Between The Waves

by Ellie Malouff

  When he looks up at me, though, I see his eyes and it’s like looking in a mirror. He’s me, and just like me, all he’s ever wanted is support. So I do for him what none of our parents were ever willing to do for us. I give it to him.

  We get in the truck and I lean my head against the steering wheel.

  In a quiet voice, he asks, “Haven’t you ever had a broken heart?”

  “Not yet,” I tell him, but I have a feeling that if anyone could do it, Audrey would be the one.

  Audrey

  It’s Friday and I’ve been nervous all day. For once, it’s not about what I ran away from, but about what I’ve run toward.

  When I approach The Hut for my lesson, I’m sorely disappointed when I see Tua. I can’t believe Jake still isn’t around. I’ve missed being on the water with him.

  I’m about to turn around when I hear my name. Well, my fake name.

  “Audrey,” Jake says and comes out from The Hut. Sam pokes his head out and gives a courteous wave before going back in.

  “Hey, stranger.” There’s an unexpected amount of hurt in my voice. I didn’t know his distance bothered me as much as it did, but seeing him now in the flesh has brought it out of me. “Give me your phone number.”

  Jake laughs a little and runs a hand through his hair. “You sure are bossy today.”

  “Give me your phone number,” I demand again. Thank God for these sunglasses, because I wouldn’t want him to see the tears I have in my eyes.

  He doesn’t hesitate and scribbles his number on some receipt paper and hands it to me. “I’m sorry I went MIA,” he whispers and reaches out to cup my elbow.

  “It’s okay. I know it’s been a busy week for you. How are you doing? How’s Sam? Kaila told me what’s been going on.”

  Jake shakes his head. “That gossipy—”

  I press two fingers to his lips to stop him. “She helped me understand what was going on with you. I was kind of going out of my mind about it.”

  His whole demeanor softens. “Sam got suspended for skipping. Only two days, but still.”

  “Yikes.”

  “Yeah, I was pretty pissed about it on Wednesday.”

  “I bet.”

  “But, I’m over that now and trying to do my best to support him. I think he’s hit his rock bottom and he’s been on an upswing since then, at least emotionally.”

  “Well, I guess it could have been worse.”

  “It’s still not great. He got involved with some bad kids. You might call them a gang. We’re figuring out a way for him to walk away from them without reaping any shitty consequences from those little assholes. Luckily graduation isn’t too far off.”

  “That’s good.”

  “So, that’s what I’ve been up to. How about you, newbie?”

  “Well, the Cubs are on a four-game winning streak. I watched Overboard, Dirty Dancing, and Encino Man this week because the owners of the vacation house don’t have any movies that date past 1994. I used my grill three times. I did my pop-up exercises, and I discovered a few more constellations.” I know I’m rambling, but I can’t stop myself.

  He takes a step closer to me and threads his fingers through mine. The surety I feel when he’s around makes everything in my life a little bit better. “You’ll have to show me. How about tonight?”

  “Are you sure everything with Sam is all right?”

  He shrugs and takes my other hand in his.

  “Okay then, it’s a date,” I say, just above a whisper.

  He squeezes my hands before letting go and leaves me feeling breathless while he goes to get our boards. We’re out on the water in less than ten minutes.

  “What are we practicing today?” I ask while straddling my board, a little less afraid that one of my legs is going to serve as some shark’s early lunch.

  “We’re just going to work on pop-ups again. The waves crest bigger and at shorter intervals than last week, but it’s still all right for a beginner like you. You’ll probably like it.” As he says that, we’re lifted up on our boards as a hefty wave passes beneath us. “The sea floor is still within reach for us. You’ll fall, but you’ll also ride today. Got it?”

  “Got it.” Exhilaration courses through me and it’s incredible to feel adrenaline for a reason other than fear.

  “Yeah, you do!” His confidence in me is practically tangible. He flashes me a shaka sign and looks behind us. “In three, two, one, paddle!”

  I go on his command, paddling as he taught me. “Up!” he shouts, and my body goes into motion. The breaking wave propels me forward and I pick up speed. I’m doing it! I’m actually surfing. I look back toward Jake to see if he’s watching and the last thing I hear before wiping out is, “Look forward!”

  Shoot!

  I tumble into the water hard. Saltwater goes up my nose and it burns badly, but the victory of my first real ride is so fucking cool, I don’t care. My knees find the sandbar as I come out of the ocean near the shore, with my board swishing beside me.

  Jake rides in like it’s as easy as taking a stroll down the beach. I suppose it is for him. I fall down on the sand and look up at the sky. My chest rises and falls from my heavy breaths, and I’m nothing short of exhausted as the adrenaline seeps from me. The sun is suddenly blocked out as Jake appears.

  “Hey shredder,” he says as ocean water drips off of him and onto me.

  “Hey Mister Miyagi,” I answer back and wrap my hand around his ankle.

  One side of his mouth lifts up into a smile, and he shakes his wet head over me. As water rains down all over me, I start wiggling around and giggling. “Oh newbie, I think you just broke my tally, but I don’t care because it’s so good to see you laugh like that.”

  “What tally?”

  He grabs my hands and pulls me to my feet. “I hope you aren’t one and done. It’s time to get back out there and really shred. Ready?”

  I’m able to stand up on my board about five more times, and it’s glorious each and every time I do it. We called it a day when the tide got too rough.

  “So do you want to come by tonight, say at sunset?” I ask him.

  “Nothing could keep me away.”

  “Don’t jinx it,” I tell him and look over at Sam who is sitting behind the counter at The Hut, endlessly scrolling on his phone and looking utterly miserable. “Is he going to be okay?”

  Jake looks over his shoulder at his younger brother. “I hope so,” he says, and my heart goes out to them both. “I’ll see you at sunset.”

  “Sunset.”

  He leans down and plants a sweet kiss on my forehead while he pats me on the ass.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s not one of Mister Miyagi’s moves,” I scold him and pat him back on his ass, which is rock solid. Damn.

  “No, but it’s one of Jake Garrant’s,” he says and winks at me.

  By the time I get home, the sky opens, and it starts raining like God turned on the hose full blast. I bypass the outdoor shower and head to the master bedroom’s ensuite.

  I lose the wetsuit and then as I’m stripping off my bikini, something in the bathtub catches my eye in the mirror. It’s dark and long and slow moving. In a flash, I twist around and shriek louder than I’ve ever made a sound in my life.

  I dash out of my bedroom and scramble for the little slip of receipt paper Jake gave me. It takes me three tries to dial his number correctly. It takes four painfully slow rings for him to pick up.

  “Hello?”

  “Jake!” I shriek.

  “Audrey?”

  “Come quickly. Please hurry!”

  “What’s wrong?” he asks, his voice aligns to my overwrought nerves.

  “There’s a fucking snake in my bathtub!” I don’t hear much on the other line. “Jake! Please!”

  “I’ll be right there,” he says and hangs up.

  While I wait for Jake—crouched naked on top of my kitchen table—I wonder what else I’ve signed up for by moving to Hawaii.

  Jake
r />   The rain is pelting my truck and my windshield wipers can’t keep up. Trees are thrashing against each other and my tires are rolling over broken branches and tethered leaves. Nothing unusual for this time of year.

  Audrey’s frantic phone call shook me, but I’m glad it’s just a snake and not something worse. When I pull up to her place, I grab my snake wrangling gear—which is nothing more than a broomstick and a bucket with a lid—and I make a mad dash through the rain to her door. I press the bell, but I also knock. “Audrey, it’s me,” I shout.

  And then I wait. And I wait some more.

  I knock again as my mind gets carried away with a farfetched boa constrictor scenario. “Audrey!”

  Finally, the locks start to unlatch. She opens the door a smidge and looks at me through the crack.

  “Were you expecting someone else?” I ask. “Let me in.”

  “Yep, yep, yep,” she says like a frazzled mess and pulls the door open wider, but stays hiding behind it.

  “Newbie, what’s up?” I ask.

  “I, um, wasn’t dressed when I spotted the snake.”

  “Oh!” I start laughing.

  She rolls her eyes and closes the door with one hand. I’m treated to one of the best sights of my life. Audrey has wrapped a long piece of floral fabric around her body, turning it into the world’s tiniest dress. There are gaps between the edges of the material where I can see patches of her bare skin, like the underside of her right breast.

  Dear Lord in Heaven.

  “What are you wearing?”

  “The table runner,” she says and shakes her head.

  I try my very hardest to suppress my laughter, but the woman is wearing a table runner as a dress. She is the absolute best. Everything she does makes me smile.

  “Jake! Get the snake.”

  “Right, yes. Stay here,” I say, and I’m delighted that I get to be her hero today. I’ve dealt with countless snakes and bugs over the years, so this isn’t a big deal to me. She points me in the right direction and I head that way. Audrey’s bedroom is styled like most vacation rentals around here. Her king-size bed is draped in tropical prints and there’s a faux palm leaf ceiling fan overhead.

  The first thing I notice in the bathroom is her bikini top and bottom abandoned on the floor next to her wetsuit. The sight makes me catch my breath. I’ve desperately wanted to see what that bikini has been covering since the day I met her, and now it just lays there mocking me. So close, Garrant.

  The second thing I notice, when I’m done gawking at her bikini like an eighteen-year-old hornball, is that the bathtub doesn’t have a snake in it.

  “Shit.”

  I start looking around and there’s no sign of it. I’m pretty sure this girl isn’t delusional, but who knows what she actually saw.

  “Audrey,” I call out for her.

  “What?”

  “Can you come here?” I request, making my first mistake.

  She doesn’t answer me, but I hear her bare feet slapping against the tile floor. She comes around the corner and doesn’t move much past the doorframe at first.

  “It’s fine,” I tell her, which is my second mistake.

  She walks up to me with a little more confidence. “You caught it?”

  “Here’s the thing—there wasn’t a snake in your tub.”

  In a flash of bright Hawaiian colors and creamy pink skin and hair as black as night, Audrey loses her grip on the table runner and literally jumps onto me. The bucket and broomstick drop to the tile floor as I take hold of her. She’s completely naked and pressed against me.

  I’m not going to lie, I’ve imagined something similar to this for weeks—naked Audrey’s skin on my skin. But that fantasy played out a lot different than this scenario. In my fantasy, she’s not screaming bloody murder in my ear, nor is she digging her nails into my shoulders because she’s terrified of a reptile. In my fantasy, she’s digging her nails into my shoulders because I’m going down on her and she’s about to come all over my face.

  “Where did it go?” she shrieks.

  “Shhhh.” I start walking her to the bed.

  “Jake!”

  “I’ll find it. I’ll find the fucker,” I promise over and over again and set her down. I quickly pull her comforter back and cover her with it.

  “What if it’s in my bed,” she shouts at me. She’s actually angry at me now because I’m being a gentleman.

  “It’s not in your bed,” I shout back, although…who knows? “I’ll find it. Stay there and calm the fuck down.”

  “I will do no such thing! There’s a snake somewhere in my house.”

  “Not anymore with the way you’re yelling. I’m sure you’ve driven away all living creatures within a mile radius.”

  Her face relaxes ever so slightly. “Really?”

  “No, not really. God!”

  “This isn’t a time for jokes, Jake!”

  She keeps saying my name and it’s cracking me up.

  “Okay, just chill for like a freaking minute and let me concentrate on the snake.”

  “Okay, thank you, thank you, thank you,” she whispers and makes herself into an even smaller ball of Audrey on the bed.

  “Describe it. How long is it?”

  “Like a yard? Maybe less.”

  “Colors?”

  She shivers and closes her eyes. “Green and brown.”

  “Okay, that helps.”

  I spy a sizeable potted fig tree in the corner. I’ve been around the block a few times with these suckers so I take a look at the tree. Sure enough, the snake is chilling there, wrapped loosely around the base of the plant. It’s a little thing. Using the same broomstick handle that my dad used to use, I lift the snake out of the plant, place it in a bucket that’s got small breathing holes drilled into it, and pop the lid on fast.

  “Did you find it?” she asks through the fabric of her comforter.

  “Yeah, and got it too,” I tell her as I bring the bucket out of the bathroom.

  She peeks up over her covers and sees my bucket. Her eyes are enormous. “It’s in there?”

  I nod. “Yes.”

  “What are you going to do with it?”

  “What do you want me to do with it? Looking for a new pet? I think he looks like a Fred.”

  “God, no. No! But don’t kill it, okay. Promise me you won’t kill it.” This woman is whacked, there’s no doubt about it.

  “I’m not going to kill it. I’ll be right back.”

  “You’re not going to let it out in my yard, are you?” She looks just as upset about that as she has about anything.

  “No, newbie. I’m going to put the bucket in the bed of my truck and take it to animal control after the storm passes.”

  “Okay,” she says, but she’s still wound up.

  The rain and wind are fucking ferocious, so I decide to leave the bucket on the porch and be done with it for now. When I go back into the bedroom, Audrey is where I left her, bundled in her comforter and chewing on her thumbnail.

  “Welcome to Maui,” I tell her, and gently pull her poor thumb away from her mouth. If anyone is going to bite on it, it’s going to be me.

  Her scared facade cracks at the seams. “Let’s just say…where I come from, we don’t live with such exotic creatures.”

  “It’s how we pay the price to live in such a beautiful place,” I tell her.

  “I guess so,” she says with the tiniest smile I’ve seen yet, but I still count it. “I really freaked out,” she goes on and some nervous laughter slips out.

  “Just a smidge,” I reply and hold up my fingers to show her.

  She falls over to her side and laughs. “God, how embarrassing.”

  “Look at it this way. Maybe you’ve started a new fashion trend.”

  She scoffs. “I don’t recommend it unless you’ve got safety pins or Velcro.”

  “Oh, I do, very much.”

  She crawls up on her knees with the blanket wrapped around her. “You liked that?�
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  I close the gap between us and stand against the edge of the bed. “You could be wearing a garbage bag and I’d think you were the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.”

  Her turquoise irises are thinning out by the second as the hunger in her eyes grows deeper. I’m sure they mirror mine. I see everything. Her chest heaving, her mouth parting, her blanket loosening. There’s still so much adrenaline pumping just beneath the surface of her skin, and I feel the same way—charged and ready for whatever happens next.

  The blanket falls, pooling around her waist as she bares herself to me. Her skin looks soft and warm, and I want to touch and kiss every part of her, especially those pink nipples that are budding before my very eyes, but I’m frozen in place, not feeling worthy to touch her yet. So, I wait. She places each one of her palms on my chest, over my shirt, and I wonder if she can feel how erratically my heart is beating.

  “What about with no clothes at all?” she asks.

  It takes me a few seconds to realize she’s still playing our little game. Words have escaped me as full-on desire now rules me. I’m afraid to make a move, to make a sound, because once I open the gates, it’s going to be really hard to reel myself back in.

  “Jake,” she whispers and runs her hands up my chest, past my shoulders, and into my hair. “Kiss me.”

  Her request is my starting pistol. My mouth on hers. My hands in her hair, then squeezing her breasts, over her ass, between her thighs. It’s clunky and not at all smooth, but I want every bit of her. My clothes are coming off, piece after piece, and I’m clumsily climbing onto the bed, trying not to lose contact with her, even for one split second.

  Her skin smells like the sea and sand and coconut sunblock, all things that remind me of home and goodness and now her, forever.

  I’m painfully hard and dripping from the tip. I need her, and I want to know if she needs me, too. My fingers slip between her folds and find heaven. She’s warm and wet, and based on her face and the little sounds she’s making, I can confirm that she needs me every bit as much.

  “Please,” she begs, and I rub my thumb over her. It’s practically electric. She bows off the bed and cries, “More.”