Clear by L.T. Ryan

Author:L.T. Ryan [Ryan, L.T. & Scott, Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

30

Chapter 30

“I’m tired.” Ian trudged along, wading through the tall grass. Almost as far as he could see were flat open fields. “Where are we going?”

“I told you, it’s a surprise,” Jodi said. “You complain a lot.”

“It’s just—we weren’t supposed to leave the motel. And now we’re so far away and it’ll take forever to get back and we’re going to be in trouble when—”

Jodi stopped and pressed her index finger to his lips. “It’ll be worth it, I promise. Anyway, it’s right up here. Two more minutes.”

Ian looked around. What’s right up here? There was nothing but grass and a couple of distant silos. Regardless, he kept pushing forward. She could have led him to Mexico and he would have followed.

“What do you want to do when you grow up?” she asked.

“Me? I don’t know.” For a second, he considered telling her what he really wanted. But Fezz’s voice rang in his ears—“Ian, don’t do it.” Anyway, it would be hard to explain how he wanted to be a part of his fake dad’s friend group, who hacked computers, shot guns and jumped out of planes for fun. He wanted to be as good a hacker as his mother had been, which meant he had to be just as careful. If there was one thing he’d learned from her, it was how to stay off the radar.

“I want to be a detective,” Jodi said.

“Really?”

“Yeah.” She smiled and her eyes seemed to twinkle. “Like Sherlock Holmes or Phillip Marlow.”

Ian had heard of Sherlock Holmes, but Phillip Marlow? He decided to play along and hope she didn’t ask if he knew who Marlow was. “Cool.”

“Here it is.”

From out of the grass appeared a pond, hidden in the flat landscape until they were standing on its bank.

“A pond?”

“I told you it’d be worth it.”

Ian wasn’t sure what made her so excited about a big puddle in the middle of nowhere, but if she liked it, who was he to judge? “Nice. Are there fish in there?”

“I don’t think so. Never seen any.”

“Alligators?”

Jodi laughed. “No, there’s no alligators. It’s a swimming hole. You never seen a swimming hole?”

Ian had spent most of his time at the edge of the largest “swimming hole” in the world—the Atlantic Ocean. But swimming in it wasn’t his cup of tea. Whenever he did go in, it was because he had fallen off his paddle board or flipped the kayak. No, he’d stick with the pool. There was nothing that could eat you in a pool.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Jodi started taking off her cowboy boots and socks. “You said you were worried about the time.”

“What are you doing?”

“Going in. Whatta ya think I’m doing?”

Ian hadn’t planned on this. He thought he was going to look at something interesting and then go right back. He got more than he bargained for. “We don’t have our bathing suits.”

“You just go in your underwear, silly.” Jodi dropped her jeans, revealing the pair of boy briefs. She then turned away from him and pulled her shirt over her head.

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