Page 84 of The Hidden One

“You been playing any baseball?” he asked.

I glanced up to see him wading toward me. “I’m too old to play a kids’ game.”

“Yeah? Tell Barry Bonds that.”

I had no idea who that was. I didn’t care. His jeans were getting wet, the water reaching his thighs. “You’re going to get your clothes wet,” I told him.

“That’s sort of the plan, I guess.”

“Your mamm’s not going to be happy with you.”

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her, will it?”

“It’s not proper for you to be here.”

He stopped a couple of feet away, looking at me as if I was some puzzle he couldn’t quite figure out. “You weren’t too worried about proper the day I saw you out on Dogleg Road, were you?”

My face heated. I dropped my gaze to the water. My heart was beating so fast I couldn’t catch my breath. I thought about ducking under the surface and swimming around him, going to shore, grabbing my clothes and running.

“Haven’t seen you around much this summer, Katie,” he said quietly.

“I’ve been busy.”

“Yeah? Doing what?”

Avoiding you. “Chores,” I blurted. It wasn’t true. In fact, chores were the farthest thing from my mind. The last thing I wanted him to know was that I’d spent most of the summer pining for him. That I missed him so much it hurt.

He stood there with his arms at his sides. Head cocked, studying me. I didn’t have the courage to meet his gaze, though for the life of me I couldn’t name what I was so afraid of. I’d known Jonas since I was six years old. He was the same Jonas I’d always known. Just last summer, I might’ve splashed his face or maybe reached down for a mudball and thrown it at him.

“There’s a singing after worship next church Sunday,” he said.

I watched a water spider skate across the surface.

“I could drive you home afterward,” he offered.

“Mamm says you’re too old for me,” I murmured.

He shoved his hands into his pockets. Looked back toward shore. “My datt’s eight years older than my mamm. They get on just fine.”

I looked down at my hands, pale blurs in the blue-green water. I watched the water spider. Listened the chip of a cardinal. The next thing I knew, water spattered my face.

I wiped my eyes. Jonas laughed, lined up for another attack. I felt the grin emerge. Heard the laugh escape my mouth. Before he could move, I swept my hand across the water and got him good.

“Hey!”

For several seconds, we were kids again. Laughing and splattering in a competition to out-splash the other. I swept my hand in a wide arc, a perfect alignment for the mother of all splashes. But he caught my wrist and stopped me.

“Not bad for a girl who’s too grown-up to play baseball.”

He was looking at me funny. Blinking as if I’d done something to surprise him and he wasn’t sure how to respond. His fingers were wrapped around my wrist and his skin was warm against mine.

He tugged me toward him. I knew better than to allow it, but I went. We stood a scant foot apart. Looking at each other. Nothing but water between us. I was aware of his hands moving to my biceps, gentle and yet insistent. I could barely look at him, and yet I couldn’t look away.

Water gathered in his lashes and dripped from his chin, off the tip of his nose. “Let me drive you home after the singing.”

“Mamm won’t let me.” The words were little more than a whisper. “I have to go.”

“Me, too.”