by S R Dyble
"I could watch you eat this full plate," he admitted.
I smiled, feeling embarrassed.
"You wouldn't wanna do that because I will genuinely eat this full plate if allowed."
He laughed, picking up his spoon.
"So, you enjoyed the water that much today that you came home and went back into the water?"
I wasn't going to tell him that I was actually doing everything possible to stay away from him, but then it would hide the fact that I adored this place.
"Yeah, I guess… I just love it here so much."
Nick stopped eating to look at me.
"Just the beach, the water, everything about this place. I think I'm in love," I chuckled.
He stared at me longer without speaking, making me feel even more awkward in his stare.
I had to do something quickly to avert his eyes.
"So, have you heard from your brothers?"
He nodded. "It's hard to be away from my brothers and not hear from them."
I smiled, admiring the bond they had.
"I can't say I've ever met a family like yours," I said, reaching for another spoonful of gooey goodness.
"What can I say? We're unique."
"So what's the deal with Jason?" I asked randomly and almost instantly Nick stopped chewing before starting again.
He took a few seconds finishing his mouth full and took a drink casually.
"Sorry, shouldn't I have asked that?"
"What do you mean, his deal?" he asked.
"You know. He seems so closed off and reserved. It warms my heart to see how he is with Eves though. How you all are with Eves…"
He nodded slowly, "Jason has enough reason to be reserved and closed off, trust me. It's not for me to say."
I nodded, understanding the bond he had with his brother. I respected that because that was how it was between me and Eve.
"And Eve…" he blew out a breath, "she's brought something to my family that we didn't know we needed."
I smiled and turned my spoon upside down to suck the chocolate off. Eve had no idea the effect she had on people. As I held the spoon to my mouth, Nick stared at me intensely as I licked it clean. Within seconds a calm settled over each of us as if nothing else existed besides the two of us sat here. Then I came to my senses and ditched the spoon.
"Well," I broke the tension and reached for the now empty plate when Nick reached for my hand. It meant our eyes connected straight away and my heart started beating ten times to the dozen out of my bloody chest.
"Stop avoiding me, please."
I couldn't answer him. I was too stunned and didn't know what to say. I wasn't sure what he was expecting. He'd told me he wanted to be friends but kept getting close—kept saying things to me that friends shouldn't be saying to each other. All I could do was dodge him and his words or lose my mind with him.
"I really am sorry for what happened, you know that, don't you?" he asked.
As I stared into his eyes, I processed what he'd said and felt the pain in his words.
I nodded. "I know Nick."
Nodding, he allowed me to take my hand away and he watched as I placed the plate and two spoons into the sink. As I passed him, I offered him a small smile, feeling awkward and ready for some more space.
"Thank you, that was delicious," I said.
He nodded as I slowly walked away.
"Lill', wake up."
"What?” I croaked.
I dared to open my eyes.
“It's still dark."
"Yes, that's good. Come on, I wanna show you something," he said.
"Show me something when it's light."
He chuckled. "It will be. Come on, you said you loved the beach, let me show you something."
I sat up in bed, realising I'd slept in just my underwear. Although the room was dark, I could feel Nick's eyes on my tits straight away, almost spilling out of my bra. The room fell silent as I pushed my hair aside out of my face and stared at him. He continued to stare at my body, his eyes studying me as I sat now fully alert. He smiled at me like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar then glanced at the floor.
"I'll be on the beach, come quick, okay?"
I nodded. I wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but I climbed out of bed and pulled on my shorts and a baggy t-shirt. Then I went in search of Nick. I hadn't had the chance to tame my wild hair and it blew out of control in the breeze once I stepped out onto the patio. I frowned, trying to see Nick as I took steps onto the beach and towards the water. It was just starting to get light out and I wondered what time it was. Nick was sitting at the water's edge in his beach shorts, and then I noticed the surfboard laid on the sand beside him. He turned to look at me just as I saw the start of the sunrise making an appearance on the water.
"Oh my God," I breathed, quickly taking a seat beside him and drawing my legs up.
Little by little, the sun made itself more visible, filling the sky with the most beautiful colours. I felt my eyes widen, taking it in. I closed my eyes, allowing the gentle morning breeze to lift my hair. I felt so calm and at peace.
"You are so beautiful, Lilly," Nick broke the silence, making my eyes open instantly to look at him.
I didn't say anything, just stared at him as he was staring at me. There was something about the way he was looking at me that made me fear he would kiss me. It wasn't that I didn't want him to because my body called bullshit on that thought. I was afraid of him kissing me. As if it would ruin this moment. He looked away, busying himself with the sand.
"We used to wake up early like this, me and my brothers. We'd go surfing with the sunrise as our backdrop," he told me.
"You're gonna go surfing, now?"
He nodded before getting up.
"Hence the surfboard…" he smirked.
"I knew you'd surfed before but right now, actually here, I wanna tell you not to because I don't believe you actually can," I admitted.
I already knew Nick was good at everything. I knew he would probably be an expert at this too…
Nick scoffed, picking up his surfboard and holding it up beside him, looking far too professional. He continued to smirk at me before treading his way through the shallow water.
"Wait, what about sharks?"
I was such a hypocrite, I swam freely yesterday in open waters… really, I just didn't want him to get himself killed in the waves.
That dosey fucker was gonna get himself killed.
"Not on your nelly, Petal," he said in his Australian twang.
"Never you mind my nelly, you're gonna get yourself bloody eaten or killed and ruin my sunrise!" I shouted at him as he drifted further away, now lying forward onto his board.
God, he looked ridiculously hot.
I searched around, afraid of my own thoughts, then stood in fascination as Nick began paddling through the water. He took himself further into deeper waters. I couldn't even demand for him to come back anymore, he seemed miles away and wouldn't have been able to hear me at all. Instead, I stood with my mouth slightly agape as waves seemed to form out of nowhere. I was sizing them up, tryna determine how Nick was gonna ride one. Then he was gone, totally out of sight. I searched for him and almost jumped head first into the water when I saw his dark hair peeking over the top of the wave. His face was set in concentration as he stared at the wave forming beneath him. Using his hands, he shaped both of them like oars as he pushed himself with the wave, climbing it until the perfect moment. Then within a split second, he stood up and manoeuvred his board along the wave like a sodding pro. I sat back on the sand, absolutely amazed. I stayed like that, totally in shock as Nick continued to surf. A few other times, he had my heart in my mouth as he fell into the wave. Each time his head shot straight out of the water and he swam back to his surfboard, ready to go again. From what I knew, Nick and his brothers hadn't had the opportunity to surf for a long time. Nick didn't look like he needed much practice, he was straight back at it as if he'd never stopped. I imagi
ned him and his brothers surfing together on a day like today. A day before their father had been captured by Delta. A day before being the ones being chased by the gang they'd been brought up to be a part of. I'd spent many hours talking everything through with Eves. It was difficult to ask too many questions without appearing totally obsessed and in love with one Carson brother in particular. As I stared back up from the sand, I saw Nick walking out of the water. It was like slow-mo' as he used his hand to wipe his wet hair back, droplets of water flying into the air. Then he ran his hand over his face and mouth to remove any water dripping from his skin. The rest of his body shimmered as the water reflected the now fully risen sun. He stood at my feet, plunged his surfboard into the sand to make it stand, and stared down at me.
"So, you gonna have a go?"
"A..whata?" I mumbled like a blubbering idiot, still fixated on his body.
"Surfing, you wanna have a go?" He smiled at me knowingly.
“What now?”
He'd just looked like a model shooting a bloody Baywatch commercial and now he wanted to give me lessons?
"Are you mad?" I asked.
He continued to slick his hair back while smiling at me.
"Oh no, I'm not doing that. I saw you flipping over those waves—disobeying gravity."
"I can teach you," he said, confidently.
"Nah, I'm good."
I got up, smiling at him and thinking I was off the hook when he took my hand.
"Are you scared?"
I frowned. "Why would I be scared?"
Even if I was, I wasn't gonna admit it.
“It’s okay if you are, just admit it.”
I narrowed my eyes at him as he continued to stare at me.
"Never," I said before marching back to the house.
Scared my arse. I was not afraid. I was gonna show that overly good-looking bastard and those ridiculously tall and murderous looking waves that I was in no way, shape, or form, scared...
I gulped, thinking about what I was about to do. I wasn’t having any of it so I stripped down so that I could put my bikini on. Now I wished I had a more suitable cozzie to go surfing in instead of this two-piece held together only by a knot. I pushed my hair up high and tied it with a bobble before heading back outside and onto the beach. Nick had somehow managed to acquire a second surfboard in the time it had taken me to get changed.
“Where’d you get the second board?” I asked as I walked up behind him.
Once he turned, he eyed my body. I looked at him in a certain way, catching his eyes ogling me up and down.
“Under the house, there’s a basement. They have a set of surfboards for guests to use.”
“Really?” I stared back at the house, “What else have they got in there?”
“Not much… bikes, fitness stuff, a punchbag…”
I nodded.
“Anything else? Or have you ran out of ways to stall?” He smirked.
“Excuse me? I asked only one thing…”
“Uh-huh,” he said smiling at me, “come on, Petal.”
First, Nick taught me the basics—how to float on the surfboard, how to position myself, how to paddle and how to hold it without being swept away by the bloody wind whilst tryna hold the damn oversized thing— that sort of thing. Safe to say, I was getting riled. I knew I wasn’t going to be any good at this, and the more Nick tried to teach me, the more pissed off I got until I was cursing the damn thing like a spoiled brat. I was shocked at how good a teacher Nick was because he kept persisting, not losing his patience at all and he held me up in a bid to help me keep my balance. As I stood upright on the board, he shifted his hands from mine and to my waist.
“Okay, so you need to sort of crouch down slightly, try arching your back and pushing your bum out a bit.”
I stared around at him, trying not to fall as tiny waves came at the surfboard.
He laughed. “Honestly, I’m not just tryna check out your ass.”
I did as he said, despite the face I pulled at him. As I tried to position myself, I lost balance and gripped a hold of his hands around my waist. I breathed, feeling uptight about possibly falling into a metre of water…Somehow, being up here on a board made the water feel much deeper even despite it only reaching under Nick’s waist.
“You’re okay,” Nick said as I gripped a hold of his fingers.
The familiar sensation I felt from holding his hands made me lose my balance even more.
“Try turning around, Lill’,” he said whilst taking a better grip of my hands.
He held them as I attempted to turn around.
“Why?” I asked.
“You can—" There wasn’t enough time for Nick to finish his sentence, I’d lost my balance and was falling directly over him. In the process, I landed on him, making us both fall backwards into the water. Thankfully Nick hadn’t connected me to the surfboard yet. Both of our bodies were submerged in the water and I closed my eyes as my head went under. Then between my own legs pushing me up, and Nick pulling us out of the water, I took a deep breath again and swept my hair back when we both emerged, our faces centimetres apart.
“We probably should have started this outside of the water…” he admitted, smiling.
“You’re kidding me?”
“What? I’ve never taught anyone how to surf before.” He shrugged.
“Really?” I asked, pulling myself up and out of the water. “I find that hard to believe, Nicholas. All the female attention and what not that you get…”
I shouldn’t have said that, and as I made steps out of the water, pulling my surfboard with me, I inwardly cursed myself for sounding so pathetic.
“You notice all the female attention I get, huh?”
“Don’t be so self-centred, Nick.”
“What? You brought it up! I was merely acknowledging what you’d said.”
“Well… don’t.”
I caught sight of him smiling at me.
“Yes, Petal.”
The silence that lingered once I stared at him made me decide to take a break from my lessons.
“Well, enough surfing for one day…” I said before walking away.
“Lilly,” he called after me, making me stop in my tracks.
I didn’t turn around to face him, just stood there and waited for him to speak.
“Get ready, okay? I wanna take you somewhere.”
I nodded, not turning to look at him. I headed straight inside and stripped, hoping to wash Nick’s touch off of my skin in the shower so that I could feel normal again. It dawned on me that I was sucking at this friend's thing. It made me feel weak that I couldn’t hack this. That I couldn’t even bring myself around this in order to build a healthy relationship with Nick—one that didn’t make my body leap at his touch. I allowed the water to get hotter, creating thick steam in the shower, washing every part of my body until I felt clean enough to dry myself. I wasn’t sure where Nick wanted to go, so I dressed in my frayed denim shorts, a simple sleeveless top and converse. It had been my go-to outfit while here, plus, I hadn't packed much else so my choices were limited… After applying some mascara to my eyelashes and tying my hair up, I left the bathroom feeling a lot different. I found Nick sitting at the dining table. He seemed deep in thought and didn’t even notice me standing there. He was daydreaming and it wasn’t until I spoke that he snapped out of it.
“Everything okay?” I asked as he stared at me.
He eventually nodded. “I was just on the phone. Eves said hey…"
“You were on the phone with Eve?”
“Didn't I just say that?"
I eyed him, noticing the unexpected attitude in his voice. Nick wasn't happy. With that, I turned on my heels and began walking back to my bedroom. I assumed his chat with Eve hadn't been a good one, and I wondered what she'd said to rub him up the wrong way. Unless it was something else...
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"You're clearly in a pissy mood, so I'm leaving you to it," I said
simply, tryna hide the pinching in my chest.
"Please Lilly," he shifted after me.
I turned to face him again, keeping my face serious.
"Look, I'm sorry okay?" he said.
After a few seconds of staring at him, I nodded and accepted his apology despite wanting to march back to my bedroom.
“You ready to go?” he asked.
I nodded and watched as he passed me. Something was off, and I wasn’t sure what. It was exactly how I had felt all those times I’d listened to Eve before knowing about Delta and everything else that had happened. I hated feeling like that. I hated not knowing what was going on. Then I thought maybe I was just overthinking it. There was probably nothing going on...
As I waited for Nick to get ready, I headed into the kitchen and made myself some tea. Leaving the tea bag inside the cup, I strolled outside onto the deck and beside the pool. With the sea at my feet each morning, I hadn’t even made time to swim in the pool yet. I took a seat on one of the outdoor chairs and lifted my feet, sipping at my tea as a gentle breeze swept over me.
“God, I love it here,” I said quietly to myself. Then I watched as a bird flew over the sand and took flight.
“You ready?” Nick invaded my thoughts shortly after as I finished my last mouthful of tea. He stood waiting, dressed in his usual beach shorts and t-shirt.
“Where are we going?” I asked as we reached the car.
“It’s a surprise.”
I groaned once in the car. I’d only just realised it, but I hated surprises. The journey in the car was silent apart from the radio. I took peace in admiring the surroundings. As we drove down the coast, we travelled over a bridge. The sea beneath was crashing into the cliffs and I pushed myself up in my seat to get a better view. Then, an hour into driving, we reached what could only be described as a thick rainforest. In front, the road seemed to stretch for miles and miles, with nothing but tropical greenery on both sides. It was a feast for the eyes. The deeper we got, the more I assumed we were going for a hike, and I was correct. Nick pulled into a road, leading further into the jungle until we came to a carpark. There were picnic benches and a small playground set up, where people travelling could have something to eat and play in the playground. Nick came around the car once we’d parked up and I pulled my bag over my shoulders as he opened the door for me to get out.