Between The Waves

by Ellie Malouff

  “Not sure she’ll answer to that name, pal,” the evil motherfucker says as he follows me down the hall. “You played into her hands so well. She even cased this place for our rendezvous after I set fire to your silly little surf shop. That was her idea, by the way.”

  She’s not in the first guest room.

  “Audrey?”

  “I told you, she’s sleeping. You should be quiet.”

  I shove at him again, and he hits the wall behind him, shattering a framed photo with the back of his head. I expect him to lunge at me, but he laughs instead. “So much broken glass and blood tonight.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “Things got a little intense between us, and we broke a wine glass.”

  I lunge at him, but he dodges and my fist pounds into the wall.

  “Like I said, such a brute.”

  He’s distracting me from finding her, so I turn my back on him and keep going. “Sara?” I shout, hoping she’ll come to if she hears her real name.

  When I get to the master bedroom, a light is on. Audrey lay on the bed, her head resting gently on the pillow, covers pulled up over her body.

  “Audrey!” I run for her, but Brandon grabs me and pulls me back and into the wall. The fucker is stronger than I’d give him credit for.

  “No, no, no. I told you, she’s sleeping. She needs her rest, poor thing. I know this must be confusing to you, but it must all make sense now. Sara has been lying to you since the moment you met. She’s been playing you. I’m her boyfriend. This is what we do. She runs. I find her.”

  “You’re a fucking animal.” I charge at him and throw him to the ground. Then I deliver a hard kick to his stomach. He groans and folds in half, and I pray I’ve bought us enough time. I dash over to Audrey and start smoothing the hair on her head. “Newbie, wake up, please wake up.”

  She makes a small sound and starts to move her head.

  “Yes, that’s it. Wake up, newbie.”

  Her eyes crack open. “Jake?”

  “It’s me. Come on, let’s go,” I say and pull the covers back. She’s still wearing all the clothes she had on at the beach, and I’m so relieved.

  “Jake, get out of here. He’ll hurt you.”

  “Not without you.”

  “Go, please,” she begs, and my world comes crashing down on me. What if Brandon was telling the truth? Was this her game all along? Seeming like a victim to get my sympathy, pulling me into her life and manipulating me? To what end—and why?

  “Sara?” I ask, and her eyes snap to mine as she gets out of the bed on wobbly feet. “Your name is Sara, right?”

  “Just go,” she begs.

  Everything that Brandon has said and everything I know about this woman compiles into a significant case of doubt. For Christ’s sake, she knows a thing or two about acting. What if this has all been an act? “Is this real?” I ask, desperate to be proven wrong.

  “Jake, watch out!” she shouts, and her eyes go wide.

  The sound comes before the pain. He’s struck me in the head with something hard. I lose my balance and my vision blurs. All I can see is the shape of Audrey plastered against the shape of Brandon. She’s either fighting him or embracing him. I’m not sure which and that thought defeats me more than the shot to the head.

  “Audrey?” I ask as I start to fall over. Before I drop to my knees, I see her terrified face and hear her cry my name. It was him. It was always him. I can’t believe I doubted her.

  He grabs her around the waist, carries her back to the bed, and tosses her onto it. “Come on, Sara. Let’s show him how much we love each other.” He starts to paw at her clothes.

  She’s fighting him with everything she’s got, and when I see him backhand her across the face and she falls back on the bed, I’m able to find my feet and go into motion. I get to Audrey, pull her into my arms, and cover her body with my own.

  “Stop!” someone shouts from the door. We turn to see Aimi there with her gun drawn on him. “Put your hands up, now!”

  He laughs, and it’s furiously inappropriate. “Officer, thank God you’re here. My name is Brandon Harper; look me up. These two people have attacked me.”

  “I know exactly who you are.”

  “Oh good,” he says with a slimy smile.

  “Get down on your knees,” she shouts at him.

  “No, you’re mistaken.”

  “Get down on your knees,” Aimi repeats. He takes a step forward. “Freeze! Do what I say, I’m warning you.”

  “Listen, ma’am, my family is—”

  “Your family doesn’t mean shit here. Get on your goddamn knees. This is the last time I will tell you.”

  He pauses for a moment, before folding his arms over his chest. “Where’s your backup?”

  “Right behind me.”

  “Are they? I don’t think so,” he says in that creepy fucking voice that will haunt me forever.

  “Get on your fucking knees, now!”

  He laughs again, and from the back of his waistband he draws a fucking gun on her, one I didn’t know he had. She fires her weapon before he can cock the pistol and the single shot rings louder than any crashing wave I’ve ever heard. He falls to his knees, finally, and then face down onto the floor.

  Audrey screams and buries her face into my arm. “It’s over now,” I whisper and rock her. “It’s finally over.”

  Lesson 6

  "Surfing is for life."

  Bruce Jenkins

  Sara

  If you had told me a year ago that I’d own more wetsuits than cocktail dresses, I’d have told you that you don’t know a single thing about Sara Thompson. But my life has never taken a traditional path. The only thing I’ve come to expect is the unexpected. Accepting that and working through that, and what happened with Brandon, has helped me. That, and the services of a very expensive therapist.

  It’s been a little over a month since that terrible night. Brandon is gone and life is finally starting to feel normal again. Jake’s new surf shop is already under construction, and he’s been having some fun making it his own. I think it’s good for him to step outside his father’s shadow whenever he can. He lost Mabel in the fire, but he’s already got Mabel II. She’ll do just fine, I’ve heard.

  I have my own board, too. It was a present from Tua, of all people. Apparently, he made it himself. He said he’d been watching me surf and knew the second I took a wave that I had no business riding that I had a real Manaluan surfer spirit. I’ve named it Audrey, which drives Jake a little nuts, but hey, it’s a great name. Plus, it was the Audrey in me that decided to take up surfing. She deserves some sort of permanent fixture in Manalua.

  It’s the first Friday in June, and it’s high school graduation day for Sam. The ceremony starts in about an hour, and I’m meeting Jake there in twenty minutes. But first, coffee.

  The little bell chimes when I go into Happy Grounds to get Manalua’s best.

  “Aloha,” Kaila says and nods at me.

  “Aloha,” I say back for the very first time. I’m still unsure if it’s okay for me to say, but I trust Kaila enough to tell me if it’s not.

  She gives me a friendly smile and says, “Hey, I’ve got just the thing for you.”

  “What’s that? Wait—it better not be one of those matcha lattes. Those things look nasty.”

  “You will like those one day, trust me.”

  “Nuh uh.”

  “But no, that’s not it. It’s this,” she says and digs through a bunch of stuff under the counter. She emerges with a pink piece of paper that’s got a very noticeable coffee stain on it. “Here.”

  I take the flier from her and laugh. “A Midsummer’s Night Dream?”

  “The local theater is doing a production. One last hurrah before it shuts down at the end of the summer. A little birdie told me that you were a drama teacher in your old life.”

  “Would that little birdie happen to be a giant Thor-like man named Jake?”

  “It is,
” she says and rests her chin on her clasped hands.

  Now that I’m not looking over my shoulder all the time, my life has opened up to so many possibilities about what to do next. This might be the perfect fit. And maybe there’s something more to it. Maybe the theater doesn’t have to shut down at all. Bridled with a new sense of purpose I haven’t had in ages, I go around the counter and hug Kaila. “Thank you!”

  She’s totally caught off guard and shakes with laughter. “You’re welcome, Sara.”

  I lean back and smile. “This is exactly the kind of project I need.”

  “So you’re in?” she asks, already psyched.

  “Oh, I’m definitely in.”

  “Cool, Lin will be so excited.”

  “This is her project?” I ask, a little dumbfounded.

  “You didn’t know?”

  “I honestly don’t know much about your sister. She doesn’t talk much.”

  “Oh, that’s because you need to follow her on Twitter and Instagram. That’s where you get all the good stuff,” Kaila says like it’s a no-brainer.

  “Maybe I’ll give that a try, too,” I tell her, and I think I will.

  “Look at you, sister. Coming out of your shell. Does Jake deserve all the credit?”

  “Part of it, but you do, too, and everyone that’s been so kind to me here. I love Manalua.”

  “And we love you, too,” Kaila says with that famous warm smile and gets to work on my big order.

  I take a seat at my usual table while I wait and dig out my phone. I download Instagram and make a new account. I take a photo of Kaila behind the espresso machine, post it, and tag Happy Grounds. The first people I follow are Renée and Darcy, and in under a minute they follow me back. Having them back in my life has been awesome. They were the first phone call I made after that horrible night. They were understandably mad that I left without telling them where I was going, but relieved that everything was resolved. They’re planning to visit two weeks from now, and I couldn’t be more excited.

  With the iced coconut milk mochas I picked up from Happy Grounds, I find Jake, Sam, and Tua standing outside of Jake’s truck in the parking lot of the high school. Sam is decked out in a white graduation gown and cap. He looks freaking adorable.

  “Wow, Sam, look at you,” I tell them as I approach and hand the drinks over to the guys.

  Jake leans over, kisses my cheek, and pinches my butt at the same time. “Just in time, newbie.”

  I check my watch. “For what? Am I late?”

  “No, for this.” He sets his drink down on the bumper of the truck and grabs a box from the back. I’ve got no idea what it could be, but when he takes off the lid, I want to slap my forehead. Of course. Inside is a beautiful lei and Jake presents it to his brother.

  Sam gets a little bit weepy, and I love how emotionally in touch these big men can be. It’s a masculine orange and red lei made from hundreds of tiny cylindrical flowers intertwined with a strand of native nuts.

  “This is the kind I had wanted if I graduated. I’m so happy that I can be the one to give it to you. Mom pitched in.”

  I’d hoped to meet Jake and Sam’s mom today, but she couldn’t make it over to Maui because her husband broke his foot.

  “That’s a handsome one,” Tua chimes in.

  “It sure is. Why is it a tradition?” I ask

  “Leis are given when someone is in transition, coming or going and the like. It’s about Sam taking his next step,” Tua answers.

  Jake takes it out of the box and Sam bows in front of him. He places it over Sam’s head and the brothers hug so tightly I’m worried that the lei will be crushed. Miraculously, it survives.

  “All right, let’s do this,” Sam says.

  “After you,” Jake says. He clasps my hand in his and our fingers intertwine. He squeezes my hand in his giant one. It’s a reassurance I’ll never take for granted. “Thanks for coming, Sara.”

  “I wouldn’t miss it.” I lean into his arm and smile up at him. “I don’t want to miss anything.”

  His eyes shift to the side and he starts mouthing something, maybe numbers. He’s been doing that since the day we met.

  I can’t take it anymore. “Jake—what is that?” He laughs nervously, but I don’t back down. “Why are you always muttering numbers?”

  He tosses his head side-to-side. “Fine, I’ll let you in on a little secret.”

  “I insist.”

  “I’ve been keeping a tally of all your smiles.”

  I blink one and shake my head. “You’ve been doing what?”

  “You heard me. And it’s not easy these days. It hasn’t been, since the day you found that snake in your tub.”

  “The first snake?” Yes, there have been multiple snakes and spiders and bugs. I’m learning to endure it and even handled my first snake the other day. Thank god for the bucket trick Jake taught me.

  “Yep, you know the day.”

  Blood rushes to my cheeks as I recall how that day ended and how our relationship really began.

  “So what are we up to?”

  “I’m not going to lie, I’ve had to fudge some numbers.”

  “We’re in the thousands?” I ask excitedly.

  “Dear lord, woman, no. Getting you to smile, especially at first, was a total challenge. My average is up, though. I’m getting like nine a day. Overall, I’m putting it at six hundred and twelve. ”

  “And you said you were bad at math.”

  He lets go of my hand and wraps his arm around my shoulders. “When it comes to you, newbie, there isn’t anything I can’t do.”

  I smile one more time because I can’t help myself. “I feel exactly the same way.”

  “Well, I think that was the sixth lesson,” I tell Jake as we carry our boards across the beach. “It’s been nice knowing you.”

  “Hey, not so fast.” He spikes his board into the sand and grabs me around the waist. I start giggling the moment he touches me, and my board falls to the ground. I fold my arms around his neck, and he picks me up for no good reason besides the fact that he can.

  “What do you want now?” I ask, water still dripping off the both of us. I love the feeling of his skin when he’s just come out of the ocean.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” he asks, and nibbles on my ear for a bit. He knows I have no power over him when he does that to me. I squeeze him tighter to me, and he groans into my ear.

  “No, it’s not,” I answer, a little amazed I even remembered the question.

  He stops his sensual assault on my earlobe and leans back to look at me. “You still haven’t paid me for those sunglasses.”

  My head falls back and I laugh until my eyes water. He takes the opportunity to kiss my throat and spank my bottom. I yelp, just like always, and go for his nipple to give it a good twist. “I’m never paying for these,” I tell him.

  “It’s a good thing you’re mine. You know that?”

  “It’s a good thing you’re mine, too.”

  Jake

  Sara once asked me if I would ever consider moving away from Manalua. It was such an easy answer then. Manalua is my home, I think I told her. But that’s not true anymore. As special as this place is, and as good as the surfing is and the friendships I’ve built are, my home is wherever Sara is, plain and simple. If she had fled to Fiji, I’d pack up my boards and go. If she had gone back to Chicago, I’d have taken up wakeboarding on the lake.

  But I am the luckiest asshole alive because she wants to live here with me. It’s a fucking dream come true.

  After you go through something like we went through in May, everything gets put into perspective. All the silly games we play as humans, about how much time two people should be together before moving in together or getting engaged, flies out the window.

  I’m grateful every single day that I have her in my life and that the situation was resolved. I’m also grateful that I get to watch her reemerge from a person in hiding to a person willing to be nothing less than hersel
f at all times. And I love the person she is, the whole Sara Thompson package, but at the end of the day, she’s still my little newbie that freaks out about sharks and quotes movies all the time.

  That’s why I’ve got a ring in my pocket. I’m not wasting any more time, but I do have to pick the right moment to pop the question because I want it to be as special as she is.

  Tonight’s bonfire has already been fantastic. Manny catered the party for Sam’s graduation. I couldn’t be more proud of my brother. It’s been a rough few months for him, and admittedly, I probably haven’t been there as much as I should have been. He tells me all the time that I did just fine, and that he’s the one who made stupid choices. I’m not as convinced I couldn’t have done more. He’s reconnected with some of his old friends, and that’s been really great for him. They’re also going to the University of Hawaii, which is great news. Sam can’t wait to make the move to Mānoa, so he’s leaving in a few weeks for the Early Start Program.

  The party is really hopping and Sara looks so absolutely beautiful, it’s nearly impossible to take my eyes off of her. She’s wearing one of those long strapless dresses with a subtle tropical print that’s in fashion these days. The way it cups her breasts is driving me to drink. On the one hand, I can’t get enough of it. On the other hand, I don’t want anyone else to enjoy it like I am. She’s dyed her hair to something she says is more natural for her, and it looks lovely as it cascades over her shoulders and down her back. I twirl it around my fingers whenever I get the chance, which is often because I like being beside her pretty much all the time.

  I admit it. I’ve got it bad.

  When the timing is right, I take her by the hand and lead her away from the bonfire.

  “Where are we going?” she asks.

  “I thought we could get some air and do some more stargazing.”

  “Oh, you know I like that,” she says enthusiastically.

  “I do,” I tell her and grab the blanket I brought with me tonight.