Making Waves

by Nicole Leigh Shepherd

  “What?” I come around to join him and see how he intends for us to make our escape. “There’s no way …” I stare at what must be the steepest, skinniest staircase I’ve ever seen. It looks like one thousand steps. “Look at the rust. I don’t think it can hold us.”

  “I thought you were tough,” Brody begins to scale the steps two at a time, launching off the railing like it’s a ski pole.

  “I am tough. I just don’t have a death wish.” I walk down the steps gingerly, never descending more than one at a time. I call out to Brody, who’s already yards beyond me. “I’ve never been anywhere near this beach. Sure it’s not private?”

  “Positive. There’s not a house near this place.”

  “Why hold the bonfire in such an obscure spot?” I ask, gripping the railing as tightly as I can. A flowering cactus brushes up against my bare leg.

  “It’s a tradition. That way no one from the club can come unless a guard invites them.”

  “Do any non-guards even come to this?” I pick up some steam, comfortable in the knowledge that I’m not about to plunge to my death.

  “Not really. Just a few girls who can’t stand to miss out on anything.”

  That’s good. At least now I feel a little bit less guilty that I let my fears that Jason wouldn’t make the cut with the other guards stop me from inviting him.

  Brody reaches the last step and propels himself feet first over the railing. I reach the end a few minutes later and am quickly whisked into Brody’s arms. He gently lowers me to the cool sand. For a second, I stare into his eyes. Then he leans toward me until our lips are only inches apart.

  My heart races. We haven’t kissed since the swim meet, and with good reason—once we start, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop.

  I can’t help it. I turn my head side to side to see if anyone is watching us. Unless boulders have eyes, it seems that we’re in the clear. But still, I don’t know if I can do this—at least not before the competition.

  Brody quickly sizes up my nervousness. “How about just me and you hang out for a bit before we join the others?” he plays with the tip of my ponytail.

  “But what about …” I bite my bottom lip.

  “Shhh …” He holds one finger up in front of his lips, then bends it, motioning for me to follow him. “No more worries from you.” He reaches out his hand and I take it. It’s rough from the months Brody has spent out in the sun, but it calms me more than the softest blanket.

  Cool ocean water splashes our feet as Brody pulls me around the base of a large tan cliff. We reach the other side and I discover that Brody has brought me to a tiny cove. I toss off my flip-flops and plop down on the warm sand, stretching out my legs so that the surf runs over my toes. Brody does the same next to me. Washed-up kelp and tiny rocks frame our little private paradise.

  It’s all so serene that I can almost forget the horror I felt this morning, watching Zoe’s dad struggle to keep his head above water. Part of me knows that there are probably still other horrors in store—Lexi ratting me out for one—but for now it seems as if things might just work out. That is, if Brody ever actually tells me the truth about why he’s in California this summer.

  “I never get tired of staring at the ocean,” Brody muses, gazing at the waves crashing against the rocks. As the water spills toward us, he stretches out on his side next to me.

  I shut my eyes for a second and breathe in slowly. “So, is that why we’re here? To talk about the ocean?”

  “That and other things.” Brody draws circles on my knee with his index finger. His touch is soft, steady, and ever so slightly ticklish. It sends goose bumps up and down my legs.

  I look into his magnetic green eyes—I could swim forever in those eyes—and my heart beats a mile a minute. Then my palms start sweating and shivers run down my spine; it feels as if I’m about to hyperventilate. “You have to tell me!” I scream.

  I throw my hand over my mouth, covering it completely.

  “Uh … okay,” says Brody, totally bewildered by my behavior. “What do you want to hear?”

  “I, um, want to know …” I clear my throat, still shocked by my outburst. “Can you look away from me, at the ocean?”

  “Why?”

  “Just please.”

  He smirks and looks out at the horizon.

  “Okay, I didn’t mean to yell, Brody, but here’s the deal. I’m really confused. And I have been for, like, forever. Or at least the last month and a half. I know that we’re training and everything, but you keep hinting that you want more. You even invited me to the Luau. And that’s definitely a date thing.”

  “More than once,” he grumbles.

  “Yes, exactly. You even tried to make the invites into a kind of game. And I don’t get it. You’re starting college in a couple of weeks, I’ve never met your parents, and you and Lexi seem to have something going on that I definitely don’t want to get in the middle of. Plus, you never really told me what changed—why you’re here, I mean. And don’t tell me about how you just want to stay local and take classes at UCLA or whatever. That’s not a reason.”

  “It’s not?” Brody looks back at me.

  “It’s not. Turn around.”

  He obliges, grinning to himself.

  “So, anyway, you never told me why you made this big, life-altering decision. And I have to think that it was because of something really, really bad. Or because you’re secretly in love with Lexi. And I get that I never really pushed it much, but that’s only because I never let myself think that we could have a future together. You know, because of the club rule and everything. And this whole time I wanted to believe that it didn’t matter, but now it does matter and …” I stop my diatribe mid-breath and wait for Brody to say something.

  He doesn’t. He continues looking out to the horizon, his eyes glazing over.

  “Look, Brody, really there’s no hard feelings. If you want to hook up with college girls, fine. If you want to run back to Lexi, fine. If you two are already together and you’re just using me as a diversion, that’s fine too. Just be honest with me. Do you have some kind of master plan or are you just looking to get with as many girls as possible?”

  “Is that what you still think this is?”

  He glances at me and I look away. I can’t bear to see his expression. “That’s the thing, Brody. I don’t know what this is. Or even what I want it to be. At first you said that you didn’t want to be with me because of college. But you’re still going to college, even if you’re not going to Michigan. You start, like, next week or something.”

  “Yeah so?”

  “So you’ll do your thing and eventually settle down with a pure-bred rich girl who knows how to walk and talk at parties.”

  “Huh?”

  “I’m a mutt.” I stand up and begin to pace. I don’t want Brody to see that my eyes have begun to fill with tears.

  “Like a dog?”

  “Yeah.” I wipe a tear away with the back of my hand.

  “Why would you think that?”

  “Don’t you get it? I’m not like you and the rest of your friends. I work at the freaking snack bar.” I sniffle. “Just go. I understand. I’ll have my brother or dad pick me up. They’ll be more than happy to.”

  Brody grabs hold of my arm just like he did that first day after the lifeguard meeting. “I don’t want to go.”

  I turn my back to Brody. I can’t stop the tears from falling. But I don’t have to look Brody in the eye as it happens.

  “Abby, who gave you the idea that we can all be divided into different kinds of dogs?”

  “Your friend,” I mumble. “Lexi.”

  “And you believed her?”

  “She’s known you your whole life.” Another tear escapes. I wipe it away.

  “Well then, clearly that doesn’t mean anything.”

  “It meant enough that you two dated.” I sniffle.

  “We dated because her dad and my dad are business partners. It was expected of us. B
ut sometimes it’s the things we least expect that are the most exciting.”

  “Brody, what are you saying?” I look back at him.

  Brody visibly pains at the sight of my tear-stained cheeks. Then he takes a deep breath. “It’s about time that I let you in on what’s really going on.” He squeezes my hand. I try to pull away. He doesn’t let me.

  “I should have told you all this a long time ago. It’s about my mom.”

  “Look, Brody, you don’t have to …” A wave crashes into the beach.

  “She has cancer.”

  “Oh my God, Brody.” I let go of his hand and wrap my arms around his thick shoulders, squeezing as hard as I can.

  After a few minutes, Brody gently pulls away from me. “It feels so good to finally tell someone.”

  I pull him down on the sand with me. Then I begin to massage his back.

  “My mom …” He stops, staring at the sand. “I just … I couldn’t tell a lot of people what’s going on at my house.”

  I slide my hand underneath his T-shirt, rubbing his bare skin.

  “Believe me, Abs. I wanted to. And I wanted you to meet her. And my dad and my sister. I wanted to invite you inside my house. But I just couldn’t.”

  Lexi. She must have known all along. She knew Brody would never invite me inside because of his mom and she used that to plant doubt in my mind about Brody. I’m going to kill her.

  “Her disease is a secret. See, if people find out she’s sick, it will set off a panic with her clients. Don’t ask me to explain the details. Not sure I even understand it all. All I know is she’s holed up in the house fighting this disease. And we can’t tell anyone.” He pauses, catching his breath. “That’s why I came back—I’m all she’s got.” His expression grows even more pained. “And you know she and Mara have hardly spoken in the last few years, and …”

  I place my finger in front of his lips. “Shh … You don’t have to explain.” I look at him with new eyes. “You’re amazing.”

  “I’m not.” Brody tenses up.

  “No, you are. You know how few people would have given up swimming at Michigan so that they could be there for their parents?”

  “Nah, anyone would have done the same thing. I couldn’t just up and leave when my mom was suffering like that.”

  “So why did you decide to come back to the club?”

  “After my mom gave up on trying to convince me to go to Michigan, she thought it was best if I kept things as normal as possible.” He pauses. “When Denise heard I was going to be around, she called me in to get all of my paperwork set up. And that’s when I saw your name in the pile of lifeguarding apps.”

  “And so you recommended me for the job.” I finish his thought.

  “Yeah, I thought that at least one good thing should come out of all this misery. It felt kind of like fate? You know?”

  “Yeah,” I say, pushing back my remaining tears.

  “And you know what else is fate?” Brody looks into my eyes, squeezing my hand.

  “What?” I sniffle.

  “That I’m going to kiss you now.”

  His lips brush against mine, hesitantly at first. Shivers run down my spine and I silently beg him to go further than the few pecks he gave me in May. We must have some kind of telepathic connection because it’s as if he hears my thoughts. He dives into my mouth, moving deeper and deeper until our tongues find a rhythm. His mouth is warm and he smells like the sea.

  And I’m officially in heaven.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I lie back against Brody’s chest, my heart still aflutter. I can barely manage to pay attention to his telling me about the vacation he took over spring break—I’m still so caught up in how unbelievable it felt to have his lips pressed against mine again after all this time. So caught up, in fact, that I can’t remember why I waited so long.

  “You took a cruise?” I eventually echo. I’ve lost track of time—I don’t know whether we were kissing for hours or mere moments.

  “Yup,” he says, all nonchalant.

  I stop mentally replaying what just happened between us long enough to focus on what he’s saying. I guess in Brody’s world, a cruise around the Hawaiian islands is no big deal. “What was it like?” I ask.

  “I don’t know. The usual.”

  “What’s the usual?”

  “You know, we stopped at a few islands.”

  “And that was just your spring break trip?”

  “Yeah. Where did you go?”

  “Uh … Home.” I say, pulling my sweatshirt sleeves down over my hands.

  “How about winter break?”

  “Let me think about this,” I hold my finger to my cheek, pretending to be deep in thought. “Home.” I pause. “How about you?”

  “We go skiing in Aspen during the winter. We would have gone to Europe to celebrate my graduation this summer … if …” His expression goes distant.

  “Yeah. Sorry I asked. Let’s talk about something else,” I say. “Like you said your dad and Lexi’s dad are business partners. What do they do?”

  “They own an investment company,” he says as the tide trickles closer to us.

  “A what?”

  Brody chuckles. “They invest in companies to get them off the ground and then they own a share.”

  “Really?” I ask as the water splashes over my toes.

  “It’s a pretty good gig.” Brody grins despite himself. “But even though my dad claims that they help people, I want to do something where I really make a difference. That’s why I want to go into sports medicine.”

  My heart leaps. That’s my Brody.

  “What about you, Abs? What do you want to do?”

  “Well, first I want to win the scholarship.” I stretch my legs out straight.

  “I knew you were going to say that.” He looks down at me, a smile spread across his face.

  “You’d say it too if you were stuck working at the snack bar!”

  Brody’s smile narrows ever so slightly. “Abs, you’ve been training with me all summer. I know it’s more than that.”

  I pause, trying to figure out what to say to him. “You know, you just got done telling me about all your elaborate vacations.” I look up at him.

  “Yeah, so?” He shakes his head. “I’m not really sure where you’re going with this ….”

  “Well, my ‘vacations’ were at the beach.”

  “That’s nothing to be ashamed of. Beach vacations are the best.”

  “Yeah, they are,” I begin hesitantly. “Except my beach vacations weren’t in Puerto Vallarta or Antigua.”

  “So where did you go?”

  “Exactly where the club is today.” I pause, deciding how much to share. “But that was when things were good.”

  If Brody is horrified, he doesn’t show it. “And what are things like now?”

  “Now we’re forced to hang out at the super crowded public beaches. Which I hate.”

  “Hmm …” Brody tilts his head, thoughtfully.

  “I know. So exciting.” I roll my eyes. “Let me guess: You’re so shocked, you don’t even know what to say.”

  “No, it’s not that.” Brody shrugs.

  “Then what is it? Never dreamed your beloved club would kick people out?”

  “That and I’m just thinking about what you’re going to do to change things. Because you obviously don’t like the beaches you’re hanging at. And from what I can tell, Abigail Berkeley is one pretty determined girl.”

  I’m about to tell Brody that part of me has been thinking that if I win the scholarship, I might be able to improve things at the club when Brody’s cell phone buzzes.

  Brody digs into his pocket.

  “We gotta head to the party,” he says, shutting his cell.

  “Who was that?” I ask.

  “Lexi.” He gives me a quick kiss and shoves his phone back into his pocket.

  My heart pounds. Just hearing her name makes me doubt myself.

  Brody gent
ly kisses me again. Then he stands up and holds out his hand to pull me up alongside him. “It’s time to announce the teams for Last Blast. We should at least show our faces.”

  “Wait. I thought they were going to be posted tomorrow morning at the club.” I shove my feet into my flip-flops.

  Brody looks at me out of the corner of his eye. “Yeah, they are. But do you really want to wait until then?” He swings his arm around my shoulder and we begin to walk around the cliff toward the group.

  The second I spot the smoke from the bonfire, I maneuver away from him.

  He looks at me pleadingly, but I just shake my head. I still can’t bear the thought of being caught breaking Denise’s rule.

  “Only two more weeks until Last Blast,” I remind him. I only hope that he—and Lexi—can keep our relationship on the DL for that long.

  I trudge through the deep sand in the direction of the raging fire. Music pumps from a small DJ stand set up against the cliffs.

  “Does Denise know we’re here?” I ask as we approach the party. The reflection of the flames lights up Brody’s face.

  “Sure. She knows about the traditions. She just doesn’t know when or where they take place.”

  Small groups of guys and girls congregate around the fire. Some chat and others jam to a club mix. A few toss wood into the bonfire, cheering when it fumes.

  “Hey, Abby!” Katie yells. She’s grasping a cup and dancing with Allison.

  I grin and wave, feeling more at ease with each familiar face. Two guys I recognize from morning workouts roast marshmallows. A chant of Brooke, Brooke, Brooke rings out as a smiling Brooke appears with Greg.

  “Let’s party!” she shouts, holding up two cups.

  I know a few non-lifeguards are allowed, but still I’m surprised to see Brooke here after what happened. And even more surprised that it seems like everyone supports them.

  “I’m going to find Zoe,” I say to Brody.

  He nods in my direction and starts chatting with some male guards.

  I spot Zoe by the DJ and run toward her, ignoring Kylie and Missy who flank her on each side. “Zoe! I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for, like, ever,” I say.