Storm Shells

by G. J. Walker-Smith

  “This is a long board,” he said pointing at it. “That means you can’t cut through a wave. If you think you’re going to have trouble getting over it, turtle roll.”

  He’d already lost me and he knew it. “Grab the rails and flip it over,” he elaborated.

  “The rails?” The man was speaking a different language.

  “The edges.”

  “Okay.”

  “Paddle straight into it. If you approach at an angle, you’re going to roll. Rolling is bad. Stay perpendicular to the oncoming wave, then turtle roll if you need to.”

  “You just said rolling was bad.”

  “Rolling is bad.”

  Unless there’s a turtle involved. This was going to end in tragedy, but I figured he knew that already.

  “What happens if I wipe out?”

  He dropped his head and laughed blackly. “Oh, you’re going to get massacred, Adam. No doubt about it.”

  “Great.” I drew out the word. “Any advice that will keep me alive would be appreciated.”

  He looked pensively out to sea. “If you wipe out, relax and let yourself sink. Waves are powerful, but they don’t have nearly as much pull below the surface. Just let yourself sink and you’ll pass safely underneath it.”

  I glared at him, horrified. “This is what you do for fun?”

  He turned his head, looking straight at me. “Every day of my life.”

  The instructions didn’t stop once we were in the water. Somehow I managed to paddle out past the breaking waves. Alex was already there, sitting on his board, rolling over the oncoming waves as he waited.

  “You look forward, I’ll look back,” he told me. “When I tell you to go, go. Paddle hard. Don’t try and get up, stay on your belly and just coast in. Got it?”

  “Yeah.” No.

  I kept my focus on the beach ahead, wondering how many pieces I’d be in when I reached the shore. It was like waiting to be struck by a train. I felt the dips as we rolled over the top of three more waves before he spoke again.

  “Get ready,” he warned. There was nothing I could do but listen to him. “Go, Adam! Go! Go! Go!”

  I paddled hard. The wave rolled under me and I went nowhere. That happened more than once. I was hoping Alex would lose patience and give up, but he didn’t. He was determined to kill me.

  “Try again. Next one’s the charm,” he told me.

  After my millionth attempt, something incredible happened. I actually caught a wave. I paddled hard until the force of the water took over. From there, I just hung on for dear life – and felt the absolute rush of my life.

  As soon as I was through it, I wanted to go again. Alex stayed out past the breaking waves, waiting for me to paddle all the way out again, which seemed to take forever.

  “That was freaking awesome!” I yelled, long before I could be sure he’d hear me.

  He laughed. “What did I tell you?”

  “I want to go again.”

  “Yeah, I figured you might.”

  I knew that forcing me into the water that day wasn’t a bonding exercise. Alex was a grown-up version of Charli. There was a deeper meaning to it, I just wasn’t privy to it yet.

  “Why are we out here, Alex?”

  He grabbed the nose of my board to stop me drifting away. My board wasn’t sleek, short and pretty like his, but it did float better. He was half submerged.

  “I just want you to understand it,” he replied. “It’s one of the many reasons why my kid doesn’t belong in a big city. I made her that way.”

  He made it sound like the greatest thing he’d ever accomplished. I wasn’t about to argue the point. As long as I was floating on a piece of fibreglass hundreds of yards from shore, my life was in his hands.

  “I get it. And for the record, I already knew that your daughter doesn’t belong in a big city.”

  “That creates a bit of a problem for you, doesn’t it?”

  “Not really,” I mumbled. “We’ll work it out.”

  “She doesn’t need you, Adam,” he told me. “Sometimes she just thinks she does.”

  “You might be right,” I agreed, “but I need her.”

  “From what she’s told me, you don’t deserve her.”

  “You might be right about that too,” I conceded.

  Giving me an unsympathetic grin, he shoved the nose of my board, widening the distance between us. “Ready to go again?”

  “Yeah. Let’s go.” I sounded much surer this time round, but my confidence turned out to be a little premature. It was hard to pinpoint the moment it went bad. One minute I was on top of the whole world, coasting through the water. The next minute I was under it, thrashing around, trying to stay alive.

  I should’ve heeded the warning to relax and let myself sink, but the urge to get to the surface took over. I fought the water the whole way in and came out second best, eventually surfacing in knee-deep water near the shore. I staggered onto the dry sand and collapsed in a heap, coughing like a pack-a-day-smoker.

  Alex appeared a few minutes later. It was too much to think he’d come in to check on my welfare. He walked up to the beach to retrieve the board that had washed up after me.

  “Not too bad,” he said examining it. “Nothing I can’t fix.”

  “Oh my God!” screamed a familiar voice in the distance. “Alex, you’ve killed him!”

  A tad dramatic maybe, but at least she was concerned.

  “He’s not dead, Charli,” scoffed Alex. “He’s probably feeling more alive than he ever has.”

  She knelt beside me and pulled my head onto her lap. “Are you okay?”

  I squinted, focusing on her lovely, worried face. “Charli,” I muttered. “How did you know I was here?”

  “I was watching from the house. I knew the only idiot stupid enough to be out this morning was Alex. I grabbed the binoculars to see who the other idiot was and saw it was you!”

  “It was freaking amazing, Charlotte,” I muttered, brushing her hair from my face.

  She glared at her father, who was somewhere behind me chuckling.

  “Oh great. He’s delirious,” she growled. “Alex, what were you thinking? He could’ve drowned.”

  “Lighten up, Charli,” he replied. “Boy Wonder actually has skill. He managed to stay alive, didn’t he?”

  “No thanks to you!”

  He laughed, and for some reason I did too, even though it hurt. Charli wasn’t impressed. She stood up, letting my head thump on the sand, and uselessly tried pulling me to a sitting position.

  “Get up,” she ordered, turning her wrath on me. “You’re as foolish as he is.”

  * * *

  A long hot shower brought me back to life. Once I was able to convince Charli that I wasn’t on the verge of death, her mood lifted.

  “You’re sure you’re okay?” she asked, handing me a towel.

  “Better than okay,” I told her. “It was awesome.”

  “Great. So now you’re a convert, you can move here and surf all day. We’ll grow dope and buy a Kombi van.”

  I swiped the towel down my face, laughing into it. “Nice plan, Coccinelle.” I wrapped the towel around my waist, grabbed her hips and pulled her forward.

  “It really was a rush,” I told her, pressing up against her. “Scary and unpredictable. A bit like being married to you.”

  “I knew you were going to get thrashed. I was halfway down the trail to the beach before you even got to shore.”

  It was fair to assume there was a something lacking in my technique, but I was still curious. “How did you know?”

  She put her finger on my chest, drawing an invisible diagram. “You caught it at an odd angle. You were always going to roll, especially on that big clunker board,” she explained. “I’m glad you lived through it though.”

  I leaned down and kissed the wry grin off her face. “Me too.”

  * * *

  After all I’d endured that morning, getting a caffeine hit became a matter of survival. I was
prepared to head out to see Gabrielle again but Charli talked me out of it. “You need a bit of a heads-up where the Parisienne’s concerned,” she hinted. “We’ll go to the café instead.”

  “Wait,” I caught her hand as she passed me. “I want to know about Gabi. What’s going on?”

  “I’ll tell you on the way,” she promised. “I’ll tell you everything along the way.

  * * *

  I could’ve negotiated the streets of Pipers Cove blindfolded – all eleven of them. And we drove down just about every one, buying time while Charli brought me up to speed on all the small town news.

  I wasn’t all that interested in hearing that Jasmine Tate had finally secured a man, or that my Audi now looked like a souped-up mess. Hearing of Gabrielle’s fragile state did concern me, though.

  “So are we supposed to mention it or not?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so. She’ll tell us if she wants us to know. Alex only told me because I gave him no choice.”

  “It’ll work out for them,” I assured her, reaching over to muss her hair. “And when it does, you’ll be a big sister.”

  She pushed my hand away, chuckling. “Wise guy.”

  By the time we pulled up at the café, Charlotte was all talked out. As I reached the door, she grabbed my arm. “There’s one more thing you should know.”

  “Good or bad?”

  “Horrendous. Nicole is back in town – working here.”

  “Alex took her back?”

  “Alex doesn’t know the whole story.”

  I wasn’t sure how this was going to play out. Charli certainly wasn’t showing any sign of forgiveness. I could see the tension on her face.

  “Do you want to go somewhere else?”

  She shook her head. “No. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  I don’t know what sort of reaction I was expecting from Nicole when we walked in. Her cheeks went beet red at the sight of us – hardly the sign of a career criminal.

  “Hi,” she meekly greeted.

  I smiled but said nothing, leaving it to Charli to set the mood.

  “Hi,” she said coldly.

  Probably realising that was all she was going to get from her, Nicole turned her attention to me. “How are you, Adam?”

  “Good, thank you.”

  “How long are you in town for?”

  I opened my mouth but Charli chimed in. “Stop talking, Nic.”

  And that was the end of that. Charli walked around the counter and made me a world-class coffee in record time. Nicole stood frozen, looking close to tears. I wandered around the café, trying to look occupied. And no one said a word.

  Charlotte marched us out the door the second she handed me the cup.

  “Well, that wasn’t awkward,” I mocked as we walked back to the car.

  “I have nothing to say to her, and nor do you. Stay away from her,” she ordered.

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  Charli spun to face me. “I can’t forgive her, Adam.” She’d obviously been struggling with the notion. “I don’t have it in me.”

  “You forgave me,” I reminded her. I’d put her through a whole lot more than thirteen grand’s worth of pain.

  She looked at me, slowly shaking her head. “I didn’t forgive you. I left you.”

  My straight-talking wife had a way with words. Whether she realised it or not, she’d bitten me hard.

  “Moved on without me, huh?” I teased, trying to deflect the sting.

  The corner of her mouth lifted as she fought against smiling. “Leaps and bounds.” She threw out her arms. “Didn’t look back once.”

  I set my coffee on the roof of the car before pulling her against me. Her body went limp as I dipped her backwards. “You forgot about me?”

  “Yes,” she breathed. “Three short weeks and you’re nothing more than a cute bloke in a car park.”

  “You’re a cold woman, Charlotte Décarie,” I declared, leaning in closer. “Let me refresh your memory.”

  I pressed my lips to the side of her neck, deciding she was anything but cold. I might never have let her go if we hadn’t been interrupted by the sound of a car braking hard on the gravel.

  I righted Charli and turned to see something that vaguely resembled the Audi I used to own. It was trashed – completely and utterly wrecked. Even the back bumper was held on with wire.

  “You weren’t kidding,” I mumbled. “They’ve killed my car.”

  Charlotte muffled her laughter by burying her face in my sleeve.

  “Adam!” screeched Jasmine, messily exiting the driver’s side. “Fancy seeing you here!”

  I reached for Charli’s hand. “Yeah,” I replied dully. “Fancy.” I tried hard not to look her up and down but it was impossible not to. Jasmine hadn’t changed much. She still looked like a two-dollar hooker.

  “We all thought you’d broken up.” She alternated her finger between the two of us. “That’s the word around town anyway.”

  “Two guesses where the word came from,” Charli muttered. I squeezed her fingers, silently promising her a quick getaway.

  “Well, it’s nice to see you again, Jasmine,” I said politely, edging away from her.

  “Wait, wait!” She lurched forward, thrusting her left hand in front of my face. “Did you hear my news? I’m engaged.”

  I ducked out of the way of her hand and opened the passenger door of the car. “Great. Congratulations.”

  “Aw, thanks, Adam. I knew you’d be thrilled for me.”

  “Thrilled,” I listlessly confirmed.

  Charli grabbed my coffee off the roof and got in the car. Jasmine followed me to the driver’s side, cornering me like a lipstick-wearing rottweiler.

  “His name’s Wade. He’s a personal trainer. You should meet him.”

  “I look forward to it.”

  “Great. We’ll have dinner tonight. Just the four of us. My parents have opened up a restaurant at the vineyard. Say, eight o’clock?”

  I hadn’t seen it coming, nor could I think quickly enough to get out of it. My head involuntarily nodded.

  “Fab,” she crowed, slapping my arm. “We’ll see you then.”

  At the first chance of escape, I got in the car and slunk down in the seat. “Charlotte, what’s the current status of your relationship with Jasmine Tate?”

  She giggled. “Put it this way: if she was on fire, and I had water, I’d drink it.”

  “That’s what I thought,” I mumbled. “I might have just given you grounds for divorce.”

  “What did you do?”

  I couldn’t look at her. “I just accepted a dinner invitation for tonight. Apparently they’ve opened up a restaurant at the vineyard.”

  “Why would you do that?” She sounded utterly appalled.

  I glanced at her from the corner of my eye. “I didn’t know what to say.”

  “Latin, French and English.” She ticked the words off on her fingers. “You’re fluent in all of them. You couldn’t think of anything?”

  I grabbed my phone from the console. “Give me her number. I’ll call and cancel.”

  She snatched it out of my hand. “Oh no you don’t, Boy Wonder. You’re going to suffer through it. That’s your punishment for being a wuss.”

  I grinned at her. “You’re so lovely when you’re mad. I like it.”

  She grinned back. “Keep making dates with the enemy and you’ll see a lot more of it.”

  * * *

  Knowing we only had two weeks together should’ve been accompanied by the awful feeling of being on borrowed time. But I wasn’t feeling it. We seemed to have fallen back into place as if we’d never been apart. I wasn’t going to waste time trying to figure it out. I just wanted to enjoy being with her.

  I was also enjoying the quiet pace of life in a country town.

  It wasn’t a total escape. My mother had been blowing up my phone since I’d left New York. I’d expected to be in trouble for bailing on Christmas with the family; t
hat’s why I’d left Ryan to break the news.

  I stood on the veranda, checking my voicemails while I watched Charli in the yard. I was listening to a demon woman giving me marriage advice while watching an angel woman wander around the garden. Choosing between the two wasn’t difficult. I deleted the demon mid-message – just as she got the part about marriage being forever. I focused on the angel instead, who was snipping at flowers with a pair of scissors.

  Charli suddenly stopped dead, standing completely still with her arms by her sides.

  “Charli?” I called. “Are you okay?”

  She turned and flashed me her loveliest smile.

  “Yeah. There’s a bee.”

  “Are you trying to get stung or not get stung?” I couldn’t be sure. If I remembered correctly, it was number eighty-something on her never-done list.

  Ignoring the threat of the bee, she walked over to me. I reached for her hand and helped her onto the veranda.

  “I don’t want to get stung today,” she replied. “I’m busy this afternoon.”

  “Doing what?”

  “I thought I might go and see Gabrielle. I want to take her some lavender.” She waved the bunch at me. “You probably want to catch up with her too, right? We can pick up your car while we’re there.”

  “Okay.” I frowned. “Odd gift, though.”

  She shrugged. “Not really. It’s baby bait.”

  “There’s a story here, isn’t there?” It was one of my dumber questions. I already knew the answer.

  “Not unless you want to hear it.”

  She knew very well that I wanted to hear it. The question was whether Gabrielle was going to want to hear it. I’d never known Gabi to be particularly interested in La La Land. On the other hand, if she was as desperate in her quest to have a baby as Charli seemed to think she was, she might be prepared to entertain anything.

  December 26

  Charli

  Dealing with Gabrielle was hard work. Alex had made me promise not to rattle her cage, but the truth was it didn’t take much to wind her up these days. Every time I saw her, she looked like she was about to burst into tears.