Page 85 of Under the Waves
I stopped spinning us both. Poppy had wrapped her legs around my waist, her chest pushing right up against my bare skin. My body felt like it was buzzing, high on adrenaline as I glanced down at her. Even though she was perched on my waist, I was still a few inches taller than her. Her eyes were wide as her chest rose and fell in sync with mine. My gaze dropped to her lips as she bit down on them.
“Poppy, I—”
The bustling sound of impatient little kids ushered down the hallway, causing us both to jump backwards from each other like we’d been caught red handed doing something we shouldn’t have.
“I—” she whispered, breathlessly, before turning and walking away.
“Wellsy?”
She turned around quickly, eyes locking onto mine despite the growing distance between us.
“Keep watching me teach. I love it when you watch me surf.”
I didn’t need to turn around to see that she was blushing. I felt like the proudest fucker in the world. With that, I left and slipped into my wetsuit, pulling it up just enough so that it hung around my waist. I had no idea what I was doing with her justthen but I didn’t think I’d ever felt so at peace than when she was in my arms, her legs wrapped around my waist and her curly brown hair spilling across my chest. But whatever that was couldn’t happen again. This between us was strictly fake.
Even though part of me wished it wasn’t.
Exhaling deeply, my fingers scratching my jaw, I itched to pick up my phone and message Lia to ask how Jak was doing. It had only been a week since he’d nearly drowned yet it felt more like an eternity.
All those minutes searching for him felt like hours. I remembered it all too well. How Lia was shaking against Poppy, both of them a crumbled mess of limbs on the sand. The pure, undeniable fear in her eyes. I was haunted by the hope in her gaze as we all came back to shore just to see it disappeared as soon as she noticed our empty arms.
IknewJakson was alive because Lia was still breathing and so long as she was, he would always fight to find his way back to her.Hell, he’d fight death itself if it meant having barely even a minute more time with her. Broken knees. Shattered wrists. Jakson Calloway would always find his way back to her because that was just who he was—he never stopped fighting forher.
Jakson coped with humor, that was his thing. It was what he’d always done. With everyone he knew, he plastered on a smile and pretended to be okay because that was all he’d ever known—how to shut people out.
Hurt people, hurt people.
His own parents shut him out, so he shut others out.
He learnt how to stop people from seeing just how badly he was hurting deep down inside.
But not with Lia.
Since I’d known him—Hell, since the very first time he attempted to climb over my fence back in second grade but actually ended up in Lia’s backyard, he was instantly in awe of her.
Lia was the only one who could bring his mind out of whatever strangled grip his past had on him. She turned his reddened rage into a burst of colors. He never had to pretend with her. He never had to make himself a laughingstock, a cocky playboy just so she would pay him the attention he was starved of.
All he had to do was be himself and she’d smile for him.
Jakson looked at her like she was his moon, and his very life orbited her. He treasured her. Loved her with every inch of his heart and soul. He let Liainand the bond they shared was beyond anything I could even begin to understand.
My fingers began to tremor by my side, the flush of memories coming back to me, dragging me into their riptide.
The determination in Xander’s eyes as he refused to stop searching.
The way Lachlan and Kai were bringing themselves near unconsciousness from holding their breaths so long, refusing to resurface if Jakson wasn’t with them.
Blazing sirens.
Shattering screams.
Then,
it
all
went