Adore Me

“How’d I do? Am I ready for the water?”

“I’m definitely ready,” I say, still thinking about my body under his . . . Oh, gosh. “I, uh, meant that I’m hot.” For you. “And ready to get out in the, uh . . .”  What’s that big body of water called again? Oh! “The, uh, ocean. You know, get my surf on.”

Oh my gosh. I am so lame. Excuse me while I go bury myself in the sand.

He grabs his board and follows me and my bright red face out into the water. Peyton and Damian are already out there, although it appears they’re doing nothing but sitting on their boards, splashing each other, and playing kissyface.

“It’s about time,” Damian says. “Ready to put on a show?”

“Don’t be a show off. I wa

“Looks like you got the kiddie class, dude,” Damian says, rolling his eye at Aiden. “You ride a snowboard?”

“Absolutely. It’s one of my favorite things to do.”

I turn my head at stare at him. “Really?”

He shrugs his shoulders, like I should’ve known that, but gives my hand a reassuring caress, telling me he can handle it.

“C’mon,” Damian says, paddling out. “Live by the wave. Die by the wave.”

“I don’t want to die by the wave,” I tell him.

“There are worse ways to die,” he says pointedly.

I swallow, thinking of Vincent. “Yeah, I guess.”

“You’re totally slowing my roll with the death talk,” Aiden says in a stoner voice, laughing.

Which makes me giggle like I’m high too. High on being in the water with Aiden.

Who would have thought?

“Just follow my lead,” Damian tells Aiden as he takes the first wave and slices through the water toward shore.

“You don’t have to do that curvy stuff. Just ride straight in.”

Aiden chooses a wave, quickly stands up—his foot placement looking like it belongs in a surfing textbook—and easily rides the small wave into the shore.

I wait for a bigger one, eager to show off my skills, and feel the rush as I push up off the board . . . but then my hand slides off the edge of it, and I crash chin first into my board.

Shit that hurt, I think as the wave crashes on top of me and a riptide pulls me under. I let my body go limp trying to make myself float back to the surface so I can tread water. When I get back to the top, I see that I’m a lot further away from shore than I expected. Damian and Aiden are both wading through the waves frantically searching for me.

I try to yell that I’m okay, but end up coughing up water. So I just wave my hand and let the waves carry me back to shore.

“What the hell was that?” Damian yells, pulling me out of the water and yanking the leash off my ankle.

“I forgot to put wax on the side of the rail. I slipped. It’s no big deal.”

“I couldn’t find you,” Damian says, still yelling at me.

“I’m sorry. What do you want me to do? You’re the one who said die by the wave. Maybe you jinxed me.”

Aiden touches my face gently. “You scared us both. And you have a little cut on your chin.”

Damian is still pissed. Full of adrenaline. I can see that I scared both of them. Aiden is just handling it better.

I touch Damian’s forearm. “It’s okay. I’m fine. I’ve had way worse crashes than that. It was just a stupid thing made worse by the undertow. If you fall, be careful.”

Peyton, who had rushed into the shed, comes back with a band-aid for my chin. “Here.”

“Thanks. Do I need this?”

“You’re bleeding. I’d think so. We don’t want you attracting a shark, too.”

I laugh. “No, we don’t.”

“Here. Let me put it on you. Your hands are all wet.” She tears the sides off the band-aid and places it on my chin. I’m sure I look like an even bigger loser than I did when I crashed.

I push the band-aid in place, grab my board, add some wax to the rail, and head back out in the water. I know the best thing to do after a crash is get back out there.

The next wave I catch is different. It loves me. Big, broad crest that I’m able to carve my way up and down.

“That was amazing!” Aiden tells me, pulling me into his arms. “You’re really good. I kinda thought after you crashed that you were maybe overstating your abilities.”

“You thought I was bragging?”

He kisses my nose. “Maybe. Kinda.”

Then he kisses my lips. And my band-aid. “Life with you is never going to be boring.”

Meaning in everything.

10am

After surfing, we dry off and head in for breakfast.

I’m sitting at the breakfast bar watching Inga make her special caramel sauce.

“I’ve tried making that for Damian before, but I can never seem to get it right. The brown sugar always gets lumpy.”

“Are you mixing it in the right order?”

“Yeah, kinda. Well, honestly, no, I sorta just put all the ingredients in at once and let them melt.”

“You can’t do that. You have to mix the brown sugar and butter first before you can add the cream.”

I scowl. “Oh, yeah, I don’t do it that way.”

“That’s because you don’t like to wait, Miss Keatyn. You want everything now. You need to stop being so impatient and let life come to you. You’re young; you have a lot of life left.”

I know she’s talking about being patient in cooking but what she says touches me deeply.

“Do you think that’s true? That I will have a long life?”

She looks surprised at me. “Has Inga never read your palm?”

“Um, no. You always said I was too young.”

She grabs my hand and turns it over.

Then a curious look crosses her face. “Very odd.”

She lets go of my hand and pulls the reading glasses she wears around her neck up to her face. Then she looks more closely, studying my hand and tracing the line. Grabbing my other hand and comparing the two, she says, “It is believed that your dominant hand shows what is and your non-dominant hand shows what could be.”

“So what do mine say?”

She runs her finger next to a line. “This is your life line. See this? How it is a chain up here at the top?”

“Yes.”

 That means things have been difficult for you early in your life. You lost your father, no?”

“Yes. When I was eight.”

“But this. This split. It is unusual to see in someone so young.”

“Why?”

“It means death.”

“Death?”

“Yes, you cheated death, somehow. Have you had a brush with death recently?”

“She just about drowned,” Peyton says, but Damian is looking at me with huge eyes and thinking the same thing I am. That if Vincent had actually kidnapped me, I’d be dead.

“Maybe it means I’m going to die soon,” I say softly, knowing it could happen.

“No, it is in the past.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just do.”

“Uh, okay.”

“But see how this strong thin line starts after the break?”

“Yes.”

“It’s a split or changed life. It often means the death of a spouse. A divorce. Something in your life has changed. This feels almost like a rebirth.”

I think about my changed name. My changed life. I know I’m not supposed to believe in this stuff, but still.

“And after that?”

“This line is extremely chained at the begi

“What does that mean?”

“You will have a long, happy life once you get through it.”

I put my head down, pretending to be inspecting my palm, but trying to hide my reaction.

Inga has no idea the overwhelming feeling of hope she’s just given me.

“Do you want me to do the rest?”

“Yes, please,” I mutter out.

“This is your heart line,” she says, drawing her finger across it. “It’s long, meaning you will be content in love. And this line is your head line. There are Xs in the middle. Here. That means you’ll soon make a momentous decision. One that will affect the course of your life.”

“Okay,” I nod, wondering if she’s referring to the decision I’ve already made. Not going back to Eastbrooke and starting to wage war on Vincent.