Still Waters Read Online Free PDF Page A

already over the dunes and halfway
to the shoreline. It’s not hard to catch him up. He may have appealed to my
competitive streak by saying he’d race me, but I know he’s deliberately taking
his time so that we can run together. We fall into a steady rhythm that’s
become second nature after years of training together. We don’t talk when we
run, which is just how I like it. I speed up a little, pushing myself, and next
to me Jake matches my stride. Down the beach, I see a girl in tight jeans and a
striped t-shirt bending down to look at something in the water. A second later
she reaches down and digs in the sand a little before bringing a shell up to
her face. I’m still a good distance away, but I can see her smile from here.
It’s one of those smiles that starts at her mouth and transforms her whole
face. We get a little closer and the girl turns around and looks down the
beach, to The Point. A strand of dark curly hair escapes her ponytail and
dances around her head in the wind. Shit. I slow my pace and yell over at Jake.
He grins like a lunatic then turns around and runs back up the beach.
    I
slow to a walk and try to catch my breath. Either I was running harder than I
thought I was, or I’m more jetlagged than usual. Hartley glances at me and her
eyes widen a little. She turns around and looks over her shoulder like she
expects me to be looking for someone else. It’s both the sweetest and saddest
gesture, and it makes me want to kiss her, just so she knows that I’m only
looking for her. This girl really has no idea how beautiful she is.
    “Hi,”
I say when I’m close enough for her to hear me over the ocean.
    She
doesn’t say anything, and her face is hard and expressionless. Ok. I deserve
that.
    “We
met at The Sea Shack yesterday?” I say, like some kind of idiot. She rolls her
eyes slightly and crosses her arms across her chest.
    “Listen,
I’m sorry about the way I acted,” I try again. “I just flew in, and I hadn’t
slept for two days, and I guess I was acting like a bit of an asshole because I
had to do something that I didn’t want to do.”
    She
raises her eyebrows at that, and her face softens a little.
    “What
did you have to do?” she asks. Her voice is soft and husky, but it still has a
bit of an edge to it.
    I
look out to the waves and take a breath. If I tell her where I was yesterday,
it’s only going to invite questions that I’m in no mood to answer. I look back
at her and try on one of my many fake smiles.
    “Oh
you know, just some errands. Boring stuff.”
    She
knows I’m lying. She looks at me for a moment, deciding whether to call me on
it, then sighs and turns to leave.
    “Hey!”
I call out to stop her from going. “We didn’t really get introduced properly
earlier. I’m Crew Sullivan.” I hold out a hand, and she looks at it for a
second, narrowing her eyes. Finally, she steps forward and puts her hand into
mine. It should be cold from digging around in the wet sand, but somehow all I
can feel is fire.
    “I’m
Hartley,” she says, looking up into my face. She looks away for a second,
biting her lip and then returns to meet my eyes. “Hartley Jones.”
    “Nice
to meet you, Hartley Jones,” I say, smiling for real this time.
    She
looks down and shakes my hand.

Chapter
Seven
    Hartley

 
    “Want
to go for a walk?” I say much more confidently than I feel. I take my hand out
of his and look up the beach to The Point. Crew’s mouth twitches as if he's
fighting not to smile.
    “Sure.”
    We
turn around and walk side by side. He pulls his t-shirt out from where it was
tucked into the back of his shorts and pulls it over his head.
    “So,
kid,” he says, looking up the beach. “Are you in town on business or pleasure?”
    I
stiffen a bit at being called ‘kid’ again, and he looks down at me, noticing
the change.
    “It's
ok,” I say quickly, “it's just that in my old job I used to get hassled a bit
about my age.”
    I
look over at him and see him