KIM
The swim with Devlin was cleansing. When we were relaxed around each other it felt like we were old friends. That’s how it felt being with the SWS. The girls and I could go months without meeting up—once we even went almost a year—but then the second we were back together, it was like no time had passed. With Devlin too it was as though our souls were old friends. Only my evolving desire for him felt new.
The shower that followed our swim melted my bones. I fell into bed in a pair of his sweatpants and the T-shirt I’d worn the night before. I was just on that happy verge of sleep when a bang rattled the house. It cracked through the air out of nowhere.
My eyes shot open with my heart pounding in my ears. My arms gripped the comforter as though they could keep me from whatever danger approached. My sleep-addled brain couldn’t comprehend the sound until a second later when the room lit up as lightning flashed, followed immediately by a clap of thunder that rattled the windows.
I flipped over to scream in the pillow, kicking my legs. I was so tired. My body was desperate for sleep but—
CRASH!
It wasn’t that the thunder scared me. It just stirred up memories from that final night at camp. Normally, I’d just crank up the music or put on headphones. But I didn’t have my headphones.
A second later, I chucked off the blankets and ran into the hall. The lights flickered with the next flash and crash. I yelped and gripped the wall. I wasn’t scared. It had startled me. There was a difference. This was fine. I was totally fine. I might just wander the house to see if Devlin was awake or go to the music room and play. Not that I needed company but—
Another flash and rattling boom.
“Eep!” I quickened my pace. The living room was the central point of the house. I’d make my way there and decide what to do next. Where did Devlin sleep? Not that I was going to bother him; I just wanted to make sure he was around.
He had to have a bedroom. An image of him hanging upside down like a bat in his music room flashed through my eyes. But no, if anything, he probably didn’t sleep. He probably just hunched over his giant piano composing brilliant music while the rest of us mere mortals slept.
The living room was cold and dark. The fireplace sat empty. The whole room loomed large in the dark. Thankfully, his fancy house was full of motion detecting lights. The first few scared me but after feeling my way into a couple rooms the automatic lights brought me comfort. If I could find the remote for the sound system, I’d play some loud music and wait for the storm to blow over. It wouldn’t be like I was alone at all.
Despite the lights coming on and the sound of crashing rain against the windows, I was still very aware that this was a huge house. Somebody else could be living here, and I wouldn’t know. Devlin had to have people who cleaned and cooked while he locked himself away for hours at a time. What if he had a humpbacked assistant that would come lurking around a corner, dragging a leg behind him?
Chills wracked my body. Seriously, where the cluck was this man’s room?
I hated how scared I felt. I hated that I was basically a little child. I hated that I wished more than anything I was home where I could knock on my parent’s bedroom door. I was an adult, for crying out loud. An adult who was so sick and tired of being alone.
A loud thump somewhere behind me injected me with adrenaline. The lights flickered again. Back-up generator. It would be fine. I wouldn’t be in the dark. I made my way back to the fireplace and picked up a fire poker. Gretchen had instilled the comfort of wielding heavy objects in me.
Another thump and soft shuffles.
“Oh my God,” I whispered.
My fear ratcheted up to brain-clogging hysteria.
Something was getting nearer. I backed up until I was tucked behind the corner of a long hallway. Only one way in. Along with a wicked sense of curiosity, I had been cursed with an overactive imagination, and now all I could picture was a serial killer that had been hiding in the house for months headed toward me with murder on their mind.
I gripped the poker tighter, ready to swing. My body rocked forward, ears pricked and desperate to catch the serial killer’s arrival.
More footsteps. I held my breath. The element of surprise was all I had on my side now. When the stranger was right upon me, I took a deep breath in. I jumped out and bellowed like I was facing off a mountain lion, the poker straight out in front of me.
“ROAR!” I yelled.
I wasn’t sure actually saying the word roar counted, but it got the job done. My assailant jumped a foot in the air away from me.
“Ah!” Devlin screamed.
I screamed.
We both screamed … but there was no ice cream. We took each other in. He squinted at me with one eye closed, and his T-shirt was on inside out and backwards like he’d gotten dressed in the dark. He wasn’t wearing pants. Boxer shorts, yes, but that was it. He was practically Porky-pigging it.
The lights were on. I wasn’t hiding. We made eye contact. He had to know it was me.
But surprising us both, a full second later, he screamed again.
It was not a manly shout. It was a high-pitched scream that some might say resembled that of a little girl. It’s me. I am some. I would say that.
I dropped the poker out of pure shock at his terror. As my heart slowed down, a smile grew. Laughter bubbled up from deep in my chest.
Devlin clutched a hand to his chest, his eyes wide. Backing into the wall behind him, he bumped into a short ornamental table, jostling a potted plant and knocking a small figurine over. Startled, Devlin yelped in fright and jerked away.
At this point, my arms were wrapped tight around my middle. The laughter came so hard, I was silent.
“Kim?” His voice was ragged and sleepy. “What’s going on?” After what felt like years of blinking at me while I laughed my face off, he finally seemed to fully register it was me. I couldn’t handle it. He was so dopey. Not at all the broody Devil of the Symphony now.
I shook with silent laughter. I just couldn’t stop hearing his girly little scream on a loop in my head.
“Are you—are you laughing at me?” he asked.
“Your scream—” I gasped out.
“You scared me.” He scratched his head, drowsy with sleep.
“Yeah, but then you screamed again.” My voice went up as I spoke. “Even after you saw it was me,” I gasped out, still fighting the giggles.
“I was confused—” he said.
“Like a Disney Princess.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “That’s sexist.”
I sobered long enough to say, “You’re right.” I nodded seriously. Then on a tight, controlled breath I added, “Disney princesses are made of tougher stuff these days.”
I breathed deep. No more laughing.
“Okay. Okay. I was sound asleep. I’m so glad you find this hilarious.” His voice was fake-stern but his eyes softened with amusement.
“And again when—when you hit the table. Don’t forget about that. You yelped!”
His voice took on a wry, self-deprecating tone. “Well. You can never trust these tables. They jump out of nowhere.”
That was it. I was lost to another fit. My back slid down the wall until I rested my head on my knees. The post-terror adrenaline and Devlin’s unexpected reaction had made me a little loopy. Every time I thought I had my laughter under control, I’d picture his oh-so-manly jump and the cycle just started again. My cheeks hurt from so much smiling.
Devlin chuckled a little as he shook his head. He slid down the opposite wall until we were facing each other in the hall. One lone light shone above us.
“I’m not used to company,” he said.
My face muscles twitched with the effort of composure. Finally, I collected myself enough to breathe deeply and wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“I’m never going to forget that for as long as I live,” I vowed.
“I’m here to entertain.” He had his back to the wall, one leg bent to his chest, the other leg sprawled out in front. He watched me like he thought I was the funny one. He looked half-asleep and wholly adorable. “If you ever tell anybody I screamed like that, they’ll never find your body,” he said, his tone dead serious.
“Five minutes ago, that might have scared me.” I grinned across the short distance between us. “But that was before I heard you yelp.”
He shook his head and then rested it back against the wall. The action jostled the small statue on the table and it fell over the edge, hitting his leg.
He jumped again and without a sound, clutched his hand to his chest. He glared at me, his face braced for my reaction.
I was lost to another fit of laughter.