What Waits in the Water Read online

  For Amanda, who waits patiently for this book even as I type

  CONTENTS

  TITLE PAGE

  DEDICATION

  PROLOGUE

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  TWENTY-NINE

  THIRTY

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  SNEAK PEAK AT WHAT WAITS IN THE WOODS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ALSO BY KIEREN SCOTT

  COPYRIGHT

  Dear Future Me,

  This morning was the first time I was actually happy we moved here. It’s the end of April already and I honestly thought spring was never going to come. Like, maybe in Michigan that’s not even a thing—you just go straight from fall to winter to fall again. But when I walked outside with my coat all buttoned up to my chin, it felt warm. And I heard this exciting drip, drip, drip coming from the corner of the porch roof. The snow was MELTING. I mean, I honestly can’t even believe I just wrote that. I really couldn’t remember what grass looked like before today. I even saw these teeny tiny leaves pushing up from the ground. Mom says they’re crocuses, but I wasn’t ready to believe that yet. I’ll believe flowers are possible when I see them.

  On the way to school, people were walking around with their coats open. They were shouting and smiling to each other. Waving. NOT WEARING HATS! Tires shushed through shallow puddles formed by MELTING SNOW! (Writing that might never get old.) As I walked past the coffee shop, I started giggling. I couldn’t help it. It’s possible being inside for so long has made me delirious. But then P strolled by and looked at me like I was a crazy person, so I forced myself to stop.

  Anyway, it was the first time I started to think that maybe life could be cool here. Maybe living in a tourist town could be fun. I bet business will start picking up for Mom and Dad once all The Summer People get here. And I bet once the lake warms up, it’ll be kind of exciting. The other day, A promised to show me the sunniest spots for tanning. I am SO pasty. I can’t wait to get a little color. Plus there will be lots of boys from out of town hanging around—just like at Christmastime, when they all came for the skiing. Not that I’m ever going to get up the guts to talk to them or anything, but still. Eye candy, you know?

  When I got to school I was in such a good mood that when N said hi to me in the hallway I said hi back—and SMILED. Maybe spring in Michigan will turn me into a not-shy person. I mean, N has been so nice to me since we moved here. And he’s kind of shy himself. Who knows? Maybe we can learn to be not-shy together. It sounds cheesy, but tonight, writing this with my window OPEN and a warmish breeze coming through, I sort of feel like anything can happen.

  “Seriously, Hannah, can you drive any slower? By the time we get there, the weekend’s gonna be over.”

  Hannah Webster clutched the steering wheel of her new RAV4 and tried to restrain herself from grabbing her stepsister’s phone and chucking it out the open window. Ever since they’d pulled out of their driveway in Oak View, Ohio, five hours ago, Katie had been complaining. She’d whined about the air-conditioning being too strong. She’d whined about Hannah’s road trip playlist being too dorky. She’d whined when Hannah had stopped at a rest area to use the bathroom. And then Katie had bought a large coffee and whined about how she had to use the bathroom until Hannah had to pull over at the next rest stop. And now, she was whining about the fact that Hannah was doing the speed limit. But what did Katie expect? Hannah had just gotten her license and her new car a month and a half ago. She wasn’t trying to get a ticket.

  What made it even worse was that the entire time Katie was complaining, she was also texting. With Jacob Faber. Hannah’s Jacob. Her best friend. Any time Katie wasn’t grumbling, she was giggling. And sighing. And shaking her head like Jacob was oh so adorable. And to top it all off, she refused to tell Hannah what they were texting about.

  “We’re almost there. The GPS says we’re five minutes away,” Hannah replied, barely keeping the fed-up tremor out of her voice. Right then, five minutes sounded like a lifetime.

  She pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear and glanced in the side mirror. They had just hit the downtown area of Dreardon Lake, Michigan—all quaint shops and family-friendly restaurants with blooming flowers bursting from window boxes and colorful flags flying everywhere.

  Jacob had been talking about Dreardon Lake for years. Hannah had seen pictures of the town, but the photos didn’t do it justice. Main Street was a bustling hub, full of people carrying trays of coffees, toting squirming toddlers, texting while walking. Hannah tried to concentrate on the sun shining outside the car, the pair of kids skipping down the sidewalk with ice cream cones, the shoppers swinging bags as they hopped from boutique to boutique. She tried to absorb the happy-go-lucky vibe. This weekend was going to be fun. Right?

  It was mid-August—the last Thursday before school started next week—and she was going to spend four whole days with Jacob and his family at their summer house. Jacob had promised lake swims, cookouts around the fire pit, board games and movie marathons, and Jacob’s mother’s famous chocolate chip brownies. It would be perfect. The perfect end to the summer.

  Katie snorted a laugh and sighed, shaking her head adoringly at her phone.

  Or it would be perfect if she wasn’t here, Hannah thought.

  “Is Jacob waiting for us?” Hannah asked.

  Katie’s thumbs tapped at her phone screen. She laughed again at Jacob’s reply, then sent another text, marked by the swooshing sound Hannah had been listening to the entire drive. If she never heard that sound again it would be too soon.

  Hannah paused at a stoplight, allowing groups of fresh-faced tourists to cross the street. She glanced at her stepsister. From the moment Hannah had met Katie Chen a little over two years ago, the girl had never looked anything other than impeccable. Today, she had her black hair up in a sleek, high ponytail, and was sporting the exact opposite of what Hannah considered to be good road trip clothing. Between the pink miniskirt, the white off-the-shoulder top, and the high platform shoes, she looked like she was ready for a poolside brunch, rather than a long haul on the highways of Ohio and Michigan. Her eyeliner was painted into a perfect cat eye and her lip gloss matched her skirt. Her appearance was, in a word, photo-ready. Which was good, since Katie’s favorite pastime was taking selfies. She was taking one right now, as the light turned green, her mouth fixed in a ridiculous pout, her chin tilted down, her phone poised above her head.

  “Katie,” Hannah said sharply, gripping the steering wheel so hard she pinched the flesh of her own palms.

  “What?” Katie rolled her eyes.

  “I said, is Jacob waiting for us at the dock?” Hannah asked.

  “Oh. I’ll ask him.”

  Katie sent off another text—swoosh—and Hannah eased through the light. She didn’t want to think about what Jacob’s reaction would be when he saw Katie’s outfit. Or when he compared it to Hannah’s own loose sweatpants/faded T-shirt combo. Hannah’s wavy dark brown hair was tied into a messy side braid and she wore five-dollar Old Navy flip-flops left over from last summer. But at least her toena
ils looked good. She’d painted them red on a whim last night—something she’d never done before—and they hadn’t come out half bad if she did say so herself.

  The thing that was really disappointing about Katie was that Hannah had always wanted a sister. Her mother had passed away when Hannah was only two, and Hannah didn’t remember her at all, though she cherished the many photos of herself as a baby in her mom’s arms. It had always been Hannah and her dad, and she’d been fine with that. Her dad took her swimming, and cooked brunch for the two of them on lazy Sunday mornings. He could even make errands like grocery shopping fun. She’d never really felt as if she needed a mother, because her dad was everything. But a sister—a sister would be awesome. A sister would be someone to share secrets with and play in the backyard with and try on makeup with. A sister would be an automatic bestie—a person who knew her better than anyone and always had her back.

  Then, a couple years ago, Hannah’s dad had gotten serious with Mylin, who had two kids of her own—a daughter, Katie, who was Hannah’s age, and a son, Fred, who was three years younger. Hannah had been all in. A sister! With a bonus little brother! It was like a dream come true.

  After a few group outings with their parents—to play mini golf, eat pancakes, see a movie—Hannah had taken the plunge and invited Katie, via text, to hang out with her and her friends at Sweet Retreat, their neighborhood cupcake and candy shop. Katie’s response had been instant and curt:

  No thanks. I don’t do sweets.

  Well, okay, Katie had ordered an egg-white omelet on their pancake date and refused snacks at the movie theater. So Hannah had tried again, including Katie on her birthday movie night evite.

  Katie had never even replied.

  Finally, Hannah had decided that maybe Katie was just nervous about hanging out with a group of people she didn’t know and had invited Katie to chill by the town pool with her. She’d almost fallen over with excitement and relief when Katie had said yes. But Katie had spent the entire day lounging on the pool chair alone, texting her friends and answering Hannah’s every question with one-word replies.

  By the time the wedding rolled around, this past January, Hannah had come to dread the new family arrangement. Mylin, Katie, and Fred moved into their house, and Katie started at Hannah’s high school, where she instantly made friends with Felicity Felix, who was basically Hannah’s archnemesis. So that, as they say, was that. Hannah and her “sister” were never going to be friends. No matter how much their parents tried to throw them together.

  “In half a mile, make a left on Lone Dock Lane,” the GPS lady directed, bringing Hannah back to the present. Hannah blinked and drove onward.

  “He says he’s there, gassed up and ready to go.” Katie made a face after reading Jacob’s latest text, like she wasn’t quite sure what it meant. Hannah didn’t respond. She found that the less she opened her mouth around Katie, the better off she was. Everything she said seemed to annoy her stepsister in one way or another.

  In truth, Hannah felt that she was the one who had every right to be annoyed. Annoyed that Katie was along for the ride this weekend, and ruining everything. Because news flash: Katie hadn’t even been invited. Jacob had called Hannah out of the blue last week and invited Hannah up to his family’s lake house for a four-day weekend. Not Hannah and Katie. Just Hannah.

  “I’m so bored, H,” Jacob had groaned on the phone. “My parents are getting on my nerves. I need my best friend or I swear I’m going to commit patricide.”

  “Wow. Big word,” Hannah had joked. She’d tried to play it cool, but her insides had been doing cartwheels—not just because Jacob wanted to see her, but also because Hannah had always wanted to visit his family’s lake house. Plus she secretly loved spending time with Jacob’s mom, Frida, who had been Hannah’s mom’s best friend from college. Frida was full of fun stories about Hannah’s mother that Hannah never got tired of hearing. It made the beautiful, gentle-looking woman in the old photos and videos that much more real.

  “They’re making me play Dictionary!” Jacob had blurted, incredulous. “They’re making me learn things. In the summer! You have to come help me.”

  Hannah had laughed and felt flattered and wondered if maybe, just maybe, there was something more behind the invitation. Was Jacob really missing her in a best friend-y way, or in a different way? Could he have finally realized he had feelings for her? That they were meant to be together? The thing Hannah had known with every inch of her heart since she was five years old?

  A light up ahead turned yellow.

  “You can make it,” Katie said.

  Hannah stepped on the brake.

  “Ugh! It’s like driving with my grandmother! Next time we do this, I’m totally driving.”

  “Look around! There are people everywhere. Do you want me to run them over?” Hannah snapped. “Sheesh, no wonder you didn’t get your license.”

  The second the words were out of her mouth, Hannah wanted to swallow them back down. But it was too late. Katie’s cheeks were already turning pink.

  “Oh. My. God. I cannot believe you just said that!”

  Hannah’s face flamed, too. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.”

  Katie was super sensitive about the fact that Hannah had passed the driver’s exam on the first try. Katie had done fine on the written test, but flunked the road test. Katie’s sixteenth birthday was a month after Hannah’s, so she had already been a few weeks behind, but now she had to wait another week before she could retake the test. Meanwhile, the car Mylin and Hannah’s dad had bought for Katie—a red RAV4 almost identical to Hannah’s blue one—was parked in the driveway back home undriven. It looked incredibly lonely and depressing just sitting there, and Hannah didn’t blame Katie for being testy about the situation. The car was so shiny, Katie probably felt like it was mocking her every time she walked out of the house.

  “I know you’re perfect, all right?” Katie grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest. “You don’t have to be such a jerk about it.”

  “I’m not perfect,” Hannah protested. “And I hate it when you say that. I’m just living my life and you act like I’m doing it to offend you.”

  “Oh, so what you’re saying is you’re perfect without even trying.” Katie pulled her movie-star-huge sunglasses out of the tote bag at her feet and slipped them on. “Awesome.”

  Hannah bit down on her tongue. Katie had it all wrong. True, some might see Hannah’s straight-A average and the fact that she was captain of the swim team as marks of success. But Katie was a kickass softball player and the most popular girl in school—a school she’d started at only seven months ago, and that Hannah had been attending her entire life. There were different kinds of perfect in the world. But Hannah didn’t feel like pointing that out now. Silence. It really was the best—the only—policy.

  As she turned into the parking lot for the Dreardon Lake docks, Hannah wished she could turn back time just a few clicks to the day she had asked her dad if she could go to Jacob’s house. Her father had come up with the brilliant idea for Katie to join Hannah on this trip so that the two of them could “bond.” If Hannah could go back to that moment, she’d throw herself on her knees and beg her father to have mercy on her and let her go to Michigan alone. She’d definitely put up a fight, but not nearly a big enough one. In the end, when her dad had asked her to do this “one little thing” for him, she’d capitulated and said, “Sure, Dad. Why not?”

  Why not? I have about a billion reasons why not, past self, she thought now, as she eased the car into one of the few empty parking spots alongside the lake. The dark blue water stretched out ahead, the sun shimmering on the tiny waves moving across its surface. Normally, the very sight of water would put Hannah at ease, but as Katie typed furiously on her phone—probably complaining to Felicity and her friends about Hannah—she couldn’t seem to make herself unclench. In the distance, the sky was cloudy, and a breeze ruffled the trees around the lake. Storm coming. Fantastic. Now they’d
all be rained in together for the afternoon.

  Hannah turned off the engine, pulled out her phone, and texted her father, just as she’d promised she’d do when they’d arrived.

  We’re here!

  The reply was almost immediate.

  OK! Have fun!

  There was also a text waiting from her friend Theo, the fastest guy sprinter on her summer swim team.

  We’ll miss you this weekend!

  It was accompanied by a pic of Theo and two other teammates in their swimsuits by the town pool, sticking out their tongues at her. Hannah turned the phone a bit to hide the screen from Katie, who teased her every time Theo so much as breathed in Hannah’s direction. Katie’s theory was that Theo was head over heels in crush with Hannah and that Hannah should “wake up and smell the hottie.”

  But Hannah and Theo were just friends.

  And Theo was no Jacob.

  Right back atcha, Hannah typed in response. Then she stuck out her own tongue and took a quick selfie. Katie rolled her eyes at Hannah. What? Hannah wanted to snap. Katie was the only person on earth allowed to take selfies?

  Hannah sent the photo to Theo. At that same moment, someone knocked on her window, and she was so tightly wound, she jumped.

  It was Jacob.

  “H! You’re here!” he said as Hannah opened the door and got out. He wrapped her up in a hug and she basically melted. His long arms were taut and strong and he smelled of woodsiness and fresh air and mint gum. Hannah loved how he was just a touch taller than her, enough that she could rest her chin right on his shoulder without standing on her toes or bending her knees. His brown curls had grown out a bit, and were a little wet from a swim or a shower. He was tan, and this somehow made his incredible, welcoming smile stand out more, along with his stunning green eyes.

  “I’m here!” she replied, grinning.

  “We’re here,” Katie corrected, sauntering around the back of the car.

  Great, Hannah thought, trying not to cringe.

  “Katie! Hey!”