Page 16 of Billion-Dollar Attitudes

Yes, right after I wipe ice cream from my shirt, and untangle the lollipop from my ponytail. Maybe I can fit in a date between dinner and bathtime.

You are impossible. Single mothers date. She ended it with an angry emoji.

I let out a deep sigh. Back to your date. Who is he?

Some accountant. ZZZZZZZ. But hey, free drinks. I’m down.

I smirked. Maybe he’s boring during the day and wild sex freak at night.

Yeah, except my luck would be that wild sex freak means nipple clamps and leather.

I laughed, covering my mouth to not wake Harper. It takes all kinds.

Not in my book. I’ll text you when I get home so you know I’m not a lampshade.

I sent an emoji of a whip. Or a leather corset.

I set the phone on the floor next to the couch and went back to staring at the ceiling, only this time, my eyes started to grow heavy. I pulled the throw over me, too lazy to take Harper or myself to bed, and snuggled in. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt that comfortable. I may have been through a lot, but our little beach bungalow was really starting to feel like home. If I could only get my daydreams away from Daniel and my nightmares gone completely, I might actually have something good going on. Neither of those things though, seemed to be in my control.

Chapter Eleven

Daniel

I rolled my shoulders and stretched my arms over my head, looking out at the waves. They were decent for the contest that day, and I was feeling good about it. I hadn’t done any competitions in so long. In fact, I didn’t even tell the guys about it because I didn’t want them to be there when I wiped out on my board. My class was early to compete and I figured I’d hang around and watch the other competitions and take in the sun and sand.

The last couple weekends had been insane for me. I had been all over the place, traveling for work and then traveling for the investors. Luckily, I was able to calm their fears and get them back in the mode of harassing us about spending instead of murder. It didn’t help that even though I played off the whole message thing, I constantly felt like I had to check over my shoulder. I had never felt the need to use my house’s alarm system at night, but recently, I was setting and double checking it before bed.

I shook the thoughts away, trying to keep focused on the competition. The guy over the loud speaker was incredibly upbeat for a Saturday morning, but he had a pretty big crowd already. I was hoping no one would show up, or at least no one who recognized it was me. Most of those competitions had a few true spectators and the rest were there for either one specific surfer, or the social aspect of the thing.

When they called us, I headed out on my board, thankful I had gotten a couple of practice runs in to know the swell that day before going out. There were quite a few guys competing in the same class as me, and we all seemed a bit nervous. Except that one guy, there was always that one guy. The one who thought he was a pro surfer already, cocky, had a gaggle of girls to come watch, and would probably be the third one to wipe out. Not because he was a bad surfer, but because he was too busy kissing his own ass in front of the girls.

Me? I was there for myself and didn’t really care whether I won or lost. I just wanted to get back into the scene. The morning surfs by myself didn’t feel like enough anymore. I missed the friendships, or maybe I was just lonely. Hell, I might just want to get my mind off of feelings and fear, but whatever the reason, I was there.

My first run wasn’t bad and I scored in the middle of the pack. My second I completely wiped out. That was fine, it still was relatively good compared to the other guys. On the third, though, I was on point. I could feel it. The energy. The synergy flowing from the water to my board, and up to me. I felt the flow of the water beneath me. I could feel the ripple of the board against my feet. I was cruising, heading for the finish on my feet…until I looked up.

There, sitting under an umbrella, right in front of where I was, Sicily, Harper, and another woman sat, their eyes glued on me. Harper stood up, clapping and waved excitedly to me. The nerves in my chest exploded, and the cuteness of that little girl sent a chuckle through me. I waved back, but that was enough to send me off kilter. I felt the shimmy of the tail of my board first, and though I tried to shift enough to keep my balance, before I knew it, I was wobbling on all sides until I finally went down.

And when I say I went down, it was definitely not a movie dive from my board. It was a topple, cart wheel, stomach flop off the board. I tumbled in the surf, skidding up the shore like a wild beached animal, sand everywhere. I turned over on my back with a grunt and wiped the sand from my mouth. As I opened my eyes, I found myself staring up at Harper and Sicily. Harper was giggling and Sicily looked worried.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

I sat up, my legs out in front of me, and pulled the cord to my board. Looking over at Harper, I grinned. “That, my lady, is how NOT to surf. I did that for you, just so you’d know.”

Harper giggled. “It was beautiful.”

I laughed, looking up at Sicily who tried to hold it back, but burst into laughter. I poked Harper’s belly. “Oh yeah? Like a dancing dolphin?”

She twisted her little nose. “Like the time my grandpa did a belly dive in the pool.”

We all laughed, and dragged myself to my feet. I splashed the sand off my head and upper body and pulled my board up, walking out of the water and sticking it in the sand. Sicily gave me a short grin. “Sorry. Did we distract you?”

I chuckled. “Nope. Well…kind of. But a welcome distraction. What are you doing here?”

Sicily thumbed over her shoulder. “Harper’s nanny, Josie, is competing today so we came to see everything. I had no idea you were going to be here.”

“Nobody did,” I replied, lowering my voice to a whisper. “And I’ll never admit to that stunning display of athleticism if you tell anyone.”

Sicily chuckled and pretended to lock her mouth and toss out the key. We stood there for a second and Sicily pointed at the spot where Harper was playing in the sand. “It might not be sand free, but you’re welcome to join us if you’re done.”

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