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Elle tucked a strand of Gia’s hair behind her ear. “Not in theslightest. What bothers me is that you surf like a champion.” A pause. “I alsothink that’s pretty hot.”

Gia nodded, offered a halfhearted grin, and kissed her softly.“Good night.”

* * *

No, no, no. Gia was screwed. Fucking screwed.

She blinked at the scoreboard. She’d turned in a dismal combinedscore of 10.2 in round one of the tournament. Luckily, two of the three surferscompeting would move forward to round two. She’d made it by two tenths of apoint. The conditions were utter perfection, the weather was on point, and shewas in the best shape of her life. Yet Gia couldn’t seem to get her head in thegame, no matter how hard she tried.

“What was going on out there?” Elle asked, once Gia made her wayback to the beach. She offered a reassuring smile, but Gia could see theconcern all over her face. She’d sucked, and not just by her own standards.

“I don’t know. I just wasn’t…me. I wasn’t taking risks and thenwhen I forced myself to be more aggressive, I bombed epically. Wiped out, lostall form.”

“Okay, look at me.” Elle took Gia by the shoulders in a mannerthat said she meant business. “It was a weird heat, okay? You’re gonna go backout there in the next round, clear your head, breathe, and take it one wave ata time.”

Gia nodded. “I can do that.” In her peripheral vision, she saw anumber of cameras pointed their way and heard the telling click, click, click ofa dozen shutters. Apparently, they’d just served up another good photo op. Sheshrugged it off in annoyance. “You’re up in twenty. You ready?”

“More than ready.”

That’s when Gia caught sight of Elle’s parents in the surfers’reserved section, which meant they’d just seen her tank out there. Anotherchance to make a decent impression gone. Her muscles tensed and frustrationflared. She shook it off and made a point to focus on Elle. It helped. Herencouraging face alone, her kind smile, made everything extraneous calm down.“All right, go get ’em. I’ll be watching.”

Elle took the heat and easily advanced to round two, but not bythe impressive margin she usually did. They were off, both of them, and ittransferred to their lives outside of competition.

“So today sucked,” Gia said, over what had been a quiet dinner sofar.

Elle nodded. “Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow we kick ass.” Sherested her foot on top of Gia’s underneath the table and they shared a smile.

“Damn right we will.”

But Gia was out by round three, barely even making it there. Hersurfing had come apart. She returned to the hotel room in tatters, notunderstanding any of it.

She tossed her water bottle onto the bed with force. She was angrywith herself, disappointed in the final results, and helpless to find a way toturn it all around. It would be near impossible to hold on to her number tworanking at this point, simply from a mathematics perspective. She’d fall tothree or four, depending on the outcome of the tournament she was now out of.“Fuck!” she yelled to the empty room.

* * *

Elle went down in round four. Not even a shot at thequarterfinals. She was dazed, in shock, and furious with herself by the timeshe met her parents at the hotel café late that afternoon. Their faces held thedisappointment she would have expected, and that sliced at her. She’d giveanything for a do-over, a chance to surf the way she wanted to. The way sheknew she could. She’d invested a lot in this tournament, imagined a triumphantoutcome a thousand different times, planned on that finals heat, on earningthose much-needed points, and still, she’d let the whole thing slip through herfingers in the most embarrassing manner.

“It just wasn’t like you,” her father said. “I’ll take aPellegrino, with three limes on the side,” he told the waiter, with a smilethat he promptly dropped when they were once again alone.

She nodded. “Can’t agree more. I had a bad day.” Lindy Ives, whoshe gone head-to-head with, had surfed a clean set in the fourth, but on anyother day, she’d have been no match for Elle. And that didn’t even take intoconsideration her less-than-stellar performances in the heats prior. Somethingwas definitely wrong.

“Have you kept up with your training?” he asked, skepticismcreasing his brow.

She resisted the urge to snap at him, instead maintaining controlof her voice. A deep breath. Slow and steady. “I most definitely have.”

“I don’t know if you want our opinion, but I’m just going to sayit.” Her mother set her tea cup on the table with the most delicate of clinks.She met Elle’s gaze. “I think you let yourself get caught up with whatever youhave going with Gia Malone.”

Elle took a breath and let it out slowly. “I don’t think that’sthe issue.”

“Hear me out, because I happen to know you very well,” her mothersaid. “When something has your attention, you fixate like nothing else matters.Just think back to when you wanted that puppy we saw for sale in the supermarketparking lot.” She turned to her husband. “When was that? Was she nine?”

“Ten,” he corrected, with a nostalgic smile. “You couldn’t eat.You couldn’t sleep. All you thought about was how much you wanted that puppy.Brought it up every day. Your grades fell.”

“Please tell me you’re not comparing Gia to a childhood whim, to apuppy I never got and haven’t thought about in years.”

“The behavior’s the same. And maybe this is another whim,” herfather said with annoying confidence. “She’s not who I imagined for you, Elle.Not even close, and that has nothing to do with sexuality. Are you willing tothrow away your career for an exciting few months?”

“We’re just worried about you,” her mother said. “We love you somuch, Elle, and want to make sure that your eyes are open.”