Chapter 20
Justin places a finger on my lips and says, “Shhh.” He fights his own laugh as we duck past a guy unloading fishing gear from his truck.
We walk in the opposite direction, away from the fishing piers, but it doesn’t matter.
The beach is silent other than the crashing waves.
I suspect everyone is recovering from the long day and night of celebrations.
It’s barely six and the sky has just started to lighten to a hazy gray.
I follow Justin over the dunes to the water, holding his hand as he leads the way.
Once we hit the hard-packed sand, we drop our towels and strip off our clothes, down to our bathing suits.
Out in the water, I spot three surfers bobbing on the water.
“You can do this,” he says. My feet sink into the cool, soft sand bordering the ocean.
I’m not sure why I agreed to this, but he woke me up naked and weak and told me it was time to face a fear of my own. The guys were shedding their Pact. I need to shed my fear of the water if I’m really going to embrace the boys of Ocean Beach.
The water is Justin’s home, like a second skin, so he wades in to his knees while I tentatively allow tiny waves to cover my toes. The others see us coming, all eyes trained in my direction.
“I’m coming,” I say, pushing down the panic building in my chest. This fear is unfounded, but real. He walks back and takes my hand this time, slowing his pace to mine.
“This may take forever,” he says several minutes later. The water is only at our shins. I’m not sure he realizes it, but my heart is in my throat; a full-fledged panic attack is not far away.
“Maybe we should just—oooph.” Justin picks me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. I look over his shoulder at the dark water as he wades in deeper.
“This will be faster.”
I wrap my arms around his neck. “Justin, I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
“I can’t breathe, babe,” he says and I loosen my grip. A little. He takes a couple more strides in and stops. We’re about waist deep and a wave splashes over my butt.
“It’s freezing,” I say. “And scary.”
“Summer, I’m not going to let anything happen, okay? None of us are going to let anything bad happen to you. Never again.”
I believe he means the words he is saying, but I look at the endless dark water around us. Anything could be lurking under the surface, but instead of sharks or sea monsters, I see the smiling faces of the boys I’ve come to love. A piece of the fear breaks off and drifts away.
Until something brushes against my foot and I yelp.
“What about shar—,” I start to argue but he stops me with his lips, kissing me, as he walks in a bit further. Once he gets deep enough he sinks in so the water is up to our necks.
“You can’t just kiss me every time I freak out.”
“No?”
“No, because, oh my god,” I squeal. “Something just touched my fo—" Again his mouth is on mine and as much as I want to fight him, his method of distraction is very effective. I relax into his kiss and the feel of his body next to mine as we float in the water.
“See? Not so bad.” His hands wander, slipping beneath the bikini strap across my back.
“It’s horrible,” I say, but there isn’t an ounce of conviction in my voice.
A burning heat spreads through my belly and I no longer care that we’re in the ocean, surrounded by sea creatures and other scary things.
Splashing catches my attention and Pete’s dark hair bobs above the surface.
Whit swims around me, fingers grazing my neck with the kind of heat that can’t be mistaken as a sea creature.
“You made it,” Nick says, smiling in his easy way. He never had any doubt.
“You’re kind of magic, you know.”
“Who?” Justin asks. “Us?”
“Yes.” I splash him in the face and he grips both my wrists with his hands. “You’re fearless. And determined. You know just how to make me feel comfortable, and you put your family and friends first—even when it’s the harder choice.”
“It’s not a choice, Summer,” Justin says.
Pete nods. “We spent years thinking we needed out of this place—that it was a trap we couldn’t leave. But now I know that’s not true. It’s the place where the world begins and ends. Anything can happen.”
“So what does that mean?” I look around them. “You’re not quitting school, are you?”
“It means that right now we’ll get our education and figure out how to bring that knowledge back to Ocean Beach to make it a better place,” Nick says. “This is our home and we’re blessed.”
We rise up and down as a wave comes, and four sets of hands brace me. “You’ve already managed the impossible, getting me out here.”
“Never underestimate the power of four determined men from the South, Summer Barnes. We’ll make this work,” Whit says, smiling in a way that melts my bones, “and if we don’t, we’ll have fun trying.”