Page 10 of Dream (Fighting Fate)

Shaking myself out of my daydream, I rushed the rest of the way down the trail to the beach before pausing when I reached the bottom. I didn’t know which way to go now I knew the other house was filled with guys.

The sun was already beating down, stinging my skin. If I didn’t want to burn to a crisp, I needed shade, but the trees down Aunt Jenny’s end of the beach didn’t really give any out until the afternoon. The best bet for shade at this time of the day was a place I saw on my walk yesterday, just past the rocks down the other end. Past his house. It wasn’t too close to the house, but I felt awkward having to walk past it to get there.

Knowing Aunt Jenny would call me a sook for avoiding them, I decided I needed to be brave and just do it. It wasn’t like they were on the beach anyway. Taking a deep breath, I clutched the blanket and the book to my chest and strode off.

When I finally reached the large outcropping of rocks I’d climbed over the day before, I found a nice patch of sand half surrounded by a few rocks that were large enough to block out a bit of the sun, and spread the blanket out. Shedding my dress, I plonked myself down and opened my book, and without the distraction, I was finally able to get into the story. Who would’ve thought you could write a romance about a boy and a ghost? That, right there, was a bright idea.

Chapter 8

Josh

If I ignored the rough start I’d had to the day, I would say I was having the perfect morning. The sets weren’t huge, but they were surfable, and that was all that mattered. Hell, I thought I could probably stay out on my board all day if the waves kept rolling in.

Watching a wave swell toward me, I started to paddle, all too ready to carve it. As soon as the peak started forming, I kicked it up another notch, until she was taking me with her and I was sailing down her curves. Pushing myself up, I snapped to my feet, leaning my weight into the rolling mass of water, feeling the spray against my face as she curled over the top of me.

Bending my knees, I pushed into her, shrinking myself as she closed into a perfect tube. As I burst out the other side, I dropped further, pushing her harder, before twisting out a bottom turn and carving higher up her face. Closing my eyes, I smiled, feeling the wind against my face as I rode her all the way to the end and kicked out.

“Yeah!” I shouted into the breeze.

As I started paddling back through the breakers, I couldn’t stop grinning. Now this was fucking living. It was exactly what I needed. Duck diving under the crashing waves, I surfaced near the guys and shook the water from my hair. I was just about to holler out how fucking awesome I was feeling right now, but was stopped by the intense look on their faces. If any of them had ‘work faces,’ these would be it.

Instinct had me turning to see what was going down on the beach. Part of me was expecting to see a crowd of fans gathered on the shore, screaming, but instead of fifty screaming girls, there was only one oblivious girl. Sunbathing. Just past my house.

I immediately knew it was the girl from yesterday. She was stretched out on her stomach, facing up toward the trees, her knees bent and her feet swaying in the air. From what I could see, she was either reading a magazine or a book.

The image of her walking past me the day before flashed in my mind, reminding me of the book she’d been holding to her chest, so I decided it was a book.

“Is that the same girl you saw yesterday?” Corey asked.

Spinning, I saw all three of my friends gathering close. I knew they’d been skeptical this morning when I’d told them I didn’t think she’d recognized me, but I guessed that was what I was paying them for.

Nodding, I glanced over at the girl again, considering the threat she implied. Like Daniel had said, until we knew how long she was going to be here for, and could work out a strategy, I needed to lie low. But how was I supposed to do that if she kept coming so close?

A wave swelled under me, jolting me out of my thoughts. I shook my head. “It’s fine, guys. Whatever happens, happens. Let’s just enjoy ourselves.”

Paddling farther out, I tried to take my own advice and just chill the fuck out, but after finding myself watching the girl as often as I watched for incoming waves, I cursed, ready to pack it in. The only thing that stopped me was my uncertainty about why I was watching her in the first place. As much as I tried to tell myself it was for security purposes, I couldn’t deny the fact that she intrigued me in some way. As much as I loved what I did, the carefree innocence I saw in her body language was something I would never have. And I envied her for that.

But then I saw her push herself up onto her knees and start tying her hair up into some sort of knot on top of her head, and all concerns of security were lost to me. The slim lines of her body were very much noticeable—even from this distance, and the soft blue of her bikini made her skin gleam bronze in the sunlight. Yeah, I was a little more than intrigued.

“Whoa.”

I looked back to see all the guys watching her too, and for some reason that made me question my sanity, it annoyed the fuck out of me. “That’s enough,” I barked at them. “She’s just sunbathing, all right?”

Forcing myself to look away from their confused faces, I attempted to catch some more waves to distract myself from whatever the fuck was going on with me, but after face-planting it more times than I can remember ever having done in one session, I decided it was time to quit.

“I’m out,” I said, already paddling for the shore.

Dragging myself from the water, I trudged up the sand toward my house, deliberately keeping my eyes on anything but her. I could do this. I just had to keep walking. Easy.

So not easy. Just before I was about to reach the top of the dune and lose sight of her, my eyes betrayed me, swinging her way. She was right where she had been before, head down and face turned away from me, not even noticing I was there. My gaze slid over her bikini-clad body, her slim figure curving in all the right places.

Sighing, I cursed under my breath and forced myself to keep moving. If I could just keep reminding myself of the destruction she had the potential of creating, I’d be all right.

Thankfully, the smell of the grill drifted into my senses as soon as I started up the stairs, and my stomach took charge of distracting me. Amy and Daniel were both standing at the grill, while Mae slept soundly in the little portable crib close by. I stopped and peered down at her as I passed. She was eight months old now, but she was still the size of a newborn. It never ceased to amaze me just how tiny she was. She was a true miracle, and a born survivor. Just like her dad.

“She see you?”

I looked up to see Daniel on the other side of the crib. For a minute, I thought he was talking about Mae, but my senses soon caught up, and I realized he was talking about the girl on the beach. I shook my head. “No.”

---