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Jun studied him. “I mean, I’d like the board, if you don’t want to use it.” Kai got the impression Jun was testing him. Or trying to get him back on his favorite board. He struggled with admitting his fear of using it and his reluctance to let anyone else touch it.
“I have to see how you surf first,” Kai said, hoping to buy himself some time. “Use this one, and then I’ll see if you’re Ben Aipa–worthy.”
“Fair enough,” June said.
“Should we stick to little waves?” Kai asked Jun, hoping she’d say yes and give him an excuse to take it easy, hit the small pipes. Not that you could handle anything else. He tried to shake the doubt from his mind, but the problem was he knew that inner voice spoke the truth.
“Sure,” she said. “Let’s surf.”
* * *
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, Jun and Kai were paddling out together in the cerulean Pacific, headed toward the break. Kai watched Jun paddle easily, her muscled arms working against the current. She looked as if she knew what she was doing. Sun made the drops of water on her shoulders gleam. He’d never found her so attractive as then: black hair swiped up in a tight wet bun, makeup-free face lifted up from her board, eyes focused on the water. Kai might have found her weakness, but he wondered, fleetingly, if she’d found his. He had a hard time concentrating on the rhythm of paddling with his arms with her so close to him. She caught him staring at her and she smiled.
“Race you,” she called, and began paddling up to a looming wave in the distance. She got a head start and was going to catch it. Heart pounding, he trailed her, for once not thinking about his knee as he watched her backside bob back and forth on the board. He could follow those firm, fit curves, anywhere, he thought as he doubled his efforts to catch up.
Jun turned her board at the precise right moment as the big wave came rolling in. Kai was watching her half-hypnotized as she popped up perfectly on the board. Her toned legs held her weight easily as she balanced on his surfboard. He was so busy looking at her bare legs that he hardly had time to ready himself and his own board. In a hurry, he turned and stood, steering his board after hers in the small four-foot wave as she ducked into the blue barrel of water, gliding perfectly across its face.
“Catch me if you can,” she shouted.
She wasn’t an expert surfer, but she had the muscle and balance to make it work. Kai was impressed. He was so focused on following her and keeping up that he didn’t realize he’d been surfing for a good five minutes, that he’d ridden the wave through. Jun looked back at him and laughed, her white teeth sparkling against her smooth skin, and for a second he was lost in the gleeful moment of having fun.
Then his brain kicked on. This is the longest you’ve stayed upright since the accident. He was suddenly aware of the loose-rubber-band feeling in his knee. It’s going to give out.
Seconds later, he felt himself tumbling into the deep blue, board sliding away from him, the security line tugging painfully at his ankle, nothing around him but stinging salt water and the rush of bubbles and cold, wet panic.
* * *
JUN SAW KAI go down but almost didn’t believe it. She knew surfing wipeouts happened all the time, but she’d never seen Kai Brady lose it on such a tepid wave. Still upright, she swooped back but saw his head bobbing to the surface as the wave pushed him into shore. He got caught up in the roar of a newer, bigger wave that pushed on past hers and drove him to the beach. All she could do was hang on and ride toward him, her own wave quickly losing energy to the one sweeping Kai from her. Kai flailed in a panic, arms and legs everywhere. She watched, worried and helpless, as he gasped for air. The sea didn’t seem that choppy, and yet, she knew from experience, sometimes the currents were stronger below. Jun caught up with him when he was in the shallows, board still tethered to his leg, his hair dripping wet and plastered to his head, and he himself red faced and hacking up salt water.
“Kai, are you okay?” Jun managed, getting to him at last.
“Leave me alone,” he growled.
“Kai...” She reached out to touch him, but he whipped his arm away from her. And stomped up the beach. Angrily, he yanked off the surfboard tether, happy to let the board drift off to sea. Jun knew it was an expensive prototype. She grabbed the security line and dragged it behind her.
