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When she got to the middle, she turned and treaded water as she waited for him to catch up with her. When they were kids, Ty had always been the strong one, but Faith had been a natural swimmer and, in water, she’d won every race. When Ty reached her, they both turned to look ba
ck at the shore and she half expected to see Eddie standing there. When they were kids, she and Ty often swam far out into the lake, then they’d turn and look back at Eddie and wave. Whenever she and Ty got too rowdy or too energetic, Eddie always stayed behind. He’d lie on the blanket, a book in his hand, as Faith and Ty tumbled over each other in the water like a couple of dolphins.
“I miss him too,” Ty said, treading water beside her. “I didn’t see him any more than I saw you in the last years. You two left town for college and you left everything, including me, behind.”
She looked at him. “Are those tears of self-pity I see?”
“Pity, but not for me. I feel sorry for ol’ Ed when you marry me and not him. Think he’ll be my best man?”
The idea was so preposterous that Faith splashed him with water. “Marry you?” she said. “Of course I won’t marry you. How can I live in a shack in the woods?” She regretted the words the second she spoke them, and when she saw Ty’s face, she was almost frightened. Turning, she started to swim back to shore, but he caught her arm and pulled her to him.
“I’m not the scum you’ve been made to think I am.” His face was close to hers, their bodies together. “Just because you spent a lot of time with snobs doesn’t change who you are.”
She struggled against him, but it was a halfhearted attempt to be released. His body was so familiar to her, and she’d had long years of frustration with no relief.
He held her to him and when he put his lips to hers, she hugged him back. His kiss was long and hard. She clung to him and it was as if the last years hadn’t happened. She was once again seventeen years old and she and Ty were alone and about to make love.
They forgot about treading water and began to sink down into the water. They were holding each other, their bodies close, legs wrapped around each other, their arms entwined, their lips together.
It was Ty who saw the bottom of the motorboat that was fast approaching them. If they stayed where they were, the propeller would cut through both of them. Ty kicked out, and, still holding Faith, he dragged her down deeper into the water.
She didn’t see the boat and since she could no longer hold her breath, she began to fight him. She wanted to go to the surface and breathe, but Ty was pulling her down. It went through her mind that if he couldn’t have her he was going to make sure that no one else did. He intended it to be a murder-suicide, Faith thought as she tried to push away from him, but he held her tight. She hit his chest with her fists, kicked against him. Her nails clawed at his neck and she felt his skin tear. But Ty wouldn’t let go of her. His arms around her were a steel grip as he kept going down.
When they were nearly at the bottom of the lake and Faith was about to pass out from lack of oxygen, she saw the bottom of the boat go over their heads. It was a big boat and sat deeply in the water. If Ty hadn’t moved them, they’d be dead now.
When he saw that she knew what he was doing, he let her go and at last she went up. When she hit the surface, she took air into her burning lungs. She didn’t know how long they’d been under, but she was sure it was the longest time she’d ever held her breath.
Two seconds later, Ty came up beside her. He gave her one hard look, then he swam to shore, Faith behind him.
He grabbed towels from the trunk of his car and, without looking at her, tossed her one.
“I’m sorry,” she said to his back as he dried himself off. “Ty, look at me. I’m sorry that I fought you. I thought—”
He turned to her, his face showing his rage. “Yeah? Exactly what did you think? That I was trying to kill you?” He put his hand to his neck and it came away bloody from the scratches she’d made.
When she didn’t say anything, he looked at her again. “By all of heaven,” he said softly, “you thought that if I couldn’t have you nobody would, so I was killing the two of us.”
It was exactly what she’d thought and her face turned the color of her hair. “No, of course I didn’t think that,” she whispered.
“Like hell you didn’t,” he said as he tossed his wet towel in the back of the car, then pulled his jeans on over his wet trunks. “So you and Eddie went away to some ritzy college way up North and you come back here to look down on us in the South. Never mind that you and I practically lived in each other’s pockets all our lives. Never mind that you and I used to screw like rabbits. Now you’ve elevated yourself—and, yes, I do know what that word means—and you think you’re better than us hillbillies.”
He paused for a moment, then looked back at her. “You know something, Faith, I was wrong about you. You have changed. You’re selling your entire future. But for what? To live with a guy who you think will please your mother? Do you think that if you marry rich Eddie that you’ll rise up into another class of people?” He didn’t wait for her to answer or explain. “But you know what you’re going to get, Faith? You’re going to marry Eddie’s mother. She rules him. Always has, always will. And you will always see yourself through her eyes. And that means that no matter what you achieve in life you’ll never be good enough.”
He opened the car door, got in and sat there, staring straight ahead, saying nothing. Faith quickly pulled her clothes on over the wet suit, picked the blanket off the ground, and got into the passenger side of the car.
Ty didn’t look at her as he grabbed the blanket and threw it out of the car onto the ground. “I never want to see that thing again. Too many bad memories.” He started the car and they drove home in silence.
Six
“What happened after that?” Amy asked when Faith didn’t say anything more. “You can’t leave us dangling. I know you married Eddie, but what happened to Tyler?”
“I don’t know,” Faith said, finishing her glass of wine and pouring herself another one. “I honestly don’t know what happened.”
For a moment, Amy and Zoë were quiet.
“What did you do after the fight?” Zoë asked.
“Ty let me off at my house and I went inside. My mother was waiting for me with her sharp tongue to bawl me out. She said I was no better than a streetwalker, and that I looked like one with my wet clothes and my hair in a tangle. But for once in my life I didn’t defend myself. I went to my room, changed my clothes, and went to bed. I was so depressed I think I would have stayed there for the rest of my life if Eddie hadn’t come to rescue me the next day. My mother was so glad to see him that she let him into my bedroom.”
