Frayed (Connections, #4)(100)

She cocks her head in my direction. “Do explain.”

“When they hit the surf head-on they hold up falling lips and hollow out pitching waves, making for an unbelievable ride. They turn reef breaks into emerald green tube-riding playgrounds. It’s f*cking awesome. But at the same time they can knock a foot or so off any incoming swell and can actually flatten an otherwise small but rideable wave. That f*cking sucks.”

She smiles at me. “You really love surfing, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I do. I hated living in LA and not on the beach. It really made me miserable.”

She seems to ponder this for a long time.

“But I was asking about you. Tell me something else I don’t know about you.”

My fingers caress circles on her leg and she glances down. “I used to think I had superpowers.”

A huge grin crosses my face. “Oh yeah?”

“It’s stupid.”

“You tell me and then I’ll tell you how I used think I was Aquaman.”

“Aquaman?” she squeaks.

I shake my head and shift my eyes her way. “You first.”

She inhales a deep breath. “Don’t laugh.”

“I can’t promise that. But, S’belle . . .”

Her eyes cut to mine.

“You . . .” I stop, not sure of what I want to say or how to say it. “You know what, never mind. I promise to try my damnedest not to laugh.”

She narrows her eyes at me.

I pinch her leg. “I said I promise.”

She jumps in her seat at my touch.

“Ah . . . I think you might be ticklish.”

She grabs my hand. “I’ll never tell.”

“You don’t have to.” I grin and pull her hand to my lips to kiss it.

“Okay, so when I was little I noticed that I could mix words up or say things I knew didn’t make sense and people would give me what I wanted.”

I nod, thinking about what’s she’s saying.

“As I got older it worked even better. One time just after I got my license, I got pulled over for speeding. I honestly didn’t know I was speeding. The police officer asked if I knew how fast I was going. I answered that I was going sixty. He stared at me. I said, ‘Sir, my car won’t go any faster than that unless I really jam the gas down, so I’m sorry if I was going too slow.’ He looked at me flabbergasted but only gave me a warning and explained I had crossed into a residential area and three miles ahead the speed limit would increase again.”

Clutching her hand on top of her leg, I roll my eyes at her. “He just thought you were cute.”

“No, really it was my silver tongue.”

“Your silver tongue?” I burst out laughing and drop her hand to cover my mouth.

She sits up straighter. “Yes, I used to believe my superpower was that I had a silver tongue.”

My mind wanders back to sex at that comment, but she doesn’t seem to notice and continues with her anecdotes about her silver tongue. When it’s my turn I tell her my story about how I really believed I could grow gills and breathe underwater if I stayed in the ocean long enough. She laughs just as hard at me as I did at her.





CHAPTER 32


Burn

Bell

The glorious Pacific and the serene Catalina Island on the horizon are the only view from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room. A hand-forged copper-shingled roof engineered by a master shipbuilder to weather the worst of storms protects it. Ben’s house, built on the bluff and jetting out over the ocean, looks like a physical paean to light, sky, and sea. I can make out sweeping views of the city and the surf breaking on the coastline.

He’d told me all about it, but nothing could have prepared me for how beautiful it is in person. I look over at him. “This is supernice.”

“Thanks. I haven’t lived here that long, but it really feels like home.”

A sadness washes over me when I see the waves rolling onto the shore.

“Where are you going?” he yells.

“To see the beach up close.”

He chases after me around the side of the house and down to the back.

I kick my shoes off as soon as I hit the sand and look out into the calmness of the sea.

He catches up with me and grabs my hips. “You’re crazy.”

“No, I just love the beach. My dad used to take us all the time when we were kids. He’d put the Beach Boys on in the car and sing along and eventually we all joined in.”

He dips his head and skims the skin of my neck with his tongue. “Do you miss your dad?”

“Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t. The good times blend with the bad and it’s hard to figure out which were more real.”

“I’m sorry for what you had to go through when your dad died. My dad died when I was really young too and I don’t really remember that much either,” he says.

I look up at him and that’s when I see it in his eyes. The same look I’ve seen before but haven’t been able to place. I think it’s a longing for family. The thought makes me even sadder.

“How do you know how my dad died?” I’m not upset, just curious. I really never talk about it.

He scratches his head. “I did some research earlier this year for Aerie.”