Page 88 of Suddenly Beck

‘The night surf.’ Beck grins at me. ‘It’s a family tradition, and we’ve been waiting until you were confident enough on the water.’

‘Are you serious?’ I say incredulously, my stomach jangling with coffee, nerves and… excitement. ‘You actually surf… at night… in the dark?’

‘It’s not full dark, the moons bright tonight, and we’ve got the lights along the beach to orient ourselves, so we don’t get turned around out there. The waves are fairly smooth, and we attach light strips to our wetsuits, so we don’t collide.’

‘Oh my god,’ I breathe.

‘You up for it?’ He grins.

I stare out at the churning oily waves, breathing in the scent of the ocean I love so much.

‘Yes.’ I smile slowly.

As if waiting for my answer, the others holler and hoot wildly.

‘It’s official, you’re one of us now, buddy.’ Georgie grins, handing me the gorgeous custom surfboard she made just for me.

She’s wearing her own wetsuit and attached to it are strips of lights, which look almost like glow sticks, in neon blue and green to match her hair. She helps me to attach the colourful strips to my wetsuit in slashes of bright pink and yellow, while Beck does his, which are purple.

Once we’re all ready, we line up along the sand facing the frothing water, creating a bright technicolour formation as we listen to the boom of the waves crashing. Quinn and Reed are at the furthest end, beside them is Ryan, Jesse, and Georgie, then me and Beck, boards tucked under our arms and wild grins of anticipation splitting our faces as we hover at the water’s edge.

I wish for a moment Pia could be here to be a part of this, but she had to leave late last night so her driver could drive her home to London.

‘Okay,’ Reed begins. ‘You guys know the drill. Nat, because you’re new, stick close to Beck, each of us has a surf buddy, know where he or she is at all times. If you get turned around out there in the dark, use the lights of the swim shack to orient yourself. Safety first people.’

‘Alright, Dad,’ Ryan hums impatiently. ‘Can we go sometime before the sun comes up?’

‘Are you ready?’ Beck turns toward me, grinning in anticipation, and I nod, my stomach a mass of churning nerves.

Reed chuckles. ‘Okay, go!’

We head for the water, and I can feel Beck’s warm, solid presence beside me as we splash into the cold waves. I dive forward, sliding my board beneath me and begin paddling. I find that with my vision impeded slightly by the darkness, it tunes up my other senses. I listen for the rush of the waves crashing, and I feel the rise and fall of the water beneath me and the direction of the current. I finally understand what Beck means about being in tune with the water. I head toward the break, grabbing the rails of my board and twisting under the crash and rush of the water. I roll through and come up the other side smoothly, paddling further out. I can feel Beck beside me a short distance away and hear his powerful strokes as he keeps pace with me.

By unspoken agreement, we stop paddling and turn our boards back toward the lights of the shore. I lie on my board, feeling the water rise and fall beneath me, and looking back, I watch the dark shape of the incoming wave, and I start to paddle, feeling the swell build beneath me. When it hits and catches me, I slide nimbly up and cut to the left, riding the powerful wave in the darkness, feeling the raw energy and adrenalin rush. I glance back and see the purple glow of Beck’s wet suit not too far behind me, keeping pace and just enough distance so we don’t collide.

I can hear the others in the distance, yelling and whooping wildly, and I let out my own battle cry of sheer joy and freedom.

This is it for me, the wild freedom of the ocean, true friendship, and the man I’m deeply and crazily in love with. I relish the sheer joy and magnitude of it, riding the heady whip, and I know... I don’t ever want it to end.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Beck

The higher the ride, the harder the fall.

Nat and I sit astride our boards, legs dangling in the water as we float side by side watching the sun rise. The horizon gradually begins to lighten, setting the sky ablaze with fiery reds and oranges. Our boards bump together companionably as Nat reaches for my hand, leaning close and laying his head against my shoulder as I rest my cheek to his wet curls. He lets out a deep sigh of contentment, and I know in that moment exactly how he feels. This moment is as close to perfect as I can imagine.

I want this for the rest of my life. I want this sweet and funny complicated man by my side as we grow old together as irascible and badly behaved as Molly and Bernard in a house filled with love and laughter.

My stomach trembles, and my heart pounds in my chest, and in that moment, I’m afraid, but it isn’t the knowledge that I love him and want to build a life with him that scares me. It’s the fear that I’ll lose him… that he’ll leave me.

I ruthlessly push back the thought as he stirs and looks up at me with those shocking blue eyes framed by wet sooty black lashes.

‘Hey,’ I say roughly. ‘You ready to head back?’

He nods. ‘One more wave?’ He smiles.

We drop down and paddle into the next wave, gliding lazily into the shore, and we grab our boards and head up the beach. The others are all gone. Quinn had to head back to Exeter, Reed was due at the hospital, Jesse had to work, and Georgie is wrapped in a blanket dozing on a sun lounger outside the shack. We store our boards carefully and head back up the beach toward the bluff, climbing the path to the cottage in comfortable silence.