off me. It encrusted my face. I was human sandpaper. My swimsuit bottom felt like a full diaper. ‘ I’ m fine.’
‘ That was one helluva ride. A bit rough on the dismount.’
‘ I was hoping for style points.’ Sand fell from my brow into my eye. Trying to restore my dignity, I said as breezily as I could manage, ‘ How’ s the garbage cleanup going?’
‘ Good. Not enough garbage to go around, though.’
Deedee walked up. ‘ You should go under the pier. That’ s where the good stuff is. My girlfriend Janelle said she once found a bag of crystal meth under there.’
I raised an eyebrow at her. More sand fell.
‘ Troy,’ I said, attempting to change the subject and use the moment of distraction to pull the back of my swimsuit to dump some of the sand, ‘ this is Deedee, a friend of mine. Deedee, this is Troy.’
Troy put out his hand to shake hers, and Deedee took it, giving him a slow once-over. He wore a K-JAM T-shirt and shorts, and she must have approved of what she saw because she bore the same expression she had at the movie theater-shame at her association with the likes of me. ‘ You know, June don’ t always look this bad.’
‘ Thanks,’ I said, sneering.
She attempted to straighten my hair, which was matted on one side and lifting like a bird in flight on the other. ‘ Okay, so it’ s not so good now. But tomorrow night she’ s going out, and she’ s gonna be bangin’ . Go on, tell him how hot you’ ll be.’
Troy grinned. ‘ Yes& do.’
‘ For real!’ Deedee continued. ‘ Those guys at this Oasis place aren’ t going to know what hit ‘ em.’
‘ I clean up nicely,’ I said, deadpan.
‘ Did you say Oasis?’ Troy asked.
I nodded. ‘ It’ s a little bar over on-’
‘ Yeah,’ he said, ‘ I know it. Used to go there with my sister once in a while. She had a crush on the bartender.’
I pulled a soggy candy bar wrapper from my hair and, disgusted, tossed it on the ground. A boy shouted, ‘ I got it!’ and ran over to pick it up and put it in his trash bag. Deedee then chucked her empty Doritos bag on the beach and watched in delight as the same thing happened. ‘ I want to see what other garbage we got. This is fun.’
After she left, Troy said, ‘ So, you a big fan of boogie boarding?’
‘ Never did it before.’
‘ Any reason you decided to try it today?’
Sand kept falling in my eyes, and I feared it appeared as if I were winking. ‘ I see we’ re also going fishing today.’ When he gave me a curious look, I said, ‘ As in fishing to see if this might be something from the list?’
‘ Was I that obvious?’
‘ That’ s okay. And yes, it is.’
He gazed out at the ocean for a moment and then asked, ‘ Did you catch any good waves?’
‘ I’ m not sure. I got going a couple times, but I don’ t know if that was catching the wave.’ It occurred to me that catching waves might be like having orgasms-if you’ re not sure you’ ve ever done it, then you haven’ t. ‘ Probably not.’
‘ You going back out again?’
Back out? Was he joking? I intended to never go back in the water& ever. In fact, in the time since what I considered my near death experience, I was seriously toying with packing up and moving to Montana-or any other state that was dead center and as far away as possible from anything large, wet, and salty.
‘ Of course I am,’ I said boldly, my pride winning over anything resembling rational thought.
‘ I’ m going to give you a shove-off.’ Without saying anything else, he reached up and pulled off his T-shirt, then tossed it on the ground. Well now! He had strong shoulders and arms-working in the fields strong as opposed to standing in front of the mirror at the gym posing strong. And a bit of light brown hair on his chest that led down to firm but not six-pack abs. That was when I noticed the huge scar that ran almost the entire length of one of his legs, crossing from where his shorts ended to his shin at a diagonal.
‘ What’ s a shove-off?’ I asked, hoping I hadn’ t been staring too obviously. But he had, after all, removed clothing. It would be rude not to look.
‘ You’ ll see.’ He shouted to his fellow garbage collectors that he’ d be right back, then grabbed the board. I followed him into the water. It was easier to swim out past the break without the board-and getting back in the water did offer the benefit of allowing me to rinse the sand from my hair and from a few of my more critical orifices.
The water reached him midchest, and I bobbed, hanging on to the board. We were no closer than we’ d been when we chatted on the beach, but somehow being in the water made it seem strangely intimate.
Troy proceeded to give me the same instructions Chase had-only he said that when the right wave came, he’ d give me a shove.
‘ So do you surf?’ I asked, bobbing.
‘ Once in a while. Not so much now since I get up at three in the morning for work.’
‘ Gosh, that’ s the time I’ m usually stumbling home drunk.’
‘ Right. You strike me as that type.’
‘ You don’ t know-I could be,’ I said, finding myself mildly irritated that it was so obvious I wasn’ t a party girl, even though he’ d clearly meant it as a compliment.
We chatted a bit about his favorite surf spots, and then he told me to get ready-that the waves were picking up. I clambered onto the board, my arms reaching to grab the top end and my butt and legs dangling in the water. I
