“Thanks,” I said gratefully as I took the bottle and opened it.
Jesse spread out his towel beside me and sat down on it, watching me as I sipped my water.
“What?” I asked.
“What did you think?”
“Of surfing?” He nodded. “It was fun...until I fell off, that is.”
“I thought you might like it. Just don’t let your slipup scare you. You’re going to fall off a lot, but you’ll get better with practice.”
“I’m not giving up, I swear. I just need a few minutes to chill out. It freaked me out when I couldn’t find the surface.”
“I know what you mean. I did that once when I was younger. Andy was with me though, and he helped me, like I did with you. Just remember to never go surfing by yourself, okay? It’s not safe, and I don’t want to have to worry about whether you’re out here by yourself or not.”
“You’d worry about me?” I asked, touched by his thoughtfulness. “Yeah, I guess I would.”
“You know, you can be sweet when you want to be.”
He grinned. “Just don’t tell anyone that, okay?”
I pretended to zip my lips and throw away the key. “Your secret is safe with me. Who would’ve thought that Jesse is the caring type?”
“I don’t usually care.”
“So, why do you care about me?”
He looked unsure. “I don’t know, but I do.”
We both stayed quiet, reflecting on what he’d just said. For some reason, I cared about Jesse even though I barely knew him. I’d said it a million times before, but there was just something about him that pulled me in. I wanted to know everything about him, every little detail—his likes, his dislikes, what made him tick, his home life, what he wanted to do with his life.
“You said before that you’re close to your mom. Will you tell me about her?” I asked.
He raised an eyebrow in surprise. “What do you want to know?”
“I don’t care. Anything. What’s her name, where does she work, what’s she like?”
“Her name is Trish, and she’s a waitress. She’s the strongest person I know, and I love her for it. She never lets anything get her down. It’s just been the two of us for as long as I can remember. My dad disappeared when I was little, and she stepped up to be both mom and dad to me.”
“It sounds like you two are close.”
“We are. She wants me to meet some asshole named Mark tomorrow for dinner.”
“You don’t sound happy about that.”
“I’m not. We don’t need some prick coming into our lives and screwing everything up. We have a system, and it works.”
“Maybe he’s not as bad as you think. I mean, you’ve never even met the guy. Give him a chance before you judge him.” “Yeah, I guess,” he said doubtfully.
I could tell that he wasn’t going to even give this guy a chance. He’d already made up his mind about him.
“What about you? You didn’t seem to like your mom when you mentioned her before.”
“It’s not that I don’t like her. It’s just that we’re two very different people. My parents divorced when I was younger, and my dad tours with his band a lot, so I have to live with her. She’d rather spend all her time trying to climb the social food chain of Santa Monica rather than be a mom to me. I’m just another toy she can use to get in good with them. I befriend their kids, and she uses that to her advantage. It sucks.”
“Sounds like she’s one of the stuck-up assholes that I was complaining about earlier.”
I laughed. “She is. My dad is the total opposite though. He couldn’t care less about what people think of him. I never understood how the two of them ended up together. They’re so different.” “Sometimes, opposites attract,” Jesse said.
I gave him a sly grin. “Like us?”
“I never said that I was attracted to you.”
I raised an eyebrow, and he conceded. “Okay, maybe I did.”
“You so did.”
“You’re kind of cute. Don’t get all big-headed over it.”
“Me? Never.”
“Whatever.” He laughed. “Want to try the surfing thing again? I promise not to distract you with my shirtless, wet self.”
“You’re hilarious, you know that?”
“I do. Come on, let’s go surf.”
I stood and followed him back out into the water with my board tucked under my arm. We spent the rest of the morning catching waves. I fell off on almost every one of them, but I never gave up, and Jesse never laughed at me. He would just tell me what I had done wrong, and then he’d help me back up onto my board.
By the time we finally called it a day, I was exhausted. I carried my board to where our towels were, and I stuck it in the sand.
“I need a nap,” I said as I fell to the towel and closed my eyes.
When Jesse didn’t reply, I opened my eyes and squealed. He was no more than two inches away from my face.
“What are you doing?”
“Seeing how long it took for you to notice me. I wanted to make you scream like a girl.”
“Well, mission accomplished. That wasn’t funny.”
He still hadn’t moved, and my eyes dropped to his lips as he spoke.