Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(54)

“No.” He threw his arms wide, bristling with frustration. “Explain to me how it’s an insult for me to invest in you?”

“I’m not a stock option,” she hurled back at him. “People aren’t commodities that you work to protect. They’re fellow human beings that you learn to cherish and respect.”

“But I—” Nothing else followed. He stared at her, a wealth of emotion clouding his expression, but none of them took hold or resolved themselves. He opened his mouth again, but still nothing came out.

She forced herself to calm down, but it wasn’t easy. “I said it before, and I’ll say it again, Will. You need to change your attitude toward people.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my attitude toward people,” he argued, though the fire had gone out of his words. “I respect those who deserve respect. I take care of those who are important to me.”

“Just like your father, right?” She hugged herself tighter and shook her head.

“I am not my father.” Will punctuated his words by taking a step toward her. “I am not like him.”

“Really? Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he answered emphatically.

“Then stop thinking that my life is yours to have a say in just because we had sex.”

“I don’t think your life—” Again, he stopped, his gaze losing its focus as her words hit.

Melody shook her head. “See. It just dawned on you, didn’t it?” She let her arms drop to her sides with a sigh. “Think about that for a minute, Clementine.”

She turned and marched off, back out to the rock where most of their clothes were now dry and warming in the sun. Her first instinct was to pick them up, fold them, and bring them back to the backpacks, but her fight with Will had sapped every last drop of energy. She hated fighting with people. Hated it. And worse still, the only reason this fight was taking place was because of someone who wasn’t even there, someone she’d never met. If she ever did come face-to-face with Will’s dad, she couldn’t be responsible for the things she’d say to him.

That thought reinvigorated her. She let out a frustrated breath and bent to scoop up her stiff, dry clothes from the rock face. It was so unfair that some unseen asshole had messed up a perfectly good man, a man she cared about. She folded her spare pair of trousers roughly into a square, then tossed it to the rock before swiping at another shirt. Will deserved better. He deserved someone who would have taught him to love without reservation and to see people as pulsing, exciting individuals, not items to be placed on a duty spreadsheet. He deserved to think of sex with someone he cared about as pleasurable, not the instigation of a responsibility. He—

Without warning, the ground slipped out from under her. Melody had only a split second to register that she’d stepped in fish guts at the edge of the rock before she was tumbling sideways. She flailed for some kind of purchase, found none, then slammed hard on the edge of the rock. Bruising pain hit her side, but it was the sickening stab of pain that flared in her ankle right before she splashed into icy water that caused her to scream.

The world shifted to bubbly silence as the shock of the sudden cold and the pain swallowed her. She could do nothing but sink, all other thoughts gone. A few seconds later, panic hit her as the reality of her situation slammed home. She kicked and thrashed, hoping she was swimming up to the surface, but didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. There was no way to tell which direction was up. She tried to pull herself toward what she thought was sunlight, but—

She broke the surface, gasping on instinct to fill her lungs, still no idea which way was which.

“Melody! Melody!”

It took another second to realize that the splashing she heard was from more than just her. She twisted and flailed, trying to propel herself toward Will’s cries, but between the cold and the pain, her brain was having a hard time taking in anything else.

“Melody!”

At last, strong, warm arms clasped around her and pulled her what felt like sideways. She threw her arms around Will’s torso, and suddenly directions made sense again. She knew which way was up. She knew she could breathe safely.

Another few seconds, and she realized he was carrying her. Funny, but it wasn’t as fun as when he’d carried her out of the water and lay her on the sleeping bags the first time.

“My God, Melody, are you all right?” Will managed to take her face in both of his hands while she sat huddled in his lap.

She forced herself to focus on his face, on the flat panic in his eyes. “Yeah,” she gasped. “I think I’m okay. I slipped on fish guts.”

“I saw you go down. You screamed, and then you were just gone.” He crushed her against him.

It felt way too good to be crushed like that. She was tempted to weep out of fear, but it was okay now. She was okay, Will was okay. If she could just stop shaking.

Only, it was Will who was shaking, not her.

“I’m okay,” she panted. “My ankle hurts, and I think I’ll have some killer bruises, but I’m okay.”

“It’s all my fault,” he said in a strangled voice. “All of it. I don’t know what I’m doing, and I don’t know how to say anything, but I nearly lost it when you went under. If you’d hit your head—”

“Shh, Will. I’m okay. I’m okay.” It was her turn to hold his face with both of her hands. “And it’s not your fault. Accidents happen.”