To the Steadfast (17 page)

The rest of the weekend
is smooth sailing. Killian hasn’t been home or if he
has been home, he’s staying far away from me. I feel bad for ditching him, but
it wasn’t like we were on a date. I’m free to do what I please in my love life.
Mischa has once again disappeared. He gave me his cell phone number but hasn’t
returned a single text I’ve sent, which confuses me even more. On Monday, I
make plans to go shopping for dorm supplies. I drive into Atlanta and spend the
week shopping. I need new clothes for class and basic things for my room. When
I return on Thursday, I’m even more distraught over the fact that Mischa has
dropped off the face of the earth. Until now, I’ve been hesitant to jump back
in the sack with Mischa, but spending an entire week alone has given me some
new perspective. I’ll take him however I can get him. On Friday evening, my
phone finally goes off.

Mischa: Pick you up
in 30?

I fall back on my bed,
a smile never leaving my face as I type out a reply.

Cody: I’ll be here.

Mischa picks me up in
an older red two-seat Miata.

“Taking me to Shit
Creek again?” I joke as we drive off. He’s wearing a ball cap, and I pull it
off and run my fingers through his hair. “Give me an adventure, Cromwell.”

“What would you like to
do? You’re eighteen now. Maybe we can go to the city?”

 “Can’t we stay around
here?”

“Really? What is there
to do in Betty, Georgia?”

I get a small feeling
that he doesn’t want to be seen with me so I ask him outright if he’s scared of
being seen with me.

“What?” His face
scrunches up in anger. “I would never be embarrassed of you, but I’m protecting
you. You know what people say about me. My house, you don’t want to go there.”

He’s right. People will
see us together and keep talking. They won’t stop at the truth.

“Just don’t take me to
the middle of nowhere.”

He slams on the brake
and spins the car around to go in the opposite direction. “You want to go to my
boat?”

“You have a boat?” I
bite my lip and cock my head to the left a little, trying to study him.

“If you have this car
and boat, why are you living at home with your mom and Violet?”

“Because they need me.
Do you want to go out on the boat or not?”

“Sure. I’ve never been
on a boat before.”

“Really? You’re not
kidding? I figure with your parents—”

“—That I’d have been on
all these extravagant vacations and stuff? I’ve traveled by land and air but
never boat.”

“Well, Cody. You are
about to have your first boat ride. I have it stored at a marina about a half
hour from here.”

I settle back against
the seat and reach out for his hand which has callused over from all the manual
labor he does in the shop. Does he even work at the shop still? I’m not
entirely sure. He’s so tightlipped about his life.

We’re about ten minutes
into the trip when rain begins to fall from the sky. It starts slowly, but
before long, it turns into a full-blown downpour. 

“Damn.” I press my nose
against the glass and stare out into the now-darkened sky.

He puts the car in park
at the edge of the boat dock, and as the water pounds against the metal box
surrounding us, he unbuckles. “Ready?”

“For what?”

The corners of his
mouth lift up and he pulls his shirt up over his head. “Don’t tell me you’re
afraid of a little rain.”

“Are you crazy? We
can’t go out in a storm like this. We’ll get hit by lightning or something.”

“The odds of being hit
by lightning are 1 in a million. Come on…” He unbuckles my belt, but I grab it
and try to buckle back up.

“No way, I don’t want
to get sick.”

He leans forward and
presses his forehead against mine. Nose to nose. “You need to loosen up a
little. You used to jump at chances like these.”

It’s been a stressful
year. I know this. Deciding to be brave and bring a little of the old Cody
back, I kiss his nose. “Close your eyes and count to twenty then come find me.”

He leans back in his
seat and does as I say. Quietly, I slip out of the car and make a dash for the
boat dock. I can’t see much through the rain, but I make out a row of pontoon
boats and then a few houseboats near the end of the pier. I don’t know which one
is Mischa’s, but I do know I have to hide, and quick. I make a turn toward
another dock to get back to land, but notice Mischa about a hundred feet ahead
of me.

“Cody?” he calls out. I
turn and run the other way. I jump on a boat to my left. It’s larger than the
rest, but I crouch down as low as I can and pray Mischa can’t see me. Though
it’s dark, there are lots of lamps scattered along the side of the dock, and I
can see his shadow moving through the light mist.

“Oh, Cody. You can’t
hide from me forever.”

He steps onto the boat
I’m on. My eyes close. I can hear the water moving and his footsteps, but
everything else seems so far away. He’s getting closer and closer.

“I can always feel you,”
he whispers. He’s only a few steps away from the seat I’m crunched up against.
In a flash, Mischa scoops me up and his lips are pressed against mine. I let
out a startled cry before letting myself melt against him. He leans back to let
me wrap my legs around him. Why did I ever want to forget him? We’re so good
together. This feels so good with him. He makes me feel so alive when he
touches me like this. His hands run up and down my back before they stop at my
bra, unsnapping the hooks.

“I’ve missed you,” I
whisper against his skin.

 Before I know what I’m
saying, I let the words slip out. The last time I said them, he broke my heart.

 “I love you, Mischa
Cromwell.” I immediately wish I could take it back.

He freezes and my
entire world stops. How could I have said that to him? It just slipped out.

I don’t expect an answer.
I know he’s probably never said it before, not even to his own parents.

He stops me from
talking by pressing his lips against mine. He tugs at my shirt, pulling it over
my head. There’s urgency in his movements now. One that wasn’t there before. When
he gets my shirt off, he pulls back to unbutton his pants. The boat is steady,
but I can still feel the movement of the water below us. My skin prickles from
the cold until he runs his warm hands down my body. They stop at my hips before
unbuttoning my jeans. I sit back so that I can wriggle them down over my
ankles. He does the same before engulfing me in his warmth. I press my face
into his chest, afraid to move forward.

“I need you,” I tell
him. “I need this, but what if someone sees us?”

His only response is a
warm kiss. A kiss that makes everything else in the world seem trivial.

“I’ll always keep you
safe,” he whispers in my ear. And I trust him. Foolish or not, it doesn’t
matter. A moan escapes my lips as his fingers run across my nipples, peaked from
the cold.

Out of the darkness, a
light flashes in my eyes.

“What the hell?” I
gasp, pressing more against Mischa to cover my bare chest.

Two cops stand a few
yards away on the dock. “What do we have here? This your boat, kids?”

Mischa looks at them and
shakes his head.

“Do you know you are
trespassing on private property and… engaging in indecent acts?”

Mischa smiles, but the
officers don’t look amused. “We’re sorry, sir. We got on the wrong boat.”

The officer waves his
flashlight in our direction a bit more. “Get dressed, you two. You’re coming
down to the station.”

I throw my clothes on
as fast as I can. Thankfully, I have Mischa’s large body to cover most of me
from the eyes of the cops. He doesn’t seem to care that we’ve been caught naked
on a boat. In fact, he seems to be taking his sweet time getting dressed. I—on
the other hand—am mortified.

When we’re both decent,
the officers separate us and take our information. I keep my head down, afraid
to look the officer in the eye. Everything moves in a haze as if it isn’t real.
We’re eventually shoved into the back of the cop car to be taken to the
station. I’m not sure what is going on, but I’m positive there’s something
Mischa isn’t telling me.

“You don’t have a boat
here, do you?” I ask Mischa.

He shakes his head, but
refuses to look at me. “It’s a friend’s boat. I just wanted us to be together.
I thought it would be a safe place.”

I press on. “Why did
they arrest us?

“I may have a capias
out for my arrest.” His eyes dart my way as if he’s trying to gauge my
reaction.

“You’re wanted by the
police? Seriously? Do you know what an arrest will look like on my record?”

“I’m sorry, Cody.
Please don’t hate me. I tried to keep you from this side of me. I wanted you to
look at me like you did before. I wanted you to still believe in me.”

“Shut up,” I say. “Just
shut up. I always believed in you. You’re the only one who keeps throwing mixed
signals, stringing me along like a puppet.” I turn toward the door and refuse
to speak to him for the rest of the trip.

When we show up at the
station, they book Mischa and me separately. The female officer, who is taking
my picture and fingerprints, looks sympathetic to my situation.

“The guy you came in
with your boyfriend?” she asks, smacking on her gum.

“Something like that,”
I mumble. “I thought he had a boat there. Guess he just wanted one thing.”

She stands and begins
to pat me down before taking all my possessions. Phone, keys, wallet, rings.

“Take it from me. You
can’t let the smooth talkers get away with things like that. Kick him to the
curb. His rap sheet isn’t anything to drool over.”

“Oh, I will. Believe
me.” My voice is confident, but inside I’m scared and confused.

“We still have to book
you for trespassing, but it isn’t as bad as it seems.” She pushes a phone
toward me. “Wanna call someone to get you out and post your bail?”

I stand there with the
phone in my hand for a few minutes before dialing my father’s cell phone. This will
be the second time he’s had to come get me out of jail. Believe me, I’m not
proud.

When he answers, I take
a deep breath. My voice is unsteady as I speak. “Daddy?”

“Dakota? What’s wrong?”

“I need you to come
bail me out of jail. I’m at the county sheriff’s station.”

“Jail? What in the hell
did you do? Do you know what this will look like on your record? You do know
that medical schools do background checks.”

I close my eyes. He
isn’t even worried about me, just my career. “I know. It wasn’t my fault.”

“It wasn’t your fault? I
swear, you sound like a child. Let me call the lawyer. I’ll be there when I get
there.”

I hang up. I should
have called someone else. Anyone but him, but my contacts are limited. I’m
taken to a room with three other women. It isn’t at all like what you see at
the movies. There are no bars, only a white room with a one-window door. All the
women turn to look at me as I step inside. Two are sitting on a bed, and
another is sitting on a makeshift mattress on the floor. I sit down on the
sticky ground without saying a word. One of the girls makes a move for the
toilet in the far corner, flushing it to cover the sound of her puking. I try
not to make eye contact, but the girl on the bed smiles at me.

“What you in here for?”
Her voice is deep. A smoker’s voice.

“Trespassing.”

“That isn’t so bad.
Wait? Are you the girl who came in with Mischa Cromwell?”

I don’t answer, afraid
they may try and start some sort of cat fight with me.

“I went to high school
with him. Sexy, but bad news. I’m Butch, by the way.”

Butch? Poor girl.
There’s nothing butch about her, she looks extremely malnourished. “Nice to
meet you. I’m Cody.”