to do what needs to be done. “For you, Mom,” she whispered.
“Okay, so right arm, turn head to left, left arm, turn head to right,” Rae said. “Anthony, hel o, are you listening?”
“Right arm, head left, yep,” he answered. He’d gotten so caught up in looking at her, her wet hair curling around her face, drop lets of water shining on her shoulders, her bathing suit-Rae stepped closer to him, moving through the half chlorine, half water of the Y pool. “What are you thinking about? Because it’s definitely not my swimming lesson.” She smiled, and her smile made him think that she knew exactly what he was thinking.
And that she liked it. Which was so friggin’ mind-blowing.
“Come on, tel me.” She looped her arms around his neck, and the old lady getting ready to swim laps gave them an “awww”
kind of look.
“I was thinking that you look good in that suit,” Anthony answered. He was pretty sure he’d choke if he tried to say any of the ot her stuff.
“Oh, real y? I-” Rae whipped her head to the left.
“What?” Anthony demanded, scanning the area around the pool.
“Nothing,” Rae answered, sliding her arms off his neck. “I just, God, I thought I saw Yana. But it was only that woman in the white bathing cap. She doesn’t even look like her.”
Anthony checked the big clock behind the diving board. “I should be able to head over to Yana’s in about half an hour. Her dad’l be up and functioning by then-even on a Saturday. You’l feel better when we can do something to find Yana.”
“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right,” Rae said. But she didn’t sound convinced. “Let’s get out, okay? I’m freezing in here.”
Anthony was pretty sure the temperature of the water had nothing to do with the shivers ripping through Rae. But he didn’t cal her on it. He just fol owed her up the stairs in the shal ow end and over to the deck chairs they’d staked out. Rae grabbed a to wel, leaned forward, and started drying her hair. “Wonder what I’d be like if I’d grown up thinking my mom was murdered. Instead of a murder er. I mean, I could total y have turned out like Yana.”
“What?” Anthony demanded. He’d couldn’t freakin’ believe her. “What?” he repeated. He reached out, caught her chin in his fin gers, and gently raised her head until she was looking him in the eye. “Do you actual y think that you’d have tried to kil someone if you thought your mom had been kil ed?”
Rae bit her lip. “I wanted to kil Steve Mercer when I found out that he murdered my mom,” she answered. “If I’d known that my whole life, I’d probably have wanted to kil him a mil ion times more.”
“Fine. I get that. And I’d probably even have helped you if the agency hadn’t taken him out. But let me ask you this. Now that Mer cer’s dead, do you feel, like, any desire to find out if he had a kid and then kil the kid?”
“God, of course not!” Rae exclaimed.
“Wel , that’s exactly what Yana did,” Anthony reminded her, struggling to keep his anger in check. “She thought your mom kil ed her mom. But your mom was dead, so, Yana decided, ‘What the hel - I’l just kil the daughter. That’l make me happy.’”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re right,” Rae answered. “It’s just…” She let her words trail off and started rubbing the drops of water off her arms. Rubbing so hard, it was like she wanted to take off a layer of skin, too.
“It’s just what?” Anthony pressed.
“I don’t know-she brought me doughnuts on my first day back at school because she knew how horrible it was going to be for me,” Rae mumbled.
“So we got doughnuts on one side.” Anthony stuck out his left hand. “And on the other side-” He stuck out his right hand. “We got Yana trying to kill you.” He moved his hands up and down, pretending to weigh both sides.
“I get it,” Rae told him.
Anthony dropped his hands to his sides. “Do you? ’Cause if you don’t, you’re not going