How the Cold Hearts Beat [HS]

Prologue

Copyright © 2014 by Valerie Tarte

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

without the express written permission of the author

except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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So there I was, covered up to my bare thighs in grass stains, in my lifeguard swimsuit with the large white lifeguard emblem and the lifeguard whistle nearly choking me as I couldn’t stop laughing. It had started to rain. I hadn’t done my eyebrows, but I had completely forgotten about that. The pool was closing, and all I could think about was how we pushed Amy in the water, and how Manager Moby yelled at us, and how she screamed as lightning struck the horizon. I really had to pee. The three of us were the only ones left outside.

“Someone is watching us,” Lana, who was also with us, managed to gasp out in between laughs. It took me a moment to realize what she meant; I stopped laughing.

“What? Where?”

She raised a finger, pointing behind me to the manager’s window. I thought at first that it was Moby, but then I realized the figure wasn’t large and the hair wasn’t tall—but the hair was everywhere, at least for the moment it stood facing us. I squinted, because I didn’t have my contacts on and because the rain was only making the visibility worse, but by the time I got anything into focus, he was gone, deep into the warmth of the inside. Then, the lights went out, and the bars that went around the concession stand went down.

“It’s time to go back in,” Amy said, weaning out of her laughter as well. She tugged on Lana’s arm, and they started making their way down to the changing rooms. I stayed where I was, hoping the light would come back on.

“C’mon, Cara. It was probably Moby,” Lana called out. They were nearing shelter. The rain started to fall in shards. I looked out towards the parking lot, the last of the families driving away with their headlights on full brightness. “Cara, it’s thundering! Get inside!”

“I’ll be right back!” I yelled. I started to run, hesitating at first because I was used to the “no running by the pool” rule, and also because the lights have come back on.

“Cara, don’t! It’s no big deal!” Amy yelled after me.

“If it’s no big deal, then why does it—” I wanted to say, then why does it matter? But I was already there, so quickly, shivering outside the manager’s office. I knocked but then pushed the door open anyways. It was empty inside, and then, the door across the office opened as well, and now it wasn’t.

It was Moby.

“Cara, go home,” he said, screwing the lid onto his Dasani water bottle and letting it roll over his desk. “It’s pouring.”

I closed the door before the water could get inside, but I was dripping all over his floor anyways. “Was anyone here with you?”

“No, why?” he asked. The water bottle stopped rolling when it hit the computer keyboard. It started to whir to life, and Moby glanced at it briefly before focusing back on me. He was tall, but also very wide, with a thick dark mustache and a large bald spot surrounded by graying hair. He was the only lifeguard over twenty on the premise, but technically, he hadn’t been guarding lives in a while.

“I saw someone watching us through the window,” I said. Moby frowned, reaching for the back of his desk chair. He pulled it towards him and sat down, half turned toward his computer screen. “I know it wasn’t you.”