Chapter 7: Taking Oxygen
Kiwi Street
Downtown Naples
10:59 P.M.
Frankly, I don’t know how Cord had made it up to the pier if he was that afraid, but he did. He was facing inland. “You coming, Bradley?”
Not yet, I thought, but I wanted to be, coming all over his massive chest and face. I called up the last few rungs to him. “In a few. If you’re still nervous, close your eyes.”
“Okay, I will,” he called down to me.
I scrambled up to the top. I had a flashback to gym class in Standford Middle School, always the last eighth-grader to be picked for kickball, never able to climb the rope that hung from the rafters. Once I got to the pier, I stood and brushed myself off for a moment, looking at Cord. I walked up to him, wrapped my arms around his waist to tug him against me, and said, “I g
