“I’m not sure why. Have you had other women take exception to your relationship with Ava?”
“Yes,” he said. “But not because Ava and I had a sexual relationship. It’s not something we make public. Women are just jealous of my working relationship with her. Or other women that I surf with. I know you’re not jealous of them per se, but you’re uncomfortable being in a bathing suit around them. Or not fitting in.”
“I’m like that in general,” she said. “It’s hard to get past, but I’ve been working on it for years. I think I’ve made a lot of progress. But sometimes people just stare at the devices on me. If I’m out in a store, I don’t care. When I’m in a small group of people and it’s obvious, it’s an uneasy feeling.”
“I hate that for you.” He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close.
“It is what it is. I’m getting tougher to have the ‘fuck you’ mentality, but it’s a work in progress. We all have days we just want to be inconspicuous. Ava?”
“Not much to say,” he said. “Logan told me he explained it and it was all true. We met surfing, got along well. Friends turned into something more, but she’s younger and her life is surfing. Mine is too, but not like hers. I have other responsibilities.”
“And she didn’t see that?”
“No,” he said. “Some of that was on me, I get it.”
“Ava doesn’t like Logan, does she?”
“I don’t think they get along,” he said. “She was always complaining that we were together too much and he was the reason I didn’t visit as often.”
“Doing his job?”
“Yes. And part of his job was to keep me in line. West and Laken made sure of that.”
She laughed. “I think it’s nice your siblings can do that with your best friend and everyone still gets along.”
“We all have the bigger picture in mind. Ava is getting what she wanted. Me too. Things are good with us and few knew we even dated. It’s not like she talks about it much.”
“She acted as if she was shocked I knew. Why doesn’t she want people to know?”
“Because she’s stubborn and prideful like you. She doesn’t want it attached to her she only got her sponsorship for dating me. I honored that. It was me making a business decision also. Neither of us wanted the drama or distraction of a brief relationship that would have never turned into more.”
“Which might explain why I saw nothing about it before.”
“Have you researched me?” he asked, giving her another squeeze.
“Yes. I’d be stupid not to do that before I moved here.”
“And we know you’re pretty smart. Are we going to be okay now? Anything you want to know about Ava I’ll tell you, just, you know, keep it quiet. I’m trying to protect her for no other reason than out of respect. We are friends now. But nothing more.”
“We’ll be okay,” she said. “And I won’t be jealous. Not of your relationship with her. Or I’ll try not to. I won’t speak of it either. But we both have to stop trying to prevent friction. It’s going to happen and we have to learn to work through it.”
“We do,” he said. “I’ll do better. I promise. But half the time I don’t care if you get your way if you’re happy. That shouldn’t make me a bad person to want that.”
“It doesn’t. As long as it doesn’t make you unhappy. That is the difference.”
“Got it,” he said. “But nothing about you makes me unhappy.”
“Not even my job?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “Why would you think that? I’m proud to tell people what you do.”
“Then you joke I can patch you up when you get hurt,” she said. “I’ve heard it. But the hours I work?”
“Aren’t that bad. I work a lot too. I’d feel like shit if I was working late all the time and you were sitting around doing nothing. I don’t feel that way about you. Even on your days off.”
“Really?”
“Really. I know you like having the time alone and I’ve got things to do. I’d call it a compromise. I work longer when you’re out and then less when you’re around, but I still have to work.”
