“Thanks.”
“It looks like you are close to so many people. Like a family.”
“The surfing community could be considered that.”
“Ahhmen,” Logan said.
“Sorry. Saylor, this is my best friend, Logan Capana. Logan, Saylor Beach.”
“Nice to meet you,” Logan said, shaking hands with his girlfriend. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“I can’t say the same,” she said, smiling. “I mean, I know your name, that you work with Rowan and went to college together. But looking at these pictures of the two of you, there is a crazy long history, huh?”
“There is,” Logan said. “I’m from California. I’m the one who got Rowan on his first board.”
Saylor gave Rowan a playful nudge with her hand. “You should have added that part.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t think of it.”
“Because he doesn’t want you to know I’m better than him.”
“I don’t know enough about surfing to determine who is better than another. I guess to me, if you can stay on the board and ride a wave to the beach, you’re good.”
Logan’s appalled face had him bursting out in laughter. “A bit more than that. But you’ll learn if you want to.”
“I do,” she said. “To learn about you, I need to know about what you love in your life.”
Rowan cleared his throat and looked at Logan as if to say, “Told you!”
19
KNOWN IS COMFORTABLE
“Are you nervous about tomorrow?” Rowan asked her the next day.
They were out to dinner. She told him she could cook. She’d been just sitting around the house all day, but he wanted to take her to this place close to his house on the beach.
She’d actually walked down and it’d taken her ten minutes. That was a nice treat. She’d ride home with him though.
“Not really,” she said. “I’m used to starting new jobs all the time.”
“That would drive me nuts,” he said. “I’m not sure I always like the unknown.”
“Really?” she asked. She cut into the scallops that were on her plate in front of her. “I never expected that of you. I’m glad to learn these things. How come?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “The known is comfortable.”
She laughed. “It is. But sometimes it’s nice to get out of your comfort zone.”
Which was funny coming from her lips considering her parents gave her a hard time about always running and hiding in life and not committing to anything.
That wasn’t true, but her mother never listened to her either.
Maybe that was what she wanted in life.
Someone to hear her.
To be supportive.
