Page 117 of Forever Yours

We’d been surfing most of the day, and I was past the point of enjoyment. I sucked on a longboard and finally gave up after falling off the damn thing a million times.

“Ready, baby?” Julien asked, but he made no move to get off me.

Instead, he sank down into me and kissed me deeply. I wrapped my arms around him and dug my blunt nails into the hard muscles of his back.

Rolling off the side of the daybed, he stood and reached for me. “I want to show you something.”

Instant excitement. The last time he said exactly that was the other day when he took me behind one of the waterfalls we’d discovered and did very dirty things to me.

With renewed energy, I took his hand and let him lead the way.

The sand was warm and coarse under my bare feet as we walked down the beach. Since I’d left my sunglasses in the cabana, I shaded my eyes and looked out over the vast Pacific. It was so different from the greenish waters of the Atlantic that I was used to. A deeper blue, majestic and turbulent. The shallows of the bay were lighter in color. More turquoise than sapphire.

Yesterday, we went for a lava hike to where the molten rock flowed into the ocean. The sights and sounds were unreal. I sat and watched as waves crashed into the superheated lava, violently hissing and billowing up steam. I was in awe of it. To watch creation happen right in front of me.

“I told my adviser last week that I was switching majors to sports medicine.”

Palm fronds rustled in the breeze. The unique sound they made was similar to the grass skirts the hula dancers wore.

I looked over at Julien. He’d mentioned in passing that he was interested after I told him that was what I was doing.

“You sure?”

I didn’t want him pursuing a degree that he wasn’t fully on board with just to please me.

“More than. I love soccer but I don’t want that transient existence for my life. Always training and traveling. I want to set down roots. With you.”

The smile that exploded across my face was enormous.

“There he is,” Julien said at my smile and reached over to cup my face. “Did you know that was one of the first things I fell in love with?”

Suddenly shy for no reason, I looked down. Breakers washed over our feet as we strolled along the surf.

Sliding his thumb under my chin, Julien tipped my face up. “Your smile made me stupid. Just the sight of it had me weak in the knees.”

“You were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen,” I told him, laying my hand to rest on top of his.

With the sun slowly setting and the sky watercolored in gorgeous shades of pale yellow and orange, we shared one of those romantic kisses that you only ever read about in romance novels.

He re-tucked one of the flowers in my hair.

“Stand just like that,” he said, backing up a few steps and taking out his phone from a waterproof pouch sewn into his board shorts.

He took several pictures of me from various angles and a few of us together.

“A few more minutes’ walk and we’re there,” he said, getting us going again.

“Therewhere?” I asked, wanting to know what he had planned.

The beach was empty, not another soul around. I glanced behind us in the direction we came from and could see the miniature silhouettes of the guys sitting on their surfboards in the swells just offshore.

When I looked back around, it was then I saw the large tent set up on the beach between two palm trees. Two chairs sat outside the vestibule. Battery-powered lanterns placed all around hung from thin metal poles stuck in the sand.

“Surprise.”

I turned to Julien, and my voice registered my delight. “We’re camping?”

Curving an arm around my waist, he tilted his head to rest on my shoulder. “Just the two of us. Fallon was able to get a camping permit, and Jay helped me set things up.”

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