“No shit,” Jennilynn agreed. “Sharing a room totally sucks.”
Alicia laughed and shoved Jennilynn’s tube with her toes, but her sister was too fast and grabbed Alicia’s ankle so she wouldn’t tip. Also, so the force of Alicia’s shove didn’t force them apart. She dug her nails in a little too deep, though.
“Ouch!”
“Sorry.” Jennilynn didn’t sound sorry at all, but then she hardly ever did.
They floated in silence for a few minutes. Alicia thought to put on more sunscreen so she wouldn’t burn, but that would have meant paddling back to the rocky shore, securing her raft, hauling her ass up the steep slope and onto the ledge . . . it was a lot of effort. Maybe she would tan, she thought, drifting, drifting . . .
“I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up,” Jennilynn said.
Alicia didn’t open her eyes. “Who says you have to?”
“Everyone has to decide at some point, Allie. You can’t just screw around forever. You have to decide.”
“But not right now.” Alicia wasn’t sleeping, not really. Dozing a little. Aware of the hot sun, the cold water, and her sister’s voice. “It’s not like the world will end if you don’t.”
“Easy for you to say. Nobody’s counting on you to make them proud.”
Alicia’s eyes opened at that as her heart clenched like a fist. The words hadn’t sounded hateful, only resigned, but they cut deep. She couldn’t even dispute them, because they both knew it was the truth.
The sudden splash swamped them both, nearly tipping them. Nikolai had swung out on the rope and dive-bombed them. Shrieking, both girls kicked at him as he tried to swim closer. Laughing, Nikolai shook his dark hair as he treaded water.
“Nice going, jerk!” Alicia said as he splashed at her, but she couldn’t be too angry. It was payback, after all.
“Bitch,” Nikolai said around a long spurt of water.
Jennilynn laughed, but Alicia flipped him the bird. For a second he made as though he was going to swim closer and tip her off the raft; she squealed and kicked at him. He gave up too easily. That was suspicious. He would finish his revenge soon, but she didn’t know when . . . and her skin crawled with delicious anticipation.
“He must have a big dick,” Jenni said suddenly.
Alicia choked a little. “What? Who? Nikolai? Ew, Jennilynn!”
“No, not Niko. Gawd, Allie, don’t be stupid.” Jennilynn used her hands to paddle in the water, turning her in the tube so she could get her head closer to her sister’s. “I meant Barry.”
How could her sister even think such a thing, much less say it out loud? “Gross, Jenni.”
“I bet they screw like rabbits,” Jennilynn said in a tone of secret glee.
There was something dark in her voice. Something secret and strange, and Alicia didn’t like it. She grimaced. “Yuck.”
Jennilynn spun, kicking gently. “I bet they do. I bet they do it every night. They’re newlyweds, right? Isn’t that what they do? I’m going to ask Ilya if he ever hears them. You know his room is right next to theirs.”
“Jenni, no. That’s . . .” There was something so off about that, so disturbing, that she couldn’t even finish her thought out loud.
Laughing, Jennilynn started to float away, and although Alicia reached for her, she was too far to grab. That was when Nikolai jumped off the rope swing again, this time landing much closer to them. The water swelled, tossing Alicia off the raft. She took in a huge gulp of water and flailed, forcing her way to the surface, where she choked and splashed. Blinded by the water in her eyes, her hair in her face, she grabbed for her raft, for anything, but found only more cold water. She went under again.
And again.
There, glittering in the water, was something orange. Fins tipped with black. It fluttered around her face, and she screamed, taking in water.
Strong hands grabbed her around the waist and pulled her upward. They were on the shore in a minute or so after that. Alicia heaved up a gush of water but managed not to puke. She swung and punched Nikolai just below the eye, making him fall back.
“Where’s Jenni?” She demanded.
“I’m right here. Hey. It’s okay. You’re okay, right?” Jennilynn gave Nikolai a worried look.
Alicia fell back onto the dirt and weeds, ignoring how they poked into her. She closed her eyes, letting her sister and Nikolai worry. Screw them both, but especially Nikolai for overturning the raft and scaring her so bad. But it wasn’t the way the water closed over her head that lingered, or the chill of it that made her shake, and it wasn’t the glimpse of that carnival goldfish that somehow was still alive. It was how she’d reached for her sister and couldn’t find her; it was thinking Jennilynn had also gone under but hadn’t come up.
“I’m sorry, Allie.” Nikolai sounded anxious. “I was just getting you back for scaring me the other night. Hey, Allie, look at me. I’m sorry.”
His apology didn’t stop her from being pissed off, even if it sounded sincere. She sat. “You’re such a giant asshole, Nikolai!”
“I said I was sorry.” He grinned, knowing that her anger meant she was all right. That it would be her turn next to get back at him.
Because that was how it worked with all of them. Playing pranks on one another. Giving one another a hard time. Yet watching her sister climb the slope toward the rocks above where she would lay out on her towel and bake in the late summer sun, all Alicia could think of was how it felt in those few terrifying moments to think she was so alone, and how it had been Nikolai who’d saved her.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ilya stretched the corner of a flowered sheet from one end of the hall mirror to the other and secured it with blue painter’s tape until it completely covered the glass. An Internet search had told him that was the tradition during shiva, along with tearing a hole in his sleeve. Where his mother had gotten the crazy idea that Babulya would’ve wanted this sort of honor, Ilya had no idea, but it was typical of her. If Galina thought she was going to one-up him in the grieving department, though, she was going to be disappointed. She didn’t get to come back around and act like she was better than any of them. Not better than he was.
“Hey.”
Ilya jumped, turning to see Theresa in the kitchen doorway. She still wore her coat, though she was tugging off the silky scarf around her throat. She hung her shoulder bag on the back of one of the kitchen chairs.
Ilya straightened, self-conscious suddenly that he hadn’t showered in the past three days. Or shaved. He ran a hand over his chin, wincing at the scratch, wondering why in the hell it mattered if he looked like he’d been sleeping under a bridge. This was Theresa, not a woman he had to impress or anything. Yet at the way she wrinkled her nose, he wished he’d taken the time to clean up.
“You’re back?” he asked instead.