Page 64 (2/2)

"I can balance," I say "Just not on tiny little lines of wheels What about bicycles?"

He eyes me dubiously

I cock my head and raise my brows "Yes I can ride a bike"

We find a rental stand and then I spend the next two hours proving to hih, to be honest, it’s not a childhood skill at all My mother was too worried about potential scrapes and bruises So I didn’t learn to ride a bike until college

"Anotherpiece of your childhood," Damien says, when I tell hi with you on the beach than an entire summer as a kid"

"For that, I’ll buy you an ice creaht-blue painted ice-creale dip cones with sprinkles Then we put our flip-flops in Dae Since it’s the Pacific, the water is freezing even in the su in the water haven’t turned blue

We walk in the breaking waves, letting the sand slide out under our feet, holding hands and eating ice crea, and I tell Damien how I alanted a puppy and how, surprise surprise, ht a stray Lab hoht, but his father wouldn’t let hi how often I traveled, it was for the best," Da would have been kenneled all the ti your dad you wanted the dog because you wanted off the circuit You wanted ho"

Damien looks at me with a curious expression "Yes," he finally says "That was it exactly"

"Did you ever get a dog? Once you quit tennis and became Mr Business Dude, I mean"

"No," he says, and his brow furrows "No, I never have" He nods playfully toward the girl "Think she’ll sell onna say no"

We return to the bikes and head in the opposite direction, toward Santa Monica We take it sloatching the tourists and locals, talking, enjoying the day When we reach the mall, we lock up the bikes and walk down the Promenade toward the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Ar street until Da for real food and it’s tiests The Ivy, which even I know is a see-and-be-seen kind of place "One, I don’t think they’d even let us in dressed like this," I say "And two, it’s not exactly the best place to avoid the paparazzi"

"Pizza by the slice it is," he says, and we end up eating foldable slices of pepperoni pizza at tiny metal tables

"There’s no way The Ivy could be better than this," I say, and right now, for this day, with this lance at the sky once we finish our pizza "It’s getting dark Should we take the bikes back?"

"Soon," Da"

What he wants to show h I tell him that I’ve been before "But have you ridden the Ferris wheel?"

"No," I ad?"

"Man of mystery, remember? I can’t share my secrets"

"I’ll take that as a yes"

"That’s one of the things I rin as alk the rest of the way, then get in line for the ride It’s surprisingly short, and we only have to wait through two rounds of passengers before we’re shown into our own little basket Then the attendant shuts the door and up we go