AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rhys was packing his rucksack when I came out. “There’s the girl I know and love,” he said, looking up. “Let’s go.”
We exited the caravan, and I headed to his car. “We’re walking,” he said over his shoulder. “I want to stop at the beach.”
I looked at my watch. It was going on eight-thirty. I supposed we had time, so I followed him down the path. Various trails crisscrossed over each other, and I was soon lost, not recognizing the one we were currently on as we descended into the valley. “What’s that?” I asked as we encountered a depression at the bottom of the hillside covered with wooden boards.
“It’s an old mine shaft.”
“They used to mine here?”
“My grandfather did until the Aberfan disaster in 1966 when a spoil tip slid down the mountainside in a slurry, killing over a hundred children. He had this shaft bordered up after that.”
“How horrible.”
“It was,” he said.
“Have you ever been down there?”
“I tried once when I was a teenager and was home from school on holiday. Morgan dared me, so we waited until nighttime and tried to go down, but it was too steep and slick with mud. It’s really dangerous.”
We continued down the path until we came to the beach. Gray clouds sat low on the horizon. Rhys went to the shack and grabbed his surfboard, stripping off his clothes.
I sat down on the rocks and watched as he ran into the waves. My mind wandered to the night before. I wasn’t proud of myself, but I wouldn’t lie either. I was attracted to Rhys.
Or at least my libido was.
When he held my arm behind my back and told me what he would do to me, a thrill of excitement ran through my body. I wanted him to fuck me. He was the first man I have ever felt any satisfaction from. I’m not sure what it said about me if anything. If anything. But that is where it ended.
I didn’t trust him. He was secretive and dangerous.
He sat on his surfboard, readying himself as a huge wave barreled behind him. In one fluid motion, he jumped up, stood, and rode the wave in perfect unison with the ocean until it appeared to swallow him, only for him to jet out of the edge of it at the last minute. He walked to shore as the water foamed around his ankles and pulled a towel from his sack, wrapping it around his waist and sitting down next to me.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“For today,” he said, wiping the salty water drips from his dark curls. “Surfing is a form of mindfulness. It’s a path to self-awareness, as there is no room for overthinking. So, when I catch the perfect wave, I give thanks for it and call it a day. Some days, I’m out there for hours. Today was different.”
“It sounds freeing,” I said a bit enviously. I spent my whole life overthinking, overanalyzing, and worrying. “This beach is so beautiful, and it’s yours to visit every day.”
He picked up a small crab from a pool in the rocks, letting it scuttle over the palm of his hand before setting it free. “My father was a very wealthy man. He died when I was eight, and my mother and I came to live here with my grandparents. My grandfather thought he could control my father’s money, but my father had left it all to me in a trust that would be distributed when I turned twenty-five. My grandfather was a hard man. He also had a great deal of his own money, but he was greedy. He was furious that my father left my mother without a penny, but before my father died, he found out my mother had an affair. My grandfather took his hatred for my father out on me.”
He paused. I wasn’t sure what to say, so I remained quiet as I had a feeling he didn’t tell this story to many people. Rhys reached into his bag and pulled out the bacon rolls, unwarping them from the wax paper. He handed me one.
“I was sent away to school in Scotland when I was ten,” he continued, biting into his own roll and licking the crumbs from his thumb. “I learned at an early age that money, especially the amount I would one day inherit, came with rules and expectations and that love was conditional. So, when I finished at Gordonstoun, it was understood that I would attend university. I was accepted into Oxford. Instead, I decided to go off on my own. My grandfather cut me off and labeled me a disappointment. My mother begged me to come home, but I didn’t listen. I loved my freedom. I would work six months on cargo ships, saving my money, then spend the next six months traveling. I’ve climbed Mount Everest, scuba-dived on the Great Barrier Reef, kayaked in Antarctica, and hiked through the Amazon rain forest all on my own, yet I would always be a disappointment to my grandfather. And then one day, when I was in Africa, I received a phone call from my grandfather telling me my mother had passed away in a car accident.”
I rested my hand on his thigh, seeing the strain on his face, and was again amazed at the heat that poured off him. He covered it with his and went on with his story. “I came back here immediately. I had already turned twenty-five and had access to my trust. Big estates like this are expensive, and my grandfather had basically gone broke trying to keep it. It had been in our family for generations. His attitude toward me suddenly changed. I was no longer the pariah he claimed me to be in my youth. He needed my money. My grandmother had died years before, and he was nothing more than a lonely old man. He asked me to help him save Môr Haven. He said it was my duty. I told him I would, but he would have to sign the property over to me. I didn’t do it for him but for my mother. I loved her and knew she would want me to keep it in the family. She loved it, and I still feel close to her here. My grandfather hated me for it, but he signed it over nonetheless. He had no other choice.”
“I’m sorry,” I said softly, realizing I had judged him wrong. He was not the spoiled rich boy I thought him to be.
He shook his head, standing up and dressing. “Don’t be. I don’t need pity. We all have a story, and it doesn’t make me a good man. I could have just given him the money, but I wanted him to pay for how he treated me.” I finished my bacon roll while he took the surfboard back to the shack.
“This is delicious,” I said, hoping to lighten the mood.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said, smiling. “Come.”
I followed him as we climbed over the outcropping of rocks to a private cove. The water was calmer here, and a small boat was tied to a worn wooden dock. He got in first, offering me his hand as he helped me into the bow. Then he pulled the start cord, and the engine began to purr as it came to life. “Dale is just across the bay,” he said as we left the shore and the boat skimmed across the waves.
The gray clouds encroached, blocking the weak morning sun, and the wind bit at my cheeks. How quickly the weather could change. The bleakness represented my mood. Rhys’ belief in my abilities aside, I still didn’t know if I had a job with the Times. Sam had completely screwed me over, and I knew I deserved it. Even if I did find something to build a story off of, would I have a paper to publish it in?
Rhys steered the boat into the harbor, cutting the engine as he glided into an empty slip and tied off the boat. I jumped out before he could help me.
