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But I can't help thinking about those deep, dark waters.
And how Jake could never love anything quite as much as diving in.
Chapter fifteen
Jake
Thedamgigwillonly last for another couple weeks, and I'm already getting calls about leaving town.
A crab fisherman wants me out on the Atlantic, a whole continent away. Hurricane season is starting early in the Gulf, and I'm already in demand down in Louisiana and Texas, oil companies in need of divers to fix up damaged rigs.
And Sarah...she doesn't need me. She's got her own thing going, and she would be just fine without me.
But I wanther.
I want her more than I want those jobs, more than I want money or excitement or adventure.
Now I've gotten another taste, I want more, more,more.
She almost never calls--I'm usually the one to swing by her place--so I'm surprised when I get a call from her one Saturday morning. She wakes me up from the dead of sleep, and I have to shake off the Z's and rub my eyes as I croak out a greeting.
"Hello?"
"Hey," she says on the other end of the line. She sounds frazzled--annoyed. "I'm sorry--did I wake you?"
"No, no," I lie. "What's up,cher?"
She sighs. "I'm supposed to be driving out to Willow Creek right now for a wedding and my car absolutely refuses to start. I was wondering if there's any way for me to borrow your truck?"
"Of course," I say. "I'll drive you."
"I..." she pauses, and I wonder what thought she just had and dismissed. "Yeah, that would actually be great. I would appreciate the company."
"And the strong arms for carrying equipment, I assume," I chuckle.
"Hey, I can carry my stuff all by myself," she says, though there's laughter in her voice. "Can you be here in a half-hour?"
"Give me fifteen minutes," I tell her. "I'll be there in a heartbeat."
I pull up to Sarah's apartment complex in fifteen minutes, as promised, and we get to work unloading her car and loading up mine. As soon as all her various bins--full of fake flowers, tinsel, twinkle lights, and the like--are in the bed of my truck, we take off down the highway under the rising sun.
Willow Creek is about three hours away, farther up in the mountains. I've never been, but I've heard it's a popular tourist destination, a resort town known for the sparkling blue lake at its center and the waterfalls that tumble through the old growth forest around it. It's a ski resort in the winter, popular for winter sports of all kinds, but in the summer it's a wedding hotspot.
"I can't believe my car broke down," Sarah sighs. "Thanks for coming to my rescue."
"Anytime,cher," I tell her. "I'll give Eli a call when I get back into town; he should be able to fix your ride up in no time."
"You don't have to do that," she says. "I can take it to a mechanic."
"Hey, you're an honorary Hart," I say with a grin. "You get all the perks."
She bites her lip, and my heart stutters. She doesn't look happy...which worries me, because it seemed like things were going great. As far as I know, we've been sailing smooth for the past couple weeks.
For a second, I wonder if she's pregnant. I don't think she's taken birth control and we've been fucking like rabbits.
"I wanted to talk to you about that," she says. "Jake...what are we?"
It's not a question anyone wants to hear--not in that tone of voice. It's much nicer when the person you're pining for offers up an answer before they ask you for one, and I wish it didn't sound like Sarah was about to give me bad news.
