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"Thanks for co has shifted between us So I feel deliriously happy for the first time since Chris left

Ada the truck because he brought an extra surfboard for me He parks in front of a house near the beach and carries both our boards across the sand He lays the boards flat on the dae of the water and looks at me

"Have you ever surfed?"

"I have, actually Fallon, the girl who taught me to meditate, tried to teach me a couple of times I actually stood up on the board once"

"Good," he says, tucking his board under his arh all the standard stuff about how to pop up"

"Really? We’re just going to go right out?"

"Claire, the sun’s going down in less than two hours You won’t be able to surf after the sun goes down"

"But you do"

"Because I don’t need to see the water to knohere it’s going"

I can’t help but sigh as I peel off my clothes "That is so hot"

"Besides, the sharks coht"

"Sharks!"

He shakes his head as he bounds toward the water I grab my board and follow after him Once we’re waist deep in the warm Atlantic Ocean, we’re forced to continually duck dive under the relentless waves until we’re far enough past the breaks We paddle out a bit further until we get to a place where we can turn around to face the beach I can hardly breathe and my limbs ache My arms tremble as I climb onto the board to straddle it the way Adah air inour boards farther apart andme a little queasy He holds his hand out to oing to tell you so lesson"

"What?"

"You look really sexy in that bikini"

"And you’d better not tell anyone else that"

"Ooh, you wear jealousy even better than you wear that bikini," he says as he leans over and kisses ht" He gazes at the waves as they crash onto the shore before us for a while before he speaks again What he says has nothing to do with surfing "I want you to ?"

He tilts his head as he looks atto avoid the subject

"You don’t have to, but I’ their annual summer picnic on my uncle’s ranch and I want you to co away fro inthat scaresHard If Iinto that feeling This won’t be infatuation any, Claire, o?"

I nod fiercely and he leans over to kiss me so fast we both flip our boards and slip into the water A tangle of seaweed snags on athers our boards

"All right, no ive you a serious lesson" We climb back onto our boards and hold hands as atch the waves break against the shore "Pay attention to the rhytho of es beneath rip the rails, paying close attention There’s a definite rhyth, I realize I’ve closedthe waves based on the sound It’s so peaceful out here

"Are you ready?" he asks, and I nod as I open my eyes

He points at the waves as he tells me what to do I try to repeat all his instructions in my head as I lie down on the board Push the nose down… lean into the direction of the wave… Let the momentum of the water carry you

He shoves !"

My first lesson is a disaster so as soon as the sun starts to set behind us, I breathe a sigh of relief and ive out beneathI wipe the saltwater from my face with a towel, lay the towel out on the sand, and collapse facedown

"Hey, you didn’t do too bad," Ada and hands it to uzzle it down "Yeah, not so bad I never once stood up"

"That’s okay for your first ti in the curl soon"

"Are you going to take that weekend job on Shell Island?"

"Are you going to be my first student?"