Page 36 of Laying Low

“So he went home Friday night,” Reg said bitterly, “and he never came back to school, and we never got to play the new game Dean brought me for my birthday, and remember how I thought bad children got lost?”

“Oh my God.”Anthony had no idea he could hurt this badly for somebody who had seemed to be okay a moment before.

“I kept telling my mom that he was sorry, whatever he’d done, he was sorry, he needed to not be lost anymore, because he was a good kid and he was sorry.”

“And Mom—who’s a good mom—told me that it didn’t matter what he’d done.Hewasa good kid, and sometimes, life just took people when we loved them, so we had to love themnow, and let them know that they were lovednow, and I said, ‘Wait—can this life thing take away any of my siblings?’”

It was like the sun broke through the clouds and Anthony could suddenly see.

Julie Royal wouldn’t have lied to her baby boy, but she wouldn’t have known how bad the answer would be for him either.

“You’ve spent your entire life thinking God could just yeet your family out of your arms like Ilia yeeted his phone,” he said in absolute horror.

“With less warning,” Reg muttered, like he was embarrassed.

“You worry all the time,” Anthony said, still horrified.

“Every minute of every—oh fuck.”Suddenly he was running toward the surf, shouting, “Ilia, Reynaldo—that wave’s a sleeper!Get back!Get back!Get ba—fuck!”

Anthony had no idea how Reg spotted it.Maybe his entire life spent worrying about random shit coming to snatch the people he loved actually paid off in moments like this, but as Anthony followed Reg down the beach, the wave grew and grew, looming behind the boys like a killer shark, and there was no doubt Reg sure had called that wave right.

As Anthony hauled ass, hard on Reg’s heels, they both watched as the sleeper wave, bigger, more powerful than it looked, seemed to lunge up the beach and swallow Reynaldo whole.

Anthony got there in time to grab Ilia and haul him backward, dragging him up the rise of the beach, and then they both stared as Reg ripped off his shirt and let the waveeathim, diving right where Reynaldo disappeared.

Ilia—poor Ilia—was muttering to himself in Russian, and Anthony was about to sit him down and haul into the water to getbothReg and Reynaldo when the ocean coughed them up again.

Except Reg, it seemed, had made that happen.His overshirt was wrapped around Reynaldo’s torso, and as Reg scrambled in the surf, he hauled the shirt over his shoulder—and the boy with it.

Anthony had spent summers lifeguarding for extra money—and a chance to ogle both sexes in their swimsuits—and he recognized the technique, meant to keep panicked people from dragging their rescuer down.He’d had no idea Reg had done the same, and he wondered if Reg had learned lifeguard procedures just like he’d learned computer encryption, so Life, that fickle bitch, couldn’t swallow any more people in his world.

“Oh my God,” Ilia gasped, finally reverting to English.“Let’s go get them!”

Anthony let him loose so they could help Reg and Reynaldo out of the surf, both of them covered with sand and abrasions as Reg finally stopped dragging Reynaldo and started assisting him to stand.

“Well,” Reg said, staring dazedly at Anthony through naked eyes, “that happened.It’s a good thing I brought my extra pair of glasses.”

Reynaldo stared at him and started to laugh, and then Ilia, and then Anthony gathered him into his arms.Salty, wet, freezing, out of it—but damn if he hadn’t figured out how to cheat Death out of its newest prize.

“You aresogoing to be my boyfriend,” Anthony told him, pulling him close.“I’m never letting you go.”

REYNALDO GOTthe shower first, while Reg gathered the sopping, sandy clothes he’d plopped on the porch of the cottage and shoved them into a plastic bag.

“After you take yours off,” Anthony said, not even able to leer at him he was still so shaken, “you go in and shower, and I’ll take them around back.I saw coin washers and dryers back where we parked the SUV.”

“Shit,” Reg muttered, reaching behind him.He pulled out his drenched and shattered phone, and Anthony grimaced.“I think Reynaldo’s got lost in the surf too.”

“Well, that leaves mine,” Anthony said, “which is sort of a blessing, because I’m the only one who wasn’t supposed to be on this little adventure, so nobody’s looking for it.”

Reg grimaced.“Can I borrow it tonight?I can encrypt the shit out of it before we call my parents.”

Anthony nodded.“But maybe we shouldn’t tell them about your little frolic in the surf, although I gotta tell you,Iwant to talk to you about it, because damn, Registrar.That was fucking cool.I doubt even an Emeritus could have done something like that.”

Reg rolled his eyes.“An Emeritus would have remembered to ditch his phone,” he said dryly.

“Where did you learn to do that?”he asked.“The lifeguarding, I mean.”

Reg shrugged.“They offered health and safety classes at the high school over the summer breaks.I got junior college units for them.Gave me something to do, and I felt better about letting Chance and his friends swim in Mom and Dad’s pool.They just got it when I was, like, twelve.I sort of felt like there was a hole there, since so few of us were medically trained.”