Page 2 of Opening Hearts

“Nice to meet you, Hannah.” He crossed his arms over his chest, his pecs and biceps bulging once more and distracting her. He chuckled, a low sound that she almost couldn’t hear over the crash of the waves and the wind whipping past them. “Are you going to just hold my phone, or are you going to give me your number?”

She ripped her eyes away from his chest, prickly heat washing over her once more. Good God, she needed to get a handle on her blushing around this guy. What the hell was wrong with her? She typed her full name—Hannah Glover—and handed his phone back to him.

He typed something into it, then smiled at her before tucking it back into his backpack. “I just sent you a text, so now you have my number too. I was going to surf for a while longer today. I’d offer to give you a lesson now, but you don’t have any equipment, so I’ll check in with the surf shop later this afternoon. Then we can touch base tonight. Sound good?”

She nodded, trying not to seem overeager, but probably failing. “That sounds great!” The huge grin on her face still wouldn’t calm down to a normal, polite smile. But Matt just grinned back at her, obviously not put off by her enthusiasm.

“If you want, we could meet up later to discuss the schedule. There’s a group of us getting together at the Jetties at eight. Wanna come?” He lifted his chin over her shoulder, indicating where Elena sat. “You can bring your friend, if you want.”

Hannah stopped breathing for a second. This super hot surf god was inviting her to hang out with his friends? “Yes, please!” she blurted out before she could stop herself, probably louder than necessary, too.

He laughed, but not in a mean way. “Great. I’ll see you there, then.”

“Yeah. Good. Okay. See you then.” She turned away and walked back to Elena before he could see her blush yet again. Good Lord, she was blushing way too much today. Hopefully tonight she could keep a handle on it.

Matt sat in the sand, his long sleeve T-shirt pulled down to protect his arms from the chill in the air this late in the evening. He glanced at his phone again, checking the time. Eight twelve. He’d said eight o’clock, and he’d been so antsy that he’d gotten here early, helping Ben, his friend from high school, get the fire started. The others sat closer to the fire, talking and laughing, a few people already dancing to the music playing on a speaker dock for an old-school iPod that someone had brought. And Hannah was late. He swigged his beer, his eyes scanning the bluff hiding the parking lot. Should he text her? See if she was still coming? Or—

Someone bumped his shoulder, and he turned to see Ben standing next to him, his hairy legs sticking out of a pair of tan cargo shorts next to Matt’s shoulder. “Dude, what are you doing? You were here early. I figured you’d be eager to hook up with someone or at least hang out and have a good time.”

Matt shrugged. “I’m waiting for someone. She’s not from around here, so I want to make sure she knows she’s in the right place.”

Ben laughed. “You’re bringing a date, but you didn’t even offer to pick her up?”

“I never said it was a date.”

Ben shook his head, laughing some more. “Whatever, man. How are you planning on scoring if she came separately? That’s amateur hour right there. You know better than that.”

“I never said I was meeting a girl.” Matt glanced up at his old friend with his eyebrows raised.

Ben just chuckled and nudged Matt’s shoulder with his knee again. “With the way you’re over here checking your phone every three seconds and staring at the parking lot, I know it’s not a dude. Unless there’s something you’d like to share?”

Matt punched Ben in the thigh. “Shut up, dude. I’m not gay.”

Ben backed up, laughing harder. “Alright, alright. I know. And you did say she and her. But it’d be cool with me if you were gay. I’m enlightened like that.” He swigged his beer, holding in a laugh and backing away, kicking up sand as he moved to escape Matt’s second punch. “I don’t need a dead leg, dude. I plan on dancing tonight.”

Matt stood up, brushing sand from his shorts, his eyebrows raised. “Oh, yeah? Anyone special?”

Ben rubbed a hand over his close cropped brown hair, calming down. “Mindy’s here.”

Matt’s eyebrows climbed further up his forehead. “You guys still a thing?” Mindy and Ben had dated for their entire senior year.

Ben tilted his head. “Not really, but we hook up sometimes when we’re both in town. She went to school in California, though, and I’m at UW, so it’s not like we could really be together anyway. You know how long distance stuff is.”

“Not really. But I can’t imagine it would be easy. Did you guys even try?”

Ben shook his head, “Nah. We both decided it wouldn’t be worth it. But it’s not like we broke up because we hate each other. And neither of us have anything serious going on with anyone else, so why not fuck and be friends while we’re in the same place?”

Matt nodded, taking another pull off the beer bottle in his hand. “Yeah, sure.” He didn’t know if he could be that casual about sex with a former girlfriend, but if that was what Ben and Mindy wanted, who was he to judge?

Ben said something else, but Matt didn’t catch it, because Hannah appeared on top of the dunes blocking the parking lot from the beach. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, the wind off the water catching strands and pulling them free, the evening light making her hair more golden.

He nodded. “Uh-huh. Cool, man. My date’s here. I’ll catch up with you later.” He was vaguely aware of Ben’s laughter behind him, but he didn’t give a shit right now. She came. He strode toward the dunes to meet her, a smile stretching his lips wide, relief that she showed up settling over him, calming his nervous energy.

Her dark-haired friend walked beside her, both of them wearing short shorts and tank tops, and the friend had a bag slung over one shoulder. Matt’s brow creased when he saw a guy with dark hair trailing behind them, about the same height as the girls. Why would she bring along a guy?

Matt stopped at the base of the dune. None of them had seen him yet, their attention focused on their feet as they took large steps down the steep dune.

Finally, Hannah looked up, her face lighting up in a big smile. “Hey.”

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