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Drew was sitting outside the Airstream when I shlepped back.
“Is this a walk of shame?” he joked.
“Kind of feels that way.”
“Oh, shoot. Sorry, dude. I was just messing.”
My brain was still working hard to remember everything Bridger had told me about this beach and Charlee, but he was pretty private about her. He doted on how kind and beautiful she was, but he didn’t say much else.
I fell into the chair next to Drew. “Last night was amazing, but today she was…”
“Weird?” He tried to help find the word I was looking for, but it wasn’t quite right.
“Dark,” I finally answered. I wasn’t sure I wanted to fully share my suspicions about Charlee with him yet because I still needed time to process them myself.
“That’s intense.” He took a sip from his mug.
“Yeah. Even stranger was she has this wall calendar, but the only thing filled out for the entire year is this broken heart on the eighteenth of this month.” All I had told Drew about coming to this beach was that I wanted to check it out and pay my respects to an old surf buddy who had passed.
“That’s in five days.”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ask her about it?”
“Hell no. It was awkward enough this morning.” I bent over and rested my head in my hands. “I don’t know what to do. I’ve never felt this way for anyone, but she’s so emotionally unavailable.”
“That’s a tough one, but nothing really worth it is easy.” He paused. “Do you think it has something to do with why she’s here?”
“Yeah. Maybe. I don’t know.” I sat back in the chair, frustrated.
He stood up. “Come on. Let’s go surfing. The waves always help me work out my crap.”
I sat outside for a couple of more minutes thinking about last night with Charlee while Drew was suiting up. I couldn’t get the kisses we shared out of my head and the unfamiliar emotions that intertwined with the sensations that rushed me. Intimacy with her had been different. Charlee was different.Special.And she wasn’t going to make this easy for me. That was for damn sure.
Surfing didn’t distract me for long. I couldn’t stop staring at Charlee’s campsite, hoping to get just a glance of her.
Drew and I took a break, floating side by side on our boards.
“What’s really going on, dude? I can tell you’re chomping on something in that head of yours.”
Still undecided how much to share with him, I knew I needed to talk to someone about it. “You know how I told you about my friend that used to come here?”
“Yeah, the one who died a few years ago?”
“Yeah.” I bit my lip. I didn’t know why I cared what Drew thought, but I did. Maybe because he already thought I was a little bit obsessed with Charlee and gave me crap about it. I knew he was just messing with me, but a part of me wondered how much truth was behind his jokes. “So that date on her calendar,” I took a deep breath, “it’s the date of my friend’s death.”
“What?” he shouted. “Whoa. That’s wild.” He paused and then shot me an accusatory glare. “Did you know she would be here?”
Anger shot through me. “What? No. Why the hell would you think that?” It didn’t occur to me that he would think I planned all this and that I was actually a stalker.
“Come on, dude, you can tell me. I mean, that’s one hell of a coincidence.”
“You’re a dick.” He seemed convinced that I knew all this time that Charlee was my friend’s wife.
He put his hands up defensively. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. I believe you didn’t know.” He put his hands back down. “Did you not know he was married?”
“I did, but he never told me her name. At least, I don’t think he did, and he didn’t say much about her except that they met when they were in high school and he adored her. He was a pretty private guy.” Now that I think about it, it might have been more about him staying out of the party scene on tour. He had lectured me about it on more than a few occasions, but I was fresh out of high school and just wanted to surf, party, and hook up with girls. It never affected my surfing, so it didn’t seem like an issue to me. Everyone trained hard on tour and partied harder. It’s just what we did. Except Bridger.
