Treading Water Read Online Free Page A

downtown Newport. At the address Jill had
given him, several police officers were attempting to break up a
raging party. His heart in his throat, he called Jill’s cell.
“Hurry up and get out here. The place is crawling with cops.”
    Jack watched the police drag one teenager
away in handcuffs while another puked in the empty lot across the
street before Jill materialized out of the darkness.
    She slid into the car and slammed the
door.
    “ What’re you doing here?
Have you been drinking?”
    “ Spare me the fatherly
concern, will you?”
    “ Fine, then let me get one
of the cops to take you for a sleepover at the city jail.” He
reached for the door handle.
    “ Yes! I had a couple of
beers. Who cares?”
    Punching the gas to get out
of there, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “I care!
You’re sixteen ,
Jill!”
    “ I know how old I
am.”
    Under the glow of the
streetlights he could see her eyes were glassy and deduced that
she’d had more than a couple of beers. Jack’s mind raced with
things he wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut until he
figured out what he should say.
    Jill stayed quiet on the way home.
    “ What happened to the guy
you were with?” Jack finally asked.
    “ I don’t know. We got
separated.”
    “ What were you even doing
there?”
    “ They’re friends of his. We
were just going for a little while.”
    “ How much did you have to
drink?”
    She shrugged. “I told you. A couple.”
    “ Really, Jill. I just can’t
believe you’d—”
    “ Relax, Dad! It’s no big
deal. Everyone does it.”
    Jack bit back the urge to snap at her.
“You’re not everyone, and don’t tell me to relax.”
    “ Whatever.” Her cell phone
rang as they pulled into the driveway. “Where’d you go?” She
glanced at her father. “I got a ride. All right. Yeah, I’ll talk to
you tomorrow.”
    Jack waited for her and watched her teeter
on the way into the house.
    Frannie sat up as they came in. “Hey, what’s
going on?”
    “ Someone had a few too many
at a party and got separated from her date.”
    Frannie frowned at her niece. “Jill…”
    “ Can we save this Hallmark
moment until tomorrow? I’m tired.”
    “ Sit down,” Jack
said.
    Releasing a dramatic sigh, she dropped into
a chair.
    “ Is this what you do with
your friend Kyle?” Jack asked. “Go to out-of-control parties and
get drunk?”
    “ I’ve never been to an
out-of-control party or gotten drunk with Kyle before.”
    “ You might want to lose the
sarcasm, Jill,” Frannie warned.
    “ You’re not my mother! You
can’t tell me what to do.”
    “ That’s enough, Jill!
You’ll not talk to your aunt—or me—like that, do you hear
me?”
    Just as Jill started to reply, she turned
green. Clasping her hand over her mouth, she bolted for the
bathroom.
    Jack glanced at Frannie before he got up to
follow his daughter. Standing at the open door to the bathroom, he
watched helplessly as she wretched.
    Frannie came up behind him. “Go,” she
whispered. “Go to her.”
    Hesitating for another second, he ventured
into the bathroom and gathered Jill’s long dark hair into a
ponytail.
    “ Go away,” she moaned.
“Leave me alone.”
    “ You’re stuck with me.” He
stayed with her through another vicious bout of vomiting as well as
the dry heaves that followed. When it was over, he wiped her face
with a cool washcloth and sat down next to her on the bathroom
floor.
    “ I’m never drinking
again.”
    Laughing softly, Jack remembered once making
the same vow after a similar incident. “Good.” He put his arm
around her, brought her to rest against him, and was relieved when
she didn’t resist. “Think it’s over?”
    “ For now, but there could
be more.”
    “ Then we’ll
wait.”
    “ Why are you being so nice
to me?”
    “ Because you’re
sick.”
    “ So I’m not
grounded?”
    “ I never said
that.”
    She mulled that over for a few minutes. “How
long?”
    He hadn’t the foggiest idea. “What