Page 61 of Caelum

“Yeah. I see it.”

“That cove makes powerful tubes.” He winked at my blank look. “They’re the be-all and end-all for Reed. The wave is hollow when it breaks so they ride inside it.”

At first, I didn’t get it. The waves were different there, but then I noticed why. The water was deeper somehow. The waves seemed heavier,higheralmost, but not like the other beach. I twisted to the side, trying to see why they were so different, but I was too far away. That didn’t mean I wasn’t curious though.

“Finally,” Frazer murmured, turning to the right, he mumbled, “you have what Reed calls the Pipe.” He waved at yet another beach. “Those waves are left-handed, and they break into individuals. There’s another coral reef on the seabed so it breaks, I’m assured, to perfection.”

Though I stared at where he was pointing, I asked, “You don’t surf?”

“No.”

Yet he knew all this stuff about the three different beaches because of Reed?

The question made me pensive. “Why not?”

He shrugged. “Not my vice.”

“Whatisyour vice?”

“Speed.”

“In what way?” Then I thought about the car and the plane I’d had to travel in to get here and blanched. “You mean in a car?” I tried not to think about how fast cars were, and tried even harder not to think about why it concerned me to imagine Frazer using those dangerous vehicles.

“You don’t like cars?” he inquired, cocking a brow at me, making me even more aware of how beautiful his eyes were.

“No, I don’t!” I shuddered. “They’re unnatural.”

He guffawed at that, and I watched in surprise as he bent over at the waist to laugh. It didn’t irritate me though—his amusement at my expense, I mean. If anything, it surprised me.

I didn’t know him well, but I’d seen him every day in the common room we all used—where the two sets of guys checked each other out as though they were both waiting on a war to break out between them.

I knew, point-blank, Frazer had never laughed like this before. At least, not in my presence. And it wasn’t because he was tense and on edge in the common room. They were all watchful, sure, but they relaxed too. Even during movies, Frazer hadn’t laughed like this.

He started wheezing as he whispered, “Remind me not to show you my Spider.”

“You have a spider? Ugh, why would I want to see that?” Caelum had a lot of creepy-crawlies I wasn’t used to, and the large spiders were some of the worst. Eren always captured them for me though. If I asked Stefan, he’d swat them with his shoe. I didn’t want the gross things to die, just not to share living space with me.

“No, not an insect,” Frazer responded while he was biting back laughter. Again. “It’s an Aston Martin.”

I scrunched my nose. “What is that?” He said it like I should know.

I didn’t.

“A sports car.” Another wheeze, and his eyes sparkled like blue fire as he drawled, “You’re like no one else, are you?”

My brow puckered. “Of course not. I’m me.”

“Yes. And I’m me.” His own brow furrowed slightly, and I didn’t likehow his amusement had died at his words. His mouth tightened when he stated, “Unfortunately.”

The self-deprecating remark seized me up inside. Why was he so down on himself?

I bit at my bottom lip, debating over how to answer or if I even should, and in the end, I couldn’t let that smile die, couldn’t let what I thought seemed to be self-loathing take root.

Sucking in a deep breath, I reached for his hand and squeezed his fingers. He turned from looking out at the ocean as though it heldallthe answers toeverythingand murmured, “I’m glad we’re not the same because that would be boring, wouldn’t it?”

His smile, while not as large as before, was there again. “Yeah, you’re right. It would.”

SIXTEEN

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