Page 31 of Out in the Surf

Cal

“Grr. Would you care to discuss the joys of neoprene with the middle-aged know-it-all out front?”

I glanced up from a box of new apparel when Sarah swept into the back room and made a beeline to the rack of rental wetsuits.

“Instead of unpacking all this winter crap? But I’m having a blast,” I snarked.

Sarah twitched her nose in distaste. “I bet. Did we get anything fun?”

“If you think hoodies with dolphins and waves are fun, then yes.”

She wandered to the boxes and picked up a pink tie-dyed sweatshirt. “Ooh! I like this one. Great color.”

I shrugged. “I guess. Don’t you need to handle the neoprene weirdo?”

“I’m going, I’m going. Jay’s out there now.”

I frowned. “Really? He took the week off. What’s he doing here?”

“He just popped by to show his daughter the surfboard display. They’re on the way to lunch and…”

I tuned Sarah out and slowly stood, brushing my hands on my shorts. I bet I looked perfectly normal, but in reality…my head was buzzing.

His daughter?

Fuck.

I hadn’t seen Hannah in over a year. Conversations with an ex were always fun, I mused sarcastically. Of course, I immediately chided myself. Hannah was cool.

In fact, my family thought Hannah was the one who got away. I couldn’t decide if I agreed or regretted that we’d ever gotten together sometimes. But I hadn’t seriously thought about her in a while, so I wasn’t sure how I felt now.

We hadn’t ended on bad terms by any means; we had an unspoken agreement to keep our distance. It was just easier that way. We were both big fans of avoiding awkward scrutiny and in a town this size, where our relationship had been a focus of interest, I couldn’t blame anyone who might have been curious about what the hell had gone wrong.

Maybe we’d subconsciously figured that if they never saw us together, they’d forget about us. Which meant I never went to her parents’ house and she never came to the shop.

So why was she here now?

Awkward.

Of course, it didn’t have to be awkward. We were adults, for fuck’s sake. And Jay probably assumed we’d buried the past a long time ago, so it was up to me to walk out there and say hello. Like a fucking adult.

I sucked in a deep breath, aware of Sarah’s lively chatter behind me as I headed for the shop.

“Well, there he is!” Jay boomed. “I was just showing off your new designs to a fellow artist. I think you two remember each other.”

Hannah’s lips quirked at the corner. She tucked a stray strand of blonde hair behind her ear and stepped forward. “Hey, Calvin. It’s been a while. How are you?”

“Good. You?”

“I’m doing well.”

“Glad to hear it.” I cleared my throat and lamely added, “I’m…you look great.”

She did. Then again, she’d always been pretty. Very pretty. And equally cool.

Hannah was a statuesque blonde with big blue eyes who’d traded her spot on the surf circuit for a career in graphic design a few years ago. Which roughly coincided with our demise. It confused the hell out of me that we hadn’t worked. I still didn’t get it. We’d made sacrifices to support each other the way we’d witnessed our own parents do and yet…that wasn’t enough. We were good friends, and the sex had been great. Not earth-shattering, the way it was with Luca, but still…nice. That hadn’t mattered. Something had been missing, and we both knew it.

The breakup part had been so fucking painful.