Chapter Fourteen
I was yanked out of the water by the collar of my wetsuit and dragged up onto the beach.
“Jesus, Blumer, what the hell were you thinking?” Liam snapped. “You can’t just jump on a board and think you’re going to be as good as you were as a kid.”
I was too busy hacking to put up an argument so I was left to wheeze and shake my head violently, which he completely ignored while he continued his rant.
“Don’t you realize what could have happened? You could have drowned, given yourself a concussion, or worse, hit another surfer with your board,” he said. “How would you feel then, if you caused someone else an injury?”
I squinted at him and tried to crawl up the beach toward my stuff. The blond man was gone but I could see my bag was open. My arms and legs felt weighted as if I’d eaten enough beach that I was now just one big useless sandbag. I sank onto the ground on my belly not even caring that the waves continued to wash over my feet.
“Aw, shit,” Liam cursed. He knelt beside me and pushed me until I flopped over like a dead fish, looking up at him. “Are you hurt? Can you breathe?”
His brow was furrowed in concern. He cared! I almost let him think I needed mouth to mouth but felt like that might be overplaying my hand; besides he’d already used that move on me and we really needed to make a fresh start. Also, I really wanted to check my bag.
“Fine, I’m fine,” I choked. I craned my head to look at my bag and then I pushed up to a sitting position, forcing him to give me a little space.
“You are not fine,” he said.
“I need to get to my bag,” I said.
“Easy,” he said. “Don’t rush, you’ll only make it worse.”
Liam reached down and released my ankle tether. He dragged my board up onto the beach, dropping it next to his. He crouched beside me and put my arm over his shoulders. With little to no effort, he helped me to my feet and I hobbled toward my bag. I let go of him and sank to my knees. I moved aside the beach towel and there was my stuff. I dug through it—wallet , house keys, clothes. Nothing was missing. Phew!
Perhaps I was crazy and didn’t understand what I’d seen. I mean, who the heck would steal stuff off a beach in front of everyone? But why had I run into this guy twice? And why was he going through my stuff? I checked and my cell phone was still in the zippered pocket on the side. WTF?
Maybe I had lost more oxygen than I’d thought when I was rolled by the wave. Maybe I had seen it wrong and the guy hadn’t been digging through my stuff. I pulled my fluffy striped beach towel out of the bag and dried my face off.
“What are you doing here, Blumer?” Liam asked.
He sounded uncomfortable, as if my presence on the beach made him feel weird. He hadn’t seen me since he’d told me he’d moved on, but I’d seen him. I wondered if he suspected that I’d been watching him and was surfing here today specifically because I knew he’d be here.
Well, even if it was true I planned to disabuse him of that accurate notion right now. My stalking him was on a need-to-know basis and he did not need to know just yet.
“Let’s see... wetsuit, surfboard, hmm, I’d think it’s perfectly obvious that I’m golfing,” I said.
His mouth twitched but he didn’t give me an actual smile, and then he opted for stern.
“Blumer, you haven’t surfed in years,” he said.
“So what?” I asked. “It’s like riding a bike or sex.” He swallowed hard. Yes, I was trying to work sex into every conversation, because I’m helpful like that. “Learn to do it right the first time and you never forget how.”
His brown eyes crackled with intensity. “You can’t—”
“Watch me.” With that I dropped my towel and grabbed my board, pausing to reattach the tether.
“Jules, wait, you’re not ready.”
He was right behind me, but I ignored him and dove into the waves. The ocean was cold and even in a wetsuit, my breath hitched the first time I went under, feeling the water tug on my long curls, soaking them and flattening them to my head when I surfaced.
I climbed onto my board and paddled out to join the others. I forced myself not to turn to see if Liam was following me. When I reached the group, Ten was straddling his board while he looked in my direction and then just beyond me. I glanced over my shoulder. Yep, Liam paddled right behind me. Ten gave me a small smile, his gold tooth glinting in the sunlight. My smile deepened to a grin. I felt like I had an ally in my mission to win my ex-boyfriend back.
Ten caught the next wave and I watched spellbound as his dreadlocks danced in the air as he rode the board, perched on the front like a mermaid on the prow of a ship, until he chose to end the ride by diving into the surf.
“No one is as Zen as Ten,” Liam said from beside me.
I met his gaze. So many memories were formed right here with the two of us straddling our boards, waiting for our next wave. Back in the day we’d been so in sync, we’d been able to catch waves together and ride them in side by side. I wondered if we still had the surfer mind meld and if we did, would it bother Liam to ride side by side with me now?
“Listen, Jules, I think you should let me spot you for your first few runs,” Liam said. I opened my mouth to thank him, but he never let me speak. He held up his hand and spoke over me. “Yeah, I know you’re fine and you don’t need any help, but I think you should err on the side of safety, all right? It’s not just you out here you know, you really need to consider everyone else.”
“That would be fine,” I said. “Thanks.”
One of his eyebrows quirked up.
“You weren’t going to argue with me, were you?” Liam sounded rueful as he reached down and squeezed water through his fingers, making it shoot up into the air.
“No,” I admitted. “I know I’m out of practice.”
He nodded at me as if surprised that I was being so level-headed. We rode out the next set of waves, letting the others surf them in. And then off in the distance, I saw the swell build. It was an indicator of a new set of waves coming. I felt the eager anticipation that meant the surf was prime.
“This is it,” Liam said. He moved into position on his board.
“Ready.” I moved onto my belly and began paddling. We were just feet apart and the wave lifted us up together.
“Now!” Liam yelled.
We both paddled hard and then popped to our feet and as if no time or distance had separated us from the last time we’d surfed together, we rode in perfect sync. We were both goofy footed, meaning we rode our boards with our right foot forward, and we fell right back into our old pattern. Balancing on our boards side by side, becoming one with the sea, was magical.
I glanced at Liam and caught him grinning the same smile I’d seen a million times when we surfed. Full lips parted over white teeth in a grin that turned up in the corners and made the harsher lines of his face soften with affection and the pure joy of catching a wave. My heart lurched with how much I had missed that grin on this man. My board bobbled, and I flailed before plunging headfirst into the icy water.
When I broke the surface, Liam was there, having whipped his board around to check on me.
“Woo hoo!” he cried. He pushed my board toward me while straddling his own. “That was one hell of ride, surfer girl!”
A grin burst across my face as I climbed back on my board. Liam leaned over and pulled my board up alongside his. Just like the old days, he leaned close to me and I braced myself for his lips to meet mine in a salty cold kiss. I felt my heart surge right up into my throat. Was it going to be this simple to find ourselves again?
Yeah, no—instead he tugged a long piece of kelp out of my hair.
“Nice catch,” he said. “It blends in with your crazy hair.”
My heart shriveled. He had always loved my hair. When Babs had railed at me to just cut it short instead of letting it run wild, he’d been the one to tell me that he loved it, that it suited me, that it was one of the things that made me beautiful. Now, he was comparing it to seaweed.
“Thanks,” I murmured.
A large wave was about to break over us and I took the opportunity to slide off my board and duck my whole body under the water to hide my hurt as if I could wash away my feelings with a cold splash of water. A small part of me wanted to stay under and just let the ocean push me back to the shore so I could crawl up the beach, defeated, grab my bag and disappear. But I wasn’t a quitter.
What had I expected? I had skipped town with his best friend and made Liam look like a jilted idiot. Did I really think a morning spent surfing would turn all of that around? Baby steps, I reminded myself. Newly resolved, I surged back up into the air.
He was waiting for me. That was something.
“Come on, Blumer, the waves await.”
I nodded and followed him out. I knew if I was going to win him back, I was going to have to play the long game. First, he had to get used to having me in his day-to-day life, as a neighbor and a friend, then I could bring out the heavy artillery and push him to see me as a woman. I knew my sisters were right and the best thing I could do was tell Liam the truth about Babs and Jessie, but I just couldn’t. Not yet.
I supposed it was stupid but I wanted him to care about me in spite of the past. Plus, there was the very real possibility that he would be furious about the decisions I’d made without telling him. I knew if the situation were reversed, I would be.
I’d been so hurt and angry and stupid when I left. I had thought I was being self-sacrificing and noble but looking back, I had taken the first opportunity to get away from Babs and to heck with anyone else. Liam and, yes, even my sisters, were abandoned in the process. At the time I didn’t care because I was so sure I was never coming back.
But now I was here, and I knew that the love I’d found in Gull’s Harbor all those years ago was something so unique and rare that I needed to see if I, we, could find it again. Was it worth humiliating myself for? Yep. A large swell was coming, and Liam glanced back to make sure I saw it. I nodded and together we dove through the wave, knowing as all surfers do that the best way out of something is through it.
The afternoon passed quickly, and I left the beach before Liam...I didn’t want to clue him in to the fact that I was pursuing him.
As I toweled off and shimmied out of my wetsuit, I was tempted to sneak a look at Liam, but I played it cool. I had an objective in mind, the two of us back together, which meant I couldn’t be too in his face until I started breaking him into the idea of “us” first. Then Em’s boots were coming out and anything else I could think of to throw his way, for that matter.
As I trudged back up the hill with my board under my arm, I allowed myself one last glance at the water. If my gaze tracked a certain bright green board, well, that couldn’t be helped. When I did spot him, I knew from the way my insides shivered that he was looking at me, too.
And so began my campaign to wear Liam down. In an ideal world, he’d see me enough to realize he wanted me back and would dump this girlfriend of his and we’d get back together. Easy peasy, right? Yeah, no, after all he was a man, and they can be a thick bunch. When confronted with what is best for them, like asking for directions when lost, they seemed to always get defiant and dig their heels in.
With this in mind, I made sure to tread that fine line between just being around living my life and shadowing his every move. Some ideas worked better than others.
Knowing that Liam swam every morning, I began to drag myself up out of bed at the crack of dawn not only to watch him swim laps in his pool but also to change into my clothes for the day in front of my window with the lights on. Yep, I was a peeping Tom’s wet dream.
This went on for three days. I never looked to see if Liam saw me from his pool. I tried to time it so that I changed when he was done with his swim, but I never verified that he saw me, wanting to pretend that this was sheer happenstance and not a ploy on my part to get him to notice me.
When a fist pounded on the front door just moments after I had finished changing into my yoga pants and halter top, my heart soared thinking maybe it was Liam and he just couldn’t resist me anymore. Yay, me.
I opened the door with a wide smile which promptly fell when I took in Mrs. Rodriguez in her flannel cat pajamas, looking peeved.
“I don’t know what your life in New York was like, Julia Blumer, but here in the suburbs, we do not flaunt our bodies in front of the window,” Mrs. Rodriguez chided. “We close our curtains or move away from the window. Honestly, what would your mother say?”
“Uh.” I was pre-coffee so this was the best I could do.
“My twelve-year-old son’s entire boy scout troop has been meeting in his tree house every morning to watch you get dressed.”
“What?” My jaw dropped and I crossed my arms over my chest.
Over Mrs. Rodriguez’s shoulder, I saw a pack of boys standing at the curb, looking mortified. I could only assume this was the perv troop. None of them met my eye, except for Danny Rodriguez. When he caught my eye, he puckered his lips and gave me a slow wink. OMG!
“Did you ever think the problem is the boys not respecting my privacy and not me changing in my own home?” I asked.
“No.”
I would have argued further, but I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned to see Liam was standing on his front porch, enjoying his morning coffee and watching the show. Oh, horror!
“It is not the boys’ fault you have no sense of common decency. They have been diligently trying for their bird watcher’s badge,” Mrs. Rodriguez said. “Until you distracted them.”
“Tweet tweet,” I said.
She stared at me, her nostrils flaring in fury. I stared right back.
“Draw your shades, Julia, or I will call the police and have you charged with indecent exposure.”
She turned on a fluffy pink slipper and strode down the walkway where the boys were waiting. They fell in line behind her with Danny bringing up the rear. Before he disappeared, he held his hand up to his ear with his thumb and pinky out, miming a phone, and mouthed the words, “Call me.”
I turned to go back into my house, ignoring the guffaw that I heard coming from next door. Once inside I glanced out the side window to see Liam doubled up with laughter at my expense. Jerk! It did not help that his morning attire of jeans and a dress shirt looked fiiiiine on his muscle-sculpted body. Damn it!
“Who was that?” Soph asked as she came down the stairs. She had a raging case of bedhead and it looked as if she hadn’t washed off her makeup from last night. This was not the Soph I knew.
“Mrs. Rodriguez from down the street,” I said.
“This early in the morning?” Soph frowned at the door. “Why?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Something about bird watching.”
“Huh.” Sophie continued to the kitchen.
I uncrossed the fingers behind my back and started to follow when Em appeared in the doorway to Bab’s bedroom. Was she sleeping in there now? Judging by the dark circles that were even darker than they’d been the other day, that would be a no, there was no sleeping happening. She shook her head until her long blond hair covered her face.
“You are such a liar,” she hissed. Her voice was filled with scathing contempt and I winced mostly because what she said was true in this instance. Still I wasn’t one to get kicked and not kick back.
“Oh, I’m the liar?” I snapped. Soph and I had been giving her space, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t keeping an eye on her. “I heard you call your boss, Mr. Drake, yesterday. You cried and said you were so overwrought about sorting your mother’s things that you couldn’t bear to come into work. You haven’t sorted jack. So, why the lies?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“It is so my business,” I argued. “I saw you with him at Babs’s service, Em. You’re in love with him.”
“Ah!” Em gasped. Her face went bright red and then pasty pale.
“What’s going on in here?” Soph appeared in the kitchen doorway.
“Em’s in love with her boss,” I said.
“Shut up, Jules!” Em’s face went red again.
“That’s why she’s been calling out of work,” I continued. I looked at Em. “What did you think was going to happen? He’d miss you so much he was going to show up at the door and beg you to come back to work? Or did you think he’d leave his wife for you?”
“What?” Soph cried.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. “He’s married.”