Page 100 of Fighting With Light

“I hope you’re right.” She pauses. “I’m scared, Liam,” she whispers.

I lift my head. “Scared? Princess, you’re with me, and you have nothing to be scared of.”

She rolls her eyes and I kiss her, skimming my tongue around the seam of her lips and she opens for me with a small moan. Aelia lifts her knees and locks her ankles at my thighs, tightening her muscles and trying to pull me down. I relent, rolling us to the side, and hug her body to mine as I thrust my tongue into her mouth, and her nails dig into my neck. Needing to breathe, I rip my head away and we’re both inhaling sharply.

“Do you still want to learn how to surf?” I ask her.

“Yeah,” she says on an exhale. Our legs are tangled together, and she’s wrapped in my arms, and I don’t want to let her go. I want to stay here in this villa to keep her safe, so I let myself believe for just a moment that we have no life-threatening events in the near future. We just like seeking the heart-pounding thrills of trying new things and finding adventure together. This would be the perfect time to tell her how I feel, especially before Colombia, but it doesn’t change the future.

“Okay, come on, princess, I want to see you shred the gnar.” I grin and hop out of bed. She giggles and follows me.

“More like biffing the gnar, but let’s do this.”

***

“Paddle, paddle, paddle, and up,” I repeat. Aelia pushes herself to her feet, but struggles to place them where they should go on the board.

She groans and stands up straight. “I’m not going to get this. I can’t seem to move fast enough.”

“Maybe you’re more of a learn-by-doing kind of girl. What if we just get you out on the water?” I ask her.

“I feel like that’s a terrible idea, but okay, let’s try it.”

“Atta girl.” I carry my board into the ocean with Aelia trailing behind me. She hops on, and then I get on top of her to paddle us out behind the break.

After we get on shore, I turn us around. Aelia’s legs dangle on either side of the board next to mine as the ocean moves us in a steady rhythm. “Alright, I’m going to leave you to it. I’ll be past the break, offshore. Okay?”

She looks at me over her shoulder. Her wet hair is slicked back and her golden skin is radiant. She’s my Italian goddess. I didn’t know it was possible to be obsessed with someone the way I am with her.

“See you on the other side,” I tell her and tip myself off the board. I pop back up, and she smiles before I turn around and body surf past the break. Once I get closer to shore, I stand to watch. I don’t want to tell her when to go. I want her to figure out when the ocean tells her she’s ready.

She bobs up and down, then she moves.

I tense, watching her decide to take the wave. She looks behind her and in front, just like I taught her as she paddles as hard as she can. She checks again and then struggles to hop on her feet. I grit my teeth as she drops into the wave unsteadily and gets thrown. I wait for a second, looking for her head to pop out of the water, and force myself to take a deep breath.

She’s a decently strong swimmer, she’ll be okay. But when I don’t see her brown hair pop up out of the blue surf, panic sets in because I can’t see her, then I look to my left again, and she’s holding on to the side of the board, brushing her hair out of her face.

She groans in frustration and I can hear it from shore. “I’m fine,” she yells.

Aelia gets herself back onto the board, and I watch her paddle back out behind the break to go for it again, and she biffs it over and over again. At thispoint, I’m waiting for her to quit and come in kicking and screaming, but her face is set in stone. She wants to surf.

So I stay in the water and give her all the time she needs because right now, we have all the time in the world. We don’t need to think about anything else, like calling my brothers and telling them everything I’ve been up to. I’ve been dodging them. Since we need their help in Colombia, it’s time to face the music.

Aelia lifts herself back up on the board. She’s closer to shore this time, and her boob has popped out of her swimsuit. “Aelia!”

She turns her head to me and I yell, “Your boob!”

She looks down and shoves it back into her swimsuit top, and promptly flips me off. I chuckle, and she seems to convince herself to go back out.

I understand determination, but seeing her swallow a gallon of seawater isn’t fun, either. But that’s something about Aelia that I appreciate so deeply. She’s not only tenacious, but once she sets her mind to something, there is no stopping her. Just like when I was belaying her up the wall. It didn’t matter if she slipped. I wouldn’t have let her fall, but that’s not the point. She set her mind and finished the route, ignoring the fear. I respect the hell out of her for it. Maybe more of us should be as courageous as her.

39

Liam

When we get backto the villa from surfing for half the day, I know it’s time to rip the Band-Aid off. But I’d rather go back out on the water and forget about all of it. “You’re the one who wanted to do this, so let’s do this,” Aelia grumbles as she tries to walk past me.

I grab her wrist and tug her to me. She catches herself on my chest and I wrap my hand around the front of her neck, tipping her chin up. I have seven inches on her five feet, nothing. Her nose is a little pink from the sun and her skin seems like it got an extra layer of tan. Her eyes kindle the fire in me, and I would rather kiss her like my life depends on it, or anything else except call my family.