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She swam around him and touched Lady Face. “Wow,” she whispered. Cold and smooth, she rubbed it like it held magical powers.
“You’re shivering,” Zane said. “Let’s head back.”
They swam toward shore, practically shoulder to shoulder. “Thank you for bringing me here,” she said.
He didn’t answer until her toes touched sand, and they slowed their pace, the ocean floor helping to keep them afloat. “There’s something I should tell you before we see my mom and sister.”
“Okay.”
His chest rose and fell. He stopped slogging against the tide. “My sister, Julia, has thyroid cancer. She went to the doctor this morning, so I wanted to see her. They caught it early but…”
Sophie spun around to face him. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed. She’d heard the lump in his throat and, without a second thought, needed to comfort him. “Treatment works extremely well, Zane. I’ve done a lot of volunteer work with cancer patients. She can beat this.”
He blinked and nodded his thanks. Seeing this larger-than-life man out of sorts pinched her heart in a way it had never been before.
“I don’t have any brothers or sisters, but I imagine you want nothing more than to fix this.” She glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of a larger wave rolling at them. Her legs tensed.
Zane picked up her hand and jogged to shallower water as if he sensed the wave behind them. As soon as it crashed at her back, he slowed to a walk.
“You’re, like, one with the ocean, aren’t you?” she asked. A few more strides and they’d reach the shore.
“I like to think so.” He bent his neck to the side and then back so his hair flopped out of his face. “Thanks for the pep talk.”
“You’re welcome.”
They walked up onto the dry sand, and he spread out one of the fluffy yellow-and-white-striped towels for her. She collapsed onto her stomach.
“Tired?” He sat right in the sand, legs bent at the knees, and ran his towel over his face and head for all of two seconds.
She laid the side of her head atop her arms so she could look at him. “If I say exhausted, you won’t think I’m a wimp, will you?”
“Nope.”
“I think I just got a better workout than my kickboxing class.”
He rolled onto his side and propped up on his elbow. “You kickbox?”
“Thanks for sounding so amused.” She dug her toes into the sand.
“You just keep surprising me, is all.”
Her eyelids grew heavy. The warm sunshine on her back combined with the soft sand underneath her was a killer combination of comfort. And if she closed her eyes, she could dream about Zane and all the things she wanted him to do to her.
“Huh. No one tells me that back home,” she muttered.
“You’ll have to change things up, then.”
“Good idea,” she whispered, lids halfway to closing. She probably shouldn’t have stayed up until two in the morning last night watchingBlue Crushon the movie channel. Things had gone so well at the film festival and she’d gotten back to her room around eleven, happy and pumped up. She’d ordered a hot fudge sundae from room service and, because she obviously hadn’t watched enough surf movies the past few days, needed another fix.
“I hope you had fun in the water this morning. I know I did.”
“Me…too…” Her eyes shut. She’d just take a ten-minute nap and then wake up ready to go and meet Zane’s mom and sister. She hoped they liked her.
Because the biggest surprise of all was Zane and how sweet he was. How thoughtful. How funny and humble. And with what little time they had together, she wanted to make a good impression. That way maybe he’d remember her as much as she knew she’d remember him after they said good-bye.
…
Sophie was dangerous. Zane couldn’t get out of his head how good it had felt to have her wiggling against him when she fell out of the car. He also couldn’t stop thinking about her up to her neck inhisworld, the place where whatever emotional heaviness bogged him down fell away. The ocean always made him feel lighter. Took his troubles and carried them away.
