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“Well, not all of you.”
“Yeah, just the part that loves watching you meditate.”
At exactly six in the evening, a knock comes at the door. I’m ready with my yellow bikini underneath my faded-blue Roxy T-shirt and a pair of white board shorts that I usually only wear around the house because they barely cover my ass, but Senia insisted I wear them. I’m excited. I’ve seen guys—hot guys—surfing at the beach dozens of times since I moved to Wrightsville Beach, but something about getting to see Adam out there gives me butterflies. I’m finally going to get to share his passion for the water with him. And enough time, and meditation, has passed between Saturday and today that I’m feeling a lot less guilty about leaving him hanging.
I open the door and Adam is leaning against the doorframe with one hand in the pocket of his board shorts. He’s shirtless so even when he looks up at me with those striking green eyes, all I can look at is his perfectly muscular chest.
“Are you ready to get tossed?”
“Is that a promise?” I say as I step outside.
He laughs as he throws his arms around my waist, lifts me off the ground, and kisses me. His lips are warm and soft as I take his bottom lip between my teeth.
He moans softly and I feel him stiffening against me. “You’d better stop that or I’m going to take you upstairs right now.”
I give him a soft peck on the lips then tighten my arms around his neck as I lay my head on his shoulder. He squeezes me tightly and I sigh. This is the best hug I’ve gotten in months. He finally sets me down and cradles my face as he kisses both my eyelids.
“Thanks for coming with me.”
I grin uncontrollably because something has shifted between us. Something magical is happening. I feel deliriously happy for the first time since Chris left.
Adam says he normally walks to the beach, but today we’re taking the truck because he brought an extra surfboard for me. He parks in front of a house near the beach and carries both our boards across the sand. He lays the boards flat on the damp sand near the edge of the water and looks at me.
“Have you ever surfed?”
“I have, actually. Fallon, the girl who taught me to meditate, tried to teach me a couple of times. I actually stood up on the board once.”
“Good,” he says, tucking his board under his arm. “Then I don’t have to go through all the standard stuff about how to pop up.”
“Really? We’re just going to go right out?”
“Claire, the sun’s going down in less than two hours. You won’t be able to surf after the sun goes down.”
“But you do.”
“Because I don’t need to see the water to know where it’s going.”
I can’t help but sigh as I peel off my clothes. “That is so hot.”
“Besides, the sharks come out at night.”
“Sharks!”
He shakes his head as he bounds toward the water. I grab my board and follow after him. Once we’re waist deep in the warm Atlantic Ocean, we’re forced to continually duck dive under the relentless waves until we’re far enough past the breaks. We paddle out a bit further until we get to a place where we can turn around to face the beach. I can hardly breathe and my limbs ache. My arms tremble as I climb onto the board to straddle it the way Adam does.
“Are you okay?”
I nod because I don’t have enough air in my lungs to speak.
The rolling motion of the water is carrying our boards farther apart and making me a little queasy. He holds his hand out to me. I take his hand and he yanks me toward him.
“Okay, I’m going to tell you something I never tell anybody when they ask me for a surfing lesson.”
“What?”
“You look really sexy in that bikini.”
“And you’d better not tell anyone else that.”
“Ooh, you wear jealousy even better than you wear that bikini,” he says as he leans over and kisses my temple. “You should take it off.”
“Focus, Adam.”
“Right.” He gazes at the waves as they crash onto the shore before us for a while before he speaks again. What he says has nothing to do with surfing. “I want you to meet my parents.”
“That’s your idea of focusing?”
He tilts his head as he looks at me because he knows I’m trying to avoid the subject.
“You don’t have to, but I’m going there this weekend. They’re having their annual summer picnic on my uncle’s ranch and I want you to come with me because I don’t think I can handle being away from you all weekend.”
I recognize that jittery feeling in my belly, and it’s the feeling that scares me more than what Adam’s proposing. I can feel myself falling. Hard. If I meet his parents, it will be like completely giving into that feeling. This won’t be infatuation anymore. It will be serious.
Say something, Claire, my inner voice shouts at me.
“Okay.”
“You’ll go?”
I nod fiercely and he leans over to kiss me so fast we both flip our boards and slip into the water. A tangle of seaweed snags on my foot and I scream. He laughs as he gathers our boards.
“All right, no more fooling around. I’m about to give you a serious lesson.” We climb back onto our boards and hold hands as we watch the waves break against the shore. “Pay attention to the rhythm and movement of the water.”
He lets go of my hand and I draw in a deep breath. The water dips and surges beneath my board and I can feel my body relaxing as I grip the rails, paying close attention. There’s a definite rhythm to the rise and crash of each wave. Without knowing, I realize I’ve closed my eyes and I’m visualizing the waves based on the sound. It’s so peaceful out here.
“Are you ready?” he asks, and I nod as I open my eyes.
He points at the waves as he tells me what to do. I try to repeat all his instructions in my head as I lie down on the board. Push the nose down… lean into the direction of the wave…. Let the momentum of the water carry you.
He shoves my board forward and shouts, “Start paddling!”
My first lesson is a disaster so as soon as the sun starts to set behind us, I breathe a sigh of relief and make my way back to solid ground. My jelly legs give out beneath me and I fall to my knees next to my beach bag. I wipe the saltwater from my face with a towel, lay the towel out on the sand, and collapse facedown.
“Hey, you didn’t do too bad,” Adam says as he pulls a bottle of water out of my beach bag and hands it to me.
I take the water and turn onto my side so I can guzzle it down. “Yeah, not so bad. I never once stood up.”
“That’s okay for your first time out. In fact, it’s expected. Trust me, I’ll have you riding in the curl soon.”
“Are you going to take that weekend job on Shell Island?”
“Are you going to be my first student?”
“I can’t afford surf lessons.”
“I’m sure Jason won’t mind me donating some lessons to a few hopeless cases every now and then.”
I roll my eyes as I turn over onto my back. “I don’t have the energy to be outraged by that comment.”
We’re both silent for a moment before I realize that the sun is about to set. I sit up and the intense look in his eyes tells me his mind is far away from this beach right now. He grabs my hand and the sand rubs between our wrinkled palms as he laces his fingers through mine.
“Claire, I asked you to go with me this weekend for more than one reason.” He pauses for a moment before he peels his gaze away from the dazzling pink sunset to look at me. “I’m falling in love with you.” I open my mouth to respond and he presses his finger against my lips to stop me. “I don’t want you to say anything. I just want you to know that. I love you.”
He waits a moment before he removes his finger from my lips.
I want to say it back because I think he deserves to hear it and because I do feel something strong like love growing inside of me. But I’m not certain yet. I scoot
forward a little on my towel so our sides are touching and lean my head on his shoulder. He kisses my forehead as he wraps his towel around me. We watch the sunset in silence as I think to myself, Adam loves the sunset and me.
Chapter Thirteen
Relentless Bickering
“Are you sure you don’t need any more help packing?” I ask as I slip my feet into some strappy wedge sandals.
“If you ask me that one more time I’m going to hide your keys and lock you out of this apartment,” Senia says, pushing me out of the bedroom. “Get out of here. Go ride some horses on your cowboy’s ranch. And while you’re at it, ride your cowboy.”
“It’s not his ranch.”
