Chapter 19
We got ourselves something to drink and ran into Pili, who reacted to Vince’s presence in much the same way as Chip had.
“You? Here?” Her eyes zipped to me and seemed to say, “With her?!” There wasn’t any condescension in her look, just fascination, and yet I felt like some kind of zoo animal all the same.
“Everyone else here?” Vince asked, ignoring her question.
“I came with Milo.” She scanned the room, and I took the opportunity to give her a quick once-over. She’d tied her long hair into a ponytail and was wearing shorts with a floral print and a tank top that said Sun-kissed. An outfit that was more suited to the party than mine surely.
“Brody’s got to be around here somewhere.” Her eyes came back to us. To me. “Sorry. I didn’t even say hi!”
I made a dismissive gesture and smiled.
“Your dress is awesome!” she said, and looked me up and down appreciatively.
“Oh, thanks. Sadly, just a loaner.”
“You definitely should think about not giving it back.” She smirked. “Where did you all leave Laurie?”
“She had a headache,” Vince replied. He hadn’t said anything in a while.
“That’s why Vince brought me,” I added.
“Gotcha,” Pili purred with a smile I couldn’t quite read.
Shortly thereafter Milo and Brody, both of whom I’d met at the barbecue, made their way over. It didn’t even take a minute for all four to fall into surfer slang and start talking about waves, swells, flood tides, and wind conditions.
“Hey, y’all, maybe we should change the topic before we bore poor Louisa here to death.” Pili looked at me apologetically. “Sorry, that just happens automatically sometimes when surfers get together.”
“I get it,” I answered with a smile. “No different with tennis players.”
“Right. Vince mentioned you played professionally,” Milo said.
I would have loved to have asked him when. What the context had been. His tone of voice and…
“Isn’t the US Open coming up soon?” Brody asked.
Pili raised her brows. “You like tennis?”
“Sure,” he replied, shrugging. “I mainly watch guys’ tennis though.”
“Do you have a favorite?”
He thought for a moment. “Tiafoe. You?”
“Dimitrov, I’d say. I love his game. He’s so…graceful. And he’s a really nice guy.”
“Right,” Pili drawled. “Now you all are boring us.”
We laughed and changed to a more general topic. I learned that Pili waitressed at a hotel in Turtle Bay and that she, Milo, and Brody taught tourists how to surf. That all three had grown up around Haleiwa but only Pili was Kānaka Maoli, Native Hawaiian.
“Which she constantly drops,” Milo said.
Pili tried to disagree but was met by all three saying in unison, “Oh, come on!” and the four broke out in laughter. We continued hanging out on the deck until down on the grass below a kind of impromptu dance floor appeared and Pili convinced Milo to go dance.
“How long? What do you think?” Brody asked Vince as we watched the two mix in with the other dancers.
“Two minutes,” Vince replied.
The song ended and the intro to “Calm Down” by Rema and Selena Gomez started.
“One,” Brody corrected him promptly and grinned.
I couldn’t really follow.
“That’d be a new record,” Brody said, his head lowered.
“Yep,” Vince said drily.
“What are we betting for? Loser’s got to wax the other’s board?”
Vince nodded.
“Oookay.” Brody fumbled with his watch. “One minute…starting…now.” The two stared intently at the dance floor where Pili and Milo were starting to get into it.
“Umm, what’s the bet?” I asked carefully.
“How long it will be before Pili and Milo start making out,” Brody stated baldly.
“Oh!”
“They like each other,” Vince explained. “But somehow, they just don’t get it together. Instead, they make out whenever they can but then blame it on the booze.”
“Which, more often that not, they haven’t touched,” Brody was quick to add. “Dude! Look!” He was pointing to the dance floor, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. Pili and Milo were indeed making out, and pretty heavily at that. A strange heat crept beneath my skin.
“Whoa!” Brody blared so loudly that Pili heard. Without turning around and without breaking the kiss, Pili gave him the finger.
He laughed out loud and clapped Vince on the shoulder. “Forty-five seconds! Maaan!” He shook his head. “I don’t know about you all, but I need something stronger than this.” He waved his beer bottle and looked at us expectantly.
Vince and I declined, and Brody disappeared into the house. Things grew quiet. I realized that I had hardly exchanged one word with Vince since we’d arrived. It hadn’t been any kind of decision; it had just happened.
“Thanks for taking me with you. This is really cool.”
“You sound so surprised.”
“Well, it could have turned out bad. You could have gone off to do your thing and…I don’t know, left me sitting in a corner or something.”
“You wouldn’t have stayed there for long. Not with that dress.”
His look caught me off guard, and I had to catch my breath. I wondered whether I’d understood him correctly. And then whether I’d properly interpreted what I’d understood.
“I’ve got an extra bedroom.” Chip’s voice cut through the silence. I felt heat shoot into my cheeks. He stepped in between us and draped his right arm around Vince, his left around me. “But they probably won’t make it that far.”
Relieved, I realized he was talking about Pili and Milo, who were still going at it. At the same time, my own thoughts were embarrassing. Yeah, Vince had paid me a compliment. But that didn’t mean anything. Maybe it had been far too long since I had kissed anyone, since I had made out with anyone.
“How long have you lived here?” I asked Chip, my eyes sweeping over the garden. “It’s incredible.”
“Around a year. But I bought the property a few years ago. After Nazaré, I had enough change to have the house built.”
Nazaré. Europe’s hot spot for big-wave surfers. From what I remembered, that’s where Chip had established his world record.
“And you put up the swing for your future kids?” I joked.
Chip’s expression shifted, and the smile that appeared a few seconds later was fake. He took a sip of his beer. Then he rapped his knuckles on the railing twice and walked off.
Baffled, I watched him go. “Did I…say something wrong?”
“No,” Vince mumbled. “Sometimes you can’t figure him out.”
He’s not the only one, I thought spontaneously, and felt a surge of courage. “Did you really want to come here today?”
He tilted his head in my direction and looked at me but didn’t say anything. His look was so intense that once again I had to catch my breath.
“Wanna dance?”
Yes.
“Okay.”
A tiny smile flitted across his face before he held out his hand.
I stared at it for a second and once again noticed the tiny tattoo on the underside of his wrist. A turtle?
Could that be? I put my hand in his, feeling the warmth of his skin, the gentle pressure of his fingers.
They were rough and calloused. My knees trembled, and for a split second I was afraid they would sink out from under me.
But then he started to move, lightly pulling me with him.
My heart raced as I followed him onto the dance floor.
A thousand thoughts flashed through my head at the same time.
That it had been ages since I had danced with anyone.
That it was a stupid idea to do it with him of all people.
That I didn’t want to dance with anyone here but him.
That I didn’t know the song. That it was way too slow.
That… I didn’t get any farther, because we were already standing in the middle of everyone else.
Most of them were in twos or had moved closer together.
We exchanged glances, but unlike me, he seemed completely relaxed.
Without taking his eyes off me, he grabbed my hands and brought them to his neck.
Slowly and carefully, as if he wanted to give me the chance to change my mind.
But I let it happen, feeling his upper body against mine as I intertwined my fingers.
As he tried to wrap his hands around my waist, he brushed a piece of bare skin on my back.
He flinched almost imperceptibly, as if he hadn’t realized how low-cut the back of the dress really was.
We started to move to the slow reggae beat.
“I don’t know this song at all,” I said, just to fill the awkward silence.
“It’s called ‘Love I.’ It’s by a local band.”
His breath brushed across my cheek. Lemony. Like the iced tea he’d been drinking.
“I wouldn’t have thought you liked to dance.”
And so well, I added to myself. He had rhythm and moved effortlessly.
“Why not?”
“No idea. Probably thanks to Laurie saying you didn’t like parties.”
“Parties with a lot of people aren’t my thing. I’d rather have three close friends around than”—he took in the crowd—“thirty who don’t even know when my birthday is.”
“When is your birthday?”
“September 7th.”
“September 7th?!”
He looked at me quizzically.
“That’s the finale of the US Open!”
“Well, then you’ll remember.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, and felt a little stab knowing that I wouldn’t be here by then. In a little over three weeks, I’d be flying to New York.
His hand slid a little bit lower, and this most likely unintentional movement brought me back to the here and now.
“What kind of tattoo do you have on your wrist?”
He held it out for me to see. It was, in fact, a turtle, or, well, a sea turtle. Hardly any bigger than a coin.
“Is this your…auma, guardian spirit?”
Vince began to laugh but not out of spite. He was truly amused. “No, I don’t have any Hawaiian ancestry. I just like sea turtles.”
“Have you ever seen any? Here, I mean.”
“Of course. You haven’t?”
I shook my head.
“We’ve got to change that ASAP.”
His we caused my heart to skip a beat.
“There are a couple of beaches where you always see them. Sometimes they even come onto land.”
“Wow. That must be something.”
“I—” He broke off. “Laurie can show you the way to one of the good spots.”
“Cool,” I replied without showing that his quick reverse was a tad disappointing.
We kept on dancing, and our movements gradually became more relaxed and smoother. As if we’d gotten used to each other.
“Wow, they’re really going for it today.” Vince nodded toward Pili and Milo.
“At the beginning, I thought that you and Pili were maybe…well…”
“We’re just friends.”
“Yeah, that’s what Laurie said too…” I stopped mid-sentence and screwed up my eyes.
He took it in stride. “What’s with you and Chip? Do you regret not giving him your number?”
“God, no! Chip really isn’t my type.”
“What’s your type?”
The question stunned me even though I’d been the one to clear the way for it. I lifted my head and looked into his eyes, but what I read there was too dizzying to hold onto.
“I don’t think I have one. Or, well, not one that I could describe in three words anyway.”
I played with the idea of throwing the question back at him, but I didn’t know whether I’d like his answer, so let it go.
Meanwhile the song had ended, and another question was hovering between us: how the evening would continue.
I took my hands away from his neck and looked at my watch. It was already nine-thirty.
“I can give you a ride home.”
I opened my lips to object, but at the last moment decided against it. Leaving now was more reasonable. Tomorrow would be another long day of training.
“Yeah, that’d be nice.”
Leaving the dance floor, for a split second I felt his hand upon my back. A fleeting gesture that nevertheless caused my nerve endings to begin to vibrate.