Page 10 of Run the Play
“Not so bad, huh?” He smiles down at me.
“Not so bad,” I repeat. I can’t believe I’m conquering one of my biggest fears. It’s not so bad when I’m in his arms.
“You want to get down?” he asks.
“No. No, don’t put me down.” I cling tighter to him, and he nods.
“Okay. Do you want to get on my back? Reposition on my front?”
“I just—I don’t know.” My voice wobbles.
“Hey, it’s okay,” he soothes. “We can stand just like this. Tell me what you want and need, and I’ll make it happen.”
“I need not to be eaten by a shark.”
“No shark food. Got it.” He nods.
“Landry.” I laugh, slapping at his bare chest. “Not funny.”
“Come on, it’s a little funny,” he says, dipping me into the water.
I shriek and tighten my already steady grip on him. No way am I letting him put me down in this water.
“We’re not ten feet from shore, Rowan. You’re okay,” he says, his voice soothing.
A massive gush of water splashes into us. At first, I start to panic, thinking that it’s a wave and we’re going to get sucked out even farther into the abyss, but when I hear laughter, I look over to find Corie grinning. She’s on Knox’s shoulders and smiling like she just won a billion-dollar lottery.
“Sorry, not sorry.” She shrugs.
“Not cool, Beckett!” I yell at her.
“Aw, I’m a Beckett now.” She gets this dopey look on her face, bends over, and somehow manages to kiss Knox on the lips.
“Still a Reynolds,” Landry grumbles under his breath.
“And she’s still your sister. Nothing will ever change that,” I tell him, keeping my voice low so he’s the only one who can hear me.
He nods. “She’s the only family I’ve got. Blood family, that is.”
“And she still is. No matter what.” I don’t know why I feel like I need to reassure him. I guess because I can hear the anguish in his voice. “He loves her.”
“I know he does. With everything inside of him.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t love her too.”
He squeezes me gently, pressing my body more firmly into his. “Hey, Roe?”
“Yeah?”
He grins. It’s a goofy grin, and I brace myself for the words about to come out of his mouth. “You’re in the ocean.”
I freeze, and that’s when I notice he’d dipped under the water. I scramble, fear taking hold of me again, and I end upwith my front plastered to his chest, my legs wrapped tight like a vise around his waist, and my arms around his neck.
“Landry—” My voice quivers. I feel his strong hands beneath my thighs.
“I’m right here, Rowan. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“Please don’t let go.”
