Page 12 of Catch a Wave

I can’t bring myself to tell her I won’t ever surf again. I know it in my bones and my bones don’t lie. Sometimes you have to leave a bad relationship. The ocean showed me something at Mavericks. I’m not the surfer I thought I was. That’s a lesson I won’t have to learn twice. If I can’t surf the kinds of waves I used to, there’s no use doing less. That would only depress me more.

“Good. That’s my girl. You’ll dominate again, sweet wahine. If can … can, right?”

“Yeah. Right. Did you need to go?”

“Yeah. They’re all getting açaí bowls at Sunshine Shack. I’m meeting them there. No rush.”

I picture all of the surfers gathered around the little yellow hand-painted hut, the low mountains in the background and the ocean across the road with theGrommies Crossingsign hanging there. I would have been laughing and coming off the adrenaline high of my rides right along with them. We’d all be comparing notes about who caught the best wave, tricks that were landed, fails and misses. That’s my community—or it was.

“I’ll let you go. I’m tired after traveling. Ride a wave for me, m’kay?”

“They’re all for you until you can get back and ride your own. I love you, sis.”

“I love you too, ke kika.” I use our slang Hawaiian word for sister, it’s what I’ve called her since high school, or maybe even junior high.

We hang up and I text my mom just so she doesn’t worry.

Kalaine:I made it to Kai’s.

Mom:Good. Do you want me to call?

Kalaine:No. I’m going to lie down and rest. I’m good, don’t worry.

Mom:Good. You rest. You need rest. The doctors said so. Call me later with Kai.

Kalaine:I will.

I won’t. I don’t even know what I’m going to say to Kai, let alone how I would manage a phone call to our parents without turning him in for living with Bodhi. My family is no longer a fan of my ex after watching me go through the kind of heartbreak I never thought a person could experience. My ohana is loyal to a fault—always taking my side.

I fluff my pillow and lie down on the bed in the room that does not feel even remotely like it will ever be mine—probably because it won’t be.

6

BODHI

We are all trying to get over the person

who broke our hearts.

~ Alex Rosa

Itry to get back to shaping the board. My mind keeps traveling the short distance through the house and down the hall to the second door on the left. Mavs is right here, in my home. And Kai didn’t prepare either of us for the life-quake of seeing one another for the first time in years—the first time since I blew everything with her.

I set down my tool and run a hand through my hair. I should shower, but I’m too keyed up to wait. I have no plan, no words prepared, just a raging need to confront my best friend and the co-owner of my house. The second year I lived here, Kai said it didn’t feel right to have me pay rent, so we renegotiated the mortgage and I gave him a wad of cash for the down payment. We own this place fifty-fifty. If one of us ever needs to move, we’ll sell and split the profit, or one of us will buy the other out. Thankfully, all my sponsorships and championship earningsgave me a good nest egg. I make barely anything working at the shack, but it’s enough to cover my monthly expenses, including my half of the mortgage.

That’s all the more reason Kai should have stepped it up and told me about Mavs coming here. This isn’t just his place. And she’s not simply another down-and-out girl he wants to help. The woman in my spare bedroom never wanted to see me again—that much is obvious. And, yet, she had to beg for a place to stay. I’d move out if I didn’t own half this house, just to give her some air.

I hop on my mountain bike and ride the few blocks to the sand. Then I park my bicycle in the racks at the beach’s edge and walk down the boardwalk leading to the watersports shack. The little white wooden building sits on a wider section of a dock. We stash kayaks next to a supply shed behind the main building. A few benches flank the spots in front of the windows. Customers use those for gearing up before a lesson or going out on rentals.

The door is almost always open, even with our cooler temps during these winter months.

I walk in, knowing full well no one is expecting me on my day off. We love this place, but we all need our time away from it too.

“Bodhi? What’s got you coming in on your day off?” Ben asks.

The three of us, Ben, Kai, and me, are the main full-time employees for watersports. We’re all certified in water safety, diving, lifesaving and boater education. We’ve got a few part-timers, and we hire some mainland college kids over the summers to help offset the flood of tourists who come here May through September. But today, it’s just Ben and Kai working.

“I’ve got something to discuss with Kai.” My eyes scan the shop.

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