I nod in his direction, “I saw the way you looked at them. Everyone does.”
Valerie quickly shakes her head, “Oh, no…I wasn’t…” she stammers, her cheeks already flushed with embarrassment.
“Don’t sweat it,” I intone, “I was tricked by them at first, too.” I rest my elbows on the granite and lean in, lowering my voice, “If he looks at you hard enough, he’ll find out all your secrets.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Brett
One Year Ago
“You’re gonna get stuck!” Jay shouts through the trees.
Hildy either doesn’t hear him or chooses to ignore him as she breaks away from the other two quads. I cling to her waist as she rumbles down the hill through the brush, praying she doesn’t hit another bump and toss me off into the ravine.
“That’s why you have a winch!” she yells as she heads straight for the creek.
I’ve never been on a four-wheeler in my life, and for some reason, Hildy decided that today she needed to change that. I’m having a blast, but I’ve noticed something about Hildy. She’s a pillar of safety in any other situation, but when she gets out in the woods with just the four of us, she catches a wild hair and there’s no telling what she’ll do. Headlines start flashing through my mind about quad accidents, head injuries, and having to be air lifted out of the woods.
I glance over my shoulder at the other two quads buzzing along the top of the ravine. Bowen is leading Jay and watches us over his shoulder until they disappear from view. I suck in a breath when I see how fast the current is as we approach the bank.
It rained for three days straight and the water level is much higher than the last time I was out here with them. Instead of clear and nearly stagnant, the creek is a muddy rush carrying broken branches downstream. I can’t even see the usual flat rocks that create a convenient path over the water. But none of this seems to concern Hildy. If anything, it makes her gun the engine harder and take aim.
Frankly, I just don’t want to die. Especially during Jay’s birthday celebration.
Hildy hits the bank, spraying muddy water onto our legs as she plows over the rocks into the water. She maneuvers over the hidden terrain, the water steadily rising until it covers the wheels and reaches our knees. I shriek as the cold water shocks my skin and starts soaking into the hem of my shorts. Suddenly, the quad lurches and one tire drops, lodging us at a crooked angle. Hildy screams as a splash of water hits us and I think we’re about to go over. But we don’t.
Instead, we’re stuck—like Jay warned—in the middle of the creek. Hildy revs the engine and rocks the quad back and forth, trying to dislodge us from whatever lies beneath. But it’s no use, she throws her head back and lets out an obscenity-laden groan. She knows what’s coming once Jay and Bowen arrive on the other side of the creek, and I surmise she’d rather stay stuck in the rushing water than hear about how he warned her not to drive through it. But I’m more worried about the current that’s much stronger than anyone realized.
“Can you swim?” Hildy glances over her shoulder at me.
“Shouldn’t you have asked me that before you ran us into the middle of the creek?” I laugh.
Hildy rolls her eyes with a crooked smile, “Oops.”
The water runs up over the edge of the seat, soaking us from the waist down. At least it’s not strong enough to knock us off the quad entirely.
“Shit,” Hildy mutters when she catches sight of Jay and Bowen rolling down the hill in front of us.
When they come to a halt at the edge of the water, Jay lets out a whoop of laughter. Bowen pulls up behind him, grinning from ear to ear.
“Well, well, well…” Bowen dismounts his quad and saunters to the edge of the bank.
Jay stands next to him, arms crossed, staring at Hildy’s submerged vehicle wedged in the middle of the creek, “I told you,” he shrugs with a shake of his head.
“It didn’t look that deep!” Hildy yells, her excuses falling on deaf ears.
“Happy birthday to me…happy birthday to me…” Jay croons, kicking a stone into the water.
“Shut up and get us out!” Hildy hollers impatiently from our precarious perch.
Jay and Bowen turn to one another, probably discussing what to do. A minute later, Jay starts unwinding the cable from the winch on the front of his quad and hands the end of it to Bowen. Bowen pulls his grey t-shirt over his head and tosses it onto his seat before he starts wading into the creek with his boots and jeans still on. Jay continues unwinding the cable as Bowen makes his way toward us, the current breaking hard against his hips.
When he finally reaches us, he grabs onto the handle bars and bends down. By the time he gets low enough to hook the winch onto the front of Hildy’s quad, he’s fully submerged except for his head, the water lapping at his chin. Bowen stands back up, creek water dripping from every contour of his body, and eyes us with amusement.
“I told you,” he turns to me with a smug grin, “you should’ve ridden with me.”
“Whatever,” Hildy rolls her eyes, “just tow us out.”
“No,” Bowen shakes his head, “I don’t know what you’re caught on. If it flips when we start pulling, you’re toast. You have to come back with me.”
“Can we walk?” I dip my hand into the water to test the current, knowing full well it’s always stronger than it feels.
“No way,” Bowen shakes his head again, “it’s too strong for you.”
“Even if we hold onto each other?” Hildy hitches her leg up and swivels around on the seat.
Bowen glances around, surveying the situation. After a minute, he motions to us, “Come on,” he gives a nod and points to Hildy, “you, on my back, and you,” he points to me, “I’ll carry in front.”
“Are you fucking serious right now?” Hildy scoffs.
“Yes, I’m fucking serious right now,” Bowen asserts, “just get on my back. It’ll be easier walking back with the two of you weighing me down.”
Hildy and I look at each other and then at Bowen, standing waist deep in the water, waiting for us to do as he says. A minute later I’m clinging to Bowen around the shoulders while he grips me under my thighs. Hildy’s body is draped over his back with his waist clenched between her knees.
“Oh my god,” Jay laughs as he whips his phone out of his pocket, “I have to get a picture of this.”
I can’t believe we make it to the bank without tumbling over into the water and washing downstream. And even though the three of us are thoroughly soaked, I can feel my shorts starting to dry out by the time we emerge from the tree line in Hildy and Jay’s yard. This time, I’m riding behind Bowen on his quad. And by the time we trudge up the hill after parking them in the pole building, Leona is already at the patio table with towels, Hannah right behind her with another armload.
