released his neck, dropping to the ground. I heard other people coming and turned to find Nathan jogging toward us. Gabriel was a few dozen feet behind him.
“Can I go if Nathan goes with me?” I asked North. If he was worried about my safety, maybe someone willing to go along might make it safer.
North chuffed. “Only if he stays right next to you.”
I grinned, running back down the path. Nathan saw me coming and broke out into a sprint toward me, arms open. When I was close, I bounced up, catching him around the shoulders. He caught me around the waist, swung me around in a circle once before wrapping his arms around me. He held me by my thighs as he carried me back to the beach.
“Hi, Honey,” I said, feeling silly because we were just talking a minute ago.
“Hi Peanut,” he said, grinning. “Miss me?”
“Yes. Will you go with me to touch the water? North won’t let me.”
“North said no or North said no unless I go?”
“I can if you will.”
Nathan smirked and glanced around. Gabriel was still struggling to get over the dune behind him and North was busy with the grill. He whispered to me. “I’ll do it for a kiss.”
I leaned in, kissing his cheek close to his mouth. Then I gave him another on the opposite cheek.
“Ah,” Nathan said. “A bonus. I guess you really want to swim.”
“No swimming,” North said. He was opening the package of lighter fluid. “And don’t let her fall in.”
He could hear even with the waves and wind blowing? His hearing was amazing.
“I won’t,” Nathan said. He patted me on the thigh with his palm. “Drop down for a second, Peanut.”
I did. Nathan sat on the picnic table, where he removed his shoes and socks and rolled up his jeans until they were about to his knees. He stepped back down again, his bare feet in the sand. He gritted his teeth. “Fuck. Even the sand is cold.”
I took my jacket off. “I don’t want to get that wet.”
Nathan put it next to his shoes and then focused on me. He bent over, hooked an arm around my back and then caught me around the knees with the other. He cradled me in his arms as he lifted me against his chest. “Let’s go.”
I snuggled into him, holding onto his broad shoulders. The wind from the ocean was biting into my exposed arms and neck. I loved the thermal pants just then, as they did keep my legs warm. I knew the water would be freezing, but I couldn’t help it. I just wanted to touch it.
