Offsides - A Forbidden Summer novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: Katie's POV: Second Rule

Katie's POV

Mara was waiting on a lounge chair at the town pool with two iced coffees and a face.

"Sit," she said.

I sat. My legs weren't entirely mine yet.

"You have a mark on your neck."

I put my hand over it.

"It's been there since yesterday," Mara said. "I noticed it at the garden centre. Then I noticed Nate Dorsey's truck was parked outside the Hayes house at six this morning. Then I put the two together."

"Nate was at the house?"

"Nate was in the road, looking at the house, with his phone." She took a long sip. "So. Who is he?"

"Who?"

"Katie."

I looked at the water.

A boy of about eight was doing a cannonball off the low board, over and over, with a lifeguard yelling at him.

"Devin," I said.

Mara didn't say anything.

She put her coffee down on the concrete and took off her sunglasses.

"Your stepdad."

"My mother's husband. Yes."

"The history teacher who wears a lanyard to Costco."

"That one."

"Oh my God," said Mara. Then she said it again, quieter. "Oh my God, Kate."

"Say something else."

"I'm trying." She pressed her hands against her eyes. "Are you okay? Did he, I mean, are you... did you want this?"

"I started it."

"You did?"

"I sat on his lap on purpose. For four days. I picked the seat."

She started to laugh, then stopped and looked at me carefully.

"You're not joking."

"No."

"And he's, like, a good guy? He's not a creep?"

"He told me to leave about forty times," I said. "I didn't."

Mara lay back on the lounge chair and looked at the sky.

"I'm not going to tell you what to do," she said. "You're twenty-two. It's a free country. But I'm going to say one thing."

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