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“I haven’t decided.”
“I hope by now I’ve beaten this into your skull, but you don’t owe anyone info on your identity,” Ella says for the millionth time since I’ve known her.
“I know, I know,” I groan, hanging my head. “I just don’t like lying to him, and seeing him again brought back every single emotion I had before I left.”
“What if you go on your date today and then decide how you feel?” Leon enters the room, drying his wet hair from showering.
“It’s not a date,” I correct him.
“You literally said he winked at you. That’s called flirting, so it’s pretty much a date.” Leon sticks his tongue out.
“This is so romantic!” Mimi cries out happily. “Just like a story from one of my books.”
“Never mind.” I get up off the couch. “What are you guys doing today?”
“I was planning on going to one of the local cafes. Casey said Shoreline Cafe has free Wi-Fi as long as you buy something,” Mimi grabs her bag and the book she was mindlessly thumbing through on the drive here. “Since we won’t have Wi-Fi until tomorrow, I need to work on some writing drafts for next year. My creative writing professor won’t let me skip submitting something to the English department journal.”
I nod, then turn toward Leon as he says, “Jaxon said he’d teach me how to ride his motorcycle.”
Ella snaps her head, narrowing her eyes at our little brother. “I doubt he has a motorcycle. It’s probably an electric bike.”
“Whatever it is, I’m gonna learn how to ride it.” The lightness in his voice causes my nerves to spark.
Leon needed this trip to get away from his cheating ex-boyfriend. I bet he’s trying to throw himself into something to forget.
Ella feels it, too. “I guess I’ll join him then. Make sure he doesn’t kill our little bro.”
Without even thinking, I am already on my way to the closest beach around here. He sent me the location last night. It is not our little cove from childhood, and that kind of warms my heart.
It doesn’t take long for me to arrive at the beach and hear the sound of early morning waves crashing against the shore, a little wind sweeping over the sand. I don’t know the first thing about surfing, but now my eyes fill with the sight of Oliver in an unbearably tight wetsuit.
My throat bobs and suddenly I have cotton mouth.
He’s in the water, helping a little boy stand on the top of the surfboard. There are three other kids standing in front of him, listening to every word like he’s their savior. Stand in line, kids. Once upon a time, he was mine.
I can’t take my eyes off him.
“Is Oliver your boyfriend?” A middle-aged mom walks up beside me. She wears a tight-lipped smile, but her eyes show tiredness. She must be one of the kids’ mothers.
“Oh no, he just invited me to watch,” I say.
Her expression changes slightly before turning to the kids still in the water. “You’d be the first then.” If she’s tired, the warmth in her voice doesn’t indicate it anymore. “He wants the kids to have as much privacy as possible to learn at their own pace.”
“They all look happy. Money well spent.”
“Oh, honey, he doesn’t charge. I always offer, even with what little we have. I feel bad.” Her voice softens, “But he always says, ‘Why charge to do what I love?’”
She looks at me with a warm smile. I feel the urge to say something, but the lesson must have finished as a boy runs up to us. “Mom! I got to stand on the board today. It was scary but so cool!”
“I’m so proud of you.” She hugs him and kisses his cheek as he tries to pull away from her. “You better grab your boyfriend before another girl snatches him up.”
I don’t think she realizes what her comment does to me as she walks away, hand in hand, with her bouncing boy.
In broad daylight, she assumed I was a girl. I still have a full face of makeup on, but this might have been the first time someone assumed correctly.
Am I the talk of the town now?
“Yo, Sally!” I hear a voice calling out to me from the water. Oliver, in all his wetsuit glory, is smiling at me. He drags a hand through his lake-soaked hair and walks farther onto the shore. Not fully; his feet are still submerged. “Come into the water. I can show you some basics about lake surfing.”
