Chapter 3
SUMMER
The last wave of the evening carried me across the water like I was riding a chariot.
I let it do the work, feeling the board glide beneath me as the water shallowed out and the last of the daylight bled from the sky.
I couldn’t really see stars thanks to the light pollution, but the moon was putting on a show.
I loved that shine on the water. It made everything feel enchanted. When I was younger, I was certain moonlight held magical properties and there were truly mermaids that came out to play the second the silvery streaks touched the water.
I might have had a very active imagination.
Once I’d seen dolphins gliding under the water, dancing and playing, and I had been convinced they were mermaids.
To be fair, I was six and I was standing on the deck with no binoculars.
Combine that with my youthful fantasies and I had a whole scene playing out in my head about sea castles and underwater cities.
I stepped off into the shallows without even thinking about it, the way you do a thing ten thousand times until your body just knows. The water was warm around my ankles. The beach ahead was quiet and golden and mine.
That was the best part about surfing at dusk.
Everyone was somewhere else. Showering. Getting dressed.
Deciding between the fish-taco place and the burger place.
Pouring the first drink of the evening. The twilight beach belonged to the people who loved it enough to still be standing here when the sun clocked out.
Long past the pretty sunsets that our little neck of the woods was famous for.
I tucked my board under one arm and pushed my wet hair back from my face with my free hand.
My muscles had that satisfying, wrung-out ache that only came from a truly good session.
My shoulders, my core, my legs. All of it pleasantly used up.
I felt loose and light and clean the way the ocean always managed to make me feel.
The water took all my worries and washed them far, far away.
This was my church. My place to get right with the world. Zen. I honestly didn’t know what I would do if I couldn’t get in the water at least once a week. I would shrivel up liked a dried-out sponge.
Up the beach, a bonfire was flickering to life.
It was summer and that meant there would be these fires almost every night.
I recognized a handful of locals gathered around it.
There would be drinks, music, and conversation.
That was our thing. I wondered when it would stop.
A few of our usual group had kind of faded away.
Got married and had kids or simply moved on.
One day, there would be a new generation taking over the tradition.
And now melancholy was setting in. I shook off the feeling of things changing without me truly understanding why. Maybe it was intuition. Foresight. I could feel the sands of time shifting under my feet just like the sand I was standing on.
I scanned the group to see who was hanging out. My house wasn’t too far up the beach. Did I want to hang out or go home, shower, and finish the book I’d been reading?
Bodhi Finn was standing at the edge of the circle with his board shorts riding low and his chest bare.
He looked the same way he always did. His beachy curls were doing that thing they did.
The thing that first drew me to him. He was the epitome of a California surfer boy.
All tanned, bleached hair, and hot body.
He was laughing at something as he ran his fingers through those curls and tilted his head back.
Bodhi was hot. There was no other way to describe it.
He was always the life of the party. Turned out, the stupid jokes and nonstop talk about partying and surfing got old.
His gorgeous body was the extent of his good qualities.
I shook my head, smiling despite myself. Bodhi Finn was a beautiful, beautiful disaster of a human being. As deep as a tidepool.
A figure skipping toward me made me smile. “Hey,” Capri greeted me. “You looked good out there.”
“Thanks.” I nodded toward the fire where Bodhi was now flexing his biceps.
She groaned and shook her head. “What did you ever see in that guy?”
“Uh, hello, the same thing that has all the girls drooling over him right now. I’m a red-blooded woman.”
“He has been here six minutes and has not shut up. His big toe barely touched the sand before he started talking about his new gym routine. Which he’s clearly still talking about.”
“To be fair, the gym routine is working.”
Capri stared at me with horror and then started shaking her head. “No.”
“Objectively,” I added. “As a person with eyes.”
“Do not,” she said flatly. “That is a no-go. Absolutely not.”
“I’m not. He’s just nice to look at. I’m fully aware his physique is his entire personality. But you cannot deny that is one very fine physique.”
She shrugged. “I’ve seen better.”
“Have you, though?”
“Bless his abs,” Capri muttered.
We both laughed and headed up to the fire. I planted my board upright in the sand a few feet back from the circle. It was exactly what a normal summer evening looked like. Cold drinks and a warm fire with people I’d known my whole life. This was my town.
Bodhi spotted me and flashed me that cocky grin.
“Hey, baby,” he said, walking toward me. He had the casual swagger of a man that knew he was one of the hottest around. “I was watching you out there. Your form on that last wave was perfect. I mean, damn.”
“Thanks, Bodhi.”
“No, I mean it. You have a gift. I’ve been surfing since I could walk and I still don’t have your instincts.”
“Thanks.” I accepted the White Claw that materialized in my hand from somewhere to my left. That was the beautiful thing about this community. Nobody made a big deal out of anything.
“You want to get out of here later?” Bodhi asked. “Just us. Walk the beach.”
I took a sip of my drink. “Nope.”
“Come on. Like old times. You look good, Summer. Really good.”
“Bodhi, we’ve had this conversation.”
“We could have a different one,” he flashed that sexy smile and then winked.
That grin and winky-wink used to work on me. I thought it was cute, and yes, it definitely worked, but then I had to have conversations with him. I could be easy, breezy, and casual, but there were times I’d like to talk about something other than surfing or weight-lifting or muscles.
“We really can’t.” But I was smiling because it was impossible not to. He was so completely himself at all times. There was something almost admirable about a man with absolutely zero self-awareness. “Go flex at somebody who wants to be flexed at. That cute little brunette is making eyes at you.”
He pressed his hand to his chest like I’d wounded him, but his eyes were laughing. He backed away into the crowd, pointing at me. “This isn’t over, Banks. You want me. I see it in your eyes.”
“That’s not what you’re seeing,” I replied, shooing him away.
“That guy wants you,” Capri said. “You worked your magic on him. He’s under your spell.”
“He wants any woman,” I corrected. “He doesn’t care who’s attached to the body.”
She laughed. “True. Like a dog in heat.”
“How have you managed to avoid him?” I asked.
“Because I like my guys a little ugly,” she replied with a smile.
More people filtered in as the night deepened. Tourists and locals blended the way they always did this time of year. The locals were looking for summer flings and the summer people were hoping for the same. We accepted them into our group but we always kept them at arm’s length.
The night was warm, making the fire just a little too much even though my surf shorts and long-sleeved rash guard were still damp. Instead of staring at flames, my eyes were drawn to the silvery streaks on the water, a view I’d seen literally thousands of times.
This was my life and I loved every bit of it.
My students, who drove me absolutely crazy and filled me with the most ridiculous pride.
My family was here. Capri. My other friends.
I felt complete despite being single. I didn’t need a husband.
I loved my life and felt whole. What else was there? What else could there possibly be?
I tipped my face up to the moon and exhaled slowly, feeling the last of the day drain out of my shoulders.
I was about to turn my attention back to the fire when I noticed something moving along the beach.
Not something—someone. I could see someone running at a steady clip but not exactly marathon speed.
Someone that was very familiar with jogging on the beach.
I knew everyone in town and there was no local that looked like that.
He was tall. Broad shoulders. His shirt was tucked into the back of his waistband, making it look like he had a tail.
But it wasn’t the tail that had me practically licking my lips.
It was the chest and abs that looked like they’d been chiseled from stone.
The kind of body that Hollywood airbrushed onto their actors. But his was all real.
I was staring but I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
My gaze traveled down his body and noticed his thighs flexing.
He wasn’t body-builder big but he was in good shape.
Really good shape. I’d say his body was superior to the gym rat behind me telling everyone about the new creatine powder he switched to.
That’s when the jogger looked toward me.
His pace slowed. I couldn’t see the color of his eyes, but I knew exactly what color they were.
And then he smiled. That smile stretched across twenty feet of sand and hit me square in my chest. My stomach knew before my brain did. It felt like I’d swallowed a gallon of go-go juice and the butterflies that lived there were spazzing out in my tummy.
I was walking toward him without even telling my feet to move. He had stopped running and took a few steps in my direction. Then he whistled before breaking into that glorious smile that nearly dropped me to my knees right there on the beach.
“How long has it been, Banks?” he asked in that deep voice that sent chills through me. I could feel the ghost of his fingertips trailing over my body while he talked to me in that husky tone.
And then I remembered everything that happened between then and now.
“Four years, Anderson.” I stopped walking. I planted my feet in the sand and put my hands on my hips. “Not nearly long enough.”
His chest rose and fell. I could see the sweat glistening on his skin.
Sea green eyes that I had spent four years not thinking about were staring back at me.
Standing close to him, I got a glimpse of all those hard muscles.
He was not old and flabby and I felt like I should be angry about that.
I should be mad at Capri for even putting that idea in my head.
He looked like the men I pictured when I was three chapters deep into one of my romance novels at midnight.
The man belonged on the cover of every spicy book.
If I saw his chest on my screen, yep, add to library.
Immediately. The chiseled jaw, defined cheekbones, and long lashes were all icing on the cake that was Colt Anderson.
I reminded myself I was a woman who had moved on.
Bodhi had a great body. I could stare at him. I was not going to drool over the man standing too close on my beach.