Page 86 of Summer Love

“Yes, you can. Up.”

He lifts me. Nothing tender in the way he does it. One arm under my knees, the other across my back, and I’m against his chest, soaked, frozen through, unable to protest.

His heart is beating fast—faster than mine.

His breath stirs my hair, ragged, uneven.

“Harper!” he calls over his shoulder.

I turn my head. Harper and Sierra are on the beach, a few feet from us. I didn’t hear them arrive. Harper’s eyes are wide, Sierra has a hand over her mouth.

“Take the boards back to the surf school yard,” Jace says without stopping.

Harper nods. She doesn’t ask a single question.

There’s something uneven in the way he walks. A heavier weight on one side, a hesitation on the left.

He cuts through the side entrance of the lodge, the one that opens onto the pool.

Noah is sitting on a barstool, coffee in hand, cigarette at his lips. He’s wearing the same clothes as yesterday, rumpled. His hair is a mess. He hasn’t slept, or slept too much—hard to tell. He looks up and freezes.

“Shit! What happened?”

“She got worked,” Jace says. “Four waves.”

Noah sets his coffee on the counter and stubs out his cigarette in the ashtray. He jumps to his feet, moves past Jace, and pulls over a lounge chair.

“Set her down here.”

Jace lowers me onto it and steps back. The fabric is cold against my back. My teeth are chattering.

Noah turns to Harper and Sierra, who’ve just come in behind us, out of breath.

“Sierra, a big towel—the linen room, end of the hall. Harper, some tea—the kitchenette, behind the front desk.”

They nod and disappear inside.

Jace steps back again. Arms crossed, he plants himself against the wall, a few feet from the lounge chair, and waits.

Noah crouches in front of me.

“Summer. Look at me.”

I obey.

“Did you hit your head?”

“No.”

“Is your vision blurry?”

“No.”

“Does anything hurt?”

I shake my head. My throat burns. My nose is running.

“Okay. Let’s get the wetsuit off.”