Storm Shells (The Wishes Series #3) (9 page)

Gabrielle made great coffee. As soon as I thought it was a respectable enough hour to be visiting, I left Charli a note and slipped out the door.

I didn’t make it as far as the house. Alex was in the shed. Sneaking past was impossible. He would’ve seen me coming the second I pulled onto the long driveway. I had no choice but to front him. All I could do was hope that Gabrielle had also seen me arrive as I was probably going to need medical attention at some point.

He barely looked up as I got to the door. As a precautionary measure, I went no further than the doorway.

“Adam,” he said ominously. “Gabs is still in bed. It’s early.”

It
was
freakishly early, barely after seven. And if she was still in bed, I was on my own.

“I’ll come back later then.” I replied, making no attempt to leave.

Alex continued scrubbing a block of wax across his surfboard, which was laid out on the workbench. “When did you get here?” he asked.

“Last night.”

“I knew you’d show up sooner or later,” he said. “I was just hoping it would be later – when she’d come to her senses and forgotten your name.”

His attitude was nothing less than I expected or deserved. I wasn’t even going to try defending myself.

“Are you going to try talking Charli into going back to New York?” he asked. “Is that why you’re here?”

“No. I wouldn’t do that. I have a couple of weeks off. I just wanted to see her.”

Alex didn’t reply. In fact he didn’t say anything. I almost wished he’d just thump me and get it over with.

“What do you know about surfing, Adam?” he asked finally.

“Not a whole lot.”

He glanced up at me and smiled – and not in a good way. “Maybe it’s time you learned.”

“I’ve seen the size of the waves this morning,” I replied. “I came here for coffee, not a near death experience.”

“Relax, Boy Wonder,” he taunted. “I won’t let you die.”

Nothing about him sounded believable.

Abandoning the board, he grabbed one of the wetsuits hanging from the rack behind him and thrust it at me. “How tall are you?” he asked sizing me up with his eyes.

“Six, two.”

He turned to the wall and grabbed a board. The thing was huge – at least eight foot.

“I know it looks big but it’ll float,” he explained. “Even if you don’t.” He followed up with another evil smile.

“This wasn’t what I had in mind when I came here.”

“I know that, Adam. But things don’t always work out as you plan, do they?”

* * *

We left my car at the house and took Alex’s ute. At least I’d left evidence of my last known whereabouts. We ended up at the beach below the cottage. We were the only ones there. I wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad sign. Alex had hardly said two words since we’d left the house. I didn’t know if that was good or bad either. He became a little chattier when he hit the sand, but only to bark instructions.

“This is a long board,” he said pointing at it. “That means you can’t cut through a wave. If you think you’re going to have trouble getting over it, turtle roll.”

He’d already lost me and he knew it. “Grab the rails and flip it over,” he elaborated.

“The rails?” The man was speaking a different language.

“The edges.”

“Okay.”

“Paddle straight into it. If you approach at an angle, you’re going to roll. Rolling is bad. Stay perpendicular to the oncoming wave, then turtle roll if you need to.”

“You just said rolling was bad.”

“Rolling
is
bad.”

Unless there’s a turtle involved
. This was going to end in tragedy, but I figured he knew that already.

“What happens if I wipe out?”

He dropped his head and laughed blackly. “Oh, you’re going to get massacred, Adam. No doubt about it.”

“Great.” I drew out the word. “Any advice that will keep me alive would be appreciated.”

He looked pensively out to sea. “If you wipe out, relax and let yourself sink. Waves are powerful, but they don’t have nearly as much pull below the surface. Just let yourself sink and you’ll pass safely underneath it.”

I glared at him, horrified. “This is what you do for fun?”

He turned his head, looking straight at me. “Every day of my life.”

The instructions didn’t stop once we were in the water. Somehow I managed to paddle out past the breaking waves. Alex was already there, sitting on his board, rolling over the oncoming waves as he waited.

“You look forward, I’ll look back,” he told me. “When I tell you to go, go. Paddle hard. Don’t try and get up, stay on your belly and just coast in. Got it?”

“Yeah.”
No
.

I kept my focus on the beach ahead, wondering how many pieces I’d be in when I reached the shore. It was like waiting to be struck by a train. I felt the dips as we rolled over the top of three more waves before he spoke again.

“Get ready,” he warned. There was nothing I could do but listen to him. “Go, Adam! Go! Go! Go!”

I paddled hard. The wave rolled under me and I went nowhere. That happened more than once. I was hoping Alex would lose patience and give up, but he didn’t. He was determined to kill me.

“Try again. Next one’s the charm,” he told me.

After my millionth attempt, something incredible happened. I actually caught a wave. I paddled hard until the force of the water took over. From there, I just hung on for dear life – and felt the absolute rush of my life.

As soon as I was through it, I wanted to go again. Alex stayed out past the breaking waves, waiting for me to paddle all the way out again, which seemed to take forever.

“That was freaking awesome!” I yelled, long before I could be sure he’d hear me.

He laughed. “What did I tell you?”

“I want to go again.”

“Yeah, I figured you might.”

I knew that forcing me into the water that day wasn’t a bonding exercise. Alex was a grown-up version of Charli. There was a deeper meaning to it, I just wasn’t privy to it yet.

“Why are we out here, Alex?”

He grabbed the nose of my board to stop me drifting away. My board wasn’t sleek, short and pretty like his, but it did float better. He was half submerged.

“I just want you to understand it,” he replied. “It’s one of the many reasons why my kid doesn’t belong in a big city. I made her that way.”

He made it sound like the greatest thing he’d ever accomplished. I wasn’t about to argue the point. As long as I was floating on a piece of fibreglass hundreds of yards from shore, my life was in his hands.

“I get it. And for the record, I already knew that your daughter doesn’t belong in a big city.”

“That creates a bit of a problem for you, doesn’t it?”

“Not really,” I mumbled. “We’ll work it out.”

“She doesn’t need you, Adam,” he told me. “Sometimes she just thinks she does.”

“You might be right,” I agreed, “but I need her.”

“From what she’s told me, you don’t deserve her.”

“You might be right about that too,” I conceded.

Giving me an unsympathetic grin, he shoved the nose of my board, widening the distance between us. “Ready to go again?”

“Yeah. Let’s go.” I sounded much surer this time round, but my confidence turned out to be a little premature. It was hard to pinpoint the moment it went bad. One minute I was on top of the whole world, coasting through the water. The next minute I was under it, thrashing around, trying to stay alive.

I should’ve heeded the warning to relax and let myself sink, but the urge to get to the surface took over. I fought the water the whole way in and came out second best, eventually surfacing in knee-deep water near the shore. I staggered onto the dry sand and collapsed in a heap, coughing like a pack-a-day-smoker.

Alex appeared a few minutes later. It was too much to think he’d come in to check on my welfare. He walked up to the beach to retrieve the board that had washed up after me.

“Not too bad,” he said examining it. “Nothing I can’t fix.”

“Oh my God!” screamed a familiar voice in the distance. “Alex, you’ve killed him!”

A tad dramatic maybe, but at least she was concerned.

“He’s not dead, Charli,” scoffed Alex. “He’s probably feeling more alive than he ever has.”

She knelt beside me and pulled my head onto her lap. “Are you okay?”

I squinted, focusing on her lovely, worried face. “Charli,” I muttered. “How did you know I was here?”

“I was watching from the house. I knew the only idiot stupid enough to be out this morning was Alex. I grabbed the binoculars to see who the other idiot was and saw it was you!”

“It was freaking amazing, Charlotte,” I muttered, brushing her hair from my face.

She glared at her father, who was somewhere behind me chuckling.

“Oh great. He’s delirious,” she growled. “Alex, what were you thinking? He could’ve drowned.”

“Lighten up, Charli,” he replied. “Boy Wonder actually has skill. He managed to stay alive, didn’t he?”

“No thanks to you!”

He laughed, and for some reason I did too, even though it hurt. Charli wasn’t impressed. She stood up, letting my head thump on the sand, and uselessly tried pulling me to a sitting position.

“Get up,” she ordered, turning her wrath on me. “You’re as foolish as he is.”

* * *

A long hot shower brought me back to life. Once I was able to convince Charli that I wasn’t on the verge of death, her mood lifted.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” she asked, handing me a towel.

“Better than okay,” I told her. “It was awesome.”

“Great. So now you’re a convert, you can move here and surf all day. We’ll grow dope and buy a Kombi van.”

I swiped the towel down my face, laughing into it. “Nice plan, Coccinelle.” I wrapped the towel around my waist, grabbed her hips and pulled her forward.

“It really was a rush,” I told her, pressing up against her. “Scary and unpredictable. A bit like being married to you.”

“I knew you were going to get thrashed. I was halfway down the trail to the beach before you even got to shore.”

It was fair to assume there was a something lacking in my technique, but I was still curious. “How did you know?”

She put her finger on my chest, drawing an invisible diagram. “You caught it at an odd angle. You were always going to roll, especially on that big clunker board,” she explained. “I’m glad you lived through it though.”

I leaned down and kissed the wry grin off her face. “Me too.”

* * *

After all I’d endured that morning, getting a caffeine hit became a matter of survival. I was prepared to head out to see Gabrielle again but Charli talked me out of it. “You need a bit of a heads-up where the Parisienne’s concerned,” she hinted. “We’ll go to the café instead.”

“Wait,” I caught her hand as she passed me. “I want to know about Gabi. What’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you on the way,” she promised. “I’ll tell you
everything
along the way.

* * *

I could’ve negotiated the streets of Pipers Cove blindfolded – all eleven of them. And we drove down just about every one, buying time while Charli brought me up to speed on all the small town news.

I wasn’t all that interested in hearing that Jasmine Tate had finally secured a man, or that my Audi now looked like a souped-up mess. Hearing of Gabrielle’s fragile state did concern me, though.

“So are we supposed to mention it or not?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. She’ll tell us if she wants us to know. Alex only told me because I gave him no choice.”

“It’ll work out for them,” I assured her, reaching over to muss her hair. “And when it does, you’ll be a big sister.”

She pushed my hand away, chuckling. “Wise guy.”

By the time we pulled up at the café, Charlotte was all talked out. As I reached the door, she grabbed my arm. “There’s one more thing you should know.”

“Good or bad?”

“Horrendous. Nicole is back in town – working here.”

“Alex took her back?”

“Alex doesn’t know the whole story.”

I wasn’t sure how this was going to play out. Charli certainly wasn’t showing any sign of forgiveness. I could see the tension on her face.

“Do you want to go somewhere else?”

She shook her head. “No. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

I don’t know what sort of reaction I was expecting from Nicole when we walked in. Her cheeks went beet red at the sight of us – hardly the sign of a career criminal.

“Hi,” she meekly greeted.

I smiled but said nothing, leaving it to Charli to set the mood.

“Hi,” she said coldly.

Probably realising that was all she was going to get from her, Nicole turned her attention to me. “How are you, Adam?”