Page 63 of Porter's Angel
She waved it aside. “It must not be that important.”
“Wait a second, Angel.” He rallied himself and reached for her hands when they wrapped around him again. He managed to get her wrists, so that she had nothing but the strength of her eyes to bring him closer. She knew she had him captivated because he stilled. “Man, you’re making this tough.” Groaning, he took both her wrists and brought her up to sit with him. “I have an apology speech and youwillhear it.”
Her forehead lifted. If he insisted, but she was scared to hear what he needed to apologize for. But, if this was what he was trying to tell her before, she needed to let him. Clearly it was eating him up inside, and seeing that, it made her a little nervous too.
Porter watched her. Apparently, he’d lost his speech again. “Do you know how amazing you are?” he asked. Her cheeks burned at the compliment. Her initial reaction was to disbelieve it, but seeing the sincerity in his expression, she wondered for a moment if it were actually true. “I want to know everything about you,” he said, “but I think it’s fair that you know more about me, so…”
Voices drifted closer. Teenage voices. They weren’t alone.
He gritted his teeth. “Okay, let’s put a pin in that thought for just a second.”
The voices became more audible. They sounded close, like they might be on the other side of the trees. “I told you that I didn’t want to come!” a girl complained.
“You don’t want to see the water ghost?” That was a guy this time.
“Yeah, dummy! That’s the last thing I want to do on the Fourth. Why did you bring us here?”
The Slade family antics were coming back to haunt them. Porter’s hand was already holding onto Cadence’s, and his grip on her tightened. He pulled her back against the bushes to conceal them from the newcomers. Cadence brought the quilt with them, not sure why it was so important that they didn’t get caught here, only that she just didn’t want to be interrupted. His hand found the basket and he dragged that back with them too. He shrugged at her questioning look. “Nobody is eating that but us.”
“Why are we hiding?” she asked.
That was answered the next moment when she saw that familiar grin lighting up his face. “That’s Miles, Andrew, Lizzy and Cheryl, and… well… we keep catching them on our land.”
She remembered his stories about when he was young. “Didn’t you do the same thing?” she asked.
“Yeah, and I’m starting to understand Funches more every day. Let’s just say, this is gonna be a lot of fun.”
Oh no, he was going to scare them. “Porter!” she hissed. “Don’t even think about it.”
But it was too late. The teenagers were settling down in front of them near the geyser eruption spot, and the boys were telling the ghost story… not as well or as convincingly as Porter—obviously—but the girls were eating it up all the same. They huddled next to the boys and pleaded for their protection.
“I know for a fact that Lizzy isn’t scared of some ghost,” Porter whispered in Cadence’s ear. “She’s a barrel racer in the rodeo. She’s one tough rider.”
But a girl had to do what a girl had to do to get some attention. Cadence remembered those days well and didn’t envy any of them.
“So old Henry endlessly wandered these hills, trying to find his lost glass eye,” the boy said. From her angle, she could see the sweat from the hot day dripping down his freckled nose. His long curly hair was turning frizzy. “Bring it back to me! Bring it back!”
Cadence preferred Porter’s version of the story, though she suspected that he might change it often because no way were these snickering boys creative enough to come up with their own terrifying tale, and some guy wandering the hills for his glass eye seemed like it would come from Porter’s chaotic imagination.
“Some say he took a tumble and fell into these falls,” the boy said. “Others say, those bandits came back for him and finished the job. Either way, nobody wants to stumble across him because when they do, they can’t tell anybody what they saw because ol’ Henry likes to burst from the water at anybody whose eyes he fancies. He’s always looking for the prettiest pair to replace the ones he’s lost.”
Cadence made a face and glanced over at Porter. “Really?” she mouthed. So gross! He shrugged, though she could tell he enjoyed their version of the water ghost tale. She could feel his laughter rumbling through his chest against her back.
The girls also muttered their disgust. Of course, this was the cue for their boyfriends to tell them what beautiful eyes that they had.
Porter leaned over her ear. “Henry would love your eyes, Angel.”
So, so smooth. She wondered how many girls Porter had used that line on. She snorted.
A girl straightened at the noise. “What was that?”
Her boyfriend was quick to take advantage of her fear. “Ol’ Henry, probably.”
They should probably announce themselves soon. This was getting awkward, but Porter seemed to have other ideas. He put his finger to his lips and lifted his chin the direction of the geyser. She couldn’t quite read what he was saying, but she noticed that one of the boys held a can of whipped cream behind his back. Another one had silly string.
They were taking their prank to another level. Those girls were going to be livid.
As the boys tried to hide their movements, the geyser erupted into a powerful explosion that sprayed a heavy shower all over them. The geyser must be on a fifteen minute cycle. It felt like they were on the log ride at Nashville’s theme park with this water adventure.