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“Oh, I see how it is,” I said with faux outrage. “Already tired of my company?”
“Far from it,” he said as he leaned in toward me. We were close enough that Ciaran could kiss me as long as I leaned in as well. The front of our boards wedged and overlapped as our lips met.
It wasn’t a long or lingering kiss but there was something special about it. We moved together in the water’s sloshing waves, streams of sunlight flickered through Ciaran’s hair and his eyelashes, and I caught his shy smile as he pulled away.
Ciaran’s lips were soft, salty, and spoke of sweet promise.
It might have been the single best moment of my life.
“Well then,” I said with an unexpectedly shaky breath. “If you keep doing that, I hope they never show up.”
For the next hour, Ciaran and I went back to first point to try his hand again and again at jumping up on his board. I could tell he was getting exhausted, but when he managed to get on the board a few times and stay upright for a few seconds before wiping out, his expression was one of deep satisfaction.
He’d accomplished what he’d set out to do.
By the time Joan and Filipe paddled out to meet us, we’d learned that they’d been out on Point Dume all morning before meeting us.
“We wanted to give you two some space,” Joan said when I narrowed accusatory eyes at them. Sitting astride her board, she tilted her head back to secure her wet hair in a ponytail.
Her black neoprene wetsuit had turquoise stripes around the shoulders and lats, while Filipe’s dark gray wetsuit sported bright green stripes.
“I know we’ve basically just met, Joan,” Ciaran started, “but since when do you give anyone space?”
“Damn,” I teased when guilt briefly stole across Joan’s expression before she smoothed it away.
Joan squeezed Ciaran’s shoulder affectionately. “Gotta be careful what I say around you, don’t I?”
Filipe let out a bark of laughter. “Joan’s too competitive for Surfrider and she didn’t want her darling Ciaran to see her nasty side.”
I couldn’t fault Filipe’s statement. Joan was extremely competitive to the point that she’d lost friendships as a result. She was even worse when it came to rock climbing. If she wasn’t the first to the top, she’d fume the rest of the day, and lash out at everyone.
Overhead, we watched a small grouping of planes smoke out a skytyping advertisement message for a restaurant near the Santa Monica Pier.
After they’d flown by, Joan let out a sigh. “Fine,” she said. “It’s true, but I didn’t want to curse out kids and toddlers who got in my way. The way I see it, by not surfing here this morning, I didn’t break the spirit of innocent children.”
Ciaran laughed. “Do you mean the same children who laughed in my face each time I wiped out?”
“Those motherfuckers,” Joan said, frowning. “Point them out to me.”
“Whoa, Terminator,” I said with a snicker, “put the big guns away.”
“That’s my other wetsuit,” Joan said with a glint in her eye. “So…” she paused, “ready to discuss plans on getting Zoey on our side?”
“You’re never one to beat around the bush, are you?” Ciaran asked.
“Oh honey,” she said as she reached out to squeeze Ciaran’s shoulder again. “You have no idea.”
Her voice contained so much meaning that I couldn’t suppress a laugh. Even Filipe smirked at Ciaran’s blush.
The four of us were facing each other out well past the break and beyond the hearing of others.
“I’ve been giving it some thought,” I said after clearing my throat. “I took Ciaran’s advice and slept on the Zoey problem. As much as I don’t want to, I think I should keep seeing Zoey. I don’t want Coach Anderson to catch wind of anything. If he thinks everything is on track, he won’t question me about it.”
“And you think you can talk Zoey into helping us?” Joan asked. One thing I loved about Joan was that she was such a loyal friend, she treated my problems as her own, too. “You know her better than we do. What’s she like?”
“As strange as this may sound,” I started, “I treated it like a business arrangement. I never asked probing questions or attempted to get to know her better than a business associate. Zoey is nice and has been nothing but professional with me. Well,” I hesitated, and everyone looked at me expectantly. “Let me amend that. Lately she seemed interested in making the relationship real.”
“How so?” Ciaran asked.
