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At the restaurant, a rustic but quaint surfer’s shack with walls lined with rock and roll memorabilia, Nick and Riley took a seat out on the deck to watch the waves and breathe the fresh sea air.
“I love this place,” said Nick. “It reminds me of when Matt and I tried to start a band. We even got our first gig here.”
“Really? I didn’t know Matt played an instrument.”
Nick laughed. “He doesn’t. Neither do I. I had a bongo drum and Matt had a microphone. They took one look at us and told us to take a hike. We managed to sweet talk our way into playing a couple songs. We told the manager that our instruments had been stolen and our bass player had quit, but that we could pull it off with our voices like a barbershop quartet.”
“Oh my gosh,” she cried. “Then what happened?”
“Well, we did what we said we were going to do and we brought down the house…in hysterics. They kicked us off the stage after song number two. But the customers got a good laugh out of us and bought us beer for the rest of the night. Good times.”
“You guys are so crazy,” said Riley. “I’d never have the guts to go up there and make a fool of myself like that.”
“We were always trying to see how far we could push things before people went, ‘somebody get these clowns out of here.’ It’s weird how much that kind of thing has actually helped us in business. Whenever we start taking things too seriously, we just start treating it like that kind of game and say, ‘What’s the craziest thing we can push for right now?’ If it doesn’t happen we don’t get too upset, but sometimes it pays off.”
“That’s so funny,” said Riley, twirling her straw. “You two are the coolest guys I know.”
“You know,” said Nick. “I remember the first time I met you, I thought you were so cute. I tell you, if you weren’t Matt’s sister…”
Riley blushed. “Really? Because I have to be honest with you,” she said. “I had a crush on you as well. I mean, it wouldn’t be that bad if something were to happen would it?”
Nick grinned but said nothing, and for a moment she wondered if he was just teasing her.
I should have just kept my mouth shut, she thought. He’s obviously just messing around the way he and Matt do, always jibing each other. It’s just his way.
The waitress arrived then and took their order and the topic seemed to be forgotten. She vowed to leave it that way and not make a fool of herself any further.
Neither of them mentioned their previous attraction to one another again during the course of meal. As they sat on the deck of the restaurant looking out over the beach, the conversation remained light and playful, like two long-time friends, while inside, a rock band played edgy ballads with crunchy distortion driving their guitars, the lead singer with a voice that seemed to have been cultivated from a lifetime of chain-smoking and drinking whiskey in New Orleans blues bars.
“This is why I miss Florida,” said Riley.
“I couldn’t live anywhere else in the world,” said Nick. “The sunshine, the beaches. I’d be just as happy living in a shack with nothing but my board and a battery operated FM radio.”
“Can I ask you something?” asked Riley.
“Sure,” said Nick.
“What is it that motivates you? I mean, why do you keep working so hard if you’d be happy with so little?”
“That’s a good question,” said Nick. “I guess one day down the line I’d like to start a family, you know. My family didn’t have much growing up. I want to be able to give my kids every opportunity in following their own dreams. It’s about leaving a legacy to them. I guess they’d have to learn their own hard lessons along the way, but they’d never have to eat ramen for three years straight and use coupons just to get a cup of coffee. I guess it’s about taking care of my tribe, you know what I mean?”
“Yeah, I do,” said Riley, imagining what gorgeous kids he would have one day. “That’s really sweet. I bet you’d make a great dad. But then why aren’t you already married?”
“To be honest with you,” said Nick. “I always thought I had plenty of time for that later. I wanted to build up the company, pour my heart and soul into that without any distractions. I hadn’t thought too much about it until…well…until your brother’s accident. I think it was a wake-up call for both of us. I mean, we work hard, but when are we actually going to live?”
“You’re living now, aren’t you?”
Nick chuckled that deep warm laughter. “You’re right. I guess I’m getting overly dramatic here. This is it. This moment right now. This is life. And ain’t it sweet?”
Something in his eyes and the way he had said it, made Riley want to lean across the table, hold his face in her hands and kiss him. Something in his eyes made her wonder if he didn’t want to do the same thing.
She was the first to break their gaze and look away. Nick cleared his throat. A silence settled over them in the wake of the electricity between them.
“See those clouds over there, out over the sea? I bet we’re gonna have a storm later.”
“Then we better hurry home,” said Riley. “I want to try out your pool.”
8.
