“Yes,” he answers plainly. “There are those who can.”
That grabs my attention. “So you believe it’s possible?”
“Miss Stella.” He gives me his teacher-to-pupil stare. “It boils down to choice.”
Jonah
With her eyes closed and knees bent, Stella sunbathes on the bench that faces the memorial pool. She changed from the jeans and T-shirt she wore at school to her cutoffs and blue tank. I sit on the concrete with my back against the bench and watch the koi swim in the water.
Except for the wind blowing through the trees and the trickle of the fountain in the middle of the raised water feature, it’s been silent. That would include both Stella and me. We’ve been here for the past hour and the only words that have been said were my “Hi” and her “Come on.”
“It’s hot,” I say, breaking the silence. Blistering. Heat index has to be over a hundred. Even though I switched to a pair of athletic shorts, my skin threatens to melt off my body.
Stella inhales through her nose as if I woke her from a dream, opens her eyes and slowly turns her head to look at me. I’m drawn in by those gray eyes. They’re beautiful, but they appear older than she is. As if she’s seen too much. Knows too much. If she hangs at a place like this, I guess she does. “Then let’s go swimming.”
Okay. “Where?”
“Here,” she responds in a duh voice. I lean to the side to allow Stella to swing her legs to the ground. She carefully slips off her canvas sneakers and I grin when I
notice the red-painted toenails.
“You are such a girl,” I say.
She wiggles them and I’m captivated by her smile. “I know. It’s a luxury, isn’t it? Painted toes. But I like how it makes me feel.”
Never thought of it as a luxury. Mom visits the spa for her nails and sometimes she does it herself. How much can a bottle of nail polish cost? A dollar? Two? But I like her smile so I ignore those questions. “How does it make you feel?”
Who’d ever guess a cocked eyebrow could be so seductive? “Special.”
With that, she dashes off the bench and splashes into the pool. A few drops hit me and Stella echoes my own thoughts. “Crap, it’s cold.”
She folds her arms close to her chest and I swear goose bumps rise on her skin. “Are you waiting for an engraved invitation?”
I scan the area and except for the old man I spotted Stella with earlier, there’s no one around. No one. Never realized how desolate a cemetery is. “What if they catch us?”
“Who’s ‘they?’”
Good question. “The cemetery owners.”
Stella becomes thoughtful, her face pensive. “You know, I never thought about the fact that someone owns this place. It seemed to belong to the dead people.” She pulls out of serious mode. “Okay, so the mysterious ‘they’ show and we’re skinny-dipping in the koi pond. Let’s devise a plan for what we do.”
My eyes snap straight to hers. Good God, Stella naked. I bet that would be a sight for a weary soul, but I’m not going there. Stella plays with the hem of her tank and does this shimmy shake with her hips that becomes my sole focus.
I hear her giggle and it’s a beautiful sound. She’s messing with me and I’m falling for it. Maybe we could skinny-dip. Not all the way. Not here. Maybe someplace else. Someplace more secluded.
“Thinking about it, aren’t you?” she says.
She caught me. “No skinny-dipping.”
Stella pouts her bottom lip and I pop my neck to the side. Dang it, she’s sexy.
“Do you live your entire life so seriously?” she taunts.
“No.”
“Then frolic with me and the fishes.”
“No.”