Of course, it didn’t please him any. My detached surfer dude, the cool-as-a-cucumber, non-wave creator, seemed to have developed a hair-trigger temper, which had everything to do with his new element, I was sure.
My relationship with my mom hadn’t improved any. It hadn’t gotten any worse, so there was that. After she’d called me out that day on the field, convinced Dean Carter to have me tested, and then seemed pissed that I’d actually passed, neither of us had gone out of our way to see each other. It was weird having her back and still not seeing her. I didn’t know which was worse. Having her gone, I could accept us never seeing each other for obvious reasons. Having her return and still never seeing her? That I couldn’t wrap my brain around.
So, as much as I knew it’d turn into a shit show, I’d texted her and asked if we could meet for coffee. It took her two days to respond, but she eventually did and had even picked the place. Now here I sat in a café near the port, butterflies on crack fluttering around in my stomach as I waited for her to show.
I’d never been at this café before. It was small, only a half dozen bright two-seater round tables, each painted a different—and very loud—color. The sun peeked through the gray clouds for the first time in weeks and shone through the large windows that made up three of the four walls.
“Relax, babe.” Leo took my hand. I’d brought him with me for two reasons. Reason #1: To keep me calm and push his control to me if I needed it. Reason #2: My mom asked me to bring him, which I’d agreed to for fear she’d refuse to meet me without him. I still wasn’t comfortable with how much of an interest she’d taken in my boyfriend. Well, at least this boyfriend.
I laced our fingers together. “Thank you for coming.”
His smile warmed me from the inside out. He lifted our hands and kissed my knuckles, his deep blue gaze glittering like sunlight on the water. “Always.”
We waited another ten minutes. With each second ticking away, my heart sank lower and lower. I stared at the flaking orange paint covering the surface of our table, fighting the urge to pick at it to give my hands something to do.
“She’s not coming,” I finally admitted, deflated.
“I’m sorry, babe.” He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close, kissing the top of my head. No lies that she’d be here any minute or something must have come up. No pretending it wasn’t exactly what it was. Leo didn’t play that game. He was a straight shooter, one of the many things I loved about the guy.
I pushed the empty mug designed in the shape of a crunched-up can—which was both clever and challenging to drink from without spilling coffee down your front, and which I’d failed at the latter—across the table to the empty chair and stood. “Thanks for your time, Mom.”
“Want to go do something?” Leo asked once we stood outside the café.
Shoving on my stocking cap to protect my ears from the wind that’d picked up since the weather had turned, I nodded. I didn’t want to go back to campus and just sit around, sulking about the depressing aspects of my life. I didn’t want to think about having a dad who’d written me off the first chance he’d gotten. Or about having a mom who’d rather spend time with, well, anyone other than her only daughter after being gone for over half a decade.
“Yeah, sure.” I didn’t bother trying to sound convincing.
“Try to contain your enthusiasm.” He took my hand and led me away from the café, the opposite way of the school.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
“Leo, you know I don’t like surprises.” Considering pretty much every surprise I’d received since learning I was an elemental had been in the form of a dark elemental trying to kill me.
He glanced back at me as he dragged me down the damp sidewalk, his eyes all a-glitter. “Interested in getting a little wet?”
“Leo, I don’t—” was all I got out before he teleported us, shocking the bejebus out of me. I wrapped my arms and legs around him and squeezed my eyes shut for fear of recognizing the void from my nightmares.
“You can open your eyes. Come on, babe,” he encouraged after I shook my head vehemently. “You’re totally fine.”
I opened one and cautiously glanced around, immediately recognizing it as Leo’s favorite surfing hole. “Now you’re okay with teleporting?”
“Not even a little, but we’ve only got a few more hours of daylight, and I didn’t want to waste it waiting for an Uber.”
Said Leo, like, never. “What’s going on with you?”
“For this, I’ll risk the upset stomach. Come on.” He grabbed my hand and literally dragged me down to the jetty, stopping only to kick off his shoes and jeans.
“Um, Leo?” I glanced around at no one, but still. We were in the middle of everything, and he was now in his boxers.
“Take off your pants.”
“I will not take off my pants,” I hissed and looked around.
He ran toward the end of the jetty. “Suit yourself. You’ll sink right to the bottom when those jeans get waterlogged. Trust me, I know that from experience. It’s much better to take them off and have something dry to change into after you’re done.”
“Done doing what?”
“This.” He used air to lift himself. I widened my eyes until they hurt, shocked he’d do something like this in public. What if a Nelem saw him? I hurried after him, if for no other reason than to stop him before he exposed our entire world.
As I reached forward to catch
