“Matteo, where’s the board?” she demands. “Where the hell is my board?”
Her breaths are coming in short bursts, and I can see her eyes flashing between the ocean and Matteo, like she’s waiting for an explanation that’s not coming. He shrugs innocently.
“What did you do?” she demands, her voice cracking. “That’s my most expensive board!” Noa’s hands are shaking as she gestures wildly at him.
Just then, I get to a place where I can stand in the water and start making my way in, pushing my board ahead of me while gasping in breaths.
“Ankle strap must have been faulty,” Matteo says dismissively,glancing back toward the ocean. “You really should be using better equipment if the board was so precious.”
Noa stares at him for a moment, her expression shifting from disbelief to frustration, but then it breaks. She pulls off her T-shirt in a swift motion, revealing her bathing suit underneath, and before anyone can stop her, she’s running into the water.
She runs right past me, desperate. She’s going after that board like it’s the only thing that matters.
I watch her, heart pounding, before I turn back to Matteo.
“That’s messed up,” I tell him sharply. I toss my board aside in the sand and walk straight up to him. “You need to go help her find it.”
Matteo snorts a laugh, and when I move even closer, nearly touching him, his expression hardens. “And you need to mind your own fucking business,” he says, his voice low. “Trust me—you’re not her type, bro.”
He smirks, and I can feel the anger racing over my skin, tightening in my gut. Whatever his deal with Noa was, it’s long over now. That much is clear. Is that what this was all about? Some kind of revenge? Some bullshit punishment? My hands ball into fists at my sides.
“Go fucking help her,” I tell him seriously, my eyes blazing.
“You need to remember your place here,” he says, squaring up. “Whomyfather is.” He looks me over. “Why are you so worried about some Chaser girl anyway? None of them are worth this much trouble.”
Behind him, Jordan shifts uncomfortably in the sand, but she doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t call him out for being an asshole. But I’m not scared of him or his father.
“Go help her,” I demand again, and push his shoulder. I’m not going to let him get away with this. I’m not going to let him hurt Noa.
Matteo steps up to me, bumping my chest. “It’s time for you to run along, James,” he says, drawing out my name. He lowers his voice, sinkinglow just for me. “Or maybe your daddy will send you away again.”
He smiles, and I’m caught up when I realize that he knows what happened. That maybe they all do.
Whether it’s embarrassment, chivalry, jealousy—or a combination of all three—something inside me snaps. I reach out with both hands to push Matteo hard and sharp, making him stumble backward.
“Jamie, stop!” Jordan shouts, and I see her jump up, her face a mix of surprise and concern. Of course, I shouldn’t have looked away.
In a single, fluid movement, Matteo swings and punches me square in the eye, the force exploding behind my skull as I’m knocked to the sand. A cheap shot. I choke out a gasp, my hand going instinctively to my face. At first, I’m more in shock than I am in pain.
“Now stay down,” Matteo sneers, pointing at me.
Jordan rushes to crouch down next to me in the sand, her eyes flashing at Matteo. “What are you doing?” she demands, as if she can’t believe that he’d hit me.
I can’t either. I’m still processing what happened, my anger momentarily faded into disbelief. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a fight, not since my summers on this beach. I’m not sure how I got to this point again, the moments blending together. It was about my dad. About a surfboard. About Noa. It was about my fucking pride.
And it was about Matteo being an asshole.
“His father is going to kill you,” Jordan tells him. I’m not sure if she’s sticking up for me or just pointing out that my father is powerful. Well, from my point of view, I think Matteo should know thatI’mthe one who’s going to kill him.
Before I can say as much, Matteo grabs his shirt off the sand and starts toward the path back up to the resort. Hailey, silent until now, tells Jordan they need to go. She casts a worried glance in my direction. Then, without waiting for her, Hailey dashes off to chase after Matteo.
Jordan’s face is tight, seeming to debate what to do. Her short hair blows around her chin in the breeze. She puts her hand on my arm supportively, but then she uses it to push herself up. She straightens, and without a word to me, she walks stiffly toward the resort and her friends.
That hurts. I mean, I’m the one who got punched in the face, but she runs after him?
“Whatever,” I murmur, reaching to touch under my eye and wincing at the pain. There must be a cut there too. And now I’ll have to explain it to my parents.
At that thought, dread starts to stretch over me. I wonder what exactly Matteo knows about my father sending me to boarding school. I’m a bit raw at the thought, the idea of everyone here knowing my personal business. Then again, if it was gossip, Jordan would have said something to me. Somehow, she would have let me know that people were talking about it.
