Chapter 27
With wet hair and my tennis bag over my shoulder, I left the tennis complex and headed for the parking lot.
Vince had texted to say he’d pick me up.
During training I’d successfully managed to block out thinking about our date, but on Gabe’s table my thoughts had come to rest—only to end up revolving around Vince for thirty minutes.
Wondering what would happen today. Whether we would kiss again and, if so, if it would feel just like it did the other two times.
When I saw the white Jeep, my heart skipped a beat, an eager but at the same time somewhat nervous beat.
It had been a minute since I’d been on a date.
Alex and I had gotten to know each other at the PT clinic in the spa town of Bad Wiessee.
He’d just had a knee operation and was working hard to make his way back onto the German biathlon squad.
Which wasn’t the only thing we had in common.
He also came from a family of athletes and knew about the pressure and expectations that came with it.
His father had been a successful biathlete, and his mother had won Olympic silver in the two-person bobsled.
After the sports clinic, we stayed in touch and arranged to meet for dinner in Munich.
We quickly realized, however, that there was a slight difference between sitting across from each other on the ergometer and eating at a fine Italian restaurant.
Apart from our respective progress, we didn’t really have much to talk about and ended up in small talk way too quickly.
After less than an hour, I pleaded a headache and said goodbye.
I never heard from him again. I definitely wouldn’t be able to leave so easily today, I thought as Vince got out of his car.
I didn’t really know where we were going, but there definitely wouldn’t be a subway.
Vince took a few steps toward me, but I couldn’t help but register his looking to the left and right, as if he felt someone were watching him.
Or as if he counted on Kay rounding the corner to confront us.
The image was so ridiculous I had to smile.
Maybe I’d even tell him about our conversation later.
Or, well, the part where Kay admitted that she was slowly accepting the fact that she couldn’t stop the Ohana at least. As for the rest of our conversation, I still had to think about a few things myself.
“You look pretty relaxed for having trained all day,” he said offhandedly, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his khaki-green shorts.
“Gabe’s got magical hands. Just half an hour on his table and you feel like you’ve been reborn.”
He took my tennis things and was noticeably surprised by how much they weighed. “Man, how many rackets you got in here?”
“Eight.”
At first he thought I was joking, but a quick glance at my face told him I was serious. “They’ve all got different strings. Every surface and every kind of weather requires a different tension.”
“Hmm.” He nodded.
He opened the trunk and stuffed my things inside. I caught a glimpse of a box full of snorkeling gear as well as a cooler.
“You thirsty? I’ve got water, Coke, and iced tea.”
“A water would be great.”
He pulled out a mid-sized bottle of water for me and a bottle of Coke for himself. I thanked him and opened it on my way to the passenger side.
“What kind of beach are we going to anyway?”
“Can’t tell you.”
I frowned and got in.
“It’s not in any guidebook, and it’s going to stay that way.”
“I won’t tell a soul.”
He started up the car and put it in reverse. “That’s what you’re saying right now. And then one day in a few years in some interview you’ll remember that dude from Hawaii you once made out with and that beach…”
I punched him in the arm, and he laughed.
“What bothers you so much about that phrase?”
“What phrase?”
“Making out. You always say it so sarcastically.”
“I do?” He shrugged but didn’t say anything else. Instead, he switched on his blinker and turned onto the coastal road toward Haleiwa.
“Do you go to this beach often?”
He shook his head. “It’s no good for surfing.” Without looking away from the road, he reached for the console and grabbed his bottle of Coke. He brought it to his lips and took a drink, and I realized that I was staring at his mouth. “My dad used to take us there pretty often.”
The mention of his dead father was like a cold shower.
“He worked in sales for a large pharmaceutical company and was rarely at home. But whenever we were here on vacation, he did something with Laurie and me every day. We’d go sailing, boating, snorkeling, hiking.
” His voice had taken on a nostalgic note.
“Jim was the one who told us about this beach. Laurie and I had annoyed Dad the whole time about wanting to see sea turtles. Stupidly, Jim had forgotten to mention that you had to climb over a bunch of rocks to get to the beach. Dad cursed up a storm.” He grinned.
“I can still see him in his flip-flops, making his way down there with all our swim bags, the umbrella, and the cooler.”
I smiled. “But it seems to have been worth it if he was there with you more often afterward.”
“Oh, definitely. The beach is tiny and only locals know about it. Most of the time you’re there alone.”
The word alone echoed through my head, and what went with it caused my cheeks to grow warm.
I quickly looked out the window in the hope that Vince didn’t see how much that little piece of information had stirred me up.
On the side of the road a sign announced Laniakea Beach.
There were a ton of cars all over the place.
Directly behind them, the Pacific rolled toward the white sandy beach.
Vince stopped and let a family loaded down with beach bags cross the road.
I wonder if the sight hurt him. If it ever stopped hurting.
For a moment, I was overcome by an intense longing for my parents.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent a message to our group chat.
They would probably be surprised when they woke up in a few hours to read my incoherent love you, but at that moment, that’s exactly what I wanted them to know.
We drove along the coastal road for a few more minutes until Vince flicked his turn signal just before Haleiwa and turned right.
After driving through a residential area for a while, he parked the car at the end of a cul-de-sac.
Mystified, I looked through the windshield.
Nothing here suggested a beach or any sea turtles.
More like a good spot for burying corpses.
I was already close to making a joke when I noticed the narrow path leading between a few bushes.
“We’ve got to walk a bit,” Vince said, noticing my expression.
“I thought we had to climb over rocks.”
“That comes later. It’s worth it. Trust me.”
Once I got out of the car, I didn’t doubt for a second that we were by the ocean. The air smelled damp and salty, and the sound of the waves roared in my ears. Vince walked around the car and pulled open the trunk door. While he unloaded, I opened my tennis bag and gathered my swimwear.
“You can leave the suntan lotion in the car. I’ve got some too.” He nodded at his worn Nike sports bag next to him on the ground. “You can add your stuff to mine, there’s enough room.”
I took him up on his offer and undid the zipper.
“Um…I probably should have mentioned,” he began, a little bashfully, and I looked up at him, prepared for the worst. “There isn’t anywhere for you to change down there. Just in case you’d rather put your bikini on here.”
“Oh, no problem. I’ve got one on underneath.” I tugged at the strap of my turquoise triangle bikini, and he stared at the spot where the fabric snapped against my skin for a second longer than necessary.
“Ah…gotcha. Of course. I should’ve noticed,” he mumbled, and reached for the handle of the cooler.
I zipped the bag shut again and swung it over my shoulder.
“Hold up, it’s heavy.”
“Not when you’re used to carrying around eight tennis rackets,” I trilled, and set off.
The trail led us to the rocks Vince had talked about.
They were rugged but not slippery, so we didn’t have any problem getting down to the sandy beach in our sneakers.
It was indeed tiny, not even thirty feet long, and deserted.
The fine, white sand was spotless. As if no one had been here for ages.
“Wow,” I gasped as I scanned the spectacularly blue water.
Even at a distance, I could see how clear it was.
When I turned back to Vince, he was taking off his T-shirt.
Suddenly my mouth grew dry even though I’d seen his upper body several times already.
The flat stomach, the defined V, the fine line of hair that disappeared into his swim trunks.
I reached for the hem of my top and pulled it over my head.
Undoing the button of my jeans, I noticed that Vince was looking at me.
It wasn’t a stare. But he was definitely looking.
When our eyes met, a tingle ran down my spine. Then he blinked and turned away.
“Could you pass me the sunscreen?” I asked as Vince continued to dig about in the sports bag.
“In a sec.” He sounded agitated, but maybe I was just imagining things. Without turning around, he handed me the tube over his shoulder. Our fingers touched and once again that tingling feeling shot through my whole body.
“Thanks,” I gasped.
Vince went on looking through the bag, as I covered myself in lotion.
“You looking for something?”
“I’ve got it.”
“Could you do my back?”
I saw him stop.
“Of course,” he said after a brief pause. “I’ve just got to…”
The rest was too garbled for me to understand. Turning to face me, he looked tense.
“Everything okay?”
“Hmm.”
He took the tube out of my hand so quickly that all I could do was blink, utterly baffled.
What was going on? Up until a few minutes ago, everything had been totally relaxed between us.
Okay, we’d stared at each other a bit, but that was no reason to…
I flinched when I felt the cool cream on my back.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
Then he put his hands on my shoulder blades.
When he began to move his hands across my back, massaging the cream into my skin, it took all I had not to gasp.
As rough as his hands were, his movements were soft.
When he lifted the clasp of my bikini slightly to glide his fingers underneath, I held my breath and prayed not to break out in goose bumps.
Then his hands wandered on from the middle of my back to my sides and down toward my behind, accidentally touching the hem of my bikini bottoms, I lost the fight.
Tons of little hairs on my arms stood up, and I could feel my nipples growing hard.
Thank goodness he was behind me and didn’t notice.
“That okay?” he asked once he was done.
Seeing as that every word had gotten stuck in my throat, all I could do was nod. To be on the safe side, I folded my arms too.
“Should I do yours?”
“No,” he shot back. He cleared his throat and added, “It’s already done.”
I gave him a questioning look. “Is everything really okay?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”
“You’re acting a bit weird.”
“I’m not…”
“You are. Does it have something to do with…your dad?”
“What?!”
“Because you associate this place with him?” I added carefully.
He took a deep breath and laughed as he let it back out. “It’s got nothing to do with my dad, trust me.”
Now I was really confused. “So I guess it’s got to do with me… Did I do something wrong?”
“No,” he said flatly but apologetically. “It’s got nothing to do with you. Or, well, you can’t do anything about it…not directly.” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Wow, I’m really sticking my foot in it here.”
I decided not to respond to his joke. “What can’t I do anything about directly?” I tried to meet his eyes.
“About…” His hands made a gesture but then fell back to his sides. “…being you.”
That was something I hadn’t expected. And I didn’t understand it either.
“That you look the way you do in…your bikini.” It came out in a tortured voice. Almost bashfully. “And the way my dumb body jumps to attention immediately.”
“Jumps to attention,” I repeated stupidly before the penny dropped. “Oh.” I quickly looked away and felt my cheeks beginning to flush.
“Fuck, is this ever embarrassing.” He sighed, leaning his head back.
“No!” I hurried to say. Even though I was completely engulfed, I felt sorry for him.
“I feel like a horny asshole.”
“Nonsense!”
“That really wasn’t the reason I brought you here. I mean, I wanted to show you sea turtles, not…” He broke off and shook his head. “If you feel uncomfortable now, we…”
“My body reacted to you too.”
He stopped short. Blinked.
“Just now. When you were doing my back.” I took a deep breath, uncrossed my arms, and directed his gaze to my bikini top. The way my nipples were clearly visible beneath the thin fabric. “It looks like Gabe isn’t the only one with magic hands.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.
“That really wasn’t the reason I came here with you,” I began, grinning. “I wanted you to show me sea turtles. If you feel uncomfortable now, we…”
He grinned back and within seconds his expression grew relaxed.
“Now…seeing as how we’ve got the embarrassing part out of the way, can we finally go snorkeling?” I said.