I glanced over my shoulder and found him looking directly at me. I was not interested in playing games with him. He was trouble.
“Nothing,” I said pleasantly. “Just heading to my car.”
“You were listening.”
“I was walking past your car,” I said. “I wasn’t aware that required headphones. If you don’t want people to hear your temper tantrum, roll up the window or, I don’t know, stop yelling. Have your tantrum in the privacy of your hotel room.”
His eyes narrowed. I had dealt with difficult people before. I could manage this.
“You’re one of them,” he said. The word “them” came out like something he’d scraped off the bottom of his shoe. His lips curled back like he’d smelled something foul. “The protest crowd.”
“I live here,” I said.
He snorted. “Right. The locals.” He said “locals” the same way. “You know what your problem is? All of you? You think small. You think this little stretch of sand is the whole world and anything that changes it is the enemy.” He leaned out the window slightly. I resisted the urge to step back. “I’ve brought economic development to six coastal communities. Six. And every single one of them thanked me eventually.”
“Eventually,” I repeated.
“Once they understood what growth actually meant. You hillbillies don’t understand basic economics.”
I laughed. “Aw shucks, mister, we just don’t get it.”
He glared at me. “You think Anderson is your hero? He’s not. He’ll figure that out eventually. And when he goes back to Texas, you’ll all be here begging for an economic boost.”
We had attracted a crowd. People were standing around, phones out, watching the little man throw his childish tantrum.
“What?” he snapped in their direction.
A few of them started laughing. He believed he was intimidating and maybe he was in some circles, but he was on our turf.
“Unbelievable,” Judd said. He turned back to me. “You’re all a bunch of losers, you know that? Running around with your little phones filming everything. Like this is some kind of reality show.”
A woman had her phone out. She wasn’t hiding it. In fact, she was smiling at him while she did it.
“Put that away,” he said. “Losers!”
He rolled up the window, put the car in drive, and hit the gas. I laughed and shook my head. He could have the day he deserved. I was not going to let him bring me down.
I texted Colt around three, when my last lesson had packed up and gone home. I’d been busy, but I was still determined to remind him to have a little fun every day.
Me:Meet me on the water in twenty minutes. Bring a board.
On my way.
I was already waxing the longboard when he came down the path from the dune. He was wearing board shorts and carrying a board tucked under his arm. He grinned and dropped the board in the sand beside mine. He looked good. He always looked good. It was exhausting being attracted to someone so sexy. I always wanted him naked.
“How was your day?” he asked.
“Interesting,” I said. “I’ll tell you in the water.”
We paddled out past the break together. The swell was small, the kind of afternoon that was more about floating than actual surfing. I sat up on my board and pushed my wet hair back from my face.
“Okay,” he said, sitting up on his own board a few feet away. “Tell me.”
“I ran into Judd Mathers in a parking lot.”
He nodded. “He’s sticking around.”
“He was on the phone in his car,” I said. “Yelling at someone. He didn’t notice me walking past until I was right there.” I paused, watching a small wave build and roll under us both. “He was talking about the covenants. And you. He really doesn’t like you.”
