“The board stops the second the sail hits the water, so it won’t go anywhere until you get back on,” I reminded her. “But who cares if you fall? We’re just here to have fun.”
She nodded, still looking all kinds of serious. “Okay.”
Reaching over, I cupped her face in my hands and kissed the little stress line between her brows, which always appeared when she was anxious. When I pulled away, she looked calmer.
“Let’s do this,” I said.
The water was perfect, clear as crystal and warm from the sun. I enjoyed the work required to get my board in the water, enjoyed moving my body and feeling my muscles respond. The last few weeks I’d been completely focused on the wedding and family stuff, and hadn’t been able to get even a moment alone to just breathe. For the first time since this whole charade had begun, I felt like I was in control of myself again.
I watched Emzee get on her board first. I could see her hesitate, but then she clenched her jaw, squared her shoulders, and pulled the sail up out of the water like an absolute pro.
“Bravo,” Angie shouted, clapping for Em.
When I managed to do the same, I didn’t get the same standing ovation. Guess Angie had a favorite, and it wasn’t me. Not that it mattered. The excitement on Emzee’s face was the whole reason we were doing this in the first place.
As our boards moved through the water, slowly at first, I found myself thinking the whole thing was a little anticlimactic. We were on the ocean, sure, and it was beautiful—but nothing special. Then, all of a sudden, the wind picked up, filling our sails with the power we’d been promised. And just like that, we were off.
It was pure magic.
We were sailing along so fast it was like flying, the wind in our faces as we skimmed the waves, boards bouncing up and down. It was exhilarating and I couldn’t get enough.
My muscles ached as I got used to the way I needed to hold the boom, the way I needed to plant my feet. I was grateful for the hours I put in every week at the gym, but I knew my entire body would be sore tomorrow regardless. At the moment, though, I didn’t care.
All that mattered to me was the wind, the ocean, and my wife.
Emzee was up ahead of me, dark hair streaming behind her as she maneuvered her board. The water sprayed up around her as she moved toward the choppier waves, following Angie’s lead as she took us farther out. I tasted salt, from the ocean and the air, feeling completely alive as we glided across the water.
And then I watched as Emzee faltered and almost took a spill, her board swerving as she struggled to regain control over it. For a moment, I thought her earlier fears would be confirmed, that she’d crash right into the water with a big splash, but at the last minute she righted herself, letting out a girlish shriek of relief and pure delight before dissolving into giggles.
Emzee laughing about her near-fall was the exact thing I’d been missing, and it was impossible not to laugh with her. She glanced back at me, and the expression of joy I saw in her smile made my heart twist. I wanted to live in this moment with her forever.
Suddenly, I understood why that combination of affection and dopamine inspired poets and musicians to immortalize it.
But like the fathomless ocean beneath us, I knew, love was just as fraught with danger.
Emzee
Chapter 4
Who would have ever thought I’d have such an instant love affair with windsurfing?
When Ford had first woken me up to tell me it was our activity for the day, I’d been anxious. The honeymoon activities I’d been dreaming of consisted of going out to eat at the fanciest restaurants, snorkeling in the shallows, and maybe booking a couple’s massage. Stuff that was more relaxing than athletic.
But windsurfing was more amazing than I could have imagined.
It definitely wasn’t the type of activity I would have done on my own, but Ford had been so into it that I couldn’t turn him down—and wasn’t that what I’d always loved most about him? That he pushed me to try new things? And thank God he had.
Even though I’d paid more attention during the lesson, Ford had more natural skill and strength. After our official instruction was over, our teacher—a warm, older woman with box braids named Angie—left us to our own devices.
Yes, I had expected it to be challenging and scary. But I hadn’t expected it to be so fun. So thrilling. So…freeing. I could have stayed out on the water until the sun went down. Unfortunately, my growling stomach had other ideas, so we’d given our concierge a call and arranged for a ride back to our private villa. We still had yet to figure out dinner plans.
As I dried off after my shower, all I could think about was how blissful the day had been. It was almost romantic the way Ford had helped me learn during our lesson with Angie, coming up behind me on the beach while I stood on the board so he could wrap his arms around me and help me practice steering the sail. In fact, with all the touching and closeness of the past few hours, my guard was fully down. Which was why I was hoping for a quiet night in, since that meant there’d be less of a chance of me doing something I would regret…like giving in to the simmering sexual tension that had been building ever since Ford put his arms around me earlier.
After hours out on the ocean, I expected him to suggest giving the concierge a call to put in an order with our personal chef for dinner at home. But when I walked back out to the living room, I saw that he’d changed into a crisp linen shirt and slacks, his hair freshly combed and his eyes bright. The scent of his cologne wafted over, and the urge to throw myself at him increased.
“You look nice. Got a hot date?” I asked teasingly.
“I want to take you out,” Ford said.
