I regarded her. "Yes, Mom." But I want more.
She nodded as if she'd known what my answer would be. "Then you have Hector to thank for that."
"I have you to thank for that."
My mom looked like she was about to say something more, when my dad and Maya came laughing into the room from the bedroom where they had been doing their Holy Book reading, their matching red hair glinting in the sunshine coming through the kitchen window. My mom had red hair, too. My mom said I had gotten my dark coloring from the "black Irish" in our genes.
My dad sat Maya down on the chair directly beside me and I put my arm around her small, rounded shoulders, tickling her ribs with my other hand. Maya was nineteen now, but she still had the mind of a child—a sweet, angelic child.
She laughed out and it ended in a coughing fit. She had had this same cough for days and days now and I was a little worried about her. When she finally cleared her throat, she said, "Calder. Take me out in the rain on a piggyback! I want to get wet!"
I laughed down at her, thinking that she needed to stay right here in this cabin, probably under a warm blanket. "Can't. Know why?"
She looked at me and shook her head, her eyes curious.
I leaned over and whispered in her ear. "You know how I bring you sugar cubes sometimes?" I leaned back up and put my finger over my mouth to indicate it was our secret. I glanced at my dad and mom and they were talking in hushed tones about what other canning needed to get done. Truly, it wasn't even our work, but in the rain, we all needed to occupy ourselves, so we all helped out with whatever inside work there was.
"Well, you're just as sweet as those sugar cubes. You get sweeter every day. And if I bring you out in the rain, you'll melt away, just like sugar."
Her eyes widened, but then she laughed. "That's not true!"
I winked. "Well, the part about you being as sweet as sugar is. Come on though, if you bundle up, we can sit under the porch and I'll draw you something in the dirt."
"Do I get to guess what it is?" She clapped.
"Yup. I won't tell you."
I helped her put on a sweater and a pair of warm socks, and then we sat under the roof overhang as I drew small pictures in the dirt and she guessed what they were.
When I looked up toward Eden's room, I saw her outline in the window. And I swore that despite the distance and the rain, for a brief second, our eyes met.
**********
The rain stopped the next day. I bounded down the trail, even faster than I usually went, my calf muscles burning with the exertion. I had a strange feeling I couldn't even explain swirling through me from not seeing Eden these past few days. Was it protectiveness? Maybe. I wanted to know she was okay. I wanted to know she was being cared for, happy. Those feelings were friendly, right? Only, I had never felt anything remotely similar for Xander. I pushed that aside.
When I squeezed through the rocks, at first I didn't think she was there. Disappointment, swift and strong, hit me. But then her head surfaced from the spring and she took in a big breath of air.
She caught sight of me and grinned.
"What are you doing?"
"Swimming," she answered, smiling happily.
I walked closer until I was just at the edge of the spring.
"Well yes, I can see that. Why exactly?"
She squinted at me, sunlight hitting her face, making the water droplets on her skin sparkle and dance. Her hair, although wet, was still golden and it cast a halo around her delicately beautiful face. She looked like an angel or a mermaid—a magical, mythical creature. I took a mental photo of her, meaning to draw her later, just like that.
"Well, I've decided this," she waved her hand around, indicating our spring and the surrounding rocks, "is my school. And I mean to learn every little thing I can while I'm here. I mean to soak up every piece of knowledge possible. And I didn't know how to swim. And now I do. Sort of."
I raised an eyebrow. "You taught yourself to swim in the last," I looked up at the sky to see how far past noon it was, when I assumed she'd arrived, "fifteen minutes?"
She nodded, leaning down and taking some water in her mouth and then spitting it out. Something about that had my body stirring in ways that, again, didn't feel friendly.
"Do you know how to swim?" she asked.
I nodded, willing my body to cooperate. "Yeah. I bathe in the river. Us worker kids have been swimming since we were young."
She paused, staring at me for a second and then nodded. "Come on in then. The water's nice." It was almost winter, but the temperature was still in the seventies. I'd bet it did feel nice.
I hesitated. This felt dangerous in ways that had nothing to do with drowning or stubbing my toe on a rock under the water. Nonetheless, I took off my shirt and waded into the water in my pants. I moved to the other side of the spring and regarded Eden. I noticed she was fully submerged, but she was still wearing her long, modest dress. Although it would be less modest now that it would be sticking to her skin. Lust spiked through my body, leaving a fierce longing in its wake.