Emancipating Andie by Priscilla Glenn

terrified by it.
    They fell back into an easy silence as he switched lanes. There was the strangest feeling in his chest. He felt… buoyant . There was no other word for it. It felt surprisingly good to talk about that part of his life again. And he realized the reason for that was because he was discussing it with someone who genuinely gave a shit.
    He looked over at her; she was completely lost in her thoughts, and Chase noticed the crease between her brows, the one that appeared whenever she was fighting a frown.
    He didn’t want her to be frowning. He wanted her to feel the way he felt.
    He opened his mouth to speak just as they rounded a bend in the road, and a wide lake appeared on the left. His eyes flashed to the broad expanse of water, and the idea dawned on him almost immediately.
    Without even using his blinker, he abruptly pulled the car onto the shoulder.
    Andie sat up straight in her seat. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
    He unbuckled his belt and got out of the car, walking around to her side. “Come on,” he said as he opened her door.
    “What happened? What are we doing?” she asked, confused.
    He held one finger up to his lips and then crooked it at her, beckoning her out of the car. She glanced at it and then back up at him, conceding with a small huff as she unbuckled her belt. As soon as she was out of the car, he gripped her wrist, crossing the street and taking her with him.
    “Chase,” she said.
    “Shh,” he said through a laugh, holding his finger to his lips again as he walked her across the expansive front lawn of the house they had stopped in front of, the only house visible on the long stretch of road they were on. He kept his hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling her around the side of the little house and through the backyard.
    “I’m going to take a shot in the dark and assume you don’t know these people?” Andie whispered, tripping over her feet in the effort to follow him as she glanced around nervously.
    He smiled as he continued to lead her across the yard; the house itself was tiny and quaint, but the property was vast and sprawling, the plush grassy land ending against the shoreline of the wide lake behind it. There was a small dock that extended several feet into the water, and Chase walked them a few steps on to it.
    He stopped then, turning to look at her as she took everything in: the deep blue water that rippled slightly in the breeze, the two tiny shapes all the way on the other side that looked like docks belonging to the houses on the opposite shore, the contrasting greens of the grass and the trees, the brilliant blue sky, speckled with feathery wisps of white clouds, the kind of sky that usually only existed in paintings. He should have been looking for his camera.
    But all he could look at was her.
    She turned toward him in bewilderment. “Okay, so…am I supposed to be having some sort of Bob Ross epiphany or something?”
    The corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. “Not quite,” he said as he reached out and took her hand, intertwining their fingers. She jolted, her posture immediately growing rigid, but before she could fully react, he took off in a run, giving her no choice but to follow.
    “Chase!” she screeched right before he ran off the edge of the dock, and the next sound was the substantial splash as they were completely submerged under the cool water.
    Their hands immediately broke apart as they both began to swim to the surface, and Chase came up first, a rejuvenated laugh escaping his throat. A second later, Andie broke the surface, gasping loudly as she frantically swiped the water off her face. Her eyes were darting around wildly, her breath coming in short, startled huffs.
    Chase was a few feet away from her, treading the water and grinning from ear to ear. She finally made eye contact with him, her expression incredulous. “What the hell was that ?” she shrieked.
    “That,” he said, flicking his fingers in the water and showering