Page 25 of Suddenly Beck

‘Okay then.’ I force myself to smile easily. ‘Ready to go out past the break?’

‘I guess so,’ Nat replies as he stares out at the waves. ‘Gotta do it sometime right?’

I nod. ‘It’s okay, I’d never let you do anything I didn’t think you were ready for.’

He turns his head and fixes me with those pale blue eyes. ‘I trust you.’

My stomach swoops like I’ve just stepped down and missed a step. Jesus, he really has no idea just how potent he is, or how lethal his penetrating gaze is.

‘I...’ I clear my throat and try again. ‘Okay,’ I begin briskly as I grab my board, and we wade out into the swirling shallows. ‘This time, we’re going out past the break, but the waves are picking up a little now, so we can’t go straight through them, which means we have to go under.’

‘I’ve seen the others doing that.’ Nat nods in interest. ‘They kind of roll over.’

‘It’s called a Turtle roll,’ I explain. ‘You want to grab your board by the rails.’ I wrap my fingers tightly around either side of the board to demonstrate. ‘And hold on tight, you don’t want to lose your grip on it. We’re going to paddle out toward the wave, then as it breaks, you want to roll to the side. As your back hits the water and you go under, your board shields you and the wave washes over the underside of the board. You want to keep your momentum going as you roll and come up the other side still lying on your board. The whole manoeuvre should be fluid.’

‘So, when you cut through the water, it’s kind of like a corkscrew,’ Nat muses.

‘That’s exactly it.’ I nod. ‘You might not be too graceful on the first couple of tries, but you’ll get it. I’ll go first, and you can watch me.’

Nat nods as I slide onto my board and begin paddling toward the next wave, as it crests, I grab my board and roll smoothly, taking a deep breath as I slide under the water, rolling like a turtle and coming up the other side with the waves breaking behind me. I paddle out a little further, then push myself up so I’m sitting straddling my board with my legs dangling in the water as I manoeuvre myself around so I’m facing the beach.

I sit comfortably with the sea rising and falling beneath me as my gaze locks on Nat. He’s paddling toward the wave now; I see him suck in a deep breath then roll twisting beneath the wave as it washes over the underside of his board. He comes up the other side, overcompensating slightly, and it wasn’t exactly smooth, but on the whole, he didn’t do too badly for his first try. I feel a little flicker of pride as he paddles toward me.

Pushing himself up, he straddles his board mimicking my position as he turns his board toward the beach, his legs dangling in the water either side of the board, and we float side by side with the shift and flow of the current.

‘Not too bad,’ I compliment him with a smile. ‘How did that feel?’

‘Good.’ He coughs slightly, pinching his nose. ‘Burns a bit when you get seawater up your nose though.’

‘You get used to that,’ I chuckle quietly. ‘You also learn exactly when to exhale through your nose to stop that happening. It all comes with practise.’

We sit there for a while bobbing up and down on the water in companionable silence. He finally breathes in deeply and tilts his face up to the warm rays of the sun and exhales from somewhere deep in his soul.

‘I had no idea how much I needed this,’ he finally says before looking at me with a shy smile. ‘Thank you, Beck. I can’t believe I’ve taken up nearly your whole day.’

I shrug aiming for nonchalance when I feel anything but. ‘I’d planned on spending the day in the water anyway.’

‘It’s so peaceful.’ Nat smiles watching the sun rippled water sparkling along the horizon.

‘I used to come out here with my dad all the time before he got sick,’ I murmur quietly and feel his eyes on me.

‘I’m sorry about your dad,’ Nat replies quietly. ‘I wish I could’ve met him. Everyone I’ve spoken to talks about him with so much love.’

‘Yeah.’ I swallow down the burn at the back of my throat. ‘He was a real people person.’ I look across to Nat with a small smile tugging at my mouth. ‘I don’t get that from him.’

Nat laughs and my mouth opens, and the question is on my lips before I think about it. ‘What about your dad?’ I ask.

‘What about my dad?’ Nat asks as he turns to look at me, an unreadable expression on his face.

‘What’s he like?’

‘Nothing like your dad that’s for sure.’ Nat shrugs. ‘So, are we going to catch my first wave or not?’ he asks a little too brightly, and I know he’s trying to change the subject.

‘Sure.’ I offer an easy smile. He nods gratefully as I try to switch my mind back to instructor mode. ‘Okay, so we’ve covered the basics. You’re going to wait for the next wave and then start paddling. You have to keep watching it, don’t take your eyes off it. If it’s bigger to the right, you want to ride to the left and vice versa. Slide up just the way you practised on the whitewash, and remember if you lose your balance, try to fall backwards, and when you do, kick the board toward the shore. If the board gets caught between you and the wave, you’re gonna get slammed.’

‘Okay.’ Nat grins.

We lie back down and start paddling, and I keep enough distance between us to stop us from colliding but also so I can keep an eye on him, but the truth is he’s doing fine. He’s fearless. I can see he’s taken in everything I’ve said, and he’s paddling in confidently, watching for the wave, and as it breaks, he slides up and rides to the left. He has a little wobble but manages to keep his balance as the wave starts to peter out, and he turns toward the shore as I follow him in. At the last second, he turns to grin at me and loses his balance toppling backward into the water. I laugh as I glide toward him, sliding off my board and into the water to help him up. The water’s only waist high as he gets his feet under him, laughing in delight.