Shattered Ties Read online

  “Let’s do it.”

  He smiled. “Good. Now, turn your board around and start paddling.”

  I did as he’d said, and I turned my board so that it was facing the shore. I started paddling as the wave closed the gap between us.

  “You’re going to feel it start to push you. When it does, keep paddling for a minute, and then stand up. Okay?”

  “Okay,” I said nervously.

  My stomach was in knots over the prospect of trying to stand up on this thing. I was normally pretty graceful, but I felt out of my element out here. The wave was on us before I even realized it was close, and I felt myself sailing forward with my board. It was an incredible feeling. I smiled as I paddled a few more times, and then I prepared myself to stand up. I pushed up and pulled my legs toward my chest, just like Jesse had told me to. I took one last deep breath before standing up, careful to keep my body crouched down low. I wobbled a bit as I put my right foot in front of me, but I didn’t fall. So far, so good.

  “You’ve got it! Just move with the wave!” Jesse yelled from beside me.

  I glanced over to see him standing on his own board, looking completely at ease. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him as he maneuvered his board on the wave, causing the muscles in his stomach and arms to tighten. I was so caught up with watching him that I’d stopped paying attention to what I was doing, and before I knew what was happening, I was being thrown off my board.

  I crashed into the water and slipped under the surface. Shocked and confused, I tried to kick my way to the surface, but I wasn’t sure which way was up. I hadn’t had time to grab a breath before going under, and my lungs were already starting to burn.

  Suddenly, I felt myself being pulled up by my arm. My head broke the surface, and I took a deep breath just before a wave crashed over my head. I was pushed back under, but I felt someone holding on to my arm still. I was pulled back up again, but without any waves crashing into me this time. My board was a foot in front of me, and I grabbed it.

  “Holy shit, are you okay?” Jesse asked from beside me.

  I nodded, unable to speak. I’d spent most of my life out in the ocean, and I’d never once been afraid—until today. The terror I’d felt when I couldn’t find the surface was like nothing else I’d ever experienced.

  “You scared the crap out of me, Emma.”

  “Sorry,” I said as I held on to my board for dear life.

  “What happened?” Jesse asked with concern.

  “I don’t know. I guess I got distracted.”

  “By what?”

  Oh shit. “Uh, I was watching you and not paying attention.”

  “Why were you watching me? You always have to pay attention when you’re on a board, or you’ll fall off.”

  “You were distracting. Sorry.” The words slipped out before I could stop them. I wanted to hit myself over the head when a grin crept across his face.

  “Why am I distracting?”

  “Are you really going to make me spell it out? You were all wet and shirtless, and I was distracted. Okay? There, I said it.”

  His grin widened as he listened to me embarrass myself. “So, I’m distracting when I’m shirtless?”

  “You know you are, so stop trying to embarrass me more. I just had a near-death experience a minute ago.”

  He grabbed my board, so he could use it to float as he leaned in closer to me. “And you think that you wearing that bikini isn’t distracting for me?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Stop acting innocent. You know what you look like, and you don’t try to hide it. I’ve been…distracted since you stripped down on the beach, but you don’t see me falling off my board because of it.”

  “I…you…” I stuttered.

  Jesse was always blunt, but this was taking it to a whole new level.

  He laughed. “I guess we both know that we’re distracting each other now. Do you want to try again or take a break?”

  “After falling off and you saying all of that, I think I need a break.”

  “Fine by me. We can hang out on the beach for a few until you’re ready to go again.”

  He helped me back onto my board, his hands lingering on me longer than necessary when he pushed my legs up. I shuddered as he ran his hand down my thigh to my knee. I wasn’t used to this game we were playing. Usually, if a guy was interested, he told me. With Jesse, I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. He had just said that he found me attractive, but that didn’t mean that he was interested. I felt like I was walking on thin ice. One slip, and I’d come crashing down from the high his words had given me.

  We paddled back to the beach, and once we were far enough away from the water, we stuck our boards in the sand. Jesse pulled two beach towels out of his duffel bag and handed me one.

  “Is there anything that you don’t have stashed away in that thing?” I asked as I spread out my towel and settled down onto it.

  “Nope. I carry all kinds of crap in it when I come to the beach.” He pulled two bottles of water out of it and gave me one. “Here, I brought us each one.”

  “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.<
br />
  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.

  “I thought it was hilarious. You need to get up and go home or wherever you’re going to go. I don’t want to leave you out here on this beach alone, and I need to get to work.”

  “I can take care of myself,” I whispered, my eyes still on his lips.

  His eyes turned dark as he noticed what I was watching. “What are you watching?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Do you want to kiss me, Emma?”

  “No. Do you want to kiss me?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then, why are you still so close?” I asked, refusing to back down. I wanted to kiss him more than anything, but I wasn’t going to be the one who caved.

  “I like making you uncomfortable.” He leaned in until I could feel his breath on my lips. “Are you uncomfortable right now?”

  “No,” I lied as I tried to keep my breathing normal. My heart was racing, but I couldn’t let him know how much he was getting to me.

  “I think you’re lying,” he whispered.

  He leaned in that last centimeter and touched his lips against mine. He didn’t kiss me though. He just rested his lips there. Before I could stop myself, I kissed him. It was like I had no say in the matter. One minute, I was staying strong and fighting my impulses, and the next, I had my hand around his neck as I thoroughly kissed him. His lips felt incredible, and I couldn’t seem to get enough of them. I moaned as he ran his tongue over my bottom lip. He was going to kill me or at least put me in a lust-induced coma.

  He pulled away first, much to my dismay. “I thought you didn’t want to kiss me.”

  “I didn’t. You kissed me,” I said.

  “Wrong. You definitely kissed me.” He leaned forward and kissed me lightly. “Now, I kissed you. We’re even.”

  “Not even close. You kissed me twice, and I have yet to kiss you.”

  He grinned. “Why don’t you make it even then?”

  My breath caught as I stared at him. Whatever was happening between us, I didn’t want it to stop. I knew what we were doing was wrong, but I’d never felt anything so right in my life.

  “Maybe later,” I said.

  “I’m holding you to that. Come on, let’s get packed up, so I can go to work, and you can do whatever it is you do on the weekends.”

  I nodded as I helped him pack up our stuff. I was still in a daze from our kiss, and I could barely pay attention to what was going on around me. I thought I’d told him good-bye once we had loaded his surf stuff in his Jeep, but I wasn’t sure. I pulled out of the lot, thinking that I might just be the luckiest girl in Santa Monica.

  I drove to work with the most idiotic smile on my face. I had no idea what had made me kiss Emma, but I didn’t regret it in the least. Okay, maybe I’m lying. I did know what made me do it. Spending the day with her, especially while she was wearing that tiny bikini, had driven me insane, and I’d clearly lost my mind. I’d spent a lot of time kissing girls over the past few years, but kissing Emma had been something else. She’d tasted as sweet as she looked, and I already wanted more.

  I kept telling myself to stay away from her, that anything between us could never work out, but I couldn’t seem to control myself around her. She was beautiful, and she had a kindness to her that seemed to be rare in this world. Considering the first time we met, being able to say that was a bit of a shock. Instead of being the stuck-up princess I’d expected, she’d blown me away with her warm heart and down-to-earth personality.

  I pulled my car into the shop parking lot just as my phone dinged with an incoming text.

  Emma: I had a lot of fun today. Thank you.

  Me: I did, too. We’ll have to do it again sometime.

  Emma: Tomorrow?

  I smiled at her text. We’d just separated, and she already wanted to hang out again. This was good, really good. Or it could be really bad, depending on how I looked at it.

  Me: I can’t tomorrow. I have that dinner thing with my mom and asshole.

  Emma: Oh, right. Well, if you finish early or something, just text me.

  Me: I will. By the way, thanks for kissing me. I’m glad I could brighten your day.

  Emma: I did NOT kiss you. You kissed me.

  Me: Whatever helps you sleep at night.

  Emma: Ohmigod. I give up.

  I slipped my phone into my pocket and walked inside the shop with a stupid grin on my face. I was surprised to see Andy’s twin sister, Ally, sitting behind the counter. It wasn’t unusual for Andy to stop by and hang out while I worked, but Ally rarely came by the shop.

  “Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  “Waiting for you to show up. I was starting to wonder if you were coming in or not.”

  I looked up at the clock to see that I still had a few minutes before I was officially working. “I’m not late.”

  “But you’re always earlier than this.”

  I rolled my eyes. “What’s with the interrogation?”

  “I saw you on the beach today…with a girl.”

  Well, shit. I’d been so into watching Emma’s every move that I hadn’t noticed anyone else around us. “And?”

  “Who is she?”

  “Does it matter?” I had no idea why Ally cared so much.

  “Of course it matters. Do you have a girlfriend that you’re not telling us about?”

  I laughed. “Is that what this is all about? You think I’m dating someone and keeping it from you and Andy? You’re nuts.”

  “If she’s not your girlfriend, then who is she?” Ally asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
/>   “Her name is Emma. She goes to school with me, and she wanted to learn how to surf.”

  “You’re hanging out with one of them? I thought you were better than that.”

  “Oh, give me a break. Emma’s nice. She isn’t stuck-up, like most of the kids at school.”

  “Whatever. They’re all stuck-up assholes, and you know it.”

  Ally was one of my favorite people in this world, but she was starting to annoy me. I’d never seen this overprotective side of her, and I didn’t like it.

  “I’m done with this conversation. Is there another reason you stopped by? Or did you just want to interrogate me?”

  “See? You’re already acting stuck-up.”

  I ran my hand down my face in aggravation. Ally needed to leave before I kicked her out. “I need to work. Go.”

  “Whatever. Just don’t forget the little people when you marry the rich princess.”

  “You say ‘whatever’ a lot!” I yelled as she walked past me and out the door.

  I walked into the employee room and slipped on my work shirt, glad to be rid of her. I loved the girl like a sister, but Emma wasn’t her business. Ally had always had a bit of a protective streak with Andy, but now wasn’t the time or the place to start acting that way about me.

  I spent most of my shift checking in clients and cleaning. I still had an hour to go with nothing to do when Rick yelled for me to come back to where he’d just started setting up with a client.

  “You yelled?” I asked as I stuck my head inside the room.

  “Yeah, you want to watch?”

  “Hell yeah!” I said as I stepped inside the room. I didn’t get to come back and watch the guys work very often, and I never turned them down when one of them would ask me.

  “Good. Grab a stool, and sit down.”

  I pulled a stool over next to the guy who was facedown on the table with his shirt off. Rick pulled another stool over and sat down on the opposite side of the guy.

  “Jesse, this is Wendell. Wendell, this is Jesse. He works here, and he’s hoping to tattoo when he’s old enough.”