“When we were kids, it was pretty clear early on that Jake wasn’t like the rest of us. He was a natural.”
“I’ve seen you surf. You’re incredible,” I said, remembering how Jet looked the other day riding the waves like he was a part of the ocean. He almost seemed like he belonged in the water more than he did on land.
“Yeah, I’ve got years of practice and experience under my belt. I worked my ass off to stay on Jake’s level. But for him? Everything just came easy. I would need to put in days of work to pick up something he managed on the first try. He really was a prodigy.”
Jet smiled at me, and he looked so sad for a minute that I wished I could tell him Riddick was literally in the shack with us, listening to every word he said.
“Eat,” he said, making a lazy gesture toward my untouched plate, indicating that he wanted me to eat while he told me his story.
“Anyway, similar to how you have your little fan club, Jake had a crew that used to watch him surf, too,” Jet explained as I took a syrup-soaked bite of pancakes.
“Whenever he did some cool new stunt, his fans would lose their minds.‘Did you see that?! That was ridiculous!’”
He chuckled as if he could literally still hear the crowd cheering for his friend.
“It kind of became a coined term.Ridiculous.Over time, it was shortened to‘That’s ridic!’Which morphed at some point to‘That’s so Riddick,’in reference to Jake. So, that’s how his nickname came to be. That’s why he’s Riddick.”
I swallowed my bite of pancake and frowned.
“I’m sorry… for your loss,” I whispered, and he met my gaze, his dark eyes soft and full of a wistful kind of sadness.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “I miss him all the time. We were… We were really close.”
The way he said it made me feel strange. Like they were closer than friends.
I glanced over at Riddick, but I couldn’t read his expression at all. His jaw was tight, and he had stood up from his seat on the couch as if he wanted to say something or join in somehow.
“I wasn’t kidding when I told you that you remind me of him when you surf. Watching you yesterday…” He cleared his throat roughly, and I noticed his eyes were glassier than they’d been when I first came in. “It was like he was still alive.”
I didn’t really know what to say to that, so I just reached out and laid my hand on top of his,giving it a squeeze.
He glanced at my hand, then met my eyes, a slow smile spreading across his face.
“Sorry,” He chuckled, though he didn’t pull away. “I said I was gonna coach you, and here I am bumming you out.”
“You’re not bumming me out,” I assured him. “Losing someone you love is hard. I get it.”
Jet was staring at me with a soft smile tilting on his perfectly shaped mouth. He leaned closer, and I blinked as I felt his breath skate across my lips.
He smelled like cinnamon and spice, whereas Riddick was more sea salt and coconut. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end when I realized how close we were and how intimate this moment was suddenly feeling.
“Thanks, surf star,” he said softly, and his eyes dropped to my mouth. He chuckled. “You’ve got some syrup right?—”
CRASH!
We both jumped, and I threw myself away from Jet, whipping toward the sound. Riddick was standing next to my now-shattered floor lamp, which he’d clearly knocked over intentionally.
He waspissed.His fists were clenched at his side, and the muscles in his jaw flexed uncontrollably.
“That was weird…” Jet mused, frowning at the broken lamp. He got up and wandered over to inspect the base, no doubt trying to figure out how it had tipped over like that when neither of us was anywhere near it.
“Uh, yeah. Superweird,”I agreed, glaring at Riddick over Jet’s shoulder.
Riddick looked like he wanted to snap at me, but I just raised my eyebrows at him in challenge, and he shut his mouth.
“You got a broom? I’ll help clean this up,” Jet mumbled absently, and I gestured to the tiny broom closet next to the bathroom.
“We need to talk, Finn,” Riddick said firmly. It was freaking me out that Jet couldn’t hear him at all, and he was speaking at a regular volume.
