Page 2 of Free Wind (Lifeguards of Barking Beach #2)

Blake grabbed a cold bottle of water from the esky and gave it to Zoe, who sipped between quiet little hiccupped sobs. Crouching beside her, he asked a few questions about school and siblings and mates. Anything to keep her occupied.

“Is this Zoe?” a voice asked.

Blake looked up to see Damo’s familiar red sunnies and crooked smile. His long golden hair was damp from the water, curling around his shoulders.

Throat gone dry, Blake forgot how to form words.

“Yes,” Zoe said in a tiny voice, peering up at Damo with wide eyes.

“You look like me getting called into the boss’s office!

” Damo squatted down on the other side of the plastic chair, his bare knee under his black board shorts brushing Blake’s for a fleeting moment.

“You’re not in trouble, I promise. I’m sure your dad’s looking for ya. We’ll track him down any minute.”

Damo was actually right there beside Blake—like the surfer poster he’d had in his childhood bedroom come to life.

That poster, of a young Luke Stedman in the nineties carving a wave with his golden hair shining under a spray of water, might as well have been burned into Blake’s retinas. He’d found it at Salvos and had carefully pressed out the creases and taped the torn corners.

For a reckless moment, Blake wondered what Damo’s hair would feel like between his fingers before coming to his senses.

Kat, who was standing on a chair and searching the crowd, said to Damo, “She was swimming between the flags while her dad had a nap and held down the fort.”

“And now you can’t find the fort, hey?” Damo asked, giving Zoe a grin.

“Happens to the best of us.” He pushed up his sunnies, revealing sympathetic blue eyes.

“One time when I was your age, I couldn’t find my dad for the life of me.

It wasn’t even this crowded, but he’d vanished.

Ended up running home to tell my mum. Meanwhile, poor ol’ Dad was turning over every grain of sand. ”

Damo dug in the sand to illustrate, exaggerating as Zoe laughed through her tears. Blake’s chest filled with warmth as if his heart was actually swelling.

“You did exactly the right thing,” Damo said to Zoe. “You came to the clubbies. And if they weren’t here, you know to ask us, right?”

He motioned to his long-sleeved blue uniform shirt with Lifeguard on the front. While the volunteers were in a combination of red and yellow like the flags planted on the beach in the safe swimming area, the professional lifeguards wore blue and black.

Zoe nodded solemnly.

Damo motioned to Blake. “We’re always here to help.”

Blake filled with pride to be included as a colleague. To be a helper.

“Here’s Dad!” Kat announced.

A lifeguard buggy drove up, beeping the horn to get through the crowd. In the passenger seat was a red-faced man who’d probably aged a decade in the last twenty minutes.

Blake could only imagine the terror of losing a child on a crowded beach. Even with lifeguards and safety flags, if he was ever lucky enough to actually have kids, he’d never let them go swimming without watching every second.

Unbidden, his mother’s anguished cry echoed through his mind: “What about children? Don’t you want children?”

He refocused as Zoe launched herself into her father’s arms. The man thanked them all profusely. Presumably, he’d learned his lesson.

“Thanks for that,” Damo said as Zoe and her father disappeared back into the crowd. “How ya going, Kat?”

“Can’t complain. Have you met our new recruit?”

Blake’s heart skipped, heat rushing as Damo’s blue eyes swung to him. Wait—he hadn’t planned for this! What was he going to say? What was the right thing to say? Kat’s advice echoed.

Fake it ’til ya make it.

Deep breath. He could start with his name, obviously…

What was his name again?

Before Blake could say anything, Damo’s radio squawked to life. “Central to Damo. Little flashy just popped up north of the flags. Don’t reckon this bloke can get back to shore on his own. You might be in here.”

“Copy, central,” Damo said, turning away and peering at the water, all business in a blink. Then he was gone, weaving around sunbakers and returning to where his rescue board waited in a rack on the sand.

“Don’t take it personally,” Kat said. “Duty calls.”

“Of course.” Blake picked up the water bottle Zoe had dropped and stowed it in the recycling bag. He gulped from his own bottle, the battered metal familiar under his fingers. “What would I even say?”

Kat dropped their voice to a baritone. “Hiya, Damo. I think you’re a spunk, and I reckon we should go for a drink at that new queer club. See where the night takes us.”

He almost spit out the water. “A spunk? Who are you, my mum?”

Laughing, Kat dropped their growly tone. “You’re from the outback. Bit behind the times.”

“I went to uni in Melbourne!”

“Yeah, but didn’t you move back after?”

Blake’s smile tightened. “For a few years.”

“Why’d ya go home after uni anyway?”

He waved a dismissive hand. “Family stuff.” Straightening, he squinted at the shore break. “Hey, that kid has a body board.” No boards were permitted between the flags.

“Go on, then.” Kat nodded to two other clubbies nearing. “Billy and Trish are back from patrol anyway. I’ll introduce you to Damo later.”

“Forget it. It’s just a little crush.” He headed toward the water.

“We’ll see about that!” Kat shouted.

Blake shook his head with a smile as he jogged across the hot sand. He’d accomplished so much on his to-do list since moving to Barking, but as much as he wanted to add “Date hot lifeguard of my dreams” to his plan, he’d always been a realist.