Off-Ice Collision: Chapter 2

“What are you going to be doing today, sweetie?” my mother asks as she takes a seat at the kitchen island while I turn around from the fridge with a bottle of iced coffee.

I pour it into one of the glasses and dump in some creamer before lifting my gaze to hers. “I went for a run already, so I was going to go out and read by the pool or maybe go out on the paddleboard.”

She nods as she takes a bite of the bagel she made for herself. “Your father will be coming by the end of this week after work. Think you can try and make some time for dinner at the end of the week?”

A sigh slips from my lips and I nod. “I think that question is better suited for your other child. He’s the one who’s always busy.”

My father is a busy man and runs his own marketing agency in the city that we live in. Our second home in Stillwater Lake was one of the perks of him making the money that he does. Although, he’s never really around, since he’s married to his business even though he wears a ring from my mother on his finger.

I have been staying at the lake house with my mother and brother every summer since we were small kids. Maverick and I are twins and even though we’re both in college now, we don’t bother passing up the chance to come stay at our own little slice of heaven.

Mav left this morning on the boat when I went for a run. He invited me along but I didn’t feel like hanging out with him and his friends while they fished and got drunk. Neither of us needed to work with our parents’ financial status, so we both took advantage of the time that we had here.

“Why don’t you see what Emery is doing? Maybe she wants to come hang out at the pool with you.”

Emery is my best friend. She lives in the same city that we do and ironically, both of our parents bought houses on the same street at Stillwater Lake. She was supposed to be getting here sometime this morning, but I haven’t heard from her yet.

“I’ll text her and tell her to come by after she gets here,” I tell my mother as I grab my book from the counter, along with my glass of iced coffee.

My mother smiles at me as she flips open her laptop. “I’ll be in the office most of the day if you need me,” she tells me as she finishes her bagel and stands up from where she was sitting. With her laptop in one hand and her plate in the other, she walks over to set her dish in the sink before she turns to leave the kitchen. I watch her as she pauses in the doorway. “Where is your brother?”

“I heard him going out on the boat this morning.”

An exasperated sigh slips from my mother’s lips. “Did he say when he would be back?”

I shake my head at her. “I didn’t get the chance to talk to him. You know how Mav is,” I tell her with a shrug. My brother has always been the problem child out of the two of us. He’s put my parents through a lot and still can’t seem to get his shit together.

We’re both supposed to be going to graduate school in the fall, although I have a feeling Maverick is done with it all. He barely even got through undergrad; I don’t see him putting in any more years than he has to. He majored in marketing at my father’s request and completely blew his internship with our own father’s agency.

“I know,” my mother says sadly before she disappears through the doorway. Knowing her, she’ll be locked away in her office late into the evening tonight, only appearing to eat dinner. She’s a highly successful author and I admire all the work she put into it while raising two children.

The house is quiet and empty, so I make my way out back to where the pool is. Our massive deck leads to a cascade of stairs that takes you down to another patio. To the right is a large pool that has an entire waterfall built into the corner of it. My parents have more money than they know what to do with, but you know… a waterfall into your pool that has a hot tub in the cave part underneath makes complete sense.

The sun is already hot and the concrete burns my feet as I walk over to one of the lounge chairs. Dropping my book down onto the chair, I set my glass down on the table beside it. Bending at the waist, I flip my head over and collect my long blonde hair between my hands as I secure it on the top of my head with a hair tie. As I move back upright, the ponytail falls down to the middle of my back.

Sweat already beads along my hairline and I swipe away at it as I settle down onto one of the chairs. I send a quick message to Emery and she lets me know she’ll be over this evening. Her parents had plans for them when she arrived at the lake already, so she’d have to catch up with me later.

As I begin to dive back into the words on the pages of the book I’ve been reading, I can’t help but let my mind travel back to my brother. He really does worry me sometimes. Maverick has always been troubled and I’ve always felt like I was taking on all of his problems. He was never good with managing his moods and I was the one who was always bailing him out of whatever trouble I could get him out of.

That’s the thing with having a twin, though. It’s like having another half of your existence living in another body. We’ve always been close and I could never just sit back and let him learn. I know one day I will have to let Maverick deal with his own problems, but until then, I’ll always be the one who is right by his side.

After spending the afternoon in and out of the pool, I eventually began to grow bored. Maverick came back two hours ago, completely plastered already. I abandoned my spot by the pool and helped him into the house where he could sleep off the alcohol in his bedroom without our parents knowing.

I know it bothers my mother, but she’s never really been able to control Mav. Come to think of it, no one controls him except for himself.

As soon as his head hit his pillow, he was snoring loudly, so I left him there and went back down to get my things from the pool. I took them inside and decided to take out the paddleboard to work away the things that were troubling my mind.

Being late in the afternoon, the lake is relatively calm and peaceful. The morning fishermen have already retired for the day and the evening crowd isn’t out yet. I pass a few boats as I stand on my board, using the paddle to push me along. The muscles in my arms ache from the workout my body is getting.

It isn’t doing much to clear my mind, although the endorphins that are being released from the physical exertion help a little bit. Just as I round the corner to one of the smaller coves, a boat goes flying past, creating a stronger wake than I expected. The force of the wave throws me off-balance and my leg muscles tighten as I attempt to stand upright on the board. It rocks back and forth with a violence that causes me to fall to my knees. I drop the paddle and grip the sides of the board with my hands as I try to ride out the wake from the boat.

I’m no match for it and it gets the better of my strength. It feels like it happens in slow motion as the board flips over completely and I’m floating under the water. The depths of the lake can reach one hundred and fifty feet or more and I happen to be in one of those areas right now. Kicking my legs, I move out from under the paddleboard and am able to break through the surface of the water.

My head pokes above and I’m sucking in oxygen in a rush. I should have worn my life vest and if the police that patrol the lake found me right now, I could get in a lot of trouble. Somehow I’m able to flip the paddleboard back over as the waves begin to settle. My damn paddle managed to float a good thirty feet away, though.

A sigh slips from my lips and my body screams in protest as I pull myself back on the board and begin to use my hands to move over to where the paddle is. I don’t stand back up when I reach it, instead I sit cross-legged in the center and begin to make my way back to the house. It feels like it takes an eternity to get back there, even though I wasn’t very far away to begin with.

As I round the corner that leads to the small cove our house sits in, relief floods me. The dock is finally in sight and I see our boat and Jet Skis with it. My brother is sitting on the top part of the dock and I watch his feet as he swings his legs back and forth. I didn’t expect him to be awake already, but I was gone longer than I expected.

When I reach the dock, Maverick climbs down the steps and helps me get the paddleboard out of the water. He turns his head to the side as he assesses me.

“What happened, London?”

I shrug. “A damn boat came by too close and the wake knocked me off the board.”

Maverick’s eyes narrow to slits as his eyebrows tug together. “Where’s your life vest?”

“I forgot it,” I tell him dismissively. Movement from the house next to ours catches my eye and I direct my gaze over there, away from my brother. That’s the Carters’ house. It’s been relatively quiet there the past few summers, although it doesn’t look like it’s empty anymore.

I catch sight of what looks like a ghost standing by the glass French doors that lead out to their back deck. My brow furrows and I feel the color instantly draining from my face.

“Oh yeah,” Mav breaks through the silence as he slings his arm around the tops of my shoulders. “Vaughn’s back.”

My breath catches in my throat. I haven’t seen or spoken to Vaughn Carter in at least four years. His family spent the summers at Stillwater, just like us. He was one of our summer friends, like a lot of the other people here. Although there was something different about Vaughn.

There was always something lingering in his gaze when he watched me from afar. Like there was something on the tip of his tongue but he didn’t know how to get the words out. He was always quite attractive and his personality shone bright, but I knew better than to get involved with him.

Vaughn stares for a moment through the glass and it feels like his crystal blue eyes are staring directly through me. A shiver pulls down my spine as I watch him draw the curtains closed in a violent fashion before disappearing from my sight.

“You heard what happened to him, right?” Maverick questions me as we begin to walk back up to the house.

“Yeah, Mom told me about the accident that ruined his hockey career,” I say quietly, as if I don’t want Vaughn to hear us talking about him. “I wonder what he’s doing here.”

Maverick shrugs. “I have no idea, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”

As we reach the back door, I chance one last glance at the house to the left of ours. All the curtains are drawn shut and there’s no sight of Vaughn Carter, although I know he’s lurking in the darkness inside.

There’s something about the way he was looking at me that I can’t seem to shake.

I end up having to cancel my plans with Emery, but I’m not complaining. My mind is preoccupied.

Even after we have dinner with my father and everyone retires to their rooms for the night, I’m still haunted by those crystal blue eyes. I eventually drift asleep, yet he follows me into the dark.