Remarkably Bright Creatures(64)

She gives him a sidelong look. “You’re cool with me having a kid?”

“Well, I guess it means you’re easy,” he says, voice hitching on the last syllable. Did his joke cross the line? But Avery bursts out laughing and gives his shoulder a playful shove.

“You are so going in the water. I’ll dunk you myself.”

“You can’t! I don’t have a swimsuit.”

This is true. All of Cameron’s board shorts are stuffed in a black garbage bag, where they went after Katie tossed them off her balcony. The garbage sack has probably been moved to Brad and Elizabeth’s basement by now.

Avery stares at him, incredulous. “Why not?”

“Don’t own one at the moment.”

“We have trunks at my shop, you know.”

“Too rich for my blood. What do you think they’re paying me to hack up mackerel and mop up the guts afterward?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I would have given you a pair for free!”

“Nah, I’m done with handouts. Although that shit you gave me for my neck was amazing.”

“Fair enough.” She shakes her head, smiling. “But I hope you like being cold and wet.”

TINY WAVES LAP at the pebbled shore. How hard could this be? Nonetheless, Avery gives him the play-by-play. “So, you want to put your feet here.” She points to the middle of his board. “And hold your paddle like this,” she says, demonstrating.

Cameron nods, half listening as she goes through a million more directives.

“And the last thing,” she chirps as she launches her board gracefully over the water, “is don’t fall in!” A breeze flips up the edge of her running shorts, distracting him.

“I won’t,” he promises. He lies on his stomach, as instructed, and launches his board from the beach. But as soon as he rises to a knee, preparing to stand, he starts to topple. With a humbling splash, his foot plunges, sinking into the rough sand six inches below. “Holy shit!” he gasps. The icy water knocks his breath away. Shockingly cold.

“Five seconds.” Avery looks over her shoulder, brow raised. “A record.”

“I was just testing the water.”

“Try widening your stance.”

Somehow, Cameron gets both feet on the board. And Avery is right; wider is better. When she tells him in a pointed way that she’s taking him on her standard beginner route, he lets it slide. Puget Sound is freezing.

He follows her around a long, curved jetty. On the outermost rock, a seagull cocks its head, its glare comically angry. Studying the surly bird almost leads to another spill, but this time, he recovers. With each paddle stroke, he’s feeling steadier.

They’re halfway to the pier when Avery sets down her paddle and sits, cross-legged, on her board. Cameron’s eyes widen. Is he supposed to pull that off, too?

She giggles. “It’s not as hard as it looks. Keep your weight balanced as you lower down.” Holding his breath, Cameron follows her instructions and soon finds himself seated, bobbing on the waves.

“This is nice,” he says.

“Isn’t it?” Avery reclines, propping on her elbows. Her shirt hikes, revealing her perfect little belly button. “Sowell Bay has some of the calmest water in all of Puget Sound. Part of the reason I moved here.”

“When was that?”

“Five years ago? Yeah, that’s right. Marco was ten. We moved up from Seattle.”

“That must’ve been tough.”

“He did okay. His dad took a job in Anacortes, and Sowell Bay was halfway between.” She trails a hand through the water. “Plus, I’d always wanted to start a paddle shop, which I never would’ve been able to afford in Seattle.”

“What did you do before?”

“Some odd jobs, but when Marco was little, I was a mom, mostly. His dad is a deckhand on a fishing trawler, so his schedule is all over the place.” She stares out at the bay. “He doesn’t see Marco much in the summer. But he’s not a bad guy.”

“Aren’t exes always bad guys?” Cameron inches a leg toward his board’s edge and dips a foot into the water. It’s still cold, but the sun is so relentless out here, it almost feels good.

Avery smiles. “Actually, Josh and I are good friends. We never even dated. Just hooked up once my junior year of high school, and poof! There’s a kid binding us for life.”

“Poof! Is that what childbirth is like?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know what childbirth is like.” Avery flips over onto her belly and props her chin on her hands. “Sorry Marco was such a jerk to you earlier. Honestly, I don’t bring guys home often, and when I have, it hasn’t always gone well . . .”

“It’s okay. He’s fifteen. He’s allowed to be Oscar the Grouch, trash can and all.”

“Trash can? His bedroom is more like an actual dumpster! I don’t even go in there anymore.”

“Believe me, that’s wise,” Cameron says with a laugh. A speedboat buzzes by farther out on the bay, and after a few moments his board knocks gently into Avery’s, pushed together by a series of small swells. They’ve drifted almost all the way to the pier now. At the very end of the leggy wooden structure, some teens are horsing around, some of them tiptoeing along on the top edge of the slanted railing like it’s a tightrope. Avery’s eyes narrow, watching them.