She hesitated, picking at her cuticle. “They just did.”
Everett nodded. “I get it. You’re worried about the ambitious curriculum. But, Kels, you’re really smart and I know you’ll do fine. You wouldn’t have gotten in otherwise.”
“Yes I would. We have money, so we can buy our way in.”
His jaw unhinged. “Why would you say something like that? Did you hear it somewhere? Did Rowan say that?”
Now Kelsey looked shocked. “No, Dad! God, everyone knows the way the world works. We’re privileged. Your job can buy us in anywhere.”
“That’s ridiculous and wrong.”
“How’d we get a table, then, when there’s a line wrapped around the building to get in?”
Everett fell silent. Took another sip of whiskey—this time a longer one. “Okay, you’re right. Sometimes, it does help. But I swear, you got in on your own accord. You’ll love it.”
“Doubt it,” she muttered, twisting her fingers. “I just wish—”
The waiter came and dropped off their meals, interrupting her. He was glad. He wanted a change of subject. Anything to make her smile and open up and not look at him like an ogre. “Tell me how your surfing’s going.”
And just like that, the light bulb snapped on.
“It’s amazing! Rowan’s been teaching me about rip currents and ocean safety. Do you know it’s critical to be able to read the waves because it helps you decide what wave to take and which ones to skip? And guess what happened yesterday?”
Everett tried to switch mental gears from being dissed to his daughter’s sudden wide grin. “What?”
“I actuallystood upthe whole time—like, for real, not that flailing thing I was doing before. Rowan said I finally ‘found my stance.’”
He paused mid-bite to stare. “Your stance?”
“Yeah!” She grabbed a fry and stuffed it into her mouth. “So, okay, you know how I kept wiping out? Rowan said it’s because I was trying to muscle the board instead of ‘feeling the line of the wave.’ Which sounds super mystical, right? But it’s real! She made me practice popping up on the sand, like a hundred times, until my arms felt like noodles.”
He smiled. “Sounds intense.”
“Itwas! But then I caught this tiny inside wave, and I stayed up the whole time! Well, almost. She said I held my rail—wait, no, my weight—on the stringer? Something like that. But she said it was ‘clean form.’” Her hands mimed the motion—crouching, balancing, eyes on the imaginary horizon. “It felt like flying. I didn’t even think about falling. I just did it.”
Everett watched the way her whole body seemed to be still riding that wave. He imagined all that fire and joy being shared with Rowan. Not him. “You’re getting good,” he said quietly.
Kelsey’s grin widened. “Rowan says I’ve got natural balance. And she’s teaching me real surfer words, too. Like ‘the lineup’—that’s where everyone waits for sets—and ‘the pocket,’ which is, like, the power zone of the wave. She says that’s where the magic happens.”
“Sounds like she’s giving you a full education.”
“She is. Brie said I’m ready for the bottom turns but Rowan wants me to watch first because it looks easy but it’s really advanced.”
“Wait—who’s Brie?”
Kelsey ate another fry. “I told you. Brie and Chelsea were at the beach hangout. Brie’s seventeen and Chelsea’s fifteen. They’re surfers, too.”
“Still a little old for you, though,” he commented.
She narrowed her gaze. “Are you serious, Dad? Trust me—the girls my age are so much worse than Brie and Chelsea. You wouldn’t believe it.”
Alarm struck. “What do you mean? What do they do?”
Kelsey waved her hand through the air. “Never mind, just listen. Rowan said I’m not ready for the bottom turn yet, but I could probably start learning to trim—like, you lean your body to guide the board instead of fighting it. Isn’t that so cool?”
Her voice softened a little, a whisper of awe breaking through the rush. “She said surfing’s kind of like life. You can’t control the wave. You just ride what shows up and try not to panic.”
Everett’s chest tightened. “She said that?”
