Chapter 6
“Are you alright?” Oliver asked as he pulled Muriel to shore.
“Is she breathing?!” Sadie asked in a panic to Kyle, who stood white-faced, wide-eyed, and without speaking.
“I’m fine!” Muriel coughed out, but she brought her left hand up to her other arm to make sure it wasn’t broken. Nope, just badly… “Ouch!”
“My dad’s going to kill me!” Kyle said, smacking his forehead.
“My uncle’s going to think it’s my fault,” Sadie said, dropping into the sand.
Oliver crouched down on the ground next to her. “You okay?”
Muriel coughed one more time, skimming her eyes past his. Those aqua and gold flecked eyes were the reason she’d fallen off the dang surfboard in the first place.
“Nobody’s telling anyone’s dad or uncle anything,” Muriel said, trying to get up without using her right arm. “I’m fine.”
But she winced as she got up, and Oliver grabbed her around her waist and helped her to a standing position like a gentleman in an old black-and-white film.
“Thank you,” she said, as she hobbled out of his manly grasp and over to her beach towel. “I’ll be fine,” she mustered out. She cringed at what she must look like.
“Mind if I take a look at your arm?” Oliver asked. “I went to medical school for a stint.”
“I’m good,” Muriel said. “My grandfather was a pediatrician. He can take a look at it when we get home.”
“I think you should go to the clinic right away,” he said, gently taking her hand in his. “It’s already swelling up.”
“Oh!” she said as he slowly bent her hand.
“Looks like you might have broken your wrist. Let’s grab you some ice and get you to the clinic.”
“No, no, I’ll be fine. I don’t need to clog up the emergency room with this.”
“Around here?” Oliver laughed. “Unless it’s a fishing hook in someone’s forehead or a fender bender in slow-moving traffic, you’re our kind of emergency.”
Muriel doubted that was what the ER doctors and nurses would say, but she looked down at her hand. It was twice its normal size and a deep shade of purple. “Maybe we should get that ice.”
“Why don’t you take a seat here,” he said, pointing to a blanket, “while I go find some ice.”
Oliver took off and ran to another group on the beach about a hundred yards away.
“Oh no.” Sadie screeched in horror. “It’s Gia and Alana and their friends.”
Muriel looked up from her swollen hand to a group of girls passing their cooler to Oliver.
“So…?” Muriel said, noticing a woman older than Gia and her friends, though definitely not old enough to be the mother of the girls. She was more Muriel’s age, and in a very tiny bikini without the yellow or the polka dots or much of any fabric covering her body. The woman’s skinny arm reached out to him just as a frisbee was about to hit her in the head, but Oliver grabbed it like Spider-Man, with lightning-quick reflexes.
“Your teacher is wicked nice,” Muriel said to Sadie, holding her hand above her heart.
“He is,” Sadie said, staring in the same direction.
“You said he had a girlfriend?” Muriel asked, hoping she had misheard Sadie.
But Sadie nodded, pointing at the woman in the tiny bikini. “She’s really pretty, too.”
“Oh…” Muriel felt a wave of disappointment, but then her rational side took over. She didn’t even want to get involved with somebody.
Muriel watched as Oliver ran toward her and Sadie.
“Should I lose my phone so you have to go with him?” Sadie asked, winking.
Muriel let out a laugh then a yelp, but then she laughed harder. Enjoying this new side of Sadie rather than her grumpy teenage one. “No, I’m good. But thanks.”
“Right, bruh.” Sadie snapped her finger and pointed at her. She looked at the group of girls. “Alana Gorham is such a pick-me.”
Muriel looked in their direction. She didn’t know who Alana Gorham was, but thank goodness Muriel taught, because she did know what a pick-me was. “She always tries to get noticed?”
“With everyone. The boys, the girls”—Sadie looked at Mr. Abbott—“the teachers.”
That’s when Oliver came running back to them with a bag of ice in his hands.
“Here’s the ice,” Oliver said, passing the ice to her.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Do you want me to take you to the clinic?” he asked again.
She shook her head but realized she did need help. “Kyle can take me home.”
She wouldn’t be able to drive.
“Did you drive here?” Oliver asked. “I can drive your car back for you. Otherwise, you’ll get a ticket.”
“How will you get back to the beach?” she asked.
“Let me drive you in your car, and Kyle can bring me back here,” Oliver suggested.
Kyle looked at Muriel. “Are you okay with that?”
She smiled at the teenager, who acted as chivalrous as his father, opening doors, pulling out chairs, and making sure they were okay. Just like the teacher.
Just as Muriel was about to say, “Hey, let’s go to the clinic you were talking about,” a tall brunette Amazonian goddess came jogging up from the waters, wiping her hair back out of her face. Walking like a runway model out of the cold Atlantic, she went straight up to Mr. Abbott.
“Is she alright?” the woman asked Oliver.
Oliver barely looked up at the beauty queen. “She’ll be fine. Just a little break.”
Muriel wondered if she’d even eat the items from the basket, given how skinny she was. She instinctively went to move her arm and shouted out at the pain.
“I should get home,” she said, limping over to her car again. “Sadie, you think you could grab our things?”
“I’ll grab it all,” Kyle said, rushing over to their spot.
Sadie walked with Muriel to the car.
“Babe,” Oliver said to the woman. “I’ll be back in a bit.”
“I’ll start to pack up our things,” she said to him.
Muriel noticed a spot on the beach set away from the others, with a blanket that sat empty. No beach chairs or umbrellas like Muriel would’ve had if she’d brought Zack to the beach. They sat mostly. They drank with friends. They’d walk the beach depending on the crowd, which was usually tight. He would toss the football or frisbee around, but she couldn’t ever remember going into the water.
Now she wouldn’t be able to go into the water with a cast on her arm. How long would she have to stay away from the water while living in Blueberry Bay?
“I’ll be right back!” Oliver yelled at the woman as he jumped into the driver’s seat of Muriel’s old sedan, which she’d bought for herself after signing her first teacher contract. “Do you have the keys?”
Kyle tossed Oliver the keys and opened Muriel’s door, helping her into the seat. Oliver snapped her seat belt on without her even noticing him pulling it over her as Sadie jumped in the backseat.
“I’ll meet you at home,” Kyle said, running back toward the surfboards as Sadie got into the back.
“What a mess I made,” Muriel said as Oliver pulled out of the beach parking lot.
“Nah, nothing like a good story to tell your students.”
“I guess I have my ‘What did you do over the summer?’ story now.” She bounced her head back on the headrest, laughing at herself. “Do you take your students surfing every day?”
Oliver turned out onto the main road and headed toward the house. “Not every day, just days when I go.”
“Which is…?” Muriel thought she was dedicated to her profession, but to offer to surf with students on his free time was really nice.
“When it’s nice out,” he said.
“Wow, that’s really incredible of you offer that in your free time,” she said.
“It’s sort of the way it works here,” he said, shrugging. “I just go and surf and the kids hang out with me because I’m one of their safe people in town.”
“But they hang out with you?” She had never heard of a teacher just hanging with their students on summer break just because they were somewhere.
“I offer lessons to whoever wants to learn,” he said. “I love surfing, so it’s a win-win.”
Muriel held her arm against her stomach as he turned down her road. “That’s really nice.”
“Mr. Abbott, who’s the girl?” Sadie asked from the backseat.
“Her name is Natasha,” he said, not offering more details.
“She’s really pretty,” Sadie said.
And really skinny, thought Muriel.
“Is she a teacher?” Sadie asked, which would’ve been Muriel’s next question.
He shook his head. “No, she’s into other things.”
The answer struck Muriel as odd, but her attention was averted as he pulled into their driveway and saw her mother, Gordon, Ginny, and Quinn all waiting for her arrival.
“What are you guys doing?” she said, easily opening the door to the car, but both Gordon and Quinn rushed to her side.
“Sadie texted Meredith that you almost drowned,” Gordon said to her.
“I’m fine,” she said, babying her arm while slowly turning in the car to get out. “I just hurt my arm.
“She wiped out pretty hard in the shallow area and may have broken her wrist,” Oliver said.
“Mr. Abbott,” Quinn said, reaching out his hand to shake. “Nice to see you, and you’ve met my granddaughter.”
“It’s good to see you as well,” Oliver said. “Hello, Meredith. How are the blueberries this year?”
“Great, just great,” Meredith said, reaching out her own hand and shaking his. “Good to see you again, Oliver.”
Muriel caught the again. Did they know each other?
Meredith must’ve read Muriel’s mind and said, “Oliver takes his science classes to check out the fields and beehives.”
“I’m able to do it because of your graciousness,” he said back to her mother.
Gordon took Muriel’s wrist into his gentle hands. “Look at it. It’s twice the size!”
Meredith turned to Oliver and asked, “Are you a fellow practitioner?”
Muriel winced as her grandfather examined her arm.
Oliver shook his head. “No, sir, just a couple years of medical school.”
Gordon shook his head. “Shame. We need all the talent we can get.”
“Well, good thing I dropped out.” Oliver said with a laugh. “Turns out I’m not that good in a real emergency.”
This made Muriel jerk her head back in surprise. “You were really calm when I fell.”
She and everyone else around her were not. She couldn’t catch her breath. Sadie thought she was dead but wasn’t trying to call for help or do any kind of CPR. Kyle had been frozen the whole time, worrying about her dying on him. Oliver had been the calmest among them.
Oliver smiled at her and said, “Well, your fall wasn’t that bad…”
“I broke my arm!” she said. “I thought I was going to drown.”
Gordon looked at Oliver, who then said, “She got knocked down because of a wave.”
“She’s a pool swimmer,” Gordon said back to him as Kyle pointed to her.
“See, I told you there’s a difference,” Kyle said. Then he turned to the group and said, “She wanted to go alone.”
This made the whole group gasp dramatically.
“You should never go swimming in the ocean alone,” Meredith said.
“I’m a very good swimmer,” she said, insulted, but the wave had toppled her over and then thrown her back down as she tried getting up. Not at all graceful like beauty queen Natasha. “But I was going with Sadie, not alone.”
“Are you Muriel’s grandfather?” Oliver asked Gordon. “She told me you were a pediatrician.”
Gordon nodded. “For forty-two years.”
“Wow,” Oliver said. “That’s incredible.”
“Loved every minute of it until I didn’t,” Gordon said. “It’s a hard profession, definitely a love-hate relationship like anything, but worth every ounce of pain. Just like teaching.”
Oliver gave one of his smiles and said, “I bet.”
“So, could one of you drive me to the clinic?” Muriel asked.
Her whole family had gotten pulled into Oliver just as easily as the rest of the town.
“We’re surfing tomorrow,” he said to Sadie. “Supposed to be nice.” Then he covered his mouth and pretended to whisper, “Maybe leave your cousin in the shallow waters.”
“Ha-ha,” Muriel said, a little sad he hadn’t told Sadie to bring Muriel and instead said to keep her away.
“Just kidding.” He handed her mom her keys. “You should get one of those waterproof casts.”
Then she caught his eye, and a jolt went through her body as he kept his stare on her. What was happening?
“You should join me in the early morning,” he said. “I like to use your mom’s beach.”
Muriel’s mouth dropped. “Um, yeah, totally.”
“You’re really going to go back out there?” Meredith asked, about to start offering her unwanted motherly advice. “Maybe you should take lessons swimming in the ocean first.”
Muriel’s eyes widened as her cheeks warmed. “Mom, I know how to swim.”
Meredith raised her eyebrows.
“Should we head to the clinic?” Muriel said to no one in particular, but she wanted the attention off her. “Thanks again, Mr. Abbott.”
She waved and jumped right back into her car.
Meredith got into the front seat and turned the key. She rolled down the window as soon as she could to get fresh air on her face from the heated car.
“Do you want to use the bathroom before we go?” Meredith asked just as Kyle and Oliver walked by the car to get into Kyle’s truck.
“No, Mother,” Muriel said through gritted teeth. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t want to change into something else?” Meredith said, looking at Muriel in her one-piece and her cover-up. “It’s probably going to be cold in the waiting room.”
Her mother was right, and she did have to go pee, but the last thing she wanted to do was get out of the car in front of Oliver when her mom told her to use the bathroom.
But she really should grab a sweatshirt.
“Let me go change.” She opened the door, gingerly getting out of her car and slowly ambled toward the house. She waved with a big smile on her face when Kyle drove by, trying not to look at Oliver.
But as the truck drove away, she suddenly wanted to try surfing again.