California Waves: The Davenports, Book 2

Chapter Twenty-Eight

A beautiful full moon hung low in the sky as Hersch and Mila drove back to her place. He jumped out and ran around the car to open the door for her, which charmed her. Perhaps it was because they were still all dressed up, but there was almost a little formality to the way they treated each other. He opened the gate and held it for her to go through, and when she slipped the key into the lock and opened the door to her house, she held it politely for him to enter.

Her skin felt extra sensitive as he brushed against her on their way to the bedroom. She helped him slip off his jacket and hung it neatly in her closet, then she undid his tie and released it slowly from the collar of the shirt he’d so crisply ironed. She undid each button, kissing the skin she uncovered. He was patient with her for a while and then increasingly restless.

She tasted salt on his skin from all that dancing, and felt the heat from his belly on her lips, which made her even more hot. She kissed her way back up, and he was there, kissing her mouth, urgent and deep until she moaned low in her throat.

He turned her around and undid the zipper on her silk dress. He didn’t even let it hit the floor, but carefully held it while she stepped out of it. He hung the dress neatly in her wardrobe. There was something kind of sexy about the fastidious way he looked after her things even when she could feel his raging need for her. Besides, it gave her a little more time to pose in her fancy, barely-there underwear.

When he returned from the closet, he looked her up and down. “You do have some very nice lingerie,” he said.

She twirled slowly for him, letting him get a real eyeful, and then he kicked off his shoes, pulled off his socks, and slipped out of his dress pants. She walked right up to him and, with a firm but loving hand, tumbled him back on her bed. Finally, she had him where she wanted him. She slipped his boxers down and off, revealing how incredibly turned on he was. She climbed on top of him and kissed him, and then he flipped her onto her back and slowly and deliberately removed each piece of lingerie. After that, it was a little bit of a competition, her on top, then him on top, until they were kissing and laughing and worn out from teasing each other. When he slipped inside her at last, she felt that she’d remember this moment forever, and then he drove her up, up, and even as she tried to make the moment last, she was wrapping her legs around him, meeting him thrust for thrust, until it was too much, and she tumbled over the edge, crying out his name.

It had been the perfect day.

Just as they were about to go to sleep, he leaned over and whispered, “I love you.”

Mila went from feeling utter bliss to alarm. She moved her lips but found she was tongue-tied. Even though she’d thought those words to herself at her brother’s wedding, to say them out loud now felt dangerous, as though she’d be giving herself away.

Instead of responding, she kissed him.

He didn’t call her out for not saying the words back to him, but she thought she caught a tiny glimmer of hurt in his eyes. The last thing she saw was the moonlight glinting off his Saint Christopher’s medal.

* * *

Mila woke earlier than usual. It was just past five, the moon was still full, and the waves were huge. She nudged Herschel awake.

“Come on, let’s go out and surf.”

He opened one eye and said, “It’s still dark out there. You can’t surf in the dark.”

“You can when the moon is full. Anyway, it will be light soon. Come on!” She couldn’t quite understand this driving need to surf. Probably the fact that he’d said I love you, and she hadn’t been able to respond, had something to do with it. She did love him, she knew she did, but to say those words out loud would make her so vulnerable. She just wasn’t sure she was ready.

Going out on the ocean would clear her confused thoughts, and then perhaps she could say the words back to him. Until she had her surfboard under her and the wind at her back, she’d remain in this state of confusion.

So, she banged around the kitchen and made coffee, fueling them up for some very early exercise. If Hersch was brokenhearted about the way she hadn’t said I love you, he was hiding it well. He put on his board shorts and joined her in the kitchen, draining his first cup of coffee and then preparing an insulated mug for each to take with them.

Soon, they headed out, him with his boogie board and her with her surfboard.

* * *

When Hersch got to the water’s edge, he was shocked at how big the waves were. Scary big.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked.

He could feel her energy and could have kicked himself for blurting out I love you. He hadn’t meant to do it that way. He had meant to be cool and prepared. Maybe to say the words when he’d taken her away for a weekend in Paris or something, not throw them at her when they were both tired after watching her brother get married. What had he been thinking?

And now here they were in what felt like the dead of night, and she thought it was a good idea to go surfing on the biggest waves he’d ever seen? If anything happened to her, it would be his fault for putting her in the position where she felt she needed to surf. If he’d learned anything about Mila, it was that she worked out her problems on the water.

He really wanted to talk her out of this terrible idea of swimming out and meeting those huge, dark, soul-sucking waves. “Why don’t we go get breakfast?” he suggested. “We could come back later when it’s light.”

Her answer was to laugh at him. “Give me an hour, then I’ll go for breakfast with you.”

“Okay,” he said quietly. She put her mug in the sand for later and would have headed into the surf, but he pulled her to him and kissed her swiftly. “Be careful,” he said.

She smiled that gorgeous smile of hers. “Don’t worry. I’ve got this.” And then she was off.

He knew that she worked things out surfing and that he’d given her a biggie to ponder, but he’d never seen her like this. She was swimming out toward those big, dark waves as though she wanted to dance with danger.

His heart was in his throat. He couldn’t even sit down. He stood, walked to the edge of the water, and just watched. She was a dark shape against dark waves, and then the sun began to rise, casting a deep pink glow. She popped up on her board as easily and lightly as a ballerina leaping onto a stage and began to ride the waves. She was glorious, so beautiful it made his heart ache, and he watched her coming in toward him, so grateful she was safe. But she didn’t come all the way in. He realized with dread that she wasn’t finished.

She jumped off her board while she was still pretty far from shore and swam back out again. Half a dozen times, he waited for her to come all the way in, and each time she went back out for another ride.

Day was dawning, and he couldn’t take much more of this tension. He could see her more clearly now, and it seemed to him that she was barely in control of her board. Yet, when he was certain a wave would toss her, she somehow managed to stay on its back and ride.

Now he watched helplessly as she rode a big one, one of those that always scared him, where it curled right over like a big mouth trying to gobble her up. He could hardly bear to watch, yet he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

She seemed so small and defenseless in the curl of the wave. “Come on, come on,” he said aloud, his heart pounding. “Come out of there.”

And as she did, his worst fear was realized. The greedy mouth of the wave snapped its jaws shut.

And she disappeared.

A few seconds later, he watched her board pop up, but she wasn’t on it.

He didn’t even think. He dropped his coffee and sprinted into the water, calling her name.

Back when he’d been an Ironman, the swimming was the strongest leg of the event for him. His muscles remembered exactly how it felt to drag himself through the water with efficient strokes and at high speed. He kicked with all his strength, dragged himself forward with his arms, panting with the effort, half blinded by the waves, choking on seawater. Not knowing what else to do, he headed for her surfboard, where he could still see it bobbing. He was nearly there when a head popped up.

“Mila!” he yelled.

She looked slightly disoriented as she turned toward him. “Hersch?” And then she yelled again, “Hersch! You did it. You’re swimming!”

He didn’t even know what she was talking about. “I thought I’d lost you.”

And then they reached each other, and she threw her arms around him, and he threw his arms around her. He kissed her cold lips.

She was trembling.

He was trembling.

He kissed her again, and they clung to each other.

She said, “You’ll never lose me. I love you.”

And then they both grabbed at her board, and it supported them as they wrapped their arms around each other and kissed with the kind of deep love they’d never dared to express before.

He took another deep breath and said, “I love you too. I never should have said it last night. I wanted to make a big romantic thing of telling you, but the words just slipped out.”

“I liked hearing it,” she admitted. “But you startled me. I already knew I loved you. I was just scared to tell you.”

In that moment, Hersch realized they were still in deep water, and panic began to set in. His teeth were chattering, and the beach seemed a long way away. “Can we go in now?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said softly. “Let’s go home.”

* * *

When they got back, they showered until they were all warmed up and then cuddled in her bed, sharing coffee and just enjoying being in love and being with each other.

He leaned over and said, “I’m not going to scare you by asking too soon, but get used to the idea that one day I will. And before I even ask, I want you to think about how you’d feel marrying someone with one of the riskiest jobs on or off the planet.”

She rolled over and kissed him, and the smile bloomed all over her face. “Haven’t you noticed? I am a bona fide risk-taker. We’ll make it work.”

He reached over and ran his hand down her hair, tucking it behind one ear. “Bad things can happen. I’ve had to make my peace with that in order to be an astronaut.”

She shook her head at him. “Love is risk. The biggest risk of all. I never thought I could find a man like you. I never thought I could love this deeply. And loving you this way, I understand that one day you could be in a rocket, and it might not go well. You know that I could be on a wave, and it might not go well either. But that’s why we’re perfect for each other, because we understand and accept that risk.”

He pulled her close to him until her head was resting on his chest, and she could hear the slow, steady beat of his heart. He said, “You know, I had an epiphany the other day.”

She glanced up at him. “You did? Epiphanies don’t happen every day.”

Hersch smiled. “This one was pretty profound. I realized that I’d been fooling myself. Maybe all my grand talk about not wanting to marry and have children wasn’t about leaving anyone behind. Maybe I was the one who was afraid of being left behind.”

They stared into each other’s eyes for a long time, and then she kissed him tenderly. “I love you. That is all I know, and right now, it’s enough.”

He said, “And that’s everything.”