Saving You by Jessie Evans Page B

to get out of the water and seek shelter. If she stayed
in the water too long, she could risk suffering from exposure,
despite the fact that it was seventy-five degrees outside.
    As the outboard motor rumbled to life and
Ben guided the small craft out into the water, Mick sent out a
prayer that they would find Faith before it was too late.
     

Chapter Seven
    Brandon opened his eyes to find a
heart-shaped face dominated by big brown eyes staring down at him,
and smiled.
    So it hadn’t been a dream after all.
    “ Good morning,” he
whispered, his voice rough with sleep. “Did you sleep
okay?”
    Lucy nodded, the hair sticking out around
her head bobbing softly. She looked like a wild thing who’d been
raised by wolves, or an elf escaped from one of those fantasy
movies his brother, Kurt, used to watch when he and Brandon were
kids.
    Growing up, Kurt had loved anything with an
orc, dragon, or elf in it, and spent most of his time with his nose
in a book, or online playing World of Warcraft. He’d been a nerdy
kid—not a jock like Brandon—but he’d never seemed particularly
unhappy. He was simply quiet, the kind of person who kept their
thoughts to themselves and enjoyed the company of imaginary people
more than real ones.
    But in high school, things had changed. Some
guys in his gym class had started bullying Kurt, calling him a fag
and making his life miserable. For the first time, Brandon hadn’t
been there to protect his big brother. They were only fourteen
months apart, but that meant Kurt had gone on to ninth grade alone,
leaving Brandon behind in middle school for one more year.
    After his mom found Kurt in the garage,
Brandon had wondered if things would have been different if he’d
been at school to defend Kurt, to see how bad things were getting
and put a stop to it before it was too late. For a long time, he’d
blamed himself for his brother’s suicide. But finally, with time,
he’d been able to forgive himself, and promised to do whatever he
could to keep what happened to Kurt from happening to anyone
else.
    That was part of the reason he’d let Lucy
come home with him last night. He might not be sure he believed in
premonitions and sixth senses, but he could tell she was genuinely
worried about him and wanted to keep him safe, and that was a
feeling he could empathize with.
    Besides, waking up to a beautiful girl—even
if she’d slept in his bed, while he couched it in the living
room—wasn’t something Brandon was going to complain about. Not in
the least.
    “ So I guess I’m still
alive,” he said, stretching his arms over his head, wincing at the
crick in his lower back. The couch was fine for a night, but if
Lucy insisted on keeping vigil tonight, Brandon might have to blow
up an air mattress.
    “ You are,” Lucy said, with
a confused shake of her head.
    “ Don’t look so
disappointed.” Brandon smiled.
    Lucy’s mouth curved before she pulled her
full bottom lip between her teeth. “I’m not disappointed, just
confused. I really thought…” She trailed off with a shrug. “Maybe I
read the energy wrong. There were a lot of people around last
night, and I am out of practice. Or it could be that it hasn’t
happened yet.” She frowned, her thin brows drawing together as she
shook her head. “But I’m not getting any negative energy from you
this morning.”
    Brandon sat up, swinging his feet down to
the floor. Lucy was sitting cross-legged on the leather-covered
coffee table Brandon had inherited from his parents when they moved
to South Carolina. They’d left as soon as Brandon graduated from
the academy and joined the Summerville Fire Department, past ready
to escape the house where they’d lost their oldest son. They hardly
ever came back to Summerville anymore, preferring to pay to fly
Brandon up for visits on holidays and during his vacation time.
    Brandon had grown accustomed to walking
softly around people years ago. After Kurt’s death, his parents
hadn’t healed so