Divine (20 page)

“
You really think
you can pick up a boulder, huh?” I teased.

He ignored my pestering
and reached down, taking a boulder the size of a football into the
palm of his hand. “How's this?” he said as he turned
toward me.

“
Eh, yeah that's
pretty heavy I guess. But
I
could probably pick that up . . .”

“
Okay, okay,”
he replied, turning around and tossing it back onto the pile. A
moment later he turned back to me, holding a rock the size of a
basketball. “Is this proof enough?” he asked coolly while
balancing the rock on the end of his fingers.

My mouth dropped open
in awe. “Wow,” I choked out. “Okay, that's pretty
amazing!”

He sat the large rock
down and picked another one up that was three times its size. “How's
this?” he asked cockily as he tossed it back and forth between
his hands.

“
Oh my gosh,
Jonah. I'm, I'm actually speechless . . .”

A small smile spread
across his face. “Yeah, most people are. That's why I keep my
strength from people, because they would ogle me all the time and ask
me to lift stuff for them. I just don't want to be bothered.”

I shot my head down at
the ground, feeling regret that I had been so pushy with him. “Oh,
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bother you about it.”

His smile faded to a
look of seriousness as he gently sat the heavy stone onto the sand.
“No, not you. You don't bother me at all.” He walked back
over and sat down next to me, crossing his legs in front of him. “I
was going to tell you when the time was right. That's why I was
irritated when Tommy called me Strong Jonah back at the shop; that
wasn't the right time to tell you.”

“
Yeah, I remember
when he said that. Honestly, I didn't even think that it meant you
were a Divine. I just thought he was calling you strong because you
are so . . . you know . . .” I trailed off my sentence quickly,
not sure of how to finish it.

A curious look spread
across his face. “I'm so what?”

I stared at his form
under the rays of the moon, taking in what a wonderful specimen he
was.
What should I say? What I want to say is that you are so
amazingly sexy, hot, strong, kissable, masculine, perfect . . .

“
What?” he
asked shyly, catching me in my admiration.

“
Oh, um, nothing.
I just can't believe how wonderful you are.”

I can't believe I
just said that.

He leaned forward and
raked his finger over the sand to draw a mindless squiggle. “I'm
not wonderful, I was just born stronger than most people.”

“
And you have
cool eyes,” I added.

He laughed at my
compliment and kept tracing in the sand. “And I have cool eyes,
I guess. Those things don't make me wonderful.”

I shivered and hugged
my legs closer to my body. “Why can't you just accept that
you're this great person? You never admit how great you are; it wont
hurt to say something good about yourself.”

He looked up at the
waves of the sea with a doleful expression and sighed heavily into
the misty breeze. I decided to leave him to his thoughts; I already
pressured him enough to open up to me, and I didn't want to bother
him anymore.

He picked up a small
piece of driftwood and traced a random pattern in the sand over his
squiggles. “When the car fell on my dad, I lifted it off of
him. But, it wasn't enough to save him. Having strength like I do
doesn't mean anything.”

My breath caught in my
throat; his story was heartbreaking. I stayed quiet and listened to
him relive the moment.

“
I tried to give
him CPR until the ambulance got there, but it was too late.” He
paused for a moment and stared back up at the water with eyes that
looked like they were miles away. “You know,” he went on,
“if
he
was the strong one instead of my mom, he would
have been able to save himself. But instead his eyes just changed
color with emotion. That doesn't save anyone.”

I draped my arm around
him and rested my head against his shoulder. “Jonah, I'm so
sorry,” I whispered. “I had no idea that you had pulled
the car off of him.”

He glanced sideways and
smiled softly, appearing satisfied by my touch as he rested his cheek
against the top of my freshly washed hair. “Yeah, it was really
hard on me. I don't like to talk about it too much.”

“
I can understand
that.”

He lifted his head away
from mine and sighed. “Well, let's talk about something more
uplifting.”

“
I'll talk about
whatever you want.”

“
Well, do you
have any more nosy questions about me?”

“
Yes,” I
laughed as I lifted my head. “You said you're really good with
water?”

“
I'm
very
good with water.”

“
Oh, I'm sorry,
Sir. You're
very
good with water . . .”

“
I am,” he
chuckled, “but we'll save that for another day.”

“
What? Why?”
I impatiently asked him.

He looked amused at my
unwillingness to wait. “Because I'm going to save that for your
birthday.”

“
My birthday? But
that's like five months from now,” I whined, giving him my best
sad puppy dog expression. “Can you just please show me sooner
than that?”

“
Nope. I've
already thought about it; I'm going to take you fishing.”

I furrowed my eyebrows
at his birthday present for me. “So, you do cool things with
water, but you're going to take me
fishing
for my birthday? No
cool water tricks or anything?”

He laughed shyly and
looked down at his squiggly drawing. “You'll just have to wait
and see, you impatient girl, you.”

“
Well, I hope the
next five months fly by then.”

“
They will.”

I didn't know why he
wanted to wait so long to take me fishing. I was used to him taking
things really slow, but waiting five months was going to be really
hard. The only good thing about it was that he apparently still
planned on being around me in the future.

We sat quietly as the
drizzle fell down over us and soaked through our sweatshirts, making
us colder. I didn't care, though; I wanted to stay with Jonah all
night right there in his secret cove. He had told me so much about
himself, things that not a lot of other people knew. He even made me
feel comfortable enough to tell him about
my
ability. But, I
was scared. If I told him about it then he would also know that I
wasn't good at it, and I didn't want to embarrass myself in front of
him.

“
You know,”
Jonah chattered on, “I don't even know where my water ability
came from.”

“
Really? It's not
in your family?”

“
Nope.
I mean, no one that we know has it in our family. It's a possibility
that one of my great great grandparents had it and just kept it a
secret from everyone;
that's
what we think happened.”

I nodded quietly. “So,
you and your mom keep it a secret that you are Divines?”

“
Yeah, mostly. My
Uncle Lou isn't one but he knows about us. And Tommy, he knows
because we work together and he's one. Other than them and some other
family members, we stay pretty quiet.”

My
body started to tingle with nervousness as I considered telling him
about myself.
Oh man, should I really do this? Should I
just tell him already?

“
Uh, Jonah?”
I sputtered out. “I need to tell you something.” I could
feel my heart beating out of my throat with each uneasy word that I
said. “I want to tell you but I'm afraid; I don't want to look
like an idiot. I just want you to know that I'm, uh, I'm actually a
Divine, too.” It all fell out of my mouth in a continuous word
vomit, not exactly the way I would have liked to have told him.

He looked at me for a
moment with a face that was stunned by my revelation. His mouth
opened a little and then it closed again, putting a stop to whatever
he was going to say.

I looked back at him
and waited for him to say something. “Well?” I asked
timidly.

“
Are you joking?”
he finally managed.

I laughed gingerly and
tucked my hair behind my ear. “No, I'm not joking. I really am
a Divine. My mom is too; we keep it a secret.”

He smiled cautiously
and searched my face with his crystal eyes, waiting for me to admit
that I wasn't being serious.

“
I'm not joking,
Jonah. Although I wish I were . . .”

He breathed out a warm
breath and sent a spiral of fog into the chilly air. “Okay,
then what's your ability?”

Oh geez, here I go .
. .

“
Well, I guess I
can teleport to different places.”

He perked up with a
look of fascination. “What? Really? That's awesome! Why would
you be afraid that you would look like an idiot?”

“
Because.”

“
Because what?”

“
Because,”
I sighed, “I can't do it.”

“
What do you mean
you can't do it?”

I was beginning to
regret that I had told him that I was a Divine. There we were,
sitting on the beach of his beautiful secret cove, after him telling
me about
his
awesome abilities, and then I had to admit to him
how I couldn't even do
mine
. I felt the need to get away, to
get out of telling him somehow. My fight or flight response kicked
in, and I was flying away.

I cleared my throat and
pulled the wispy strands of hair away from my face. “You know,
I think we should head back to the truck now. I'm pretty cold, and my
mom's probably worrying about how late it's getting.”

Jonah rolled his eyes.
“Don't you change the subject with me, Ash. I know you, that's
what you're trying to do.”

I laughed openly into
the cold salty air. “Yeah, I know I am.” I pulled my
knees out from underneath my sweatshirt and stood up, dusting the
sand off of the back of my jeans. “How about I tell you in the
truck where it's warm.”

He looked up at me from
the ground and quietly nodded. “Okay then,” he said as he
rose next to me. “But you're not getting out of it.”

“
Yeah, I know.
You won't let me get out of it, even if I tried.”

The tiny laugh lines
around his mouth deepened with a satisfied smile as he grabbed the
brim of his hat and adjusted it on his head. “You're right
about that, Ashy,” he said, picking me up into his arms in one
smooth motion and taking us back toward the way we came in.

As he carried me over
the rocks I looked back at the small, secret cove. The moon glowed
between the clouds, lighting up the soft sand and casting beams
across the black water. It was absolutely breathtaking.

“
Thank you for
showing me this place,” I told him as I watched it disappear
from my view.

He took us down to the
bottom of the mountain and carried me all the way to the truck,
opening the door and setting me inside. When he got in he threw his
hat on the dashboard and started the cold engine. Cold air blasted
out from the vents.

“
Sorry,” he
said, turning off the flow. “It'll take a couple of minutes to
get warm.”

“
That's okay.”

He put the truck in
reverse and pulled away from the rocky mountain of boulders. “So,”
he started, “what were you going to tell me earlier?”

I gave him an
exaggerated sigh. “Awe man, you're not gonna let me get out of
it?”

“
Nope,” he
laughed.

I looked out the window
at the blackness of the night and nervously chewed my thumbnail.
While Jonah was waiting for my reply he reached over and turned on
the heater, making sure that the flow was directed at my feet. I
smiled around my thumb and kept my eyes on the blackness outside.

“
Okay, that's
enough time. Finish what you were going to say earlier.”

I took my thumb away
from my teeth and shot him a friendly glare. “Why should I? You
didn't show me your water stuff.”