Between The Waves

by Ellie Malouff

  “What about you, Thor?”

  “Thor?” I don’t mean to scoff, but she’s caught me off guard.

  “Yeah, you pretty much look like Thor on a surfboard.”

  “I don’t have long hair,” I protest.

  “I don’t think he does now, either,” she says, so nonchalant you’d think she was talking about her neighbor, not some fictional superhero.

  Hell if I know. “Norse mythology expert, or do you just like the movies?”

  “All of the above,” she says through a laugh and then shakes her head. “No, I’ve loved movies ever since I was a kid. We had a great collection, all the classic eighties movies. Plus, knowing a lot about movies is handy when you meet someone new, like something to have in common right away.”

  “Well, I’m no Thor, but I don’t think he’d stand a chance against the ocean either, at least not without his hammer.”

  “Okay, I think you’ve illustrated your point,” she says and purses her lips. She’s got a sexy way of getting snarky.

  “Great. So what are you going to do?”

  “Never turn my back on the ocean?”

  “You got it, newbie.” I get to my feet and reach out a hand. She slides her slender hand into mine and I pull her up to her feet, then give her a little squeeze before I let go. It’s warm and soft, and it tempts me into thinking about how her skin would feel in other soft places.

  Where did this girl come from?

  An hour ago, my day was on the same trajectory as it is most days—waking up at dawn, getting my brother off to school, heading to the shop, and watching surfers come and go. Hell, I even visited my friend Manny at his food truck to help him prep like I do most days, but in a twist, I returned to my shop and stumbled upon this beauty from the mainland. Now, I’m willingly giving up my day to teach her about the ocean. I wasn’t sure life had many more surprises for me, but I’m stoked it still does.

  I pluck the boards out of the sand and lay them down in front of us. Like an eager kid, she immediately jumps on her board.

  “Slow down, newbie.”

  “Are you going to teach me how to pop-up on the board now?”

  “Nope, that’s the next lesson.”

  “Are we going into the water at all?” she asks, and for the first time, I can sense a little impatience.

  Usually, I don’t take students out into the water during the first lesson, but she’s so unexpected that I’m feeling a little loose with the rules. Plus, the conditions are calm enough for what I have in mind. “Yeah, but first you gotta practice being on the board.”

  For the next fifteen minutes, we talk about how her board is designed and where she should position her body when she’s paddling out. She practices on land, lying on her belly, perfectly centered, with her feet near the back edge, and staring straight ahead. I find myself memorizing the lines of her body, tracing along every curve and angle until it’s committed to memory. This isn’t something I would usually do when working with someone, but I haven’t been caught off guard this much with someone in ages.

  She’s a quick learner and a good listener. She asks a lot of great questions and is fascinated with the physics of it all.

  After that, I teach her the most efficient way to paddle, especially for her strength. She reveals to me that she hasn’t exercised in the past six months. Her confession is surprising to me. She seems like the active type, but I figure I’m making that assumption on her desire to surf at all. Plenty of people are satisfied with bumming on the beach and wading into the water to cool off their feet.

  The other curious thing about her confession is that it seems like she regrets telling me about it at all as if she’s said too much. I barely know a thing about this girl, except for the easy deductions, like she’s probably from the Midwest, based on that Cubs cap and she likes movies, since she’s quoting them all the time.

  Once I feel confident that she’s got paddling down, it’s time to take our boards in the water.

  “Don’t I need a wetsuit?” she asks, ever so clever.

  “Eventually, but it’s all good today, we’re just gonna paddle out. I can recommend where to get one later. They make stylish ones these days,” I say and I feel like a fish out of water. Surfing fashion trends isn’t usually something I give a lot of thought.

  “And I don’t need to know how to pop-up?” There’s an edge to her tone, a little anxiety perhaps.

  Maybe this was a bad idea after all. I should probably go back to the usual lesson structure, but when I look at her, I have the sense that it’s not fear of the ocean that’s got her wound up, it’s fear of no control.

  “We don’t have to go in the water today,” I tell her.

  “No, I really want to. I just want to be ready in case I have to catch a wave,” she says with a plastered-on smile. That’s not a real one, so I don’t add it to the tally.

  “Listen, all I had in mind is paddling out and sitting on our boards for a bit. You’re not ready to pop-up yet, trust me.”

  She looks a little disappointed, but when she lets out of a big breath, I think she’s a little relieved.

  “You can even quiz me on movie trivia,” I offer.

  She mulls it over, bobbing her head side-to-side a little. “Deal.” She takes off her Cubs cap and undoes her bun in one swift movement. Her hair tumbles down over her shoulders. It’s black as night and shimmers beautifully in the sun and over her skin. Before I know it, she’s dropping her shorts to the ground and pulling her tank top over her head, revealing a black bikini. This isn’t a string bikini designed to show off every edge and curve, but it somehow does the trick anyway. I have to stop myself from blatantly staring, so I look out at the other gorgeous beauty in front of me, the ocean.

  I clear my throat and remove my shirt, sneaking a peek at her to see if she likes looking at me as much as I like looking at her. She’s hard to read behind those sunglasses she stole.

  “Don’t wear your sunglasses in.” My voice is unexpectedly gruff.

  “Oh, right,” she says and drops them on her pile of clothes. When she looks up at me, I’m stunned. Her eyes are as turquoise as the water I love and the contrast with her dark hair is jaw-dropping. She watches me carefully and points to her eyes.

  Fuck, I’m busted.

  “Don’t forget to take yours off as well.” She picks up her board and dashes into the water like she owns the place.

  “Who are you?” I mumble to myself as I follow her.

  Audrey

  “You paddled like a champ,” Jake says to me.

  I smile at that, and he whispers the number four. What an adorable weirdo. “Thank you.”

  I try my best to mimic his smooth motion of sitting up on his board and straddling the sucker, but it takes more work than I thought it would. All of this does.

  We’re floating on the water and I’ve never felt more buoyant, literally and figuratively. I needed something more to do than watch movies and stare at the ocean. This has been the perfect time filler.

  It also feels great to use my body again. Back in Chicago, before things got bad, I used to love being active. Running along the lake, yoga in Wicker Park, dancing until the wee hours in Boystown. All those things I used to do with my friends Renée and Darcy. The city was our playground until it wasn’t for me anymore because I was afraid to leave my house. Muscles that have been on hiatus are back in full force, and it’s thrilling.

  Jake’s eyes dart back and forth between me and the ocean behind us. He’s worried about me and it’s sweet. He’s also kind and funny and heroically patient.

  I like him.

  Let’s be real, he’s also ridiculously hot. But while new-in-town Audrey is seemingly single and ready to mingle, put-through-the-ringer Sara is scarred and not in any condition to enter into a relationship, even if the guy looks like Thor. I wasn’t kidding about that; he really does resemble a Hemsworth.

  “Balancing on your board, just like this, is actually a useful exercise. It helps s
trengthen your core.”

  I think he’s trying to justify this little adventure more to himself than to me.

  “I like it, even if it’s exercise,” I say and splash my legs around in the water.

  But then a terrible thing happens. I have a frightening realization and in a moment of pure terror, I pull my legs out of the water and fold them under my body.

  “What’s wrong?” Jake asks, in a near panic as he starts to look around.

  “Holy shit!” I shriek.

  “Audrey!” he says and paddles closer. “What’s happening?”

  “How the hell did I forget about sharks? We’re like tasty snacks out here.”

  He says nothing at first but starts to laugh, really, really hard.

  “It’s not funny!” I shout, but that doesn’t stop him.

  To keep any semblance of balance, I have to hold onto each side of the board, but that makes the board start to teeter from side to side as I keep over-correcting.

  “Calm down, Audrey,” he says, much more seriously.

  “I can’t,” I tell him, and the rocking gets worse.

  “Calm down before you tip over.”

  I want to paddle back to shore, but I definitely don’t want to tip over into these shark infested waters. Sure enough, the board dips too far to the right and I capsize. The water isn’t terribly deep, but it’s deep enough. The saltwater stings when I open my eyes to search for a carnivorous beast.

  Jake’s words are blasting in my head. Never turn your back on the ocean! That’s exactly what I’ve done.

  The only carnivorous beast in sight is my surfing demigod. He’s wrapping his arm around my waist, and dear lord, his grip is tight. He brings us both back up to the very calm surface of the water.

  “Jesus, Audrey,” he says, as water drips off every hard angle of his handsome face. Our eyes connect and he brushes some wet strands of my hair back. It’s at this moment that I realize I’ve wrapped my legs around his waist. It’s also at this moment that I notice his feet are planted firmly on the sandbar. I could be standing on my own, but I don’t dare budge.

  “I’m sorry,” I tell him, feeling ultimately foolish.

  Our faces are only centimeters apart when he responds. “You almost gave me a heart attack.”

  “Tell me honestly, are there sharks here?”

  “Of course there are sharks here. This is Maui.”

  I try to pull out of his arms to swim back to shore, but he doesn’t let go.

  “But, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t surf. I’ll teach you about the sharks, okay? We’re safe right now.”

  “We are?”

  “Well, reasonably so. Shark attacks are rare, even though there are plenty of sharks out there,” he says and waves off into the distance. “Honestly, and I mean this, you’re more likely to get struck by lightning then get bitten by a shark.”

  Hearing those odds eases my mind and body. I sag against him as relief seeps in. Our positioning turns into an intimate hug as I wrap my arms around his neck and lay my head on that broad shoulder of his. He doesn’t flinch, not even a little bit, he just holds me against him. This embrace is something I didn’t realize I needed, but now that I’m in it, I don’t want to let go. Even if sharks were circling, I’d feel safe, and safe isn’t something that I’ve felt for a very long time.

  “I’m sorry,” I murmur into his skin.

  “It’s fine,” he replies, much softer now. “Just promise me something.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t give up on this.”

  This?

  “Don’t give up on surfing,” he clarifies as if reading my thoughts. “I think you have a lot of potential.”

  “I won’t give up,” I assure him, and decide that as much as I don’t want to, it’s time to let him go. He lets me this time and helps me back on my board. We paddle back to the shore and take a rest on the sand where we left all our stuff.

  “So, you’re from Chicago?”

  My scalp prickles at his question. “Wisconsin,” I answer quickly.

  “Oh, I just figured because of the cap.”

  I let out a ragged breath. “Happens all the time.”

  “Well, Audrey from Wisconsin, we’re having a bonfire party tonight on this very beach. You should come by at sunset. We’d love to welcome you to our little cove.”

  I notice there’s a whole lot of “we” in his invitation, which makes me wonder if he’s attached. It wouldn’t make sense for a guy like him to be single. I’m the tiniest bit ashamed for straddling him, but not too much, because that was all done innocently…I think.

  A party? Well, why not? I’ve already done so much today to break out of my shell. I pick up all my stuff, not bothering to put my clothes back on over my suit. “Sounds great, I’ll see you tonight. And thanks for everything.”

  “You’re very welcome.” He smiles so brightly at me, it makes me smile in return. “Five,” I think I hear him whisper.

  I take off down the beach, around the cove, toward my little house, replaying all the fun and fright I had today. I’m exhausted when I get there, so I hit the outdoor shower to clean off and crawl onto my bed. As my eyes grow heavy, I think about Jake and the way he held me in his arms.

  I reset my life when I moved to Maui a month ago, but today with Jake I started living again.

  Jake

  First Friday Fire has been around a lot longer than my measly thirty years on this rock. Lots of people credit my dad for starting it up in the early eighties, but he probably just made it popular. The guy gets a lot of credit for things he didn’t deserve. Tua, our resident sage surfer, says it was started long before that by a guy that didn’t even live here. I’ve heard him called Willie, Steve-O, and Santa Claus. The story goes that he started a bonfire, using his surfboard for wood, and invited anyone that walked by to enjoy it with him. Manaluans are very friendly people and so it turned into a wild night.

  Willie Steve-O Claus disappeared after that, but the bonfire tradition carried on. It’s not an official town event, nor is there a budget for it. Hell, we don’t even have a permit, but somehow the people of this community keep making it happen.

  Tonight’s bonfire is a beast. It usually is when Sam gets his hands on it, the little pyro. My brother doesn’t do anything half-assed, including lighting fires. Once he got it going, he bailed to go hang out with his girlfriend—at least that’s what I figure he’s doing. He’s head-over-heels for that girl.

  My best friend, Hideo, turns on some music and the crowd continues to grow. The sun is getting heavy, dipping closer to the horizon. As it goes, I keep my eyes peeled for Audrey. The memory of that girl wrapped around me in the ocean is burning a hole in my mind, while her wallet is burning a hole in my pocket. I’m honestly surprised that she didn’t come back for it since she was so freaked out about handing it over in the first place. I was certain I’d see her again once she remembered.

  Kaila, her sister Lin, and Lin’s boyfriend—the lifeguard whose name I can never remember—are grunting their way through the sand with a keg in tow.

  “Come on guys, do we really need a keg?” Hideo shouts at them. “We loaded the cooler with five cases of beer.”

  “Kaila said we’d probably have extra people tonight,” Lin’s boyfriend chimes into the conversation.

  Kaila rolls her eyes hard as they set the keg down. “Don’t blame this on me. One person, Darren. I mentioned one extra person.”

  Darren, that’s it.

  “Right?” Kaila blurts out and looks over at me.

  “You mean Audrey?” I ask.

  She taps her nose and smiles.

  I should be more surprised, but Kaila is notorious for being in people’s business, and I’ve suspected for a while now that she’s trying her hand at matchmaking. If this was one of her attempts, I gotta say…I approve.

  “I invited her and she said she’d check it out, but I have no idea if she’ll actually come.” If it weren’t for Kaila acknowledging t
hat Audrey exists, I’d start to worry she was a figment of my sun-soaked imagination. Maybe Audrey is like Willie; one and done and gone forever.

  “Who’s Audrey?” Hideo asks as he puts his arm around his wife, Aimi.

  “She’s new to Manalua. I’m teaching her how to surf. Kaila sent her my way.”

  “You’re welcome, Jakey,” she says, with one of her warm smiles that makes it impossible to be annoyed with her.

  “Is that her?” Aimi asks and points past me.

  I look over my shoulder and squint. In the setting sun, I see a beautiful woman walking our way. Her dark hair sweeps off her bare shoulders in the gentle breeze. She’s holding her sandals in one hand and the long skirt of her dress in the other. Every three and a half seconds, the tide glides over her bare feet. Even though I don’t see her smiling, I have a feeling it makes her happy every single time it happens.

  It’s definitely Audrey, and the sight of her makes me a little nervous. I thought I had matured past getting butterflies in my stomach when a pretty girl approaches. “Yep,” I answer while keeping my eyes fixed on her.

  “Cool,” Kaila says with an approving smile.

  “Hey newbie, you made it,” I say when she’s within speaking distance.

  “I made it,” she says and checks out the scene. “That’s quite a fire.”

  “That’s Sam’s doing—my little brother. I think I should check for matches in his room.”

  “Just how little is he?” She raises a curious eyebrow and looks around. I suspect to see if there are children here.

  “Eighteen and he didn’t stay. He’d rather be with his girlfriend all the time.”

  “Ah, young love,” she says, and her lips twitch. It’s not quite a smile, so I don’t count it.

  “Know something about that?”

  “I broke a few hearts,” she answers dryly.

  “I have no doubt.” And that is the absolute truth. Audrey is brilliant and holds her own. I’m sure she’s incredibly selective in the people she chooses to be around. She’s probably dismissed dozens of men. I’ll probably be lumped into that category soon enough, especially if I continue to hold onto her wallet. I fish it out my pocket. “Here, you forgot this.”