Shattered Ties(21)

“I don’t consider it a date.”

“Well, I think Todd did. That’s how his mom took it anyway.”

“I have no idea. Maybe you should go ask them if it was or not,” I replied, unable to keep the sarcasm from my voice.

“Don’t use that tone with me, Emma. I raised you to be polite.”

“No, the never-ending flow of nannies raised me to be polite.”

Before she could reply, I turned, walked into my room, and slammed the door behind me. I knew I was being a snotty bitch, but I couldn’t help it. My mom had no interest in being an actual mother. She simply wanted to use me to help her get in good with the high class folks of Santa Monica. Well, she could take that notion and shove it right up her ass. I had no intention of being her puppet.





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I was up and dressed before seven the next morning. I’d spent most of the night tossing and turning. I was too excited at the prospect of spending the morning with Jesse. There was a good chance that I would embarrass myself before the day was over, but I didn’t care. I was going to spend time alone with Jesse. I’d take my chances with embarrassing myself.

I’d finally decided to throw caution to the wind and see where things ended up between the two of us. I wasn’t even sure if he was interested in me or not, yet I was willing to take a chance that my mother would find out that I was spending time with him. That said a lot about my self-preservation skills...or rather, the lack of them.

I slipped quietly from my room and went down the stairs to the door leading to the garage. Hopefully, my mother was still sleeping and wouldn’t catch me to see where I was going. I had every intention of lying if she asked, but I was a horrible liar. I didn’t want to tell on myself before I even made it out of the house. If I were going to get locked in my room for eternity, I wanted to at least commit the crime.

Luck was with me as I slipped into the garage and walked to my car. I cringed when I started my car and clicked the button to raise the garage door, but my mother never appeared. I held my breath until I turned the corner, and my house disappeared from view. I’d done it. I did a small happy dance as I drove through town. I was proud of myself for escaping and making it this far. I wasn’t too concerned about anyone seeing me on the beach with Jesse. No one who would rat me out to my mom would be on Jesse’s side of town. At least, I hoped not.

I followed the directions Jesse had texted to me the night before as I approached his side of town. Just like he’d said, the part of the beach that he surfed at was only a few minutes away from the restaurant we’d been at last night.

The lot was almost empty when I pulled in. I didn’t see Jesse’s Jeep anywhere, so I turned off my car and waited with the windows down. Even this early in the morning, the temperature was already starting to rise. I grabbed a hair tie out of my console and pulled my hair up into a messy ponytail, fighting the pieces already matted to my neck with sweat. I couldn’t wait to get in the water and cool off.

I glanced up as a car pulled in beside me. I couldn’t hide the smile that broke out across my face when I saw Jesse sitting in the driver’s seat of his Jeep. He was out of the car and opening the back before I even realized that he’d moved. I quickly got out of my car and walked back to where he was unloading two boards. He didn’t mess around.

“Hi,” I said nervously.

“Hey. Can you grab that duffel bag and carry it down to the beach for me? I’ll get the boards.”

“Sure,” I said as I picked up the bag from the back of his car.

I followed him down to the beach. We stopped halfway, and Jesse put both boards down in the sand and took the duffel bag from me.

“Where do we start?” I asked. I had no idea what surfing entailed, but I was anxious to find out.

“First things first. I’m going to show you the basics—how to wax your board, how to put the leg leash on, and things like that. I also borrowed Andy’s sister’s wet suit for you to use today. You two look like you’re about the same size.” He unzipped the duffel bag and pulled out what looked like a bar of soap and a leg rope.

“Are we taking a shower or something?” I joked as I stared at the soap.

“Huh? Oh, no.” He laughed. “This is board wax, not soap.” “And now I feel like an idiot,” I groaned.

“Nah, it’s cool. You’ve never been around this stuff, so it’s understandable that you didn’t know.”

He was trying to make me feel better, and I was fine with that. I hated looking like an idiot.

“Anyway, what do we do first?” I asked.

“I waxed both boards last night, but I’m still going to show you how to do it. You need to keep your board waxed, or you’ll slide right off. When you wax it, it makes little bumps that give you traction.” I nodded to show that I was listening.

“There are two different types of wax. The first is the base coat that you put on every few months. I’m not going to show you that because I already got both boards ready. The board I brought for you is called a longboard. It’s the easiest thing for you to learn on. I always wax the entire surface of a longboard with the base wax. After I do that, we move on to the top coat.

You have to add that wax a lot because it is softer and rubs off easily.”