AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She narrows her eyes at me. “There’s almost two months between Portugal and Pipeline. Are you trying to tell me you’re going to pretend like you don’t notice me buying a bunch of blue or pink stuff… for two months?”
“Maybe the addition will be done by then, and you can hide all the stuff in there.”
She rolls her eyes and turns to the tech. “Can I go pee now?”
The technician allows Lindsay to relieve herself halfway through the ultrasound, then she finishes by taking various measurements and photos before she sends us off to another room, where Lindsay will have blood drawn for a quad screen—a preliminary test to determine if amniocentesis is necessary.
Fifteen minutes later, we’re in the truck and back on the highway, heading toward Carolina Beach to pick up the kids at Lindsay’s mom’s house. I’m in the middle of telling Lindsay a story about something that happened while I was getting a massage from Edie earlier in the day, when she interrupts me.
“I really wanted to know the sex of the babies,” she complains. “I don’t want to have to schedule the baby shower for after Portugal. Then I’ll have, like, six weeks to get everything ready for two babies. Do you know how insane that is?” She shakes her head. “We have to tell them to finish that addition on the house sooner. We can’t have two babies sleeping in the same room with us.”
I grit my teeth as I realize she’s right. “Fuck. Why couldn’t we just wait to add on to the house until after the baby was born?”
“Babies,” she corrects me. “And that’s exactly why we couldn’t wait. Now we’re paying for an addition on a house we’re going to have to move out of in just a couple of years, when the twins are older and they can’t share a room anymore.”
An asshole in an Audi blares his horn, then he changes lanes to go around me. I’m driving too slow. Yeah, well, you’d be slowing your roll, too, if you realized your whole life is careening toward a dead end and you have no idea how to stop it.
Fuck. In five months I’ll be retired, with four kids, at the age of thirty-three.
“Can you please not tell anyone about how I’m thinking of retiring?”
“Thinking of retiring?” Lindsay replies, but I don’t even bother looking at her to see what kind of dirty look she’s casting in my direction. “Your words to me were ‘I’ll retire.’ That sounds pretty definitive to me. I didn’t realize you were still thinking about it. Maybe I should think about fucking my vibrator tonight.”
I turn to her, my mouth agape. “Can I watch?”
She smacks my arm. “I hate you.”
I laugh as I grab her hand, lacing my fingers through hers to prevent further assault. “You can’t tell anyone I’m retiring because it has to be done in an official announcement. If it leaks before the Hurley Pro, my sponsors will shit bricks. Especially Andy. And you know that. So don’t test me on this, okay?”
She nods. “I know. I’m sorry. I’m just really happy about the idea of you being home with the girls more often. You know how happy it will make them.”
I swallow the lump in my throat as I realize she’s right. Again. My girls mean everything to me. I need them as much as they need me. If they’re going to be in Wilmington full-time, so am I.
We arrive at Lillian’s house in Carolina Beach at a few minutes past six p.m. Just the sight of their house makes me miss our old beach house. We just moved into the new house in Wilmington a few weeks ago and we already have a construction crew working on an addition, tracking dirt all over the paper-lined wood floors. It doesn’t feel like a home yet, but it will eventually. This summer is either gonna kill me or make me crazier than Miley Fucking Cyrus. I’ll be riding my board naked at the final in Oahu this December—if I can hold my CT ranking until then.
The girls are outside with their grandma, blowing bubbles with the giant bubbler. Their angelic faces are full of unadulterated joy as Lindsay’s stepdad, Michael, spins around on the lawn, his arm stretched out as he holds the bubble wand, leaving huge iridescent orbs in his wake. Lindsay hated Michael when she was in high school and college. I think it was because, in her mind, no one could ever compare to her father, Jacob Harris, who died of leukemia when Lindsay was eight. But Michael has shaped up to be a very good grandfather to Kaia and Mila. And in the process, he’s won over Lindsay as well.
Lillian, on the other hand, is a whole different story. She still gets on Lindsay occasionally about working out and watching what she eats. Lindsay has never had a weight problem. In fact, she was anorexic before we met in college. But that doesn’t stop Lillian from reminding her she needs to count her calories or she’ll end up a fat, divorced old woman. I don’t give a fuck if Lindsay gains a hundred pounds. That girl would still have to fight me and my third leg off her every night.
Lillian’s blonde shoulder-length hair bounces as she scurries across the lawn to meet us in the driveway. “So what is it?” she shrieks as she rounds the front of the truck toward Lindsay. “Is it a girl or a boy?”
Lindsay glances at me before she turns to her mom. “We don’t know. We’re gonna wait until the next ultrasound… to be extra sure before we start going crazy buying stuff because… We’re having twins!”
Lillian’s eyes widen as she claps her hands over her mouth. “Twins?” she says in a soft whimper as she begins to tear up. “I’m going to have two more grandchildren?”
Lindsay nods and smiles as she wipes away tears of her own. “We’re having twins,” she replies, her voice a hoarse whisper.
They hug for a moment, then Lillian lets go of her suddenly and looks down at her belly. “You’re going to get so big.”
Lindsay sighs and walks away without a response.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Lillian says as she follows Lindsay around the truck toward me.
I fold my arms around her shoulders and kiss her forehead as I pull her close to me. “I hope she gets morbidly obese, Lillian. Then she’ll never leave me.”
Lillian waves off my comment. “Oh, please. I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”
I take Lindsay’s face in my hands, looking her in the eye as I whisper, “Come on. Let’s get the girls and get the fuck out of here so I can watch you fuck yourself with a vibrator while I shout, ‘Whale on the shore! Whale on the shore!’”
She shakes her head as she pushes me away. “You’re such a jerk.”
I catch up to her so I can plant a loud kiss on her cheek. “And that’s why you love me.”
“Daddy!” Kaia squeals when she sees us. “Look how big this bubble is. Hold on. Let me show. It’s so big.”
The light bounces off her light-blonde curls, which she inherited from her biological father. She twirls around on the grass, her laughter as bubbly as the spheres she’s creating. I instantly feel at ease. Like all the question marks in my future are just that, question marks. They’re not periods. Just because I’m retiring doesn’t mean I can’t still surf, or teach my kids to surf. And ju
st because we’re having two kids instead of one, while I’m training for the competition of my life, it doesn’t mean I have to stress. Everything will happen exactly the way it’s supposed to happen.
If I win, I win. If I lose… Fuck. I can’t allow myself to even consider that possibility. I’m going out on top. If that means I have to train longer hours for the next three and a half months, Lindsay will understand.
I hope she’ll understand.
Three
My best friend Yuri Takahashi’s house in Carolina Beach is about two blocks from our old beach house. Since it’s only been a few weeks since we moved, I decide to drive by and see if the new owners are settled in. As I drive down Carolina Beach Avenue, I see there are no cars parked in the driveway at the back of the house. The front of the house faces the ocean, so I can’t see it from the street, but I get a strong feeling there wouldn’t be anyone there anyway. They just moved in and already they’re gone, maybe having dinner at a restaurant or visiting family. If I were them, I’d be here every day, out on those waves or sitting on the front porch, soaking in the sun, breathing in the salty air, appreciating this house for what it is: a diamond on the warm North Carolina sand.
When I get to Yuri’s house, he and his girlfriend Lena—who looks like a female version of Yuri—are fighting, as usual, over whose turn it is to take their eight-year-old Siberian husky, Dioji, for a walk. Yuri’s five-foot-nine body is splayed across the sofa while Lena stands over him, dangling the dog’s leash above his face.
