Page 4 of Meet You in the Waves
“Well, let’s hope for the best then,” Linda said kindly, squeezing my arm as I stepped past. “I hope we’ll be having some music from you both later on,” she added, nodding her head at our instruments.
“If you insist,” Dane shrugged like he had expected it.
“There you are,” came another voice as Dane’s dad, Eddie, came around the corner. Eddie had a head full of light brown hair that he kept close cropped but his light blue eyes contrasted with those of his second son. He enveloped Dane in a big hug and then gave me the same attention, instantly setting my mind at ease as he repeated the same welcome as his wife.
“We’ve set you up in the guest room upstairs, Ajay,” Linda told me. “Dane can show you up.”
“Thanks again,” I added, following Dane up the stairs to the second level. The landing opened up to a long hallway bookended by doors at each end and a few more scattered in between.
“That’s me,” Dane said, indicating the door at the far right end of the hallway. “I have my own ensuite in there so the bathroom here will be all yours. And this is the guest room.”
Dane stepped to the door in the middle of the hallway and opened it with a flourish. I stepped inside, my eyes instantly pinning themselves to the long window on the back wall that framed the Pacific Ocean.
“Wow,” I couldn’t help saying as I instantly made my way right to the view, ignoring the rest of the room.
“Yeah, not bad hey?” Dane smiled. “I’ll let you get settled in for a bit and then I’ll show you around, okay?”
“Sounds good,” I replied, eyes still focused on the waves and the impressive contingent of surfers out on the water. This place was just stunning and a small part of me suddenly felt a guilty spark of happiness that this was where I would be spending my summer break. Don’t get me wrong, there was no place like home and I would always be a Tassie boy first and forever. But even Tassie boys didn’t mind a bit of surf and sun every now and then.
I finally looked away from the view and took in the cosy guest room that would be mine for the next few weeks. It was a good size room with a nice double bed with a sea green quilt cover, scattered with a set of fluffy white cushions. A small desk and a plump occasional chair were the only other furniture in the room other than the sizeable built in robe.
I unzipped my suitcase and hung up my clothes on the hangers and the drawers until I was all unpacked. Then I was straight back at the window, looking out at the scenery as my heart took a little sigh of relief.
This year had been full on for me, my first full year at university. Dane and I had both been accepted into the Sydney University Conservatorium of Music, both of us majoring in guitar. Music was what I had wanted to do my entire life. I loved it, absolutely lived for my guitar. Secretly I loved singing too but I wasn’t as good at that so I tended to hide behind my guitar. Pursuing music was what had brought me to Sydney in the first place and I knew it was where I needed to be right now to get the best out of myself.
I had won a part scholarship for my place at the Conservatorium which was pretty much the only reason I had been able to survive living in Sydney with no parental support and only a part-time barista job to get me by. I didn’t know what I would have done without Dane and his offer to move in withhim when I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to accept my place after finishing high school last year.
But I was discovering that the scholarship came with a few other strings attached, maintaining a high GPA for one.
I was the first to admit I had carried a whole lot of additional stress throughout the past year. Stress about grades. Stress about finances. Stress about balancing part time work with uni and practice and tuition. A little yet constant stress about how to end things with Kira.
I needed this break far more than I was willing to admit.
Dane knocked on the open door a few minutes later and I turned to find him smiling at me.
“Want that tour?”
“You bet.”
Dane showed me the rest of the upstairs, the clean and very white bathroom that would be mine and the little study on the other side of my door.
“That’s my idiot brother’s room,” Dane added, nodding in the direction of the only other door on this level before turning to head down the stairs. Right, it was going to be like that was it, living with all that brotherly history and rivalry when Linda and Eddie left for their overseas holiday in two days’ time.
Downstairs was more of the same vibe of sparkling blonde hardwood floors, a beautiful, pristine white Hampton’s kitchen, big windows and big beige furniture that all faced out to the main event – the ocean on the doorstep.
I barely even noticed the pool or the outdoor deck as I shucked off my shoes and followed Dane out the back. The Tempe’s backyard blended seamlessly from manicured lawn to native grasses. The white sand of the beach was separated from the backyard by only a wooden public boardwalk as we stepped out onto the endless miles of beach.
The sun was low behind us, lending a few apricot and peach streaks to the sky and dotting the waves with gold. The sand felt like a dream under my toes as I sucked in the sea air and smiled.
“You are so lucky to have grown up here,” I commented to Dane, chancing a glance at him as his eyes narrowed, that little v parting his forehead that meant something was up. I followed his gaze out to where he was looking, just in time to witness the guy emerging out of the sea, like some kind of golden chalice being offered to the gods, dripping in silver droplets of water.
My heart gave a deep, resounding thump in my chest. Now, I didn’t spend a whole lot of my time ogling other guys but this particular one was really quite breathtaking, the whole moment vibing Daniel Craig’s ocean scene in Casino Royale.
This guy had a nicely stacked rig too, not anywhere near as big as Daniel Craig but his bronzed skin and cut abs sure made up for it. He had a surfboard under his arm, long golden-streaked locks that made him look like some Greek god and a killer smile to boot. A killer smile that was aimed straight at us.
“Dane,” the stacked surfer guy said as he sauntered towards us, that smile stretching across his stunning face, blue eyes glittering in the low light. Those eyes slid my way and I sucked in a breath as he flicked that gaze right down to the tips of my toes before landing back on my face. He cocked his head, that grin never sliding from his face. “You brought me a friend?”
“Fuck off, Nick,” Dane replied. Oh, right. The brother. The idiot brother in fact. I glanced between the two of them, Dane with his pale skin and dark hair and his serious demeanour and this golden, glowing sunshine of a man with his long locks and a grin that was full of mischief. I would bet he was a real hit with the ladies.
