Chapter 40 – Claire
FORTY
CLAIRE
The sandcastle challenge lasts over an hour while other smaller events continue. The team puts Jonah in charge, and he takes his job seriously. I'm shocked to hear him boss Lainey, Grant, and Miles around during the hour the teams have to build. I have to turn away to hide my laughter more than once, but honestly, the kid is good.
I watch as they make an intricate castle, complete with a moat and seashells, driftwood, and sea glass that Lainey found on the shore, and mentally, I think I want one of them for my shell collection. It's impressive, though I have to admit the other teams have made pretty ones as well.
At the end of the competition, real judges walk by each creation, and I have to wonder just how much money Surf invested in this and if it could ever pay off. I guess a write-off is a write-off, but damn.
They walk up to our sandcastle and take it in. I'm not close enough to hear everything, but I catch glimpses of them talking to Jonah and watch with pride as he beams. No one else on our team talks or gives their own two cents, instead letting Jonah tell every aspect.
When they move to the Surf team, I see their kid team member making a small sandcastle in the corner with some buckets, where June told me she sat nearly the entire time after the other two team members told her to stop messing with their real castle.
God, I fucking hate them so much. I can't wait for them to get what's coming for them. I'm hoping it will be a big fat L.
When it's time to announce the winners, I watch the judges hand out numbered scores. They announce Miles's team fourth, with a pretty solid score of eighty-nine out of one hundred that has Miles giving Jonah a high five while Grant pulls him in for a one-armed hug. They move through the crowd and give out another score, and by the time they make it to the Surf Club, my heart is pounding because there is only one castle left, and no one has beat eighty-nine.
"Come on," I whisper, eyes on the judges.
"And the score for Team Surf's recreation of a mermaid…" the judge says, then smiles wide before saying, "Eighty-five!"
"Oh my god!" I shout, then stand and run over to them. “Jonah! You did it!” Our team moves around the boy whose cheeks have gone bright red, despite his wide smile.
"Jonah! Jonah! Jonah!" June and I start to cheer, and soon everyone around us is joining in. Miles and Grant grab him, lifting him onto their shoulders as we all cheer his name, laughing and warm with joy at his win.
I look over to where there's a shout and see Brad pushing his teammates over into the sand and then destroying the sandcastle like a kid who lost a T-ball game, and I fight the urge to laugh before refocusing on cheering for Jonah.
The final event is beach volleyball, with four nets set up and teams rotating through them. Two people from each team enter the game, and Miles and Grant are the two for Team Locals. They quickly won each round, beating each of the teams they had gone up against before. Finally, it's them versus Brad and Paul.
With both teams tied at fifty-two, whoever wins this game wins the entire thing, and my nerves are on edge. But as Miles comes to his things to grab a drink of water before the last round, he doesn’t seem nervous at all. In fact, this might be among the most relaxed and content times I’ve seen him all summer.
“Why aren’t you worried?” I whisper as he sets his water down and pulls me in close. “You guys are tied.” Miles shrugs like it’s no big deal, then presses his lips to mine, kissing me quick and hard.
“Because we already won, Claire,” he says.
“Miles—”
“I’m serious. Look around us, babe. Look at this town, at everyone cheering, everyone who came out to support us. We won. What do they have?”
“Possibly your house?” I ask, and he smiles wider, then shakes his head.
“No, they don’t.” He’s so delusionally self-assured, I wonder if maybe he has heat stroke.
“Maybe you should talk to Brad really quick, see if?—”
“No. It’s all fine, Claire. No matter what happens, we’ve got this. I promise.”
I open my mouth to argue, but he kisses me again and steps back, a hand in mine.
“Do you trust me?”
I hesitate, but only for the slightest second. Not because the answer isn’t an all-consuming yes, but because of the look in his eyes.
He genuinely isn’t worried, and I’m not sure if it’s because he has some kind of trick up his sleeve or a plan for what happens if they lose, but I’m relieved to see it all the same. So I answer, “Always.”
He tugs me in once more and kisses me again. “Then let’s win this thing.”
We move together, hand in hand, to the team, where I look at my friends, this little family we’ve created, and put my hands on my hips.
“Okay, you guys, we’ve gotta win this thing. I’m going to do my thing, but we need you guys”—I turn away from Miles and Grant, who will be playing—“to wreak whatever chaos you can. Be loud, be obnoxious, be annoying.”
“June’s specialty,” Grant says under his breath, and his sister reaches out and punches her brother.
“Use your specialty of being a stupid meathead who is good at sports and not much else, and I'll use mine.” Grant smiles and pulls his sister into him, using his knuckles at the top of her head to give her a noogie before she dips out.
“Enough goofing off, you two! This is serious! Life or death!”
“I don’t think it’s that serious, babe,” Miles says with a smile, and I turn my glare to him.
“It is to me! I don’t want to be living on the street with my hermies next week, Miles Miller.”
He smiles at me, then opens his mouth to argue before the judge shouts.
“Teams, get on the court!”
My heart races, and I turn back to my boyfriend and press my lips to his, hard. “Good luck. You’ve got this. Kick their asses.”
“Love you,” Miles murmurs, and I fight the melting of my belly.
“Love you too. Now go win for me.” He gives me a salute before Grant grabs his arm and drags him off to the last game.
Grant is about to serve, and Miles looks at me with a wink and a smile. I blow him a kiss and then look to the other side, seeing Paul glaring at his brother. Grant serves, and Brad goes for it, setting the ball for Paul, who, still watching me with a glare, misses it completely.
I jump and clap, my boobs very obviously bouncing as I do, and from the corner of my eye, I know Paul is staring. He always had a thing for my tits, and knowing his weaknesses is really going to come in handy today.
Miles gets the ball to serve now, and I look down at my bikini top, grabbing and shifting my boobs as if I'm trying to rearrange them. That's when Miles serves and slams the ball into his brother's face.
"Fuck!" Paul says, holding his now bleeding nose as Miles stares him down from across the net apologetically. "He did that on purpose."
"That was a completely legal serve," the referee says.
"You've got to be kidding me," Brad says. "It hit him in the face."
"He was supposed to hit it with his hands, not his face," the referee says.
I fight back a snort of laughter.
"I want a second opinion," Brad demands, and the second ref comes over from the other side of the net. Since this was the final match, he was also watching from the sidelines.
"I saw it, and I agree with the call. Your teammate was staring off into space." Brad looks like he's about to argue, but someone from the crowd shouts, "It was legal, get over it!" The crowd rumbles their agreement, making it hard to argue further.
His jaw goes tight before he sighs, clearly realizing he's not going to win this one.
"Can I swap out my teammate for the rest of the game?"
I realize then that he probably picked Paul to piss off Miles, and I guess it worked, in a way, just not the way he hoped it would. The ref agrees to let Brad swap, and the game moves on with Paul glaring from the sidelines, holding an ice pack to his nose.
"Game point!" someone shouts ten minutes later as The Locals and Team Surf are tied. The new team member Brad swapped in is much better than Paul, unfortunately, though the bar was kind of on the floor. The game has been tight, but now I need to do my part.
"Team Surf serves!" the referee shouts.
That's when I drop my sunglasses.
"Oh, goodness," I shout, much too loud for a sunglasses drop, but then I turn my back to the court, winking at Miles, who is shaking his head with a small smile, and I bend. The sound of a ball hitting sand hits my ears, and the crowd groans. When I stand and turn, I catch Brad smacking his teammate upside the head, the ball in the sand at his feet.
“Interference!” Brad shouts, grasping at straws. “He was distracted by her!” His hand points to me. I hold my breath, waiting to see what the ref will say since, if he lets this stand, we win.
"Please, please, please," I whisper to myself, watching the judges walk over to Brad to argue with him. I feel eyes on me, though, and I shift my gaze to Miles, who isn't watching the judges or the scoreboard or Brad or anyone else.
He's watching me.
I love you, he mouths, and I smile, shaking my head.
I love you more, I say in reply, and he smiles wider and then shakes his head.
Impossible .
As seems to be the way when Miles is looking at me like that, my heart starts to beat wildly, but it tightens when I hear the judges, my head snapping in that direction.
"The ruling stands. The Locals win!" the referee says, and I watch as Brad throws the ball at one of his employees, hitting him in the stomach and knocking him to the sand, but I can’t even take a moment to focus on his obvious temper tantrum because I’m moving.
"Oh my god!" I shout, running for Miles. "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" I don't hesitate, don't take note of any people in my way. I just move my feet in the sand until I'm jumping into his arms, peppering his face with kisses as I scream. "Miles! You did it!"
He swings me around, his smile so wide and bright I think it might cause some kind of solar disaster, before he sets me down.
“No, we did it,” he whispers, and my eyes start to water as our team comes over to cheer and celebrate our grand win.
This is what I've been missing: community. Friendship. Joy that is based on nothing but making everyone you love happy.
But then Helen and Benny come over, joining in on our cheering, and I can't focus on anything but how much I love this little shore town.