Riptide (Rock Stars, Surf and Second Chances Book 2)

by Michelle Mankin

  “Hey, pequeño.” My dad appeared wearing a Neto’s ball cap backwards to hold back his head of curly hair like mine, except for its smattering of grey. “Haven’t seen you in here for a long while.” He set a paper plate overflowing with food in front of me, wiped his hands on his white apron and motioned for me to move over so he could sit beside me.

  “Yeah, you’re right. I’ve been kinda busy. But I sure could use some good comida. It looks delicious. Gracias, Pop.”

  “De nada.” I could feel him studying me as I took a big bite of the burrito. The spicy meat was moist and flavored so well that I almost groaned in satisfaction. I wiped the grease from my chin with a paper towel.

  “How are you, Pop?”

  “Muy bien now that you’re back. I like having both my boys around. Now if only I can get you and your mamá to reconcile, I will be totally content.”

  I crumpled my napkin into my fist. My mother would always be a source of contention between him and me. Gonzolo had forgiven her, but he of all people should have known better. He and my dad were very much alike, romantic big hearted Latino men who gave their hearts away without reserve. Each had been burned badly. I had witnessed the damage firsthand, and I had vowed never to allow a woman to have that kind of sway over me.

  “I don’t know why you keep taking her back,” I commented through my clenched teeth. “Time and time again she breaks your trust.”

  “Sí,” he admitted after a beat. “Our happy ending hasn’t been written yet. But she gave me you two and a lot of companionship I would have missed if I had thrown away the good with the bad. You are still young, pequeño. You will learn in time that true love is the prize worth any price.”

  Chapter Ten

  Karen

  Ears full of the thunder of the surf, I tugged on the long zipper strap to close the back of my wet suit and bent at the waist to grab my board.

  “Hey, surfer girl.” I straightened, turning to catch a widening smile from Ramon that made me feel like I did when I hit the crest of a wave just right and went airborne. His long strides quickly ate up the distance between us. “You look a little surprised to see me.”

  I was at that. I had made my invitation halfheartedly. I had a list of reasons why I didn’t expect him to show up. “It’s easier to surf at the pier.”

  “Yeah.” His gaze sharpened to a fine point. “But you’re not there, are you? So here I am, even if it’s more difficult.”

  I glanced away telling my fanciful heart that liked to read things into Ramon’s words to stop talking to my eyes.

  “Those stairs aren’t so bad going down with a board.” He glanced over his shoulder then out at the sea analyzing my new surfing spot. “But I imagine it’s a real bitch going back up when you’re tired.”

  I shrugged. “It’s alright.”

  “Maybe,” he allowed, his gaze settling on me. I spied him in my peripheral vision as I pretended to stare out at the water. He stood tall like a captain surveying his ship, every lean muscle sculpted by the wet suit he wore. The offshore breeze blew his curls back from his face. A more compelling man I had never known, save one other. “It seems like a lot of work just to avoid something.”

  I stumbled as I took a step toward the water, his quiet observation hitting the mark he intended. I felt his grip on my upper arm.

  “And there she goes, avoiding again.”

  I turned and frowned at him. His expression gentle, he took my board from me. “Let me help you.” He tucked it under his arm along with his.

  “I can manage on my own.”

  “I know you can. I’ve watched you do it time and time again over the years, but you don’t have to, not when I’m around.”

  My jaw opened to form a retort, but I closed it knowing anything I said would sound churlish. So, I followed him, distracted by the way his backside looked in his wet suit.

  Did he have on anything underneath, I wondered, almost running into him when he stopped.

  “You first.” His barely there smile turned into a knowing grin. I was pretty sure he had caught me checking out his ass. But he didn’t comment. I guessed he figured my warmed cheeks said enough. “C’mon, surfer girl,” he called before leaping over the rocks and lowering himself into the waist deep water. He looked up at me as he put my board beside his, floating both on the surface of the water like old times. He arched a brow when I hesitated. “You gonna stand there all day and try to fool everyone else out here into thinking you’re the real deal just because you look hot as sin in that wetsuit, or are you gonna come on out here with me and prove it?”

  * * *

  “Fuckin’ A, Karen. Wait up.”

  Grinning widely, I glanced over my shoulder at Ramon, knowing I had proved my surfing prowess and then some. As my current wave, the last one I had time for, flattened beneath me, I dropped my head back into the water and dipped my hair into it to soak the snarled strands from my eyes. I reeled my board back by the leash and threw an arm over it, treading water, waiting for him to reach me, feeling grateful for the insulation in my wetsuit though the ocean was much milder than it had been only a month ago.

  “Since when did you start doing full air rotations?”

  “Since I got back.” I lifted and dropped a shoulder as if that weren’t a big deal that had taken countless hours of practice, while inwardly I was infinitely pleased that I had impressed him. “It’s the waves. They’re inconsistent at this time of the year, but when you get good ones, they’re usually really good ones.”

  “Yeah, that may be true. But it doesn’t explain how you got to be such a badass.” He shook his head to free his curls of the water they had absorbed, and I closed my eyes laughing as the droplets hit my face. It wasn’t the first time he had doused me. When I reopened my eyes and refocused on him, he was staring.

  “What?” I asked leftover mirth lingering in my voice. “Do I have seaweed stuck in my braid?” I reached my hand upward to investigate. His board drifted closer bringing him to my side.

  “There’s nothing in your hair.” His expression turned serious. “It’s just that it’s been a while since I’ve heard you laugh. I had forgotten how beautiful you look when you do, and how wonderful it makes me feel to make you do it.”

  “I gotta go in.” I glanced away, embarrassed by his praise and wanting to weave too much meaning into it. “I’m gonna be late for work. You’re welcome to stay.” I started kicking, hoping for a wave to speed me toward the shore. I needed to regroup far from his perceptive eyes.

  “Hey.” He caught my foot and pulled me toward him. His expression was tight. I couldn’t recall the last time I had seen him look so irritated. “Stop fucking running away from me every time I give you a compliment.” His accent was thick like it had been at the shop when he had been flirting with me. “This isn’t you.”

  “What makes you think you’re an expert on me?”

  He gave me an incredulous look. “We’ve been friends a long time.”

  “We’ve been apart a long time. Maybe this is who I am now.” His expression hardened. I backpedaled in response. “And anyway, why does it even matter?”

  “The essence of who you are hasn’t changed.” A muscle jumped in his clenched jaw. “The woman who surfed circles around all the guys out here today is you. The one whose eyes light up when she tells me she’s teaching little kids to surf. The one who thinks of her friends before herself. The one who makes it part of her weekly routine to visit a lonely old man. Those things are you. And the girl that throws around attitude. Not the one who runs from a few harmless compliments. Not the one who cowers instead of confronting the things that scare her. That’s not you, either. Stop pretending that it is.”

  A swell swept underneath us and separated us, sending him toward the shore. Left behind, I reeled from his words. His admonitions held a lot of truth. I stalled out in the water to consider them. He was quiet and wary when I eventually joined him at the shore. He opened his mouth to say something further but closed
it, took my board and carried it for me up the stairs instead.

  My legs felt heavier than usual as I trudged behind him. I wanted to be all those things again. To be the woman I had once been. The problem was that I had been in limbo for so long while the rest of the world passed me by that I didn’t know how to find my way to that person.

  “Karen.” He took me by the shoulders and turned me to face him as we reached the top. The wind was stronger above the cliffs than it had been down below. It buffeted both of us. Ramon’s expression remained circumspect as he studied me. I stared into his dark eyes feeling lost and a little frightened at the task before me yet at the same time I felt that I had been found. I saw within his gaze understanding and empathy. Someone to lean on. I remembered Franklin’s words and accepted the truth of them in that moment. Ramon and I had both lost so much three years ago.

  “You’re right.” The admission rose from somewhere deep inside of me. “What you said out there. All of it. It’s absolutely true.” I lifted my chin.

  His stormy expression lightened, though the concern in his gaze persisted.

  “I enjoyed your company this morning. It was fun. Most of it anyway. But if you don’t mind, I’d like my board back. I take it with me when I go into the shop. And I need a little time by myself. No offense. But I’ve got a lot to think about.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Ramon

  I gave her the space she asked for. I held back, watching her from a distance. The story of my fucking life. So stubborn. So strong. She carried her board and her burdens alone. But it pissed me off to be relegated to the sidelines. I didn’t mind being her friend. I didn’t mind being her hero. I felt like a superman when she let me step up for her. It was being forced to step aside too many times when she had needed me that was my kryptonite.

  Shoulders visibly slumped, she made her way toward town along the sidewalk that hugged the sienna and umber sandstone cliffs. Where it dead ended, she crossed to the other side of the street and ducked into an alley taking a short cut into downtown. Feeling on edge the moment she passed out of my sight, I opened the tail gate of the Explorer and tossed my board inside. Unzipping my wetsuit, I peeled off the upper half and wrapped a towel around my waist to shimmy out of the rest. I grabbed the board shorts I had thrown into the back earlier and drew them on under the towel so I didn’t get arrested for public nudity. I turned around again and glanced back at the spot where I had last seen her. I still had an unsettled feeling. I tried to chalk it up to not eating breakfast, but it felt more significant, and it wouldn’t go away.

  Fuck it.

  I had ignored my instincts with her before and things had gone badly.

  Granted most of the time I hadn’t had any choice.

  But this time I did.

  So I made it.

  I hopped into the driver’s seat, revved the engine and turned onto the first through street that led back into town. My plan was to make sure she got into the building ok. If she spotted me and gave me grief, so be it. After that was accomplished, I would let her be.

  I pulled onto Newport from Bacon and parked in front of Mona’s. Right after I cut the engine, I heard a scream that turned my blood to ice accompanied by tires screeching. Heart vaulting to my throat, I launched myself from the vehicle and sprinted in the direction of the sound. A truck had stopped at an odd angle in the middle of the intersection ahead and a plume of acrid burnt rubber rose from it. I couldn’t see around it, but I saw Karen’s white and pink surfboard on the sidewalk on the other side. I ran so fucking hard I could barely breathe. I skidded to a halt when I saw her lying as still as death in the middle of the road, the homeless girl from the day before beside her. Another woman was standing next to the open door of the truck sobbing. I heard a voice saying, “No. No. No,” over and over again and snapped my jaw shut when I realized it was my own. I barked for someone to call an ambulance.

  “Already on its way,” a male voice replied.

  I didn’t pause to acknowledge. My feet ate up the remaining distance separating me from her. Space I should never have granted.

  The street girl lifted her head. I noted absently that she was pretty in an ethereal kind of way, though her face was covered in grime. Her doe like eyes widened when she realized I was staring straight at her. She scurried backward, her skirts peeling back to reveal pale limbs with a myriad of bruises above purple converse hi-tops before she scrambled to her feet and dashed away. I didn’t turn my head to follow her. I dropped onto the pavement beside Karen. I gently stroked the back of my knuckles across the cold skin of her cheek. My breath left me entirely when I saw the rapidly expanding puddle of blood beneath her head.

  15 Years Ago

  Chapter Twelve

  Karen

  September 2000

  I broke the surface gasping for air. “You are such a pain in my ass, Ramon Martinez,” I sputtered blinking the stinging saltwater from out of my eyes after his dunking.

  “If you truly think so, mamacita, then why are you clinging so tightly to me?” His accented rumble was deeply sensual, an audible caress.

  “Only because the current’s so strong,” I replied breathily releasing my hold on his shoulders and unhooking my ankles from his trim waist. But his grip on me didn’t relent, and his dark chocolate gaze glistened with amusement at my futile attempts to wiggle myself free. I scowled. It was always like that between us. Push and pull, back and forth, slings and arrows. I gulped as his large hands spanned my narrow waist, my bikini exposing my skin to the warmth of them. My pulse thrummed from the thrill of his teasing as well as his touch. It felt wrong and yet wickedly right. “Let go,” I insisted, my command lacking conviction. My conflicting feelings regarding him had me unsettled.

  Lifting a mocking brow, he suddenly released me. I nearly went under again because I had given over to his strength as he held me steady in the surf. Ocean water rushed in, swirling around me. The chill of the current washed away his warmth. I swam from him, putting distance between us while inwardly chastising myself for letting him get to me, again. As if he could read my mind, his barely there smirk transformed into a knowing grin. Blood that seemed to always simmer around him began to boil. It irritated me how much it amused him to annoy me. I slapped and splashed water at him hoping to wipe away his mocking smile.

  “Thank you, beautiful,” he said evenly after my childish display. His eyes remained closed as the last of the water rolled over the rugged planes of his face. I found myself mesmerized by him, by the chance to study him without his knowledge. The setting sun gave the coppery skin stretched over his chiseled torso a polished glow and made the droplets of water clinging to his jet-black hair glisten. He opened his eyes, catching me staring. Inexplicably, his lips lifted into a brilliant smile, one that seemed appreciative for some reason, despite the drenching I had given him. Puzzled by his response, I was unprepared for the barrage like a lawn sprinkler that blasted me as he shook his head releasing all of the water that had saturated his dark curls.

  “Ugh,” I huffed. It was my turn to squeeze my eyes tightly shut. My fingers curled into frustrated fists beneath the rolling waves. When the assault ended, I blinked my vision clear again.

  “You looked…hot…like you might need cooling off.” He laughed, the deep booming sound of his amusement working strange fluttery wonders on the inside of my chest.

  “Enough you two.” We both turned toward the sound of Dominic’s voice, the Dirt Dogs’ easy going, quick to lend a hand, and even quicker with a friendly smile bassist. He stood in a faded blue shirt and beige shorts at the shoreline a couple of yards away holding up two takeaway sacks in his hands. “You have been at it all day like siblings. It’s driving me crazy. C’mon, children. Your food’s getting cold.”

  “Sorry, Dominic.” I pasted on my sweetest smile for the thoughtful boy who always treated me like I was his queen. The way any girl wanted to be treated. The way my dad treated my mom. He returned my smile before turning toward the picnic t
able. Swimming first, the slogging through the waves when my feet could reach the bottom, a spot between my shoulder blades tingled. I glanced back over my shoulder to find Ramon watching me as I had suspected.

  “Run to your daddy, little girl.” He grinned.

  I stuck my tongue out at him, faced forward again and threw my wet braid over my shoulder dismissively. An arc of cold water suddenly doused me. Temporarily blinded, a wave buffeted me as I tried to get my bearings. Before I could catch my breath to get even with my tormenter, he grabbed me from behind, his fingers wrapping like clamps around my upper arms.

  “You’ve been a bad girl.” His breath gusted hot against the chilled, sensitive flesh beneath my ear, and the contact with his hard body weakened me in a way the waves never could.

  “Let. Me. Go!” I squirmed in his grip, but he only held me tighter and pressed us closer together. There was no space between us now, no barrier except my bikini and his swim trunks. Skin to skin, his hard chest against my back, his thighs pressed to my ass. Captured, my pulse began to race. He was rock hard. A shiver rolled through me that had nothing to do with the sixty-degree water. I sucked in a ragged breath and struggled anew to break his hold.

  “Not yet,” he rasped low and near my ear, his tall form shadowing me. I forgot that Dominic waited as I glanced down at Ramon’s hands on my arms, their bronzed skin several shades darker than my summer tan. An incoming swell rocked us. My breathing came as choppy as the churning surf. I hated that Ramon made me feel things I shouldn’t feel considering that he was such an ass to me most of the time. “I advise you to keep that forked tongue in your mouth, Maleficent.” His warm lips brushed against the shell of my ear and his knuckles grazed the sides of my breasts. I barely registered his warning over the roaring of the surf and the thundering of my pulse. “Unless you are inviting me to suck on it.”