The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting Page A

notice the irritation in her voice before.
    â€œSo, did you?”
    He shrugged. “I tried to, but I don’t think she was really paying attention. I think she just wanted someone to give her a ride.”
    Not someone, Violet thought to herself. You . She wanted you to give her a ride. Sometimes she wondered if he was really that dense, or if he just wasn’t interested in returning the girls’ attention. But when she saw the clueless look on his face, she realized that it had to be the former. He was such a guy .
    She looked around her then and realized that she’d been abandoned by her friends while she’d been sleeping. “Where’d Chelsea go?” she asked.
    â€œI saw her taking off on one of the Wave Runners with Jules. So, you wanna go with me?”
    Violet was reluctant to take off her shorts in front of everyone and expose her knees like a clumsy little girl, but she did want to go out on the Wave Runner with him. She weighed the option of staying where she was, covered up from her hips to her knees in the baggy gym shorts, or cutting a vicious path through the water sitting atop the powerful watercraft in search of a wave to jump.
    Her daredevil side won out. “I’ll go, but I get to drive,” she insisted with a grin.
    Jay didn’t argue. He never did; he was too easygoing to care whether he was the driver or the passenger.
    On the dock, Violet self-consciously dropped the shorts, baring her knees and the swimsuit beneath. She looked around to see if anyone was staring, but no one seemed to notice. She plucked up a life vest and buckled herself into it before straddling the Wave Runner’s seat. Jay followed right behind and casually gripped her hips as she started the engine and attached the coiled key fob to her life jacket, a safety measure that would cut the engine if the driver was thrown from the vehicle.
    She leaned forward and began easing the watercraft through the cove, watching cautiously for other vehicles or for people who might have wandered too far from the water’s edge. But once she reached the end of the cove and passed the buoys that signaled the end of the five-mile-an-hour speed limit, she grabbed the handle that controlled the gas and she pulled it, gunning the Wave Runner into high speed. She leaned farther forward and let the wind cool her face. For the first time in weeks, since well before school had started, she wasno longer aware of Jay’s proximity to her. He became any other passenger on the back of the vehicle as she got lost in the punching accelerations over the short, choppy waves.
    They bounced across the top of the water, sometimes jumping high, reveling in those moments when they caught a larger wave and felt the Wave Runner surge beneath them as it hopped above the water, catching air.
    Violet felt so free. She could hear Jay laughing from behind her as he held on tight. She spun the craft first sharply to the right and then quickly to the left. He knew she was trying to buck him free, testing him to see how long he could hold on to her before being tossed into the frigid water of the lake as she maneuvered the miniature speedboat back and forth. But he was stronger now than ever before, and his reflexes were sharper. He seemed to know which way she was going to go even before she did.
    After a while, Violet slowed down near a floating dock in the lake and parked the Wave Runner.
    â€œDo you want to jump in?” she asked as she pulled the key from the ignition without waiting for an answer, making it more of a statement than a question.
    Jay stood up and hopped from the Wave Runner onto the dock. Violet joined him and instead of diving into the water, she sat down and dangled her feet in.
    â€œIt’s quiet here,” he commented absently. He sat down beside her.
    â€œMm-hmm,” she sighed, kicking her feet and splashing up water.
    â€œHow are your knees?” He reached out and brushed hisfingers