Page 46 of Beach B!tch
Dean had gotten back home super late last night, crawling into my bed and sneaking under the covers. He was like a heat blanket that kept me snuggly and nightmare free when he wrapped his arms around me. The threat of my father returning was still there, but I wasn't worried about it anymore. I had a man who cared about me and was showing me what it meant to respect someone.
Plus the promise of our planned dates and impending sex was enough to keep my cheeks on permanent glow.
Autumn gave me a curious look when we met to stretch by the nets right off the pier, but didn't say anything. I might have read the situation wrong, but I didn't feel we were good enough friends for me to dish on my sexual encounters. I knew girlfriends did that usually, but we weren't that close of friends yet, right? I cursed my social ineptness yet again.
We got right to it and began our warm-ups, followed by the drills we'd been working on. It felt good to move, pain free. My ankle was feeling better than ever.
"Okay, so let's move on to serving. If we can nail all our serves, we'll be all set in the next game. Our spiking and court coverage are already our strengths. We lost so many points last time to our serves not being on point. Thoughts?" We were taking a quick water break, and I was hoping Autumn would take my suggestion without offense. Partners were always tricky. You had to be honest with each other without the other person getting their feelings hurt or thinking you were a total bitch. Yeah, my nickname might be Beach Bitch, but I didn't want to actuallybeone.
"I agree. I think we could both benefit from some serving practice. Now that your ankle's looking like you'll be fine, I'm not worried about covering the court," Autumn said.
We took up positions on either side of the court, ready to start lobbing them over the net. I took a moment to breathe and focus, finding my mind flashing to our salsa dancing lesson with Renaldo. I smiled like a lunatic, remembering how great it felt to be silly and swing my hips like that. So when I began to move that's what my serve turned into. A couple lead-in steps with my hips swinging to the Latin music in my head, finished off with a jump and my usual punishing serve. I watched the ball hit deep in the court, leaving a hole in the sand where it dropped.
"What the hell was that?" Autumn called out.
I jerked my head over to see her staring at me, hands on hips.
"What?" I asked innocently.
"Did you, the Beach Bitch, just shake your ass in your jump serve?" Autumn let her mouth hang open, rather unattractively, I might add.
I kicked some sand around to flatten it out where I stood, twirling the next ball in my hands. "Maybe." I guess it would look a little weird, but dude, it worked. That serve was ace.
Autumn burst out laughing, mumbling something about me losing my mind and it was about time. Whatever that meant.
We continued to serve the rest of practice. We made it a competition: whoever missed the most serves had to buy the other one a beer at lunch. I think she only agreed to the challenge because she didn't think I'd actually go out to lunch with her. Little did she know I was turning over a new leaf and being social for once. Too bad I happened to be a way better server than her, even with my new hip sashay. I was going to order the biggest beer on the menu.
Dean
I had my truck loaded with two boards, four paddles, and one bright pink life jacket. I paid the meter and then walked down to the sand to find Brinley. It was time for us to conquer the stand-up paddle board.
I found her and her partner, Autumn, sprawled on their backs on a towel, talking and laughing, kicking sand all over the place with their exuberant gestures. I probably looked like a total stalker by pausing and just staring at them for several minutes. I whipped out my phone and hit record for about thirty seconds so I could go back and hear her laugh over and over. I had no idea what they found so funny, but just hearing Brinley laugh was amazing enough for me. She seemed so lighthearted in that moment, and knowing how hard it was for her socially, I couldn't believe how much she'd grown in the last few weeks. I was so proud of her I thought my chest might burst with it.
I tucked my phone away and approached the ladies, sorry to break up their good time, but knowing we needed to do our paddle boarding while there was still good light out. I plopped down in the sand right next to Brinley and laid my hand on her stomach, catching her attention. "Hey, beautiful. You ready to paddle board?"
Brinley sprang up, kissed my cheek, and clapped her hands. "Autumn! I've gotta go!"
"Um hm...I think I see why you've started shaking that ass, girl. Good for you," Autumn teased Brinley.
"Shaking your ass?" I questioned Brinley, wondering what that was all about.
Brin jumped up and brushed the sand off, trying to rush off before I got an explanation. "Never mind that, I'll explain later. Let's go!"
Autumn just laughed at her discomfort. "Same time tomorrow?"
Brinley nodded and then the two of them did some weird hand shake, bumping thing before bursting out laughing. Brin grabbed my arm, handed me her big ass bag and off we went.
On the truck ride over to the harbor, Brinley seemed nervous, so I went over the basics of paddle boarding, reassuring her I'd be right there with her the whole time. We weren't even doing a beach entry so there was no reason to worry. And there hadn't even been a shark sighting in weeks!
We worked together to unload the boards and paddles. Brin carried her own board which made me want to throw her down on the ground and have my way with her right there in front of anyone and everyone. Having a girlfriend with muscles who could do shit without whining over every little physical effort was a damn turn-on and she didn't even know it.
Plus, Autumn was right. Brin was totally shaking her ass when she walked, which on a normal day would be distracting, but when she was wearing a teeny tiny swimsuit bottom? I loved it, but I really didn't need to be tenting out my board shorts right now.
We laid our boards in the water right off the dock, keeping our feet on them while we sat, so they wouldn't float away.
"Now let's get you in your badass life jacket," I said with a straight face.
"Not. A. Word." Brinley responded with a growl. She ripped the jacket out of my hands and put it on, increasing her cute factor by a thousand. Once she had it all buckled, she looked over at me, her frown threatening me not to laugh.
