I could almost hear the ocean calling my name, challenging me to conquer it.
The hyperfixation that had been brewing within me solidified in that instant.
There was a‘snapping’sensation in my chest, and I knew I would conquer this beach or fucking die trying.
“See what I mean, Finn? This isn’t even the high season. This beach isdangerous. More experienced surfers than you have literallydiedhere. You need to take this really seriously,” Blake said. She glanced at me, clearly hoping that this little field trip would have convinced me to stick to safer swells.
However, Turtle took one look at my face and chuckled. He knew what Blake had just done was having the complete opposite effect on me.
It was fuckingon.
“I’m going toshredthis beach to pieces,” I vowed, my voice coming out low and breathy. I was so excited at the thought that I was borderline turned on. I felt a throb between my legs that had nothing to do with the hot blonde that had shown me the beach that had just fundamentally altered my brain chemistry.
“You’re a psycho,” Blake whispered, her blue eyes wide and her face so pale she looked like she might pass out.
I gave her a grin that I was sure confirmed I was, in fact, a psycho.
“I need to learn everything there is to know about how these waves break, and I need to learn fast,” I told her, and she shook her head, looking at Turtle like he would take her side in this matter.
He just shot her aLazy Turtle Smile™ and slipped his hands into the pockets of his board shorts.
His shoulder-length, wavy brown hair whipped around his handsome face as his dark eyes shone with a look likely very similar to mine.
“Baby Girl, when the Finn Man decides he’s gonna ride, not even the devil could stop him. No talking him out of it now.”
“Be serious. You coulddie.”
I watched another fifteen-foot wave crash against the beach with the power of a small bomb. White sea foam shot into the salty air like shrapnel, and my grin widened.
“Then I guess I’ll die happy.”
Turtle and I spent the rest of the afternoon shredding up the much more manageable pipelines on the main beach of Stars Cove.
Blake joined us, and it was cool to see her ride. She was pretty fucking good, which really hammered home her warning about Leviathans even further.
Not that I was going to listen to it… but still. There was definitely some hammering going on.
If someone as skilled as Blake wasthatterrified of that beach, I would definitely need to train and study. Best case scenario would really be for me to get an actual coach. Someone who had experience with that specific beach and could run me through all the ins and outs.
See, the trouble with a hidden, local secret like Leviathans is that there wasn’t any information online about thewave patterns. More popular beaches like the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii, for example, have a plethora of information you could study before diving in.
Learning why waves formed the way they did was important to keep yourself safe, as they usually formed due to underwater hazards such as coral reefs or rock formations.
Knowing what you were getting into was half the battle.
As Leviathans was a closely guarded local secret, I couldn’t find anything online about the beach, so I would need to dig up an expert to guide me if I was going to be successful.
The trouble was that Blake hadn’t been kidding about the townspeople of Stars Cove not being thrilled about me buying Jake Whittling’s old place.
As we bobbed on our boards, waiting for our turns to drop in, Blake introduced us to some of the local veterans. None of them seemed interested inspeakingto me, let alone coaching me.
“Tough crowd,” Turtle mused as we turned in for the night. We strapped our boards onto Shelly’s roof, and I shrugged, not dissuaded in the slightest.
“They’ll warm up to me.” I winked at him. “No one can resist the dimples.”
“You swore you would only use your dimples for good!” Turtle cried dramatically as he tore a joint out of his wet bag before climbing into the driver’s side of the van. “You were the chosen one! Your dimples were meant to bring balance to the force! Not destroy it!”
I cackled as he perched the joint between his lips but didn’t light it. He knew better than to drive under the influence, especially with me in the car. After what happened to my mom, I refused to smoke or drink.
