“I don’t believe in ghosts.”
“Oh, you will once my angry spirit starts breaking all the top-shelf bottles of booze at the bar. But I’ll start out way more subtle than that. Dex will wake up at night, staring at the wall growling. You’ll start to wonder, getting just a little freaked out. Then things will go missing. Doors will shut on their own, along with flickering lights.”
“You’ve really thought this out.”
“I’ve wished angry spirits on people before. It’s fun imagining what would happen.”
I laugh. “You know you sound a little crazy every now and then.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing?”
I shake my head and swim forward. “It’s not at all. It’s one of the many things I like about you.”
“Many?” She follows me out of the water, wringing out her hair.
“What? That’s a surprise?”
She shrugs, and I hate how downtrodden she gets every now and then, like she can’t see her own worth. It doesn’t happen very often, and I know she works hard to keep her chin up no matter what is going on.
I help Danielle up the slick path to the rope swing. One person is ahead of us, and we watch them grab on, take a running leap, and then plunge into the water.
“Are you sure it’s deep enough?” Danielle asks, creeping toward the edge of the overhang. The rope swings back and I grab it.
“I’ll find out.”
Danielle lets out a gasp as I run and jump, swinging out over the water before letting go. I sink below the surface and pop right back up, treading water as I look at Danielle.
“Your turn,” I call.
She crosses her arms over her body and shakes her head.
“Don’t make me use the line.”
“What line?” She looks down into the water at me.
I hold one hand up toward her. “Do you trust me?” Aladdin is her favorite movie, and that line gets her every time.
Pursing her lips, her eyes lock with me. Then her whole body relaxes. “Yes, I trust you.” She grabs the rope and takes a few paces back, moving out of my line of sight. I know she’s afraid of falling, but she has nothing to fear. I’m right here to catch her.
I’ll always be here.
I move out of the way and watch her run to the edge of the rock. It’s only when she jumps that I notice she wrapped her arm awkwardly around the rope, probably done to ensure she’ll be able to hang on.
“Let go!” I yell, wincing since I know that rope is going to burn as she falls. She squeezes her eyes shut and free falls into the water. I swim back over right as she pops up from the water.
“That was so fun!” she says with a big smile on her face. “I don’t know why I was so scared!”
“How’s your arm?” We swim back to shallower water.
“My arm?”
“You don’t have a rope burn?”
She brings her left arm up. Her forearm is raw and little beads of blood pool on her skin. “Oh shit. I didn’t even feel that.”
I take her arm in my hands, bringing it closer. “It’s just a surface scrape. You’ll be fine, but that kind of thing can hurt.”
“I have a battle wound.” She tosses her head up, trying to look tough. We both laugh. “As long as it doesn’t get infected from being in this water, I’m good.”
“Let’s pretend this water is clean and filtered. It’s coming from a waterfall. People pay top dollar to drink pure water like this.”
Danielle laughs, looking down at her arm once more before sticking it back under the water. “I can live with that.”
“You did awesome,” I tell her, knowing she was scared to jump.
“Thanks. I hesitated. I want to go again and not hesitate this time.”
“Don’t wrap your arm around the rope this time.”
“Come with me?”
“Of course.”
We go back up the slippery rocks to the rope. Danielle goes first this time, and she doesn’t hesitate, not at all. I jump in after her, and we spend a while just floating and swimming around in the water before getting out and swinging off the rope again.
Back on the rocks, we eat the rest of the snacks Danielle packed for us, drying off in the sun that’s streaming down on us now. She finishes her water and stretches her arms over her head, looking up at the bright sky.
“Want to try and find that food stand next?” she asks.
“You’re really asking if I want to try and find food?”
She laughs. “Good point. When aren’t you hungry?” Her eyes glimmer when they meet mine. “No wonder your mom is such a good cook. She had four of you boys growing up.”
“And Quinn. She can eat like the rest of us.”
“Having one older sister growing up was rough enough. I can’t imagine having four older brothers.”