He grabs the board and says, “Great. Let’s get out in the water.”
“Not so fast.” I look at the board, knowing it hasn’t been used in a while. “Run your hand over the surface here where you’re going to be laying. Do you feel anything?”
He wipes his hand across the board. “Nope. Is that good?”
“Not really. It’s way too slick. We need to wax it first.” I grab a square piece of wax, break it in half, hand it to him, and then lay our boards across a pair of sawhorses. I rub both boards down with a soft cloth to clean them and then say, “Okay, so first, you’re going to just rub it back and forth like this. Just a little. Not using much pressure. I like just a thin coat.”
He mimics what I do. “Got it. Is this how everyone does it?”
“No, it’s just how I like mine. You use different types of wax depending on the temperature of the water, but everyone has their own way to do it. Some use special tools to put the wax on, some just use the wax like we are. Some layer it differently. But the goal is the same. The wax gives you grip.”
“When I was learning how to skateboard, my dad stapled sandpaper over the top of mine.”
“Exactly, that’s the same idea. Only with wax, you can still see the cool design of your board.”
“Yours is really cool.”
“Thanks. It’s custom. Fit to my weight, height, and abilities.”
“And the design?”
I lower my head and press on my wax with a little more intensity. “Okay, so now you’re going to do this. Make Xs or crosshatching across your board. From rail to rail. Just in this area here where you will lay and stand. And then a little more right up here on the rail where you’ll place your hands while getting up.”
I see Aiden’s shadow fall across my board then his finger is under my chin, pushing it up so I have to look at him. “And the design?” he asks again.
“The Keats guy had it custom-made for my sixteenth birthday.”
“Is that why you were upset last night? It reminds you of him?”
I sigh. “No, that wasn’t it, exactly.”
He doesn’t give up. “What upset you, then? Exactly?”
I run my hand across the sticker. “This sticker is new. It matches our tattoos. The chaos.”
“Life is divine chaos,” he reads and nods his head in agreement. “That’s true. You never know what’s going to happen next. Like, with my mom’s cancer. Life was crazy, chaotic, and scary. But out of all that came something divine. She got her life back and is happier than she’s ever been.”
“She must be a really strong person. I don’t know if I could be that strong.”
“She considered fighting cancer like fighting a war with a worthy opponent, but one that was not invincible. You’re stronger than you know, Boots, and if you ever have to fight something, I’m confident you’ll be able to handle it.”
I look down and slide the wax across my board again. I’m probably putting way too much on, but I don’t care because I’m too busy praying that he’s right.
“Okay, then!” I say with fake excitement. “Let’s get you out in the sand!”
“Don’t you mean water?”
“Nope, you gotta practice getting up on the board first. Lots easier to figure that out on the sand than in the water like I did.” I set my board down in the sand and he follows suit. “So, lie down on the board like this; then, when you’re ready, pop up like this into a standing position.” I sit down on my board and give him a smirk. “Now, drop and give me twenty.”
Aiden salutes me, then drops back down onto the board. I watch as he quickly pops up to a standing position. As he counts down from twenty to one, I’m wishing I had told him to do a hundred. When he lies down on the board, he places his arms in front of him, like he’s going to do a push up. This causes his shoulder muscles to ripple, his biceps to flex, and makes me wish I could slide under him every time he drops back down onto the board. He moves fluidly and effortlessly, his coordinated body doing exactly what he expects of it.
By the time he’s counted down to one, he’s starting to sweat. Little beads of perspiration are glistening across his chest. A thin line of water is running between his tight pecs and through a set of luscious abs. I want to grab his hips in my hands and run my tongue along the deep vee that continues down, just below his low-riding shorts.
I remember the first time I saw him. Yeah, my original observation was dead on. He is so the God of all Hotties.
“How’d I do? Am I ready for the water?”
“I’m definitely ready,” I say, still thinking about my body under his . . . Oh, gosh. “I, uh, meant that I’m hot.” For you. “And ready to get out in the, uh . . .” What’s that big body of water called again? Oh! “The, uh, ocean. You know, get my surf on.”
Oh my gosh. I am so lame. Excuse me while I go bury myself in the sand.
He grabs his board and follows me and my bright red face out into the water. Peyton and Damian are already out there, although it appears they’re doing nothing but sitting on their boards, splashing each other, and playing kissyface.
“It’s about time,” Damian says. “Ready to put on a show?”
“Don’t be a show off. I wanna teach Aiden to surf.”
“Looks like you got the kiddie class, dude,” Damian says, rolling his eye at Aiden. “You ride a snowboard?”
“Absolutely. It’s one of my favorite things to do.”
I turn my head at stare at him. “Really?”
He shrugs his shoulders, like I should’ve known that, but gives my hand a reassuring caress, telling me he can handle it.
“C’mon,” Damian says, paddling out. “Live by the wave. Die by the wave.”
“I don’t want to die by the wave,” I tell him.
“There are worse ways to die,” he says pointedly.
I swallow, thinking of Vincent. “Yeah, I guess.”
“You’re totally slowing my roll with the death talk,” Aiden says in a stoner voice, laughing.
Which makes me giggle like I’m high too. High on being in the water with Aiden.
Who would have thought?
“Just follow my lead,” Damian tells Aiden as he takes the first wave and slices through the water toward shore.
“You don’t have to do that curvy stuff. Just ride straight in.”
Aiden chooses a wave, quickly stands up—his foot placement looking like it belongs in a surfing textbook—and easily rides the small wave into the shore.
I wait for a bigger one, eager to show off my skills, and feel the rush as I push up off the board . . . but then my hand slides off the edge of it, and I crash chin first into my board.
Shit that hurt, I think as the wave crashes on top of me and a riptide pulls me under. I let my body go limp trying to make myself float back to the surface so I can tread water. When I get back to the top, I see that I’m a lot further away from shore than I expected. Damian and Aiden are both wading through the waves frantically searching for me.
I try to yell that I’m okay, but end up coughing up water. So I just wave my hand and let the waves carry me back to shore.
“What the hell was that?” Damian yells, pulling me out of the water and yanking the leash off my ankle.
“I forgot to put wax on the side of the rail. I slipped. It’s no big deal.”
“I couldn’t find you,” Damian says, still yelling at me.
“I’m sorry. What do you want me to do? You’re the one who said die by the wave. Maybe you jinxed me.”
Aiden touches my face gently. “You scared us both. And you have a little cut on your chin.”
Damian is still pissed. Full of adrenaline. I can see that I scared both of them. Aiden is just handling it better.
I touch Damian’s forearm. “It’s okay. I’m fine. I’ve had way worse crashes than that. It was just a stupid thing made worse by the undertow. If you fall, be careful.”
Peyton, who had rushed into the shed, comes back with a band-a
id for my chin. “Here.”
“Thanks. Do I need this?”
“You’re bleeding. I’d think so. We don’t want you attracting a shark, too.”
I laugh. “No, we don’t.”
“Here. Let me put it on you. Your hands are all wet.” She tears the sides off the band-aid and places it on my chin. I’m sure I look like an even bigger loser than I did when I crashed.
I push the band-aid in place, grab my board, add some wax to the rail, and head back out in the water. I know the best thing to do after a crash is get back out there.
The next wave I catch is different. It loves me. Big, broad crest that I’m able to carve my way up and down.
“That was amazing!” Aiden tells me, pulling me into his arms. “You’re really good. I kinda thought after you crashed that you were maybe overstating your abilities.”
“You thought I was bragging?”
He kisses my nose. “Maybe. Kinda.”
Then he kisses my lips. And my band-aid. “Life with you is never going to be boring.”
Meaning in everything.
10am
After surfing, we dry off and head in for breakfast.
I’m sitting at the breakfast bar watching Inga make her special caramel sauce.
“I’ve tried making that for Damian before, but I can never seem to get it right. The brown sugar always gets lumpy.”
“Are you mixing it in the right order?”
“Yeah, kinda. Well, honestly, no, I sorta just put all the ingredients in at once and let them melt.”
“You can’t do that. You have to mix the brown sugar and butter first before you can add the cream.”
I scowl. “Oh, yeah, I don’t do it that way.”
“That’s because you don’t like to wait, Miss Keatyn. You want everything now. You need to stop being so impatient and let life come to you. You’re young; you have a lot of life left.”
I know she’s talking about being patient in cooking but what she says touches me deeply.
“Do you think that’s true? That I will have a long life?”
She looks surprised at me. “Has Inga never read your palm?”
“Um, no. You always said I was too young.”
She grabs my hand and turns it over.
Then a curious look crosses her face. “Very odd.”
She lets go of my hand and pulls the reading glasses she wears around her neck up to her face. Then she looks more closely, studying my hand and tracing the line. Grabbing my other hand and comparing the two, she says, “It is believed that your dominant hand shows what is and your non-dominant hand shows what could be.”
“So what do mine say?”
She runs her finger next to a line. “This is your life line. See this? How it is a chain up here at the top?”
“Yes.”
That means things have been difficult for you early in your life. You lost your father, no?”
“Yes. When I was eight.”
“But this. This split. It is unusual to see in someone so young.”
“Why?”
“It means death.”
“Death?”
“Yes, you cheated death, somehow. Have you had a brush with death recently?”
“She just about drowned,” Peyton says, but Damian is looking at me with huge eyes and thinking the same thing I am. That if Vincent had actually kidnapped me, I’d be dead.
“Maybe it means I’m going to die soon,” I say softly, knowing it could happen.
“No, it is in the past.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just do.”
“Uh, okay.”
“But see how this strong thin line starts after the break?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a split or changed life. It often means the death of a spouse. A divorce. Something in your life has changed. This feels almost like a rebirth.”
I think about my changed name. My changed life. I know I’m not supposed to believe in this stuff, but still.
“And after that?”
“This line is extremely chained at the beginning, so you’ll have a difficult struggle during this rebirth, but then it emerges as a strong long line.”
“What does that mean?”
“You will have a long, happy life once you get through it.”
I put my head down, pretending to be inspecting my palm, but trying to hide my reaction.
Inga has no idea the overwhelming feeling of hope she’s just given me.
“Do you want me to do the rest?”
“Yes, please,” I mutter out.
“This is your heart line,” she says, drawing her finger across it. “It’s long, meaning you will be content in love. And this line is your head line. There are Xs in the middle. Here. That means you’ll soon make a momentous decision. One that will affect the course of your life.”
“Okay,” I nod, wondering if she’s referring to the decision I’ve already made. Not going back to Eastbrooke and starting to wage war on Vincent.
“See how these lines are connected at the top?”
“Yes.”
“They mean you developed your aspirations early on in your life.” She looks up at me. “Based on all the plays you and Damian have done here in the past, I’m assuming that means you belong in the entertainment industry.”
“Uh, that’s interesting.” I don’t want to talk about that, so I try to get her to move on quickly. “What else do you see?”
“Based on the shape and length of your palm and fingers, I’d say you’re very perceptive, sympathetic, and quite creative.”
I smile. I love being those things.
“On the downside,” she says, “you can be moody, emotional, and inhibited.”
Damian and Aiden both start laughing. Damian says, “Emotional is right. I never knew a person who could have so many emotions at once.”
Inga chastises Damian. “That’s because she’s perceptive, Damian. They go hand in hand.”
I give Damian a smug smile but then squint my eyes at Aiden. “Why were you laughing?”
“Because you are the least inhibited person I know.”
Inga also gives him the eye then says, “Inhibited can have many meanings, young man. Possibly she is emotionally inhibited, as I would suspect is the case based on what I see.”
“Uh, oh. I didn’t think of it that way,” Aiden replies respectfully.
“The universe is a mysterious place and there is meaning in everything,” she says confidently. She lets go of my hand to stir the caramel sauce and then returns to the island and grins at me. “Now for the fun part.”
“What’s the fun part?”
“How many children you will have, of course. You know that your mother’s hand was very clear on that. She didn’t believe me when I told her she would have five more children after you.”
“Five?”
“Six total. One, which is you, then a large space, which meant the age gap between you and her second child would be large, then five lines close together.”
“I’d love to have another sister,” I say happily. But then reality hits, and I want to cry at the thought of not being there.
Just another reason to get my life back as fast as I can.
“So how many kids will Keatyn have?” Aiden asks with a sparkle in his eye.
“Hmmm. You will have four children very close together. See how these lines touch at the bottom?”
“Yeah,” Aiden says, studying my faint lines very intently.
“Twins.”
“That’s really cool,” Aiden says. Then, turning to Peyton, “I always wished we had a bigger family.”
“Not me,” Peyton says. “I only want one kid. And I want to spoil her rotten.”
“Rotten, is not good, Miss Peyton. Let me see your hand.”
Peyton hold her palm up.
Inga shakes her head. “You should start mentally preparing. You are destined to have three boys.”
We all
laugh as Inga stops the entertainment and pulls our waffles out of the oven.
Obsession with fairy tales.
11am
After chowing down breakfast, we head back to the beach. We all play around on our surfboards and Peyton manages to get up on hers. She and Damian are constantly flirting and looking for any excuse to touch each other.
Aiden says to Damian, “I noticed you have a wakeboard in the shed.”
“Yeah,” Damian replies. “We can get the wave runner out and I’ll pull you around.”
“That’d be awesome!”
“I think that’s my cue to put my board away and spend some time tanning,” I announce.
“That’s what I want to do too,” Peyton says. “I’m really wet.”
I see Damian lick his lips. He so just thought something naughty. He grabs her around the waist and pulls her in for a kiss. “I’ll miss you,” he says in a lovesick way.
Oh, he’s got it bad.
Peyton giggles uncontrollably. In fact, she’s still giggling when we lie on two of the cushioned chaises that line a small portion of the beach.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you giggle so much.”
She giggles again. “I’m, like, giddy and having so much fun. Damian is sweet.” She stops and studies me. “Is he sweet? Please say he’s sweet.”
“Yeah, he’s super sweet.”
“It's silly isn't it? He’s practically a rock star. Travels all over. I’m still in school. He’s younger than me. And probably into groupies.”
“He looks really good in a suit,” I say with a smirk.
“He has pretty much everything on my list and the things he doesn't have I don't care about anymore. I'm falling way too fast. Hell, who am I kidding? I’m not falling, I’ve fallen. I need to stop it. Stuff like this only happens in the movies. But he’s so hot. But in a different way. Like his face is beautiful but it’s more classic. Have you ever noticed how perfectly proportioned it is?”
“Uh, I don’t think so.”
“He’s just as hot as Cam, only I don’t think he realizes how hot he is. Like Cam works it. Uses his looks.”
“Damian uses his words,” I say softly. “His music. His voice, like when he whispers or sings you to sleep, it’s completely dreamy.”
The Keatyn Chronicles: Adore Me Page 6
