Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One) (10 page)

Tanner glanced back in the direction she was looking.
He smiled and stood up, rubbing the excess sunscreen on his arms. “Don’t forget
about tonight, girlie,” he said, pointing at her as he passed Gage, giving him
a nod.

“What’s tonight?” Gage asked, sitting down on the
blanket, glancing back at Tanner.

Addy watched Tanner as he walked away. He had a ton more
tattoos on his back.

“Huh?” She acted like she’d missed the question.

“Where’d Kim and Matt go?” Gage glanced up and down
the beach.

Addy shrugged her shoulders. “They were in the water
last time I checked, but you know them—
he leads, she follows.”

They sat quietly and watched a group of little birds run
back and forth in the sand avoiding the waves, pecking at the small pieces of
seaweed that washed up. She was thankful to have them as a distraction because
the awkward silence was killing her. She was wishing she’d just lied and said
she had other plans. Addy began plotting in her head how she was gonna pay Kim
back for putting her in a painful situation when Gage interrupted her.

“Come swim with me.” He stood up and grabbed her hands,
pulling her to her feet.

Addy started to refuse, but he kept ahold of her hands
and pulled her toward the ocean.

The water was cold, and by the time it was up to her
midsection, she was covered in goose bumps. He just kept leading her deeper, laughing
at how cold she looked.

They stopped when the water was almost at her
shoulders. The waves were rough, making it hard to stand and Gage pulled her
toward him to stop her from being knocked around by the water.

“Ok, when I say go, jump into the wave,” Gage said,
standing beside her.

She smiled at him suspiciously. “Is this one of those
things where you say to go, but only I go, and you stand there laughing at me?”

“Get ready,” he said with a smile. “Go!”

They both jumped forward and were thrown backward from
the force of the water as it rolled by them. Gage had obviously done it before,
but Addy on the other hand wasn’t prepared. She ended up with water up her
nose, and sand in her bathing suit from scraping along the bottom. She tried a
few more times and the result was basically the same. They both popped up from
the water laughing each time.

Addy was completely winded from laughing and being
pulled underwater. Gage pulled her up so her arms were around his shoulders and
she was on his back to catch her breath. Gripping him tightly as a wave crashed
against them, she retraced how she actually ended up in the ocean clinging to
Gage. Her murderous thoughts aimed at Kim began to fade.

“You’re pretty terrible at this,” he said.

“Whatever. You only pick games you’re good at.” She
tried not to laugh, but couldn’t stop herself.

He smiled over his shoulder. “Still using that excuse,
huh?”

She wrapped her legs around his waist and let go of
his shoulders to pull her knotted hair out of a ponytail. Gage took it as an
invitation to lean back and dunk her under the water. He pulled her back up so
she was in front of him and he held her against him while she wiped the water
from her face.

 “Ok, that was just
mean
,” she said, trying to
look serious.  

He just smiled at her innocently and adjusted his arms
so she was somehow closer to him than she’d already been.

It was getting to be way too much closeness. Addy was
still breathing hard and if she didn’t get away from him soon, she was never
gonna catch her breath.

On the shore, she saw a few kids sitting in the shallow
water. They were getting knocked back with their legs flailing in the air each
time a wave crashed.

“I wanna do that,” she said and pointed at the kids, breaking
free from him.

She made her way to the shallow water, Gage following
her. They sat side by side like the kids and waited for the next waves.

“You’re doing it wrong!” One of the little boys
shouted at Addy. “Like this.” He pointed for her to move her legs like he had
his.

Addy smiled at the boy, then turned and stuck her
tongue out at Gage. “At least he helps me.”

“You definitely need help,” he said, grinning.

The waves continuously crashed. They were thrown back
several feet each time, and then dragged out to where they started by the receding
water.

Eventually, the kids moved near them and tried sitting
in all kinds of positions to see which pushed them farthest. Addy’s stomach
hurt from laughing at the silly things they were doing.

“You finally found something you’re better at than me,”
Gage said, getting back into position.

Just as the next wave hit, he gave Addy a small push
that put her off balance and caused her to be almost washed ashore on her back.
He pulled himself through the water with his hands so he was lying on his
stomach next to her, smiling triumphantly.

“Maybe I was wrong.” He stuck his tongue out at her.

The second she looked at him they both cracked up.

“You are
so
immature.” She rolled her eyes at
him, smiling.

 “And this is what I’ve been dealing with since I was
seven,” Matt said from behind them.

Addy was leaning back on her elbows, so when she
tipped her head back, she was looking at Matt upside down. He was pointing at
her and Gage. Kim was next to him smiling, but when they made eye contact, Addy
could tell she was anything but happy.

Beside Matt stood two girls, the humans who were at
the fire on the night she met Tanner.

Gage was already on his feet when the blond one asked
if Addy was his sister.

“Right, because they look
so
much alike,” Kim
said, grabbing Addy’s hands and helping her up from the water.

They walked back to the blanket and sat down while Gage
and Matt talked to their friends.

Addy put her sunglasses on and looked over at the
guys. “Where’d you pick up the third and fourth wheels?”

“They spotted us walking and latched on.” Kim shook
her head, clearly annoyed. “The blond one, who I’ve decided to call Tweedle
dum
,
asked Matt where Gage was. Being the
pal
that he is, Matt offered to
show her.”

“Matt really is a
great
guy,” Addy said. “I
think I’m done here anyway—wanna head back?”

Kim just nodded and Addy could tell she was pretty
upset. They packed their things and folded up the blanket.

“Don’t let him see you’re bothered about it,” Addy
said. “Smile like it doesn’t matter to you what he does.”

“But it
does
matter,” Kim said. “Maybe that’s
what you do to Gage, but I’m not like that.”

Addy was surprised she’d say that to her. “Gage is
barely even my friend; he’s free to do whatever he wants.”

Kim shrugged and rolled her eyes. “
Ok.
”

Glancing over, she knew she had to go say bye to them,
or it would look like she was mad. She took a few deep breaths and put on a
happy face.

Addy realized the idea it didn’t bother her to see
Gage talk to girls was over.  He’d shaken up everything she knew about her
feelings for him and she was really paying for it with the twinge of jealousy
she felt watching him smiling at someone else. She mentally kicked herself
repeatedly
for letting him do it as she made her way over to the group.

Addy stopped in front of them. “We’re heading back to
the estate.”

Gage turned to her looking a little disappointed. “Already?”

The idea of staying ran across her mind, but she shook
it off and answered. “Yeah, I’ve got some plans.”

Addy wasn’t sure if she was going to see Tanner play
or not, but leaving because she had plans sounded way better than saying she
was leaving so she didn’t have to watch him talk to Tweedledum.

Matt put his arm around Kim. “I guess there’s a band
playing at the resort next door tonight. We’re all gonna go later.”

Kim wasn’t as good as Addy at hiding her emotions, and
couldn’t keep her irritation to herself.

“Have fun,” Kim said, pushing Matt away, and heading
for the estate.

“Damn,” Matt said, watching Kim walking away, “what
the hell’s
her
problem?”

Addy ignored him, and painfully turned to Tweedledee
and Tweedledum smiling sweetly. “It was nice to see both of you again.”

Waving to Matt and Gage, Addy walked back to the
estate. Her cheeks hurt from flashing so many fake smiles.

Kim must have walked fast, because she wasn’t visible in
the distance. She was probably more upset about Matt than Addy realized. He
always acted so careless with Kim’s feelings, but they both knew they shouldn’t
be so close.

The situation with Gage was getting out of hand too.
Addy needed to stay away from him as much as Kim needed a break from Matt. It was
all too much and she didn’t know what he wanted from her, especially since he’d
switched gears so quickly when Matt showed up with Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

The idea of going to see Tanner play at the resort was
scratched since Matt and Gage would be there with their new
friends
. After
showering and changing, she decided just to go up to the main house and get
some dinner.

Fate was on the terrace when Addy walked up the
stairs. He didn’t usually eat dinner outside, but it was a nice evening. She
gave him a kiss on the cheek. Moving the estate there had taken a lot out of
him and he was using a wheelchair because he’d become too weak to walk. She
figured Molly must have brought him out.

Addy looked down at the garden. Matt and Gage were
just walking up from the beach.

“Everyone seems happy here.” Fate watched the boys
walking toward the main house. “How do
you
like it?”

Addy shrugged. “It’s nice. The ocean is beautiful.” She
was still watching Gage as she spoke.

“Yes, it truly is,” Fate said with a smile.

She sat with her grandfather for a long time talking
about when she was a child. They laughed as they tried to list all the
different places they’d lived and he finally explained why he’d always kept
them living in such cold spots.

Apparently Akori didn’t generally like the cold weather,
so he kept the estate in cold locations to discourage them from coming to live
there. He said he wanted her to live in a family atmosphere, without a bunch of
strangers coming and going.

“I always wondered about the snow. Gage and I used to
think it was to punish us.” She smiled, thinking about it. “We’d be extra good
when we knew it was time to move.”

“Our little troublemakers tried to be good, huh?” Fate
smiled, patting her hand. “You used to be like his shadow. If I could find
him,
I could always find you too.”

“Yeah, then we grew up—things changed,” she said, then
looked down at her hands. “Plus, five years is a big age difference.”

Fate reached for the teapot but Addy shooed him and
picked it up instead, refilling his cup. He sipped it for a few minutes without
speaking. She almost didn’t know what he was talking about when he finally
looked at her and spoke.

“Perhaps it was at one point, but maybe not as much
anymore. Friends, especially ones you’ve known your whole life, are
very
important. You’ll learn that as you get older.”

Realizing she wasn’t dreaming, Addy reached over for
her cell phone that was buzzing like crazy. It was 2am and she’d been asleep
for a couple of hours. Since Tanner’s show was out of the question, she’d opted
to just go back to her villa after dinner and play one of her new video games.

There were four missed calls in the last two minutes
from Renee. She hit the button to call her back, trying to even remember the
last time Renee called her, especially in the middle of the night.

“You need to come down to the beach,” Renee said,
instead of hello when she answered the phone. “I’m not sure where my brother is—he’s
not answering his phone. Kim’s down here arguing with some girl about him.”

“I’m on my way.” Addy ended the call and ran out the
door, dialing Gage.

“Hey,” Gage said. “It’s late. Is everything—”

“Where’s Matt?” Addy asked.

“He’s right here, why?”

“Tell him to get his
ass
down to the beach.”
She ended the call without waiting for a response.

Addy could hear the girls yelling as soon as she got
to the end of the path connecting the beach to the estate. A few of the Akori
from the estate were there, along with Tweedledee and Tweedledum, standing near
a roaring bonfire.

Kim was obviously drunk and swearing like a sailor.

Addy was jogging, but broke into a sprint when she saw
Tweedledee reach back and smack Kim across the face.

Kim lunged at her. Addy reached them, shoving the girl
aside and grabbing Kim, pulling her back.

Tweedledum—the friend of the girl Kim was fighting
with, grabbed a fistful of Addy’s hair. The sudden pain caused her to lose the
hold she had on Kim, who landed in the sand on top of Tweedledee.

“Let go!” Addy screamed at her.

Tweedledum released Addy’s hair and yelled at her,
pointing. “Don’t push my friend!” She went for Addy again.

Renee knocked Tweedledum to the ground and pointed to
the other girls. “Just get Kim!”

Addy’s head was throbbing and she really wanted to
punch the chick right in the face. Instead, she glared at her and once again
grabbed Kim, pulling her away from Tweedledee.

“Get off me, Addy!” Kim fought, trying to get away
from her grasp.

“Stop then!” Addy was shaking her to get her attention.
“He’s not worth it. Matt is definitely
not
worth this.”

Kim quit fighting Addy. She began crying and sat in
the sand burying her face in her hands.

Renee was yelling at Tweedledee to stay away from Kim
as Matt came running up, Gage behind him.