I leap back into the water and tuck the board beneath my arm, jogging over to where Ethan has plonked himself down on the sand.“See, not impossible,” I say.I fall down beside him, a little out of breath from the run.“Don’t you want to try again?”
He drapes his arms over his knees, eyeing the board with disdain.“And feel worse after you made it look so easy?No, thank you.”
“It’s only easy because I’ve been doing it for so long.”Shortest lesson ever.At least he tried.When I knock his shoulder with mine, he barely budges.“Did you have fun, though?”
He side-eyes me; the ends of his hair are already starting to dry and curl against his forehead.“I’ve had worse mornings.”
I’d call that a win.If he were anyone else, I’d let him bring the board back on his own so I could spend another hour out on the water.But right now, sitting on this beach beside him sounds even better.“Truth or dare?”
His lips twitch in an almost-smile.“I’m not drunk enough to play with you this morning.”
“Oh, go on.”
He sighs up at the sky.“Dare.”
I clutch my non-existent pearls, sounding properly scandalized when I say, “Who are you and what have you done with my cautious neighbor?For all you know, I could dare you to run across the beach naked.”
“You could.”
Now,thatwould be a glorious morning.“I dare you to try getting up on the board three more times.”
Although his head drops, he pushes to his feet without protest and offers me his hand.He still doesn’t make it all the way upright, but he does almost get there before his arms cartwheel and he falls backwards into the water.
At least he doesn’t seem as annoyed with himself when he wades back to the shore.If I play my cards right, maybe I can convince him to come back next Sunday.I know he still has a lot of work to do on his parents’ house, and I don’t want to downplay the importance of that—I just want him to stay sane and have a little fun while doing it.
I grab my board, and together we make our way back across the dunes, the seagulls squawking from high above, riding the ocean breeze.
“You’re welcome to throw that into my dumpster if you want,” he says out of the blue.
I glance around to figure out what Ethan’s talking about.He’s staring at my surfboard that was destroyed in the storm.
Is he nuts?“I can’t throw my baby away.”
His brow furrows as he sets the rented surfboard against my bannister and kneels down beside the broken one to examine the crack.“Can it be fixed?”
“No, but I have plans for her.”
He looks up expectantly, and all of a sudden, those plans seem really silly.When I don’t immediately tell him, Ethan asks straight out what I mean.
“I want to build something,” I confess.
“Build what?A dump?”
“No, smartass.A pergola for an outdoor seating area at Mugs.My friend Boone has a bunch of boards that can’t be used anymore, so I thought they’d make a cool sort of roof.”
Ethan stands, his lips pressing flat as he tugs on the leg of his wetsuit.“That sounds… interesting.”
Well, hot damn.That’s as good as a glowing compliment coming from this guy.He says no more, still yanking on his leg.“You okay?”I ask.
“I don’t know how it’s possible because it’s so fucking tight, but I think I got sand in this damn thing.”
“Yeah, sand in the suit chafes like a bitch.”I set my board down and fling the door to my outdoor shower open, giving the knob a quick twist.“That’s what this is for,” I say, nodding toward the steady stream of water spurting from the rainfall showerhead.
Ethan’s gaze drops to my mouth.“I have my own shower,” he says quietly, even though he stays rooted to the sandy grass.
“Yeah, but it’s all the way over there, and mine is right here…” I step backward into the steam collecting inside the shower’s wooden walls.When I turn and ask him to unzip me, I can feel Ethan’s gaze follow the zipper all the way down to the small of my back.I peel the suit off my arms before turning around.His eyes fall to the seashell where it rests against my cleavage.
He offers a stiff-lip scowl, and from the way his wetsuit offers nothing to the imagination, I have a pretty good view of something else that’s turning stiff, too.
