Once I caught the grin on Keith’s face, I stopped rambling.
“Iwasgoing to kiss you, but I didn’t realize you needed to make an outline first.”
“More like a rough draft,” I added playfully.
“I’m thinking getting you into bed would take a full dissertation.”
“Whoa. You need to slow down, Keith. I won’t go past a term paper with you.”
“We’ll see about that,” he answered confidently.
His playfulness drew a smile to my lips. “No, we won’t.”
He grabbed me again, and before I could think, he pressed a quick kiss to my lips. “There. Now you’ve been kissed. Stop making it weird.”
He let me go, picked up his surfboard, and started jogging toward the water.
My fingers found my lips and I grinned like a loon before picking up my own board and chasing after him.
* * *
Exhausted, waterlogged, and seriously tested, I paddled my way out the back, past the broken waves, to position myself in the right spot to catch the perfect ride. Getting to this point had been a battle of both body and soul. There was nothing like gasping for air while being tossed about in the waves to point out the obvious – I was seriously out of shape. By dropping a fair amount of weight, I’d fooled myself into believing I was a lean, mean fighting machine, but one day on the beach proved I was anything but. Even if I never caught a wave, from this day forward, I would make it my mission to get fit.
The battle with my soul proved easier to overcome, since the minute I dipped my big toe into the frigid Pacific, all brain activity slowed to a crawl. I couldn’t remember which way was up, much less concern myself over silly stuff like death and dismemberment. My mind had one goal: surf. Somehow I just knew if I could get my unathletic body up on that board, all the world’s dysfunction would be solved. I had the power of the universe in my hands… if I could just get over the next swell.
But as I was preparing my victory speech, a wall of water hit me in the face. I gagged on the salty concoction flooding my nose. Every swipe of my hands to clear the water away only made my face wetter. I pawed at myself, coughing up a swell of water before I turned to see Keith eyeing me in amusement.
“You doing okay there, champ?”
“Aside from swallowing a school of guppies? Sure.”
“It’s the surfer’s version of sushi.”
“Yes. Yum.”
Keith dropped onto his stomach and started paddling away. “Gotta watch for those rogue waves, Sam. They’ll get you every time. Now, let’s go. We don’t want to lose our place in the lineup.”
“Right, because it would be a shame if I couldn’t get up there in time for the other surfers to laugh at me.”
“Nothing’s for free, Sam. You’ve got to earn your respect.”
And then suddenly Keith was gone, having flipped his board underwater only to suspend himself upside down until the wave had passed.
“Oh, crap.” I gripped the side of my board and followed him below the water line. The dreaded turtle roll. No matter how many times I’d done it today, the maneuver elicited panic every single time. Holding my breath under water was one thing, but holding it while dangling upside down was quite another.
Once the whitewater had passed over me, I flipped the board back around and ungracefully scooted my stomach back onto the smooth surface. Keith was already back, bobbing on his board as if the effort of battling the current hadn’t affected him at all. He pointed toward the horizon. “You see it, Sam? It’s coming.”
I followed the direction of his finger to see the perfect wave developing. It was mine. I could feel it. Never taking my eyes off the redemption forming not far in the distance, I nodded to Keith. This was what I’d needed all along – something to focus and challenge me. For the first time since Sullivan’s death, I was thinking clearly, and everything finally made sense. We weren’t put on this earth to survive. We were put here to live. Sully’s suicide had dragged me down below the waterline, but instead of resurfacing, I’d remained suspended upside down. It was like the turtle roll of my life and I’d never completed the flip.
Today was the day I’d resurface. I was going to stand back up on my own two feet, and when that wave came, I was going to ride it all the way to shore, so help me god.
Keith twisted on his board, staring me in the eye, the thrill of the moment not lost on either of us. “It’s beautiful, Sam, and it’s got your name written all over it.”
“Samantha,” I corrected with a wide smile.
Keith gripped my arm and pulled me toward him. His hands took hold of my neck and he pressed his salty lips to mine. This time I wasn’t shy and timid. This time I kissed him back with all the excitement this moment meant to me. Breaking our connection, Keith pushed my board toward the wave.
“Go earn the respect you deserve, Samantha.”
