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“They deliver, so you don’t need to worry about getting out of bed until the food gets here.”
“Shit, I don’t have any clothes here!” I pull the covers back and stare up at the ceiling. “Unless you count a soggy oversized swimming costume,” I mutter more to myself, but Jayce’s laugh from the other room tells me he heard.
I throw back the rest of the covers and search for the hoodie and boxers I changed into earlier, then follow Jayce into the main room.
“I’m serious. I can’t go home like this.”
“I don’t see any problem. I like you in my stuff.” He turns away and picks up his phone.
“Be serious. I’m not going to walk through Tregethworth wearing this. It would be the ultimate walk of shame.”
“Relax. I’ll drive you home.” He turns away from me and starts reeling off an order to the takeaway. It sounds like he’s planning on feeding us for a week, not just for one night.
I walk towards the sitting area in the other part of the house and clear the forgotten coffee cups into the kitchen before making a nest on the sofa. The view has only improved from earlier today. The sun's warmth reaches me and reinforces my earlier musings about Tregethworth.
A tiny voice inside my brain challenges whether I’d ever grow tired of thisparticularview.
Half an hour later, we’re still on the sofa, but this time with a small feast of delicious indulgence laid out for us. The food is just what we need, and we watch as the sun dips below the horizon.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” Jayce puts down his plate and chopsticks and turns to me. “Shoot.”
“How did you get your scar?”
“Ahh.” He turns back to the remaining Chinese and sits forward.
“Unless you don’t want to tell me. I know we both have history, and it will take a while for us to fill in the blanks.”
“It’s not a pretty story, but, in a way, it’s what brought me back here,” he starts but doesn’t look at me and keeps his stare locked forward, out towards the ocean.
I don’t push and stay put and finish my dinner.
“I’d been in Nazaré for most of the season, but there was a huge swell forecast. The conditions looked perfect for what we wanted. Everyone in the industry was heading to us. Finnan was on the jet ski, and I was riding first. We had all the kit and knew the terrain better than many others out there. But that’s the beauty of Nazaré. It’s unpredictable and can spit you out in a heartbeat.”
I watch as his shoulders rise and fall with his breaths.
“I wiped out. Hard. I fell a fucking long way down the face of the wave and got washed under until my lungs screamed. But Finnan was there. He always had my back.” I’m holding my breath for the conclusion, but my stomach knots as I anticipate what’s coming next. My eyes flick up to the photos on the walls of him and Finnan, and it breaks my heart.
Jayce sits back on the couch and turns to me. “We got caught by another wave. It tipped the jet ski over, washed me away, and ripped my hip apart. Fractured my pelvis and dislocated my hip. I needed surgery to repair some of the damage. That’s where I got the scar.”
His eyes are glassy and filled with sorrow.
I recognise that grief.
He doesn’t have to tell me the rest because I know.
He lost his best friend.
“I’m so sorry, Jayce.” I reach for his hand, but he stands, picking his plate from the table and walking to the kitchen. Picking up my own plate, I follow.
My instinct is to try and ease his pain, which seems crazy when it was only a few days ago that I never wanted to see him again in my life. But pain is a familiar fellow, and I don’t want Jayce to suffer alone when we’re here together, and I can see how much it still guts him.
I take the plate from his hand and wrap my arms around him. “It’s okay. I’m sorry.” I whisper the words into his ear as he engulfs me in his arms.
We stand, quiet in our embrace, and I let this moment infuse and mend another part of my broken heart.
“Come on. I’ll take you home.” Jayce finally lessens his grip.
