“Indeed,” Ini-herit agreed. “I am already sensing one summons from the other side. Another is sure to follow.” He looked at the bed, which was now bathed in dark green light. “It appears you were once again correct.”
Knorbis sighed. “It would certainly appear so.” Then he caught Ini-herit’s gaze. “However, the reason you must act quickly is that this was not the surge I predicted. My fellows and I all believe that this was merely a prelude to what is still to come.
“The next surge, if we allow it to occur, will leave no survivors.”
The pond was a murky womb, a sensory deprivation chamber that left Gabriel floating without thought or feeling for a suspended moment in time. Only his body’s desperate need for oxygen finally pulled his consciousness forward.
Amber.
Their limbs were still entwined, but his sudden movements to push toward the surface provoked no reaction from her. She wasn’t moving.
Now driven by panic, he grasped her arm and kicked, propelling them both up. He broke through the surface and dragged in huge gulps of air, coughing and sputtering when some water found its way into his lungs. She didn’t move, her body dead weight. He wasn’t a very practiced or skilled swimmer, but he was strong and he was determined. Kicking his sport sandals off and hooking his left arm under her armpits, he used his legs and right arm to pull them closer to the pond’s edge. Two hard kicks had them close enough that his feet could touch the bottom.
“Hang on, Am,” he gasped around the water splashing in his face. “Hang on, girl.”
It became a litany as he hauled her onto the grass beside the water.
Oh, God…please, please, please help me remember the lessons from health class, he thought frantically as he straightened her prone form and tilted her head with shaking hands.
After confirming that she wasn’t breathing, he positioned himself beside her like he remembered learning with the CPR dummy in class. But this wasn’t a dummy—it was Amber, and she was pale as milk edging toward blue. His stomach threatened to revolt. He had never been this frightened in his entire life.
Pinching her nose closed, he leaned down and began resuscitative breathing. Once. Twice. Three times.
“Come on, Amber,” he demanded hoarsely.
She remained lifeless. He couldn’t bring himself to check her pulse. He sensed that the impact of finding her heart unresponsive would send him over an edge that he couldn’t afford to approach. Instead, he moved almost robotically to her side and felt for the right spot on her chest to begin compressions.
This can’t be happening. This isn’t real.
It felt like hours rather than seconds had passed when he moved back up and once again began administering life-giving breaths. This time, she responded. Her chest issued an odd, almost whooshing sound and then she promptly expelled water. Quickly rolling her onto her side, he closed his eyes briefly and drew a shuddering breath. She really was going to be okay.
She coughed and gasped and clutched at the grass. When she started to push herself up with rubbery arms, he reached for her instead.
“God, Amber, you scared the hell out of me!” He couldn’t prevent the tremor in his voice as he sat and pulled her into his lap, clutching her against him. “You have no idea…”
She began shaking. Her eyes widened. “Gabriel, I—”
“You’re fine,” he interrupted, his voice firm. He held her now-cool amber gaze with conviction. “Everything’s fine.”
Though Gabriel wanted to take her to the hospital, Amber steadfastly refused. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how they would explain the circumstances of her condition to a healthcare professional. Besides, she knew from prior experience that her energy would return rather swiftly if she just allowed herself to rest. Though she was the first to acknowledge that this was the closest she had come to, well, dying, she simply couldn’t face a host of questions and the possibly lifelong ramifications of going public, even for the sake of her well-being.
So she remained in Gabriel’s lap and embrace until her trembling subsided and she began to feel more like herself. Although she figured it should have felt strange being held like this by the guy who had been her best friend since she was twelve, it didn’t. And she found herself willing to acknowledge that she had wondered for some time how it would feel.
“Are you okay?” she asked after a few minutes of silence.
She tensely wondered what he was thinking about all of this. In the past, this was when her placements—and thus, her relationships with the people she had attached to—disrupted. So far, Gabriel had stuck. Would that change now?
“I’m good,” he finally answered. “Though I could stand to go the rest of my life without going through that again. Geez, Am…for a minute there, I didn’t think you were coming back.”
Now she looked at him carefully. His tone had been light, but his eyes told a different story. She knew then that he would never abandon her, regardless of the circumstances. He was upset not because of how freakish this all was, but because she had nearly died.
She brought her hand up and rested it gently along the side of his face. Such a gesture was entirely unlike her. She usually kept a distance between herself and others, but circumstances being what they were, it seemed like the right thing to do. For once, she relied on instinct rather than her brain to guide her. Then she simply said, “Thank you for saving my life.”
He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. She read a depth of feeling in his gaze…feelings she realized now she had ignored for a long time.
Funny, she never suspected her first kiss would occur under such weird circumstances, and though it seemed intensely fated now, she had never suspected it would be with Gabriel.
Without another thought, she leaned forward while using her hand to guide him toward her lips. She sensed his hesitation, knew she had caught him off-guard and his brain was trying to catch up, but she didn’t let it deter her. As though they had practiced it a hundred times, her mouth found his.
His response astounded her. There wasn’t so much a spark as a lightning strike when they connected. If she had thought the feeling of his hands on her back earlier that day had been amazing, the touch of his lips against hers now had rockets firing in her synapses. He kissed her with such intensity she wondered how she could stand it.
In that moment, she knew all that he held in his heart for her and wondered how he had kept it from her all this time. Even more, she understood her own heart in glorious, almost painful clarity.
They parted, clinging to each other and catching their breath. She gasped, “I always thought that romantic stuff in the movies was a load of crap.”
Issuing a choked laugh, he replied, “I know you did.”
“You should have said—done—I don’t know. Something sooner,” she chastised, gripping the back of his neck tightly. She touched her forehead to his.
“You weren’t ready,” he said. Then he grinned. “Guess you are now.”
She understood. It was always meant to be her choice. Realizing just how well he knew her, she kissed him again. He moved his lips against hers, gently at first, then with more purpose. She followed his lead, not really knowing what to do. When he ran the tip of his tongue against her lower lip, she almost pulled back in surprise. Then she sensed his intent and parted her lips. His tongue touched hers. She thought her head might spin right off. Was that her moaning?
It seemed the physical contact did more than stir passion between them. It created a kind of healing connection. By the time they broke apart a second time, both of them were back to their normal color and strength.
“Impossible,” they said at the same time.
Looking at each other, they broke into laughter. As if this should seem impossible after what they had just gone through.
“This has been a hell of day,” he said. “And I have to admit at the risk of losing my man card that if we don’t stand up soon, I’ll probably lose all feeling in my legs.”
&n
bsp; Elbowing him, she snickered and then got to her feet. She reached down to give him a hand up. When he rose, he didn’t let go of her hand, but pulled her close and anchored her against him with one hand at the base of her spine.
“You know you can’t pretend like this didn’t happen, right?” he said.
Wondering if he meant the kissing or the incident that led them to this pond, she nodded. He was right in either case.
They looked around together in the afternoon’s dwindling light. The area appeared relatively unscathed. Outside of some pond water dripping from the surrounding trees and some extra sediment and debris floating along the pond’s surface, no one would have ever suspected what had just occurred. Amber stared at the center of the dark pond and shuddered. As if sensing her thoughts, he turned her away from the water until she was looking at him.
Reaching up, he plucked a wet leaf from her hair. Pulling away from her slightly, he looked down the length of her. “You look like you drowned in a pond,” he observed.
She couldn’t help laughing. “Well, hot shot, I’ve got news for you—”
He cut her off by hooking her behind her neck and pulling her close for another kiss. She was amazed that she was still standing when they parted. Her legs felt rubbery.
“Honest to goodness, every one of those romantic clichés is true,” she marveled.
“With the right person,” he amended. “It makes all the difference, believe me.”
“Oh, I believe you. I felt absolutely nothing when I kissed that one guy earlier. Didn’t even catch his name.”
A corner of his mouth lifted in response to her jest. “Well, I’m sure he wouldn’t have kissed you when you were looking like you had rolled around in a mud pit,” he responded, grabbing her hand and starting to walk back to the Brewer house.
“No?” She batted her eyelashes at him.
“Gotta have standards, you know.”
“Standards?” Now she glowered at him.
“Mm-hmm. Standards. I, after all, have seen you every morning before a brush touches your hair or your teeth, when you’re still shuffling around in your ratty Led Zeppelin T-shirt and boxer shorts. So for me, this look is—”
“Don’t you dare say it’s an improvement, Gabriel Reid. I swear I’ll make you eat the words. I don’t care how good you kiss.”
“You like my kissing?” He looked thoughtful. “That’s good. As it happens, since the feeling is mutual, I’m quite sure I’ll want to do that a lot.”
“Even when I’m in my Led Zeppelin T-shirt and boxer shorts?”
“Oh, especially then. I’ve found over the years that I’m rather attracted to the ratty T-shirt and boxer look. Especially when it comes attached to a gal with a cranky, opinionated, smart-ass attitude.”
Trying not to get her feelings hurt and failing miserably, she frowned. She started to tug her hand free of his grasp. “It’s a wonder you would even consider kissing someone whose style and personality are so obviously lacking.”
Firming his grip on her hand, he stopped walking. She stumbled to a halt beside him but couldn’t seem to lift her gaze from the ground. You can add insecure to that list of character flaws, she silently added, embarrassed with herself.
“Haven’t you listened to a word I said?” he asked, his voice laced with exasperation. “Amber, look at me.”
Sighing, she did. He brushed a hand across her cheek and tucked a damp strand of hair behind her right ear.
“You have so many wonderful qualities. You’re smart, talented, loyal and funny. You’re lovelier than you will ever know. But those other traits I mentioned, the ones you consider flaws, are what make you so much you. I didn’t fall for just the good stuff.”
Now her cheeks burned for another reason. She cleared her throat and said, “Well, I reserve the right at some later date to point out all of your many flaws. Just so we’re clear.”
Grinning, he gave her a quick kiss and then started walking again. “Seems fair to me. Now, we’re really going to have to come up with a good story for why we both look like we’ve been, well, slopping around in a muddy pond. The car is buried in the parking area, so we can’t leave yet. From the look of things, the party is going to last a while, so the car could be buried for hours.”
The mere thought of her classmates walking out to move their cars and seeing her deplorable condition made her wince. “Can’t we just wait it out until the car is free?”
“You mean…sit out in the hot, mosquito-infested woods for a couple hours?”
“Okay, okay. Let me think.” She frowned and looked around. “Geez, this kind of thing is harder than I thought. What does it look like we’ve been doing? Maybe we can build on that.”
Raising an eyebrow, he said neutrally, “I can think of one or two things.”
She looked at him expectantly.
After staring at her for a moment and seeing her blank look, he shook his head and grinned. “Never mind,” he said, patting her on the arm. “I have another idea.”
Chapter Six
Gabriel’s plan to rinse themselves off with the Brewers’ garden hose and sneak into the party from the poolside ended up working like a charm. Michelle and Cynthia had been so freaked by their encounter with Amber that they gave her a wide berth for the rest of the party. It was midnight by the time Amber and Gabriel got home.
Although she should have been exhausted after the incident at the pond and having to socialize for hours on end, her energy was at full-throttle. She took a shower and donned her PJs (the Led Zeppelin T-shirt and boxers, of course) in an effort to wind down. It didn’t help much.
While Gabriel took his turn in the shower, she headed to the kitchen to get a glass of water. After she heard the shower shut off followed by the telltale sound of the pipes running indicating that Gabriel was brushing his teeth, she set her glass down on the counter and reached into the cabinet for a second one.
A minute later, Gabriel appeared in the kitchen’s doorway wearing his usual night ensemble of a well-worn gray T-shirt and navy blue cotton shorts. His dark, wavy hair was still damp from his shower.
Spotting the glass in her hand, he gave her a shocked look. “Is that for me?”
Rather than answer, she held his glass up for him and nodded her head toward the front door. He moved ahead of her and opened the door followed by the screen door, holding them so she could walk past with both glasses. They settled on the wooden porch swing, much as they had many other nights. Only this time, Gabriel lifted up his arm to encourage her to sit against him. She did so, once again waiting for a feeling of weirdness that never came.
“Why does this feel so…I don’t know? Natural?”
He swallowed some water and gave her shoulder a squeeze. Since she had settled on the swing with her legs half-curled under her, he started them moving with one push of his leg. “Well, for me, I’ve had lots of time to get used to the idea.”
“Hmm.”
Her brow wrinkled in thought. She supposed his obvious welcome of her attentions might have something to do with her own ease with the sudden change in their relationship. She had been thinking all afternoon of the many signs she had ignored over the years regarding his true feelings for her. There were all the times she had caught his gaze slipping almost guiltily from her face when she looked at him, for example, as well as his irrational annoyance whenever someone referred to her as his sister, among other things. If she was being honest with herself, she knew she had harbored the same feelings for him for quite some time and had purposefully minimized them. It had been easier than expressing them and risking losing his friendship.
She sighed. She certainly wasn’t someone who had to overanalyze something, especially when it made her happy. Very few things had that distinction.
After sipping her water, she asked, “When did you first start thinking of me…”
“As more than a friend?” he offered.
“Yeah.”
He sat quietly for a minute. Very used
to him gathering his thoughts before speaking, she remained silent and gazed out at the front yard. A light, warm breeze and the songs of night birds and insects filled the air. The dark sky was carpeted with sparkling stars.
“Do you remember the day you came to Mrs. B’s?” he asked at last.
“Of course I do,” she said automatically.
“What do you remember?”
Loneliness. Rejection. Fear. Devastation.
The thoughts somersaulted through her brain, one on top of another. They had never really talked about this. It wasn’t a topic she wanted to discuss, and he must have always known and respected that. Even, now, she felt herself shrinking away from the conversation.
She frowned. He deserved an honest answer, and she wasn’t a coward.
“I remember wondering what my new foster home would be like,” she began, laying her head against his chest. “This was my fifth placement, if you don’t count the stays in the emergency homes and shelters between placements, and I had only just turned twelve. I’m pretty sure my DFCS worker was about to give up on me. There had been talk about sending me to a group home or a therapeutic foster home, but I guess I didn’t really fit those standards. So eventually Mrs. Harris drove me up here to interview with Mrs. B.”
When she paused, he asked gently, “What was that like?”
She drank some more water and listened to his heart beat. The steady, vital sound helped ease some of the tightness that had settled in her chest. “I was nervous,” she admitted. “I had already been to two interviews with Caucasian families and the match didn’t work for one reason or another. Mrs. Harris thought that I was deliberately sabotaging the interviews, but that wasn’t true. I hated the shelter, but I didn’t want to end up someplace worse.”
She paused again. He rubbed her arm and kissed the top of her head.
“Mrs. B was great,” she continued after a moment. “She was very matter-of-fact. I’m pretty sure I said some smartass thing to her in the interview. I was twelve and felt like I knew my way in the world. Mrs. B was quick to inform me that I did not. And she took me in.” Now, she smiled slightly. “I was happy when Mrs. Harris told me the news, but...”