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He looked out onto the water. The waves here were small, far from the big, intimidating ones that he saw the professional surfers on during the competitions. Of course that was the case, but in his anxious dreams, he’d been swallowed up in crashing tides before he could even think about hopping up on his board.
“Okay, I think you guys are ready to start trying some small waves. Let’s space out some. Everyone to my right, go with Tyler. Everyone else, come with me.” Bee gestured to the two sides of the group.
Luckily Dane and Alissa were in the same group—Tyler’s. Dane’s heart started to race again as they waded through the water, their boards alongside them, until they were waist deep. This was it. All of his fears came rushing back—falling off his board, making a fool of himself, not being able to even get up on the board at all.
He took a deep breath and focused on Alissa walking beside him. He could do this for her. He was already halfway there anyway. Like with his hula dance practice, everything had a learning curve. Just because he failed the first few times didn’t mean he was doomed to fail forever. Plus, he wasn’t the only beginner.
If he’d learned anything from learning to dance, he learned that he had to throw himself into these situations and think about how to swim later. He always figured it out.
The third person in their group went first, a thirty-something woman with her hair slicked back into a ballerina’s bun. She hopped up with the grace of a dancer, but lost balance soon after she got to her feet. Next came Alissa. Her lovely features were fixed in concentration as she paddled, hoisting herself up onto the board. She made it halfway up before falling off into the water.
“You’re up, Dane,” Tyler said from where he was standing.
Dane swallowed and got into position. The rocking of the water made the board that had obviously felt so stable on land feel completely foreign. Alissa gave him a thumbs up, so clearly excited for him that she boosted his confidence.
He paddled, the swell of the water buoying him upward. When he felt the point that Tyler had noted, Dane tried to get up on the board. His balance was completely off and he flopped into the ocean. The water wasn’t too deep, so falling in wasn’t nearly as bad as he thought it would be.
Alissa, Tyler, and the other member of their group cheered for him regardless. He pushed his hair out of his face and paddled back to the others.
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Alissa said.
“It really wasn’t,” Dane replied.
“It’ll only get better from here. Let’s keep trying,” Tyler said.
They kept taking turns, most of them not managing to get to their feet. When Alissa did, they all cheered. The look on her face as she rode her wave was priceless—she could have lit up half the beach with her smile.
“You’re up again, Dane.” Tyler gestured toward the waves.
Something in Dane’s gut told him that this was the one—he was going to properly surf this next wave. He felt the movement of the water underneath his board, shifting his weight to balance. Something between him and the powerful ocean below clicked.
He got to his feet, found his balance, and surfed. Not for long, and it probably didn’t look impressive, but the feeling was so enthralling that he wondered why he’d ever hesitated to embrace even the scarier things that Blueberry Bay had to offer.
When he came down, the entire class was cheering for him. Dane couldn’t wipe the smile off his face, pride making his heart grow. He pulled Alissa into a quick kiss when he got back to where the rest of the group was waiting.
“Thank you for setting this up,” she said, resting her head against his shoulder. “It’s been amazing.”
“Thank you for showing me how much fun there is outside of my comfort zone.” He kissed the top of her damp head. “I can’t wait to keep trying new things.”
* * *
Luke knelt down to reorganize a shelf of candy that two little kids had ransacked not long ago. The foot traffic into the store had been picking up with the luau happening the next day, so he’d spent most of the day on his feet, restocking shelves, pointing customers in the right direction, and cleaning up messes.
Once the candy shelf was back in order, he went to the front of the store. Sandy was ringing up a customer’s order and Daniel was chatting with a regular customer about the luau.
“Need any help up here?” Luke asked Sandy.
“Nope, I’m good.” Sandy smiled. “Have you taken a break this afternoon?”
Luke checked his watch, his eyes widening. “I didn’t realize time had gone by this fast. I haven’t taken a proper break yet since things keep popping up.”
“Take one whenever you’d like. We’ve got it under control up here.”
Luke debated what to do on his break. Some days he took a walk and other days he read a book down by the water. But a glimpse at the mailman, who had just walked through the door, changed his plans entirely. He had a stack of mail sticking out of his bag, the red and white insignia of Indiana University on a big white envelope jumping out at him.
His heart pounded in his chest as he got closer and saw the Jacob’s School of Music’s name on it as well. Without thinking, he snatched the letter up and checked if it was real. Hannah’s name was on it. His hands trembled as if the letter were for himself. This envelope held Hannah’s future in it—all of the things that she hoped for and he hoped for for her were going to be revealed in a very short time.
He looked up, feeling multiple sets of eyes on him, including the mailman’s.
