Chapter 26 Summer #2
“I made it onto three tours. Each better than the last.” She smiles fondly over at the ocean.
“It’s pure magic. Feeds your competitive spirit as an athlete, while folding you into a tight, sincerely kind community.
Everyone’s in such awe of each other, you know?
I met some of my closest friends on the tour.
Saw places I never would’ve without it. In my second year, I started leading surf trips for young women in between events, and that was fulfilling in itself—introducing people to my own first love.
” Longing and envy coil together, a thread pulling right in the center of my chest. “And then there’s the waves. You ever surfed outside the country?”
“Tons of times,” Denny cuts in. “The wave at Jeffreys Bay is a favorite of mine.”
“It’s a good one.” Harriet gives him a smile before refocusing on me. “And you?”
“I’ve surfed some of the classics on the West Coast. But I’ve never been outside the country, let alone lived outside of Oakwood.”
Harriet’s smile is teasing, but her excitement is palpable—as though she were in my shoes, on the brink of experiencing it all again herself.
It pumps me with this thrilling, buzzing feeling all the way down to my fingers.
The one you get when you’re, at long last, just minutes away from the thing you’ve been waiting ages for.
“Oh, you small-town girl. You’re going to have your mind blown by what’s out there waiting for you.”
She’s getting far ahead of herself, seeing as I haven’t yet surfed a single heat in this series, and I still can’t stay on my feet when it counts.
But the adventure, the exhilarating waves.
The new friendships, self-discovery, and the competitive glory.
It’s exactly what had driven my longing for the tour years ago.
Until my longing for a home overrode it. And I swept the jagged pieces of that broken dream into a dark corner of my heart, never to be seen again.
Now, with Harriet beaming down at me, those broken pieces shudder to life and inch back together, not as dead and buried as I thought they’d been. For the first time this summer, this series doesn’t simply feel like an escape, but a tentative reintroduction to my own first love.
Harriet’s gaze drifts over my shoulder, grin going wider. “Ah. That boy’s still following you around, is he?”
Parker materializes at my side with my red jersey slung over his shoulder. But any fear that he overheard us talking about the tour is squashed when he gives Harriet—who he doesn’t seem to recognize—a polite smile, before turning hard, unforgiving eyes on Denny.
“Can we help you with something?”
“Oh dear. Am I sensing some hostility?” Harriet bounces an amused gaze from Parker to Denny. “A little competitive spirit over the girl, perhaps?”
Denny barks a laugh that makes me shrink into Parker’s side. “Definitely not.”
My throat clogs, face flames in humiliation. And then I realize Parker’s entire body has tensed. He’s still fixed on Denny, jaw pulsing furiously, eyes threatening hellfire.
Shit. I fist his Hawaiian shirt before he has a chance to lash out.
But Parker shocks me to my core when he takes a breath.
And instead of throwing punches, he throws an arm around me.
Tucks me into his side as though to shield me from the other man, while I stare up at him like he’s grown a second head.
“Definitely not,” he says, peering down at me with a gentle smile. “She’s all mine. I’m not stupid enough to risk fumbling someone like Summer.”
My stomach flips, even knowing he’s only said it for Denny’s benefit.
Harriet grins at us. “How sweet.”
Parker kisses the top of my head. “We better go get you ready. You’re up in fifteen minutes.”
With a parting wave to Harriet, I let Parker steer me toward the competitors’ area.
“Are you all right? I looked away for one second, and that jackass was next to you.”
“He just can’t help himself. It’s like he’s pissed off I declined carrying on with that… situation, and all he wants to do is squash what’s left of me. I’ve been pretending I wouldn’t see him.”
“The guy you’re specifically here to embarrass?”
My bare feet slip on the sand. “I was focused on the surfing, really.”
Nothing’s ever come close to feeling as wrong as withholding the truth from Parker—especially now that I’ve realized exactly how badly I want it.
But all I can picture is the way he’d stood clutching that pair of socks like a lifeline in his messy living room the night we made up.
The desperation in his voice as he begged me to let him back in.
I couldn’t live with myself if I caused him to backslide after the effort he’s put into himself.
I’ll tell him the second I’m sure he’s ready to hear it.
Parker stops us a few yards short of the roped-off competitors’ area. He sits my board on the sand and places his hands on my shoulders, drawing me just a foot away from his body.
“Close your eyes.” I give him a look. “I told you, love. You’ll be the one back for more. Now, close your eyes.”
I do and he moves his hands up, along the sides of my neck, until he’s holding my face, brushing his thumbs along my cheekbones. “Big breath in, Summer.”
I do what he says, the same nostalgia as earlier filling me.
“I know we’re here on some big bid for vengeance, but we don’t have to be.
” We’re standing so close that Parker’s open Hawaiian shirt flutters against me with the breeze.
“You can be here because surfing is what you love—what you’ve always loved.
Because I never see you smile as big as when you land an aerial.
Even when you’re just sitting on the beach, waxing our boards, you’re at your happiest. And Summer? ”
I open my eyes to find faint dimples in his cheeks. Parker points to his chest, at the TEAM SUMMER glittering back at me. “Win or lose.”