See Me(39)

“Yeah?” He wore that amused expression again.

“Uh… yeah,” she said sheepishly. “I got glasses when I was eight, these brown-rimmed monstrosities, and I had braces for three years. I was shy and gawky and I actually liked to study. I didn’t go to a prom until I was a senior, and even then, I went with a group of other girls who didn’t have dates, either. I never kissed a boy until the month before I started college. Trust me, I know what a nerd is, and I was one of them.”

“And now?”

“I’m still kind of a nerd. I work too much, I don’t visit my friends as often as I should, and I don’t really do anything on the weekends except paddleboard and spend time with my family. On Friday nights, you can usually find me reading in bed.”

“That doesn’t make you a nerd. I don’t go out much anymore, either. If I’m not working out or competing, I’m usually listening to some tunes or studying or hanging with Evan and Lily at the house.”

“Lily?”

“Evan’s fiancée.”

“What’s she like?”

“Blond. About the same size as you. Terrific personality. And very, very Southern. She’s from Charleston.”

“How about Evan? Is he anything like you?”

“He’s more like you, actually. He’s got his act together.”

“You think I have my act together?”

“Yes.”

“Then why doesn’t it feel that way?”

“I have no idea,” he answered. “But I think most people would say the same thing about you as I did.”

She squinted over at him, liking what he’d said. By then, they had reached the shoreline, and she slipped off her sandals, focusing on the water. “Okay, this is good,” she declared. “The tide’s going in, which makes it easier. If it were going out, we’d have to launch from down there,” she said, pointing over his shoulder. “You ready?”

“Almost,” he said. He put the boards down and shrugged off the backpack, storing his flip-flops and removing a bottle of sunscreen. He pulled off his shirt, tucking it away in the backpack as well, and her first thought was that he looked almost sculpted. His chest and stomach were a landscape of contours and ridges, every muscle sharply defined. On his chest, a colorful dragon tattoo wound its way over one shoulder, intertwining artfully with a Chinese character. He stared toward the water as he began to apply the lotion. “It’s gorgeous out here,” he observed.

“I agree,” she said, trying not to ogle.

He squeezed some more sunscreen into his hand before offering her the bottle. “Do you want some?”

“Maybe later. I put some on earlier, but I don’t generally burn. Latin skin, you know.”

He nodded, slathering some on the fronts of his legs and then turning around. “Would you mind putting some on my back?”

She nodded, her mouth going slightly dry. “Sure.”

Their fingers brushed as she took the lotion. She squeezed a dab into her hands and slowly ran her hands over his back, feeling the interplay of muscles and skin, trying to ignore the strange intimacy of what she was doing. Serena was going to love hearing about this.

“Will we see any dolphins or porpoises?” he asked, seemingly oblivious to her thoughts.

Running her hands over the cords in his back, it took her a moment to answer. “I doubt it. At this time of day, they’re usually on the ocean side.” Then, feeling a pang of disappointment, she finished and closed the cap. “All right, you’re done.”

“Thanks,” he said, putting the sunscreen away. “What’s next?”

“We’re almost ready.” She unhooked the carrier straps and handed them to Colin to store in his backpack as she grabbed the smaller of the two boards. “Can you follow me out with the cooler and towels? I’ll show you how to get up.”

She waded into the ocean with her board, and when she was a bit more than knee-deep, she lay down on it, pulling herself along its length until she was centered. She set the oar perpendicular to the board, then held it fast as she first went to her knees, and then finally stood. “Ta-da… And that’s all there is to it. The key is to find your sweet spot, where neither the nose nor the tail is underwater. And then, keep your knees bent – it’ll help keep you upright.”

“Got it.”

“You can put the cooler behind me, and then stack the towels on. And would you hand me my camera?”

He waded into the water, following her instructions. She draped the camera strap around her neck as he retrieved his own board and repeated her movements. When he was standing, he shifted his weight, the board wobbling slightly.

“It’s more stable than I thought it would be,” he remarked.

“Now when you turn, you can either paddle forward for a wide, slow turn, or you can paddle backward for a tighter turn.” She demonstrated the first, then the second, rotating in place, moving a bit farther from shore in the process. “You ready?”

“Let’s go,” he said. Within a few strokes he’d caught up to her, and they began to paddle side by side until they reached the fertile, still waters of the marsh. Above them, the blue sky was limned with thin cirrus clouds. Discreetly, she watched Colin taking in everything, his gaze lingering on the brown pelicans and the snowy egrets, or an osprey that passed overhead. He didn’t seem to feel the need to break the silence, and she thought again that she’d never met anyone like him.