Still, I don’t pull away, and we dance for a while. It’s nice. He tells me about the new rescue JP brought home, an energetic poodle who pees when she’s excited. I know the one he’s talking about because I walked her this week during my shift at the shelter. When I saw the look on JP’s face as he heard her crying in her crate, I knew that dog was going to find her way to the James house. He’s such a sucker for puppy-dog eyes.
I catch movement from the corner of my eye and find Sofia stalking past us. When my gaze meets hers, she pins me with a venomous glare.
“Your ex isn’t happy,” I say, nodding in Sofia’s direction.
Everett follows my gaze and shrugs. “I don’t care.”
After we’re finished dancing, he goes to get himself another beer, and I search the party for my cousins, making sure I have visuals on both and that they haven’t decided to take Ty’s lead and scuba dive their way through Sturgeon Lake. Fortunately, Jasmine is with Bo and Gillian, and Connor is throwing a football with a teammate. Good.
Near the kegs, I see Chase sitting alone on an old wooden picnic table. He’s smoking a cigarette, which I always thought was gross. Until now.
He’s still watching me.
Not for long, though. The next time I look, Sofia is standing in the way with her back to me, wearing a wispy white sundress that’s way too summery considering it’s almost Thanksgiving. Of course, she looks great in it, and all the guys around her can’t take their eyes off her long, bronzed legs. I bristle when I realize she’s talking to Chase, laughing a little too loud at something he said, touching his arm just enough to make her intentions clear.
Something hot and unwelcome prickles at me as I watch Chase flick away his cigarette and grin at Sofia. A second later, she climbs onto his lap. Giggling. She leans into him, and rather than push her away, he lets her nuzzle his neck.
He’s not looking at me anymore.
When Everett returns, he follows my line of sight and chuckles. I search his face for a hint of jealousy about Chase flirting with his ex, but there is none. I guess he’s truly over Sofia. That means there shouldn’t be a problem.
So then why is my blood boiling?
Everett takes my hand and leads me to a group of football players and cheerleaders. They’re all standing in a circle, talking about random stuff that I don’t understand. “He looked like a big penis,” one player says, and the entire group laughs. I must’ve missed this story, so my mind begins to wander. As do my eyes. Right to…
Yep, they’re still there. She’s still in his lap. I gnash my teeth as I watch Sofia lean in and whisper something in Chase’s ear. Is she nibbling on it?
Stop staring.
I heed the voice in my head and shift my gaze to the water,which looks like black ink under the night sky. Mar would love this view. I wish she wasn’t so antisocial when it came to stuff like parties, though in Mar’s defense, it’s not like she’s trying to make some kind of social statement. She genuinely doesn’t enjoy crowds and prefers to hang out in small groups.
I’m not much different, to be honest. I’d rather be at Mar’s house right now, watching some pretentious art film, than a party at the lake, but I feel an odd responsibility to Jasmine now. She’s become like a little sister to me. An impulsive, melodramatic sister who thinks searching for dead bodies is a lark.
I tune out the pounding music and loud laughter and focus on the water. There’s something so calming about it. So still and—
Then I see it.
A pale shape, just beyond the reach of the moonlight.
At first, I think it’s a trick of the light, but then it moves. The shapemoves. It’s floating.
My pulse quickens as I make out the faint curve of what I think is a shoulder. And there’s something drifting…Arms? Hair?
Oh my God.
Horror grips my throat.
It’s abody.
thirty-three
The Right Place
Without thinking twice, I break away from the group and splash into the shallow water, ignoring the way it soaks through my shoes. I’m driven by panic, not reason, as I wade into the lake without hesitation.
“Ryan!” I hear someone shout.
Cold water swirls around my ankles, my knees, my thighs, but still I slosh forward. “Something’s out here!” I shout back to whoever is listening. “I think it’s a body!”
