Tides by Betsy Cornwell

Author:Betsy Cornwell [Cornwell, Betsy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

twenty-one

SUNSET

THIS time, Noah knew as soon as he landed on Star that she was there.

He’d come to run again, and Lo had asked him to pick her up at the Center afterward—she wanted to finish filing one more box. She’d really seemed to plunge herself into the internship, and Noah was glad, though he couldn’t fathom how anyone could actually enjoy it.

But as he walked up from the pier, he found he couldn’t focus on Lo or his job. He didn’t know what it was, but some tendril, some invisible thread thrummed in him, and what it told him was Mara. More than that, it told him she was nearby, and she was happy.

He stepped around the corner of the hotel, and two cool hands closed over his eyes.

He grinned. “Hello, Mara,” he said.

The hands drew away. He turned around and saw Mara scowling, her arms crossed.

“I wanted to surprise you.” She shook her head. “But you ruined it.”

“I did?”

“You knew I was there!”

“I did.” It seemed strange to him, then, how sure he’d been.

Mara’s dark eyebrows drew toward each other. “I didn’t think you could—”

“I recognized your hands.” It was true, after all. He’d seen the webbing.

“Never mind,” she said. “I’ll surprise you another time.”

Noah thought she might reach for his hand, but she turned away from him and set off toward the ledge where he’d first seen her.

“Well, come on,” she called, and Noah realized he was standing still, just watching her. He jogged to catch up, and the ground squished under his feet. Had it rained since lunch? He’d been too busy learning the ropes on the equipment the older interns showed him to notice.

The rocky ledge was dark and glassy with wet, and small pools trembled in its hollows. The grass shone with color. Noah had thought his new job would mean more time outdoors, but he’d spent all afternoon in the lab. Maybe he’d ask Lo to eat outside with him sometime. Or maybe . . . “Mara?”

“Mmm,” she mumbled, keeping her eyes on a large rock a ways out to sea, stuck through the middle with a jutting iron pole. Noah remembered from the charts at the Center that it was called Whale Rock, named after its resemblance to a harpooned sperm whale.

He sat down with her, but his spine felt so tight, he couldn’t lean back or relax. “Do you want to come here with me for lunch sometime?” The question came out in a rush. Noah told himself he was just lonely for some company other than Lo’s, but he knew he had the other students for that.

“I can’t.” Mara didn’t elaborate. She just kept staring at Whale Rock. That tendril he’d felt before shrank and faded.

“Oh.” It was stupid to feel so rejected. She had been waiting here for him, hadn’t she? Didn’t that mean she wanted to see him?

He looked out to the ocean with her. Dark shapes circled the far-off rock, ducking under and rising again with the waves. One of them hoisted itself out of the water, nudging its body toward the rusty pole.

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