When he looked at her, she felt tingles all over.
“Brinton, I?—”
The tingles turned into a sharp scrape. Then, there was a lingering hiss. Stiff, translucent wings crunched against her collarbone.
Brinton’s shriek pierced the night air. A cockroach had burrowed into her top’s neckline. Its spiny legs were caught in the fabric. Every hair on Brinton’s body stood at attention.
“Holy sh—get it off.” She screamed again.
“It’s all right—probably a water bug,” Jamie said, eyes wide. He tried to steady the boat, which now rocked as Brinton wildly flailed her arms. “Here, lemme?—”
But she couldn’t hear him anymore. Because now she’d reached over the side of the boat and into the cool depths, baptizing herself for dear life. The boat careened.
“Oh, fuck!” was the last thing she said before her feet flipped toward the sky, and her body plunged backward into the water.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Jamie dove in after her. Her head popped back up to the surface, and he followed a few seconds later. “Are you okay?” he asked, panting.
“Oh my God. My recorder, I—it’s gone.” She blinked thick droplets from her eyes. Her voice was choppy as she trod water.
“That had everything I got from the party tonight. Shit. Shit. Shit!”
“I’ll go down and look for it,” Jamie said. “We’ll get it back.”
He plunged into the pitch-dark depths, again and again, but he couldn’t even see his own hands in front of him. Once again, he’d been so unintentionally careless with her, like when he name-checked her in his Grammys speech with a poorly worded joke, only to find out how much that had hurt her. He hated himself for it.
He wouldn’t repeat that mistake.
“Forget it—it’s way too dark.” Then, Brinton screamed. “Oh my God—something touched me.”
“Try to keep calm,” Jamie said, swimming closer.
Her eyes skirted across the water line. He had the urge to reach out for her, but she wasn’t kidding about being a good swimmer and was already approaching the dock. When he caught up to her, she was trying—and failing—to hoist herself up the narrow ladder and onto the dock’s wood-planked surface.
He didn’t blame her; in the water, his clothes and boots added ten pounds, easy.
“Lemme help you up,” he pleaded.
She nodded, breaths ragged and shoulders bobbing. He quickly scaled the ladder, then outstretched his arms. Jamie coiled his hands around the curve of her waist to lift her up.
Sheets of water slid down their bodies. Abdomens pressed together, the telltale heat from contact overfilled in his chest, along with the spike of something unnamable each time his hip bones grazed hers. When she gripped his back to steady herself, noses close enough to brush, he cradled her neck for the longest moment he’d had since the Grammys.
His heart pummeled his ribcage, but he remained cocooned in that moment, content to trace every plump bead of water streaking her lush cheeks. Then, he understood. She was crying.
“Honey, you’re all right—I got you,” he said, breaths tattered as her shoulders shook violently against his heaving chest.
He pulled her tighter. To his relief, she let him.
“If I don’t ace this story, I’m going to get fired.” Her voice came out singed. “And—because of-fucking-course—I lost my recorder and my interviews on my first day. I’m screwed.”
Gently, he angled her chin upward, still gripping her tightly. “No, you’re not. This was my fault. I brought you outhere, so I’m gonna fix it. I’ll get a new recorder and connect you with everybody you talked to tonight. And we can re-do all my interviews whenever you want. I’m gonna fix it, yeah?”
He meant every word. He should have been worried about how much he meant every word. He should have also been worried about the little spark that lingered in his chest whenever he was near her, but he wasn’t. He liked her. She was brilliant and, sure, a little awkward, but he liked that too.
In the span of an hour on that lake, she had pushed him to examine his lot in life in a way he’d been terrified to confront. If he did anything to jeopardize her future, he’d never forgive himself.
Brinton loosened her grip on him and took a few steps back. He knew he shouldn’t, but he instantly missed her body’s warmth against his.
