“Talk to me.” Lea spoke quietly. “Why haven’t you gotten back out there?”
Rowan kept her gaze trained on Kelsey, making sure she was safe. Her laughter floated in the air. “You know why.”
“Because you got hurt? Everyone gets hurt. You got back on a board before your stitches were out after Hurley Pro. I’ve seen you return over and over, willing your body back to the water. You had the surgery. You had PT. I’m not talking about competing. I’m saying you need to get on the board or you won’t be whole.” Frustration radiated from her aura. “Don’t drown on land, Ro.”
Rowan swallowed. “Don’t start.”
“I will start. Your dad would hate it. You know that, right? He’d tell you the ocean doesn’t punish; it forgives. You just have to meet her halfway.”
The words hit, clean and deep. Her throat went tight. The words burst out anyway. “I think about getting in the water and I freeze.”
Her chest loosened now that she had said it out loud. It was a block that had never occurred before her accident, and she wasn’t sure how to get past it.
“Okay. Makes sense. Some PTSD combined with losing your dad. It was too much at once.”
Rowan snorted. “Thanks for the diagnosis.”
“We can work with that, Ro. You already blew past the first hurdle. Teaching Kelsey got you in the water. I see the way you are with her. I think she’s the key, and your dad sent her.”
Rowan jerked. Her eyes burned but she ground her teeth and kept it together. Leave it to Lea to offer a powerful left hook without apology. Brie and Chelsea were standing with Kelsey at the shoreline now, talking. Brie pointed and made a motion with her hand. Kelsey nodded. Hero worship poured out of her, like Chelsea.
“Brie’s gonna get a head on her,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. “She’s got two minions now.”
Lea sighed and stretched out her tan legs. The tat wrapped around her ankle showed a surfboard with her parents’ initials. “Brie’s headstrong, arrogant, and mean. At least, to me. She feels she has so much to prove, and won’t listen to me.”
Rowan couldn’t help but chuckle. “Oh, and you were an angel at her age, huh? I remember some comps where your temper almost got you disqualified.”
Lea stuck up her middle finger.
She ignored the gesture. “I think Brie could be what Kelsey’s missing. Say anything you want, but your sister is fierce. She has morals, and she never lies. Not a lot of seventeen-year-olds come close to that maturity.”
“What about Kelsey? What do you think she’s looking for?”
She thought of Everett. It was easy to judge his chasing work as the solution to all, but he was a single father facing a hard transition. Going from child to teen was a tricky period. If she didn’t have a mom to help guide her, there was even more pressure. Rowan might not have grown up with money, but she had known her dad would always be there. It was the foundation that allowed her to test boundaries, grow, and be brave in the ocean. She wished Everett would take a step back and gauge what type of relationship he really wanted with his daughter.
Before it was too late.
“To be seen. To belong. To have her father pay attention. All of the normal things.”
Lea nodded. “I get it. Can you get through to the suit?”
“I had dinner with him the other night.” Lea gasped, but Rowan shook her head. “No, with both of them. It was a thank-you since I’m not getting paid for lessons.”
“Why the hell not?”
“My choice. Her dad, Everett, likes to control things with money. I said no so I don’t have to listen to his rules.”
Lea cracked up. “That’s my girl! The suit probably desperately needs a woman to stand up to him. Do you like him? He’s definitely hot.”
A flash of Everett’s wicked smile and dark eyes glinting with purpose slammed through her. The flirty way he’d been at the hike and all that sexual tension growing between them. The way he’d run back to the office from Kelsey’s lesson, as if chasing his security and control. He’d invited her to the luau but she doubted he’d follow through. Probably an impulse ask.
She had to stop thinking about kissing him. It was ridiculous. She disliked the man. Right? “Not worth the trouble,” Rowan said casually.
“But Kelsey is?”
A smile crossed her lips. “Yeah. She’s brave.”
“So were you.” Lea bumped her shoulder. “And you will be again. Not for me. For your dad. For you.”
