He laughed as he took the surfboard from the blond woman. “I am capable of planning ahead, you know.”
She hadn’t really expected that he’d plan ahead for her.
He turned down toward the beach. “And see, now you have a swimsuit,” he said. “I still can’t believe you made it two weeks here without one.”
She gestured back at the shop. “Don’t I need to pay for this?”
He waved a hand at her. “I got it. This was my idea, after all.”
She started to argue with him, but she could tell from the look on his face there was no point. “Thanks,” she said.
He ignored that and picked up the surfboard. “You ready for this?”
She looked out at the ocean and watched the waves crashing in to shore. They seemed…violent. She eyed the surfboard Beau was holding.
“Not exactly,” she said. She was supposed to balance on that? On top of the ocean?
He put his hand on her shoulder. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
“I’m going to hold you to that promise,” she said.
He just grinned. It suddenly hit her, as the sun glinted in his hair, that there was such a difference in Beau between that first day and now. Then, when he’d laughed, there’d been no joy or fun in it. Or in him. But now…now as he walked down the beach with her, surfboard under his arm, his smile was real. She liked it. She liked him.
He dropped the surfboard down on the sand, not quite at the edge of the water. “Okay. Now stand on it,” he said.
She glanced down at the surfboard, then back up at him. “Just…stand on it?”
He nodded. “Just stand on it, right in the middle. You’re just getting comfortable on it now.”
“Okay. Like this?” She stepped on the board. It sort of wobbled back and forth, and she had to catch herself. Now she knew why he’d wanted her to do this for the first time on the sand and not in the water. She absolutely would have fallen off right away.
Granted, she still probably would.
“See how it moves?” he asked. “It will do that even more in the water, that’s why we started here. Now, here’s how to stand on it when you’re surfing.”
He demonstrated the stance, one foot in front of the other, his body spread out in a bit of a crouch.
She tried to imitate him. He looked at her, a slight frown on his face.
“Good, that’s good,” he said. Hmm, she didn’t believe him. “Except…” Ahh, see, she knew there would be an “except.” “Not quite so tense in the upper body. Maybe try relaxing your shoulders a little?”
She tried to make her shoulders go down, but she could tell from his face it wasn’t really working.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this about me in the past few weeks,” she said, “but I’m not that good at relaxing, okay?”
He just looked at her, and they both burst out laughing. “I have noticed that, actually,” he said. “But then, we may have that in common.”
She shook her head. “I thought we did, but you’re apparently much better at it than I am.”
He was still smiling. “Just on a surfboard, and that’s only because I’ve been doing it for a long time. Come here.” He motioned her over toward him. “Turn around.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, and he laughed. “I’m not trying to trick you. Just turn around.”
She turned and stood with her back to him. Two weeks ago—even a week ago—she wouldn’t have done this. But everything felt different now than it had then.
She felt him step closer to her. “If you’re tensed up like this, you won’t be able to move with the waves.”
She stared out at the ocean. “I’m not so sure that’s possible.”
They were so close that she could feel his laughter rumble through him.
“Here,” he said. He put his hands on her shoulders and then almost immediately dropped them. “Is this okay? I mean, if you don’t want me to—”
“It’s okay,” she said.
His hands dropped back down, each one gripping one of her shoulders firmly. “Okay. Here, let’s see if this will help.” He held on to her shoulders and shook her side to side, back and forth, until she couldn’t stop giggling.
“What are you doing?” she managed to say.
He stopped and nudged her over to the board. “Try it again.”
She got back up on the board and turned to face him, trying to stand the way he’d stood before. He smiled and nodded at her.