“Thanks,” I smiled, walking into the kitchen and trying to put what I’d just heard behind me. “I’d love to.”
She smiled, disappearing into the café. I glanced over at Maia, who was standing with her back to the counter, watching me. I had a niggling feeling that she might have known I’d been listening in.
“Hi,” she said shyly, her arms crossed behind her.
The way she was standing there like that made me want to take her in my arms and kiss her.
Holy shit.
Where the hell did that come from? The floor felt like it was tilting beneath my feet.
“Hi,” I said, trying hard to recover. “I thought I’d just come by and see how you were doing, after Saturday.”
She leant back against the counter. “Well, I’m now acutely aware that I have muscles I didn’t realise existed, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Despite the attack of vertigo just moments ago, I smiled. “Yeah, well, all part of the territory, I’m afraid. You did well, though. You picked it up pretty quickly. Have you been practicing since then?”
She snorted. “Are you kidding? I can barely move!”
“Sounds like you need some light exercise to loosen up your muscles.”
She raised her eyebrows at me, like I was crazy. My smile widened.
“Have you ever been boogie-boarding?” I asked, scratching my chin.
Before she could answer, Bridget came back into the kitchen with a full tray of coffee and muffins.
“Boogie-boarding? Now that’s fun,” she said, nodding at Maia. “Let’s go sit out the back, where it’s cooler. Can you grab an extra chair, love?”
Maia followed her outside while I grabbed a chair from one of the tables in the café and took it out the back.
“You’ve never done it?” Bridget was saying, handing a plate with a muffin on it to Maia. “It’s a tonne of fun. And the best part is, anyone can do it.”
“Well, if anyone can do it, then it can’t be that hard.”
“It’s not,” I said, sitting down between them. “It’s easy. And you can just get stuck in and have a go, you don’t need to learn how to pop up or anything. You just hold onto the board and ride the wave in.”
“That does sound pretty easy,” she admitted.
I took the bull by the horns. “It is. Want to give it a shot?”
What the hell was going on? Was it something in the air out here? That made twice in three days!
She stirred her coffee. “Okay, yeah. If you’ll give me some pointers?”
“I’ll do better than that. I’ll give you pointers, lend you a board and take you out. What are you doing after work?”
“You mean now, today?”
“Why not? Unless you have something better to do?”
I had the feeling I’d be really disappointed if she said she did.
“No. No, I don’t have any plans.”
Then she smiled, another genuine smile, complete with crinkles and dimples. Like a sledgehammer to the face, I realised that smile was going to be the undoing of me.
MAIA INSISTED ON following me to the beach in her car. Maybe she was trying to keep some distance between us. Maybe she had the right idea. I felt like I was slowly going mad, giving up a little bit more of my sanity every time I saw her.
My rational side was being pushed into a corner, and whether consciously or unconsciously, I kinda wanted it to stay there, for a little while at least. Jas was right, I was the sensible one. And Vinnie was also right – sometimes I was too sensible. I felt like I’d spent the past five years being sensible. Maybe now it was time to relax and have a little bit of fun. Where was the harm in that?
I had stopped by my place on the way, changing into my trunks, grabbing a towel and throwing a couple of boogie boards into the back of the truck. Maia had waited outside. As we drove out to the bay in convoy, I kept trying to stop imagining how that red swimsuit might look on her. I was only marginally successful.
I glanced in the rear-vision mirror as I indicated a turn right, off the main road. Maia’s station wagon kept a safe distance as I drove down onto the gravel road that led down to the bay. I pulled into a space big enough for both vehicles, between a campervan and a family sedan. The beach was busy, which was pretty typical. Lots of surfers out, plenty of kids playing in the shallows.
I got out of the truck and waited for her, watching the surf. It was good, even, perfect for boogie boarding. I was really looking forward to this.
“How’s it looking?” she asked, walking over to stand beside me.
I looked over at her, with her sunglasses and her shorts and that white singlet, red straps peeking through from underneath. She’d tied her long brown hair up in a ponytail high on her head, shading her eyes with her hand as she looked out over the beach.
God, she was gorgeous. I’d been so busy trying not to compare her to Em, I’d failed to notice how beautiful she was in her own right. Until now. It felt like the temperature had just risen by about a hundred degrees.