Crave by Jordan Sweet Read Free Book Online Page B

face.
    “You’re going to be okay, Cora.  Just relax and take a few breaths.”
    Others are gathering around and I feel Everett lifting me again.  Fully this time, off the ground and into his arms.  I have no strength to resist.
    His head is up and he walks with a steady determination across the beach.  It’s as if he is walking on a Tempur-Pedic mattress.  Each step is absorbed by the beach, everything around undisturbed.  I feel like I am floating across a plane.
    “Where is Josie?” I suddenly remember, looking back to the water.
    “Josie and her family are on the boat.  They know you are okay,” he says, still walking away from the water. And the beach.
    “Where are we going?” I ask, beginning to wonder.
    My vision has returned, but my body aches.  I want to just lie down.
    “Take me home,” I tell him.
    “I will,” he says assuredly.
    Images of the after-party start coming back to me and confusion takes over about that and what just happened.  Even now, I look up at him and I see hope.  I see dreams in him.  My dreams.  He is everything, but I can’t get over the fact that he used drugs.  And he offered them to me.
    My emotions move fast and tears begin to form.  I see one drop down to his chest.  It glitters in the sunlight.  Then it trickles.  And then it just disappears.
              More go that way too.
    “Trying to wash the sand off my chest, Cora?” he asks.  “Hoses work better than tears for that,” he follows. 
    I see that grin flash across his face.  And his eyes light up as his gaze focuses in on me now.
    He gently seats me in a chair, under an umbrella, and sits next to me.  I am too weak to sit up.  He pulls his chair in close.
    “What the heck were you doing out there?” he asks now.  “There are better ways to try to kill yourself you know.  Less painful ones at least.”
    “Wasn’t exactly my objective out there,” I return. “Just out for a nice day of snorkeling.”
    “A nice day of snorkeling.  Oh, that’s what you call that,” he laughs, and for the first time since being out of the water, I feel a little bit of that humor too. 
    But, I don’t laugh.  I have too much to talk to him about before I can start laughing with him again. 
    Before I can begin that interrogation, however, the paramedics arrive.  They have what seems like dozens of questions for me and check the various pulses and temperatures and all that.  They conclude I’m okay and I just need to get some rest. 
    “Don’t go back in the water for a few days,” they say as they walk away.
    “Check,” I say back.  “No plans for that, anytime soon.”
    “So, what the heck were you doing back there,” I say to Everett.
    “Just out enjoying the water, the sun, you know, riding the waves for a while.”
    “Do you normally about go crashing into unsuspecting swimmers?”
    “Hell, I had no idea you were there until I was practically on top of you.”
    The thought of those last four words sends shivers up and down my body.  I feel the heat coming into my face again.  I try to contain it, but it comes fast.
    I see for the first time the ridiculous definition in his abs.  He could possibly have just stepped off of the cover of Muscle & Fitness for all I know. 
    But, I try to focus on what I need to do.
    “So, let’s get down to brass tacks here, Everett.  What exactly was it you were doing back there at the after-party the other night?”
    “Yeah, the after-party.  I’ve been completely miserable about it ever since, Cora.  I really want to apologize to you.  That was totally out of character for me.  I’ve never…  I won’t do that… you know, that’s just not me.  I wasn’t being myself there.”
    His confidence sways with those words.  And I have the feeling that I’ve got him where I want him.  But, I’m too torn up to do anything with it and I reply with a way too simple, “Really?”
    “Yeah, listen,” he says, “I really want