Divine (37 page)

“
Yeah, me
either.” He leaned over and flipped on the stereo, filling the
cab with the low vibration of a rock ballad. “I'm ready for
your questions, now.”

“
My questions?”

“
Yeah,
you know, the millions of questions that you always ask me when I
show you something new. I showed you a
lot
of
new stuff today . . .”

“
True,” I
nodded. “Well, first off, you can change the color of water to
match your eyes, right?”

“
Yep.”

“
But,” I
continued slowly, “if the water isn't touching you then you
can't change it?”

“
Nope,” he
said as he brought a hand away from the wheel to rub the back of his
neck. “But I can move water without touching it.”

“
Oh, any water?”

“
Yeah.”

I sat in silence for a
moment, trying to digest the details of his amazing ability. “So
basically, you can manipulate water, but it only changes the color of
your eyes if you're touching it.”

“
Exactly.”

“
Okay, and you
always know when I'm in the water, right?”

“
Well,
I know when
anyone
or
anything
is in the
water.”

“
Oh,” I
nodded, feeling the oncoming of a flirtatious comment brewing out of
my lips. “So you know when I'm in the shower then?”

He chuckled and dropped
his hand back on the wheel, looking over with a white grin. “No,
unfortunately.”

“
But I thought
you knew when I was in water?”

“
I do, but only
in the ocean.”

“
Oh.”

He cleared his throat
softly and looked into his side mirror as he merged onto the freeway.
“It's like I have this deep connection with the ocean. I have
the ability to know who's in it, what's in it, everything.”

My mind wondered off,
thinking about what he had said. A somewhat gruesome image entered my
mind, and I couldn't help but ask, “What about dead bodies?”

He
looked away from the road to examine my face, unsure if what I had
asked was a joke or not. After seeing that I was being serious he
looked back at the road and sighed softly with the slow nodding of
his head. “Yeah, I know where dead bodies are
in
the ocean. It's a huge place; a lot of people have died in it.”

“
Wow, that's . .
. creepy?”

“
Yeah,”
he chuckled lightly, “it's pretty creepy. But I've only felt it
once before. I try not to think about stuff like that. I think more
about who I
want
to
feel in the
ocean . . . like
you.”

“
And what do I
feel like?” I asked, surprising myself at how far I was taking
the suggestive talk.

“
Um,” he
chuckled shyly, shaking his head while bringing his hand up to
nervously chew at his thumb nail.

A
delighted smile crossed my face from my ability to make him nervous.
The truth was that I
loved
teasing
him with risky remarks and watching him shake his head
with
shyness. He did the same thing to me all the time; it was a common
part of our ever growing relationship.

“
Are you at a
loss for words, Mr. Strong Jonah?” I teased. “Usually you
have quite the comeback for me.”

“
Not this time, I
guess. I think that answer would be a hard one to give.”

The suggestive
answer or the real answer?
I
wasn't quite sure what he meant by that.

“
Well,
going back to being serious, what
does
it
feel like when I'm in the water?”

He stared ahead at the
slick road and cocked his head to the side in thought. “I don't
know, I can't really describe it. But, as soon as your foot hits the
water, I just know you're in it.”

“
But you can't
control me?”

“
No, only the
animals and the water; I can't control people.”

I thought back about
the picture in his mother's red photo album, the one with him and his
dad holding up the fish they had caught in the ocean. “So, when
you and your dad went fishing, did you use your ability like you did
today or did you use fishing poles?”

A reminiscent smile
crossed his lips while he watched the car in front of us. “Nah,
we didn't use poles. I would always go into the water and call the
fish to us. We would bend down and grab them up into our hands,
trying to see who could find the biggest one.”

“
And would you
take them and eat them or let them go back into the water?”

“
We'd release
them; I don't eat saltwater fish.”

“
Why not?”

He looked over at me
with an odd expression, although still keeping his smile. “Well,”
he slowly searched for the words, “I have a connection with
them; they're like my pets. It would be the same as eating a dog or
something.”

A boisterous laugh left
my mouth as I leaned forward in my seat, fighting away the thought of
eating a family pet.

“
Oh, is that
funny?” he chuckled.

I sat back and wiped a
happy tear out of the corner of my eye. “Yes, it's funny. I
mean, eating a dog isn't funny, but just the picture I got in my mind
. . . it was really stupid . . .” Finally regaining my
composure I continued on, “I'm sorry, I didn't think about you
having the connection with them. I wouldn't eat them either if I
related to them the same way that you do.”

He shook his head with
a soft smile. “It's okay, I'm glad I made you laugh.”

“
You always do.”

“
I know.”

“
Of course you
know,” I teased him. “Now, let's recap everything. If
your eyes are glowing and you touch any water it will change to match
it, you can move any type of water without having to actually touch
it, you can feel anything that's in the ocean . . .”

“
Yeah, you've
about summed it up.”

“
Not
quite. You can talk easily under water just like you're talking to me
now, you swim incredibly fast, and you can even
breathe
under water.”

“
Well,” he
glanced over at me, “does that impress you?”

“
Yes, of course
it does. Who wouldn't be impressed by you?”

Jonah's hand hit the
blinker, taking us off of the freeway and closer to my house. “So
now that I have answered all of your questions, what do you have to
say?”

“
Hmm,” I
sighed heavily, bringing my finger up to my chin and tapping it
lightly. “Well, now I know why you like salt so much,” I
laughed, finally putting the two together.

“
Ha, yeah. That
probably explains it.”

“
And,” I
continued, “I guess I have to say that no matter how many times
I have said that a day spent with you was the best day of my life,
this one tops them all.”

“
Oh, so the other
days weren't good enough for you?” he joked.

“
Nope, not
compared to this one. This one takes the cake.”

“
Speaking of
taking the cake,” he announced as we pulled into my driveway,
“you're home. And you have a lot of it to pig out on.”

I looked pleasantly
down at my chest, happy at how I looked in my new swimsuit. “I
can't eat too much cake, I need to fit into this thing for the rest
of the summer.”

His eyes trailed down
my body, slowly taking in the two separate pieces of pink stretchy
cloth. With nothing to say he unbuckled his seat belt and leaned
across the cab, placing his hand behind my head as he laid a gentle
kiss onto my lips. The faint smell of his cologne lingered somewhere
on him, somehow left behind on his skin after our dive through the
water.

Keeping my lips pressed
to his I reached down and unbuckled my belt, freeing myself from the
restraint that kept me from his powerful body. I moved forward into
him, breathing heavier with each second that passed, tasting his warm
mouth as his tasted mine.

The sound of a car
pulling in next to us broke us away from each other. “Oh man,
it's my parents,” I sighed.

“
Thankfully the
truck is high enough that they couldn't see us,” he laughed.

We looked at each other
longingly, both desperate for each others touch, tired of things
always getting in the way.

He took his hand away
from my wet hair and reached into the pocket of his board shorts,
pulling out the tiny heart-shaped rock. “Here, don't forget
this.”

“
Thank you,”
I said with a smile as I picked it up and clenched it tightly in my
palm. “I'll keep it forever.” I sighed quietly and looked
at the rain-covered windshield. “Well, I guess I better go.
I'll call you tomorrow after work.”

“
Okay. Be
careful.”

I knew he was talking
about Fox. “I will,” I nodded, giving him one last kiss
before breaking away and opening the door. I jumped down and grabbed
my clothes off of the seat, mouthing a good-bye as I shut the door
and walked back to my house.

Going to work the next
day wasn't an easy thing to do. First off, I was a little irritated
that I had to work, but I did the favor for Brittany because she
always covered for me when I needed it. It wasn't just because I had
to work her shift, it was mostly because I would have loved to go
back to the cove with Jonah and pick up where we had left off. And
because I was working that wouldn't be able to happen.

Secondly,
I dreaded seeing Fox after his invitation to go out to dinner with
him. I didn't know how to respond to him at all. It was always
frustrating to me how people did things in life to make it awkward
for other people, and Fox's actions made everything
completely
awkward, so much so that I almost wanted to just quit and never have
to face him at all.

But as the responsible
adult that I now legally was, I rolled myself out of bed, fixed
myself up, and drove my awesome car down to the place that paid for
my gas and insurance.

I was happy to see that
Fox was locked in his office when I got there. Let me take that back;
I wasn't happy to see that he was locked in his office, because it
meant that he was actually there. I knew that he was coming in that
day but usually he wasn't there on Sundays. Apparently work was busy
enough in the financial department to warrant him spending the
occasional weekend there catching up.

The restaurant was slow
but I went right to work busying myself with refilling the ketchup
and mustard bottles in the dining room. Kevin and Steve were talking
in the back but I stayed away from them because I wanted to steer
clear of Fox's office.

It didn't take long
before I heard his thin door creak open. I cringed at the sound it
made, a sound that meant confrontation and awkwardness. I quickly
grabbed a broom and went to the farthest corner of the restaurant to
sweep away at dirt that wasn't there.

His footsteps grazed
the ground causally as he walked smoothly toward me.
No, no, no,
just go away Fox. I don't want to handle this stupid situation.
I
hummed a tune out loud while moving the broom swiftly across the
floor, trying to ignore his fast approach for as long as I could.

“
Hi Summer,”
he greeted gently as he planted himself next to me in my obvious
view.

I looked up from the
floor and met his eyes. I couldn't lie, he looked amazing. He wore
those button-up business shirts like a champ with his muscles
pressing against the fabric, begging to break through the shiny black
buttons. The sleeves were even rolled up like usual, exposing the
prominent veins on his arms. Even though he looked so good and I
could smell his sultry and inviting cologne, it had no effect on me.
I just didn't have eyes for him at all. Plain and simple.

“
Hi Fox,”
my low voice finally bled out.

“
Did you get my
note?”