The Truth About My Scratches (The Carolina Killer Files #3) Page 7

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw of flicker of light. I walked closer to it and saw three small candles. Someone cleared their throat behind me. I spun around on my heels, ready to run, and there he was. He smiled his playful, carefree smile. “Well it took you long enough!”

  My anger was instantaneously forgotten and my fear washed away. I ran up to him, leaping into his arms. “Are you crazy? Do you know how scared I’ve been? You can never ever ever do anything like this every again.” I kissed his lips fiercely.

  “Aw, poor baby,” he taunted, pulling away. “I didn’t expect you to take so long, I didn’t realize it would already be so dark.” He kissed my cheek gently, squeezing me into a hug.

  “Well, it was. It was dark and scary.” I realized how childish I sounded but I didn’t care.

  “Well, I’m glad you came, you brave, brave girl. And I’m glad you survived our treacherous town. Now, for your surprise.”

  “Surprise?” I asked.

  He turned me around and leaned down to my ear. “Close your eyes, pretty girl.”

  I did as I was told. I heard him fumbling with something and then I felt warmth hit the front of my body.

  “Okay, now you can open them.” He was standing far away from me now. When I opened my eyes, I gasped. Fire. Candles, actually. There was a large patch of candles sitting in the sand. He walked up to me and grabbed my hand, lifting me to stand on top of a large rock.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, growing more confused.

  “Look at it now.” He pointed to the ground, I stared down. Looking at the candles from up above showed something I hadn’t been expecting. I covered my mouth in shock. He’d used candles to spell out “Prom?” in the sand. It was a question. My jaw dropped. I looked over at him, a goofy, hopeful grin spread to his face. Unsure of what to say, I jumped down and hugged him.

  He spun me around in circles, pressing me up against him. “Ha, and I thought you weren’t interested in prom.”

  I shook my head. “I never said that.”

  “Actually, you did,” he assured me.

  “I said I wasn’t interested in going to prom with Derek. There’s a difference in that and not wanting to go at all.”

  “So, is that a yes?” he asked, exasperated.

  I looked into his dark eyes, watching the reflection of the flames dancing in them. “That’s a yes.”

  He kissed me, gently at first and then more fiercely, scooping me up and carrying me to where a blanket had been laid on the sand. He sat down beside me.

  “So, whatever happened to visiting your grandma?”

  He kissed my cheek. “We never visit my grandma.”

  “But you said—”

  “Well, I couldn’t very well give away my entire surprise now could I? Besides, you wouldn’t have said yes back then. I had to wait until I knew you’d say yes,” he said slyly.

  “So, you’ve had this planned all along? This whole time? Even that night? When we weren’t even dating?”

  “I was dating you long before you realized it, Jaicey Thomas.”

  I kissed him then, rolling over to lay on top of him. “So when did you plan it? How did you plan it?”

  “A man never reveals his secrets, but I started planning as soon as you turned down Drake. I just had to figure you out first.”

  I smiled at him. “His name’s Derek.”

  “Huh?”

  “Derek, not Drake. His name is Derek, you dork.”

  “Oh, is that right?”

  I laid my head on his chest, giggling. “Yes, that’s right.”

  “That’s it!” He stood up, screaming playfully and throwing me over his shoulder, racing toward the dark water. I screamed, laughing as he bounced me across the shore. I braced myself for the shock of the cold water to hit me. When it did, I gasped only seconds before I was submerged, laughing even once I hit the water. I had never felt anything so cold, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. I pushed up out of the water and grabbed his shoulders, shoving him under the water too. He came up, his shirt sticking to him, and splashed me. I splashed him back.

  “Oh, now you’re going to get it,” he warned, grabbing me and holding me above the water.

  I shrieked, grasping for the water. “No! No! I give up! You win! I give up!”

  He brought me back down, our bodies sliding together, and I threw my arms around his neck, pulling him into a kiss. His kiss warmed me despite the icy spring water.

  He pulled away, looking at me. “My God, I love you.”

  I stopped laughing and swallowed hard. Water dripped into my eyes, but I couldn’t move. “What?”

  He wiped water from his face, shock filling his expression. “S-s-sorry. I mean, I meant that to be so much more romantic, but it just slipped out. I love you, Jaicey. I’m so completely in love with you.”

  “I, um, wow.” I didn’t know what to say, so I chose silence. The cold of the water was starting to hit me and I began to shiver.

  He put his fingers over my lips, leaning down until he was only inches from my face. “Don’t say anything. Not now. Don’t feel pressured. I waited for you to let me in, and you did. I wanted for you to admit your feelings, and you did. I waited for you tonight, and here you are. So, I’ll wait. I’ll wait for you to love me because you will. And you are so completely worth the wait.”

  Before I could say anything, he kissed me gently and then dunked me under the water’s surface.

  Chapter 8

  When I got home that night, Mom was lying on the couch. She didn’t look up as I walked into the room. I walked over and laid my head on her lap. She placed her hand onto my sopping head and then removed it, staring at her palm. “Jaice, why are you all wet?”

  I yawned. “I was hanging out with Brayden. We went down to the lake.”

  “Jaicey, it’s April. What on earth were you kids thinking? You can’t go swimming this time of year. You’ll make yourself sick.”

  I sat up and looked at her. “We dried off.”

  “Look at you. Your hair is a soaking wet mess, and your clothes—” She felt my face, her jaw dropping open. “You’re practically an ice cube. Come with me.”

  I stood up, following her into the bathroom where she grabbed a towel. “Take your clothes off and dry off. I’ll be right back with something warm.” She shut the door behind her.

  I did as I was told, stripping each piece of freezing wet clothing off of me and rubbing my skin with the towel until I was completely dry. She opened the door back up and handed me a pile of clothes. “Put these on when you’re done.” She didn’t look at me. I wasn’t sure if it was out of respect for my privacy, or annoyance.

  When I was dried off and dressed into dry clothing, I opened the door. She was still standing there. “Hand me your clothes so I can throw them into the wash, and then we need to blow dry your hair.”

  I handed over the clothes and my towel and walked back into the bathroom. After a few minutes she was back, blow dryer in hand. She plugged it in and turned me around, pointing the dryer at the back of my head. The warmth felt amazing on my cold body. I shivered as she continued to dry me, finally realizing how cold I was. When she was done with the back she turned me to face her, drying my hair carefully so as not to burn my skin. She ran her fingers through my hair, holding each piece carefully as if it were made of glass. She watched my face as she dried me off, staring at me intently.

  “Your lips are blue. You know you should really be careful down there. The lake can get pretty dangerous at night.”

  “We were fine.” I nodded. “I swear we were fine.”

  She laughed. “You know, your father and I used to go down there.”

  “You did?” I asked, so thrown off by this change in attitude.

  “We sure did. We were your age once too, you know. We used to love going down there. We even took you a few times when you were little. Do you remember?”

  I thought back. I really couldn’t remember.

  “You were real
ly young. I guess you probably wouldn’t remember.” She shook her head.

  “Did you ever go by the old lighthouse?” I asked.

  “Lighthouse?” She paused. “No, I don’t remember any light house. We typically stayed to one particular place that we knew, but I’ve been up and down that shore. I’ve never even seen a lighthouse.”

  I shivered. “That’s where he took me.”

  “Well, it’s been a while since I’ve been there. It may be privately owned too, or I may have just missed it. Who knows? You guys just be careful, okay?”

  I nodded, too tired to protest. She shut the dryer off, running her hands over my hair one last time. “Okay, you’re all good.”

  I yawned, following her back into the living room and laying my head back down on her lap once she’d sat down. I just didn’t want to go to bed yet. She didn’t seem to mind, so I closed my eyes. When I was so close to sleep I could taste it, I felt her hand rubbing my hair, as she had so often when I was growing up. That was the last thing I remembered seconds before sleep found me.

  ***

  4:04, the same time every morning. I shot up off the couch, panting. I looked around the room, unsure of where I was. Mom had stayed there with me all night. She was lying at one end of the couch and I was at the other. At some point during the night she had laid a blanket down over both of us, our feet sticking out at both ends.

  She stirred, still half asleep. “What is it, Jaicey? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing, Momma,” I assured her. “I’m fine. I’m going to go grab something to drink. Go back to sleep.”

  She laid her head back down on command. I got up quietly, careful not to disturb her. I started walking back toward my bedroom, but something made me stop in my parents’ doorway. There lay my dad, his television still on just like always. I remembered crawling into bed with him and my mom when I was little and I’d had a bad dream. I walked into the room quietly and lay down next to him, trying not to wake him. He slept soundly, and for the first time ever I fell back asleep.

  ***

  When I awoke the next morning, I had two lumps of either side of me. I opened my eyes and saw my mom and dad both staring down at me, their faces far too close for comfort.

  “Ahh! The creature lives,” my dad teased. “You were snoring like a horse.”

  I laughed, rubbing sleep from my eyes. “A horse? Dad, horses do not snore.”

  “You were snoring like your dad,” my mom added.

  I snorted, to which my dad objected, “Hey!”

  We laughed, loudly and together for the first time in ages. I think each of us knew that something was different that day. Something felt like the old us.

  “So, who wants IHOP?” Dad asked.

  I thought for a minute, yawning. “I think I have a better idea.”

  ***

  “All right, one whopping heap of Chuck Thomas’s world-famous pancakes coming right up,” Dad said as he placed the plate loaded with pancakes at the table. I looked around at the huge amount of food we’d managed to whip up.

  “Let’s eat,” Mom cheered happily and handed us each a plate.

  We dug in hungrily, each loading up their plate with a mountain of food. “So, Jaicey, how was your night last night?” Dad asked, taking a bite of his eggs.

  I swallowed my toast. “It was really, really great. Actually, it started out kind of terrifying. Brayden had me go on this scavenger hunt down by the lake.”

  “A scavenger hunt? You didn’t tell me that! That sounds exciting,” Mom said happily.

  “It was exciting, but creepy still. It ended up getting dark before I was finished so it was kind of scary, but it ended up being really sweet though.”

  “So, what was the prize?” she asked, her face curious.

  “Oh,” I said. I had been waiting for the moment to tell her. “Well, actually, it ended at the lake. There was this old lighthouse, and he took me over by these rocks where he had a whole bunch of candles set up.”

  “I don’t like the sound of this, Jaicey. You shouldn’t have been wandering around after dark alone. And the candles, that could’ve been really dangerous.”

  “We were really safe, Dad. I promise. Brayden was careful with the candles, and he didn’t mean for me to be alone after dark. Anyway, at first I thought it was just a bunch of candles, and then from up on top of the rocks I could see that he’d spelled out ‘Prom?’ in the sand!”

  Mom nearly spit out her orange juice. “What? He asked you to prom?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Apparently he had this whole thing planned out the whole time. He just really wanted to surprise me.”

  “Jaicey Paige! I can’t believe you waited this long to tell me. I wish you would’ve taken pictures. That sounds so sweet. Oh, but we have to get you a dress. We have so much to do. Prom is in, what, a week?”

  “It’s next Saturday, yeah. I hope we can still find a dress in time.”

  “The boy sure does know how to keep you waiting,” Dad threw in, obviously unhappy about something.

  “Chuck, it’s fine. Why, we can go today if you’d like, Jaice. What does your day look like?”

  “I’m free all day, but don’t you have a closing today?”

  She waved her hand casually. “Oh, Connie can take over today. We’ve got a prom to get ready for! What do you say, Dad? Are you up for a day of shopping?” she asked him excitedly. Her jaw hung open.

  I looked to my dad, his mouth still full. He looked back and forth between us and then swallowed. “Oh, uh. Well, you know shopping isn’t really my thing. I’ll probably just stay here and clean up breakfast. You girls go though. You’ll have a nice time.”

  I smiled. “And by clean up do you mean eat all of the leftovers in sight?”

  “No.” Mom laughed. “He means he doesn’t want to carry our bags all day.”

  “Actually, you’re both wrong.” Dad looked at us seriously before cracking a smile. “I meant both.”

  We laughed. Mom smacked my leg playfully. “Well, come on then. Hurry up and finish your breakfast and then we’ll head out. We have a full day ahead of us.”

  I took another bite of bacon, grinning from ear to ear. My mom was back.

  Chapter 9

  Mom and I shopped nearly all day at every store in our town and three towns over. I knew I’d found the dress the second I laid eyes on it, but Mom insisted that I try it on.

  “You’ll want to make sure it fits you right, Jaicey.”

  I walked into the dressing room and stopped when I saw the mirror. I instinctively turned to leave but stopped myself when I saw my mom’s face. I hadn’t seen her this happy in a very long time. I closed my eyes, forcing myself back into the small room and facing a corner. We had made such progress lately. I wouldn’t be the one to mess that up. I stood in the corner, as far from the mirror as possible, and slipped the dress over my head. I zipped it up on the side and stepped out of the room.

  My mom gasped when she saw me. The red dress wrapped around my chest and stomach tightly, hugging my hips. As it neared my legs it flared out in ripples, stopping just short of my feet. She walked up to me, pulling my hair around to the front. “You look so pretty,” she said simply.

  “So you like it?”

  She nodded. “Jaice, it’s perfect.”

  “Okay,” I said. My mom had been waiting for this moment for so long, and it felt good to finally give it to her. “I’m going to go take it off then.”

  She nodded, not saying anything else. I rushed back to the dressing room, pulling the dress back off, careful not to glance toward the mirror. I hung it back up on the hanger and hurried back out of the room.

  When I walked out, Mom was holding a white sweater. “Do you want this too? To cover up?” She looked at me awkwardly. I took it gratefully.

  “Thank you, Mom.”

  She smiled at me, placing the sweater in the cart. “So, this is the one? You’re sure?”

  I nodded. “I love it. This is the one.”

&n
bsp; “We can try on a few others if you’d like. I’m in no hurry.”

  “This is it,” I swore to her as we made our way to the checkout lane.

  After we paid and were preparing to leave, I heard a voice cry out behind us. “Jenny Thomas! Is that you?”

  We turned around to see Rebecca Anderson hurrying our way, and much to my dismay, Derek was following behind.

  “Rebecca! How nice to see you!” My mother gathered her into a friendly hug.

  “Well, it is good to see you too. It has been too long.” She laid her eyes on me, joy radiating from her face. “Oh my God, Jaicey!” She outstretched her arms and grabbed me quickly. I flinched, then tried to hide it by patting her back.

  She let go of me, obviously embarrassed, her gaze flicking toward Mom’s for a second. “It is so good to see you, sweetheart. Oh, we’ve missed having you around. How are you?”

  “I’m good, Mrs. Anderson, thank you. How are you?” Smile.

  “Oh, what’s this Mrs. Anderson nonsense? You can still call me Rebecca. I know you and Derek aren’t together anymore, sweetheart, but that doesn’t mean you’re any less of the family than you were before.”

  Derek looked at me warmly, a small, sad smile crossing his face. “It’s nice to see you, Jaicey. Jenny.”

  My mom wrapped her arms around Derek, hugging him for a little too long. She whispered something in his ear, though I couldn’t be sure what it was.

  “How’s your father doing? I heard he was in the hospital,” Mom addressed Mrs. Anders—I mean, Rebecca.

  “Oh, he’s all right, thanks for asking. Just a minor fall. Ever since Mom passed last year his health hasn’t been the best. Bless his heart.”

  “We’ve been thinking about him. I hope you’ll tell him I said hello.”

  “Of course.” She smiled. “It was just so good to see you. I know Derek feels the same way.”

  I nodded, feeling increasingly uncomfortable. I watched Derek lay eyes on my dress. “Is that for prom?” he asked cautiously.