AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So, you gonna show up tonight for karaoke?” Mario, the bartender, asks me as he makes my drinks.
“I don’t think so.” I laugh. “Well, maybe I’ll do a duet.” I think Lochlan would simply pass away with happiness if we did karaoke together.
Gross, are we going to be that couple? All cheesiness, all the time. I can definitely see Lochlan running away with the idea—and I didn’t help things by calling him my sun. As I grab the drinks, I make a mental note to explicitly remind him that he can’t start putting His and Hers on every household item, and I will never wear matching Christmas sweaters.
I’m surprised to find that Theo is the only one sitting at our table. “Hey, where’d the other two go?” I ask, setting the glasses down.
“They headed down the beach a minute ago.” He nods down the shore then eyes Juliette’s fresh drink. He gives me a sly grin before stealing a sip. “Making sure it’s not poisoned or anything.”
I chuckle. “How very gallant of you.”
After a few minutes of talking to Theo about how he got into performing, one of his friends joins us. I excuse myself and go to the beach. As I walk along the row of cabanas, I scan the ground for sand dollars. Nana has a whole collection of them. I hope I can bring some back without them breaking.
By the time I reach the last cabanas, I still haven’t found Lochlan and Juliette. Theo must have mixed up which direction they went. I’m about to head back when I hear shouting coming from up ahead. I can’t make out the words, but I know without a doubt it’s Lochlan’s voice.1
I run toward the shack that houses all the scuba and snorkeling gear and realize the noise is coming from inside.
My heart thunders as I reach for the door. I hear a gut-rattling sound come from Lochlan just as I’m swinging it open. Juliette’s face whips toward me, and my stomach drops like a thousand pounds of lead. Her eyes are harried and wide. Lochlan is doubled over her outstretched fist, red blooming on his white shirt.
Horror doesn’t seep into my bones or come over me like a cloud. It hits me like a goddamn avalanche, utterly immobilizing me.
There’s fear in her face as she withdraws the blade with a sickening squelch. I scream as she buries it in his abdomen again. As if frozen, my scream shatters the ice holding me prisoner.
I move without thinking. My body reacts twice as fast as my mind can process. Picking up a scuba tank, I swing it as hard as I can at Juliette. She releases the knife as she’s knocked out cold, crumbling to the floor like a rag doll.
Lochlan staggers back, his hands clutching the handle protruding from him. I drop the tank and run to him, wailing his name. I step barefoot in the small puddles of his blood, the wetness on my sole ripping my heart in two.
I’m able to get to him right before he collapses, catching him and easing him down to sit against a wall.
“Lochlan, oh my god, Lochlan,” I sob, ripping off my shirt and pressing it to the open wound. I make sure he’s steady against the wall before shimmying off my shorts to wrap around the blade still in him.
His eyelids are heavy as he looks at me in only my bikini. “Now’s really not the time, a réalta.” He chuckles weakly, and god, I could just slap him.
“If you die while making a joke about sex, I’m putting it on your tombstone so think carefully before doing it again.” But it’s also so painfully, classically him that I sob harder.
I try to see clearly enough through my tears to send off a 911 message to resort security, then I go back to using both hands to hold pressure against his wounds.
With a pained groan, he lifts his hand to my chin, turning my face to his. He gives me a lopsided smile and strokes his thumb softly against my jaw. His eyes are filled with the purest blue, so stunning it makes my heart feel jagged and torn.
“I don’t plan on going anywhere, but if I do—”
Unable to bear the thought, I interrupt him with a bumbling mess of words. “No—shut—just—shut up.”
“Okay.” He smirks, though the movement is heavy and slow, like it takes great strength. “Hypothetically, if I were to die . . .” He gasps for air, and my heart squeezes, wishing I could give him mine. “I won’t . . . Death can’t take me before I p-prove my love to you—”
“You never had to prove anything.” A tear trickles down my nose as I lean forward to press my forehead against his. “I just had to see what was right in front of me.”
His voice is growing weaker, his skin paler. I can feel his blood now seeping through the bunched-up material I have pressed against him. “So, hypothetically, just know that . . . that I’ll go a happy man because . . . because you love me, Stella M . . .” His eyelids start fluttering and my chest feels like it’s collapsing, my lungs barely able to expand.
“I love you, Lochlan. I do. I love you so fucking much.”
The faintest curl of his lips is all I have to know he heard me before his eyes shut.
My eyes sting like I haven’t blinked in days. Only half the irritation is from crying; the other half can be blamed on these godforsaken fluorescent lights as I pace in the hospital hallways, waiting for Juliette’s nurse to leave her room.
Juliette and Lochlan were helicoptered off Summerland three hours ago. I rode with Lochlan, and he was immediately rushed to the OR, so I am still completely in the dark on what the fuck happened.
I know blood can’t actually boil, but I’m starting to question that fact. There is nothing else that can describe the way I feel right now. All I want are answers, and all I have are questions.
