Page 23 of Under the Waves
“No, Lachy. He’s probably just thinking about his girl.”
“What a fucking way to meet again! Knocking her out with a surfboard, well done, Cap.”
I snapped my head in their direction, “Shut up, assholes. And for the record, if you twohadn’tbeen arguing over who could surf down the stairs the longest before falling off the board, it wouldn’t have gone over the banister in the first place.”
Kai raised his hands in surrender. “It was all Lachy’s idea, Cap. I was trying to talk himoutof doing that.”
Lachlan completely ignored Kai throwing him under the bus.
“He didn’t deny you calling Poppy ‘his girl’” Lachlan grinned at Kai, nudging him with his elbow as he wiggled his brows suggestively at him, to which Kai just rolled his eyes and whacked him clean in the chest.
“Hey!” Lachlan gasped before turning to face me, “Cap, tell him off. He just hit me!”
“Me? You’re the one who knocked his childhood crush out with a surfboard!”
“I think you’ll find that—”
“Children,” I groaned, tipping my head backwards, “you’re both a bunch of children.”
Picking up a bottle of chilled water, I shut the fridge and leaned back against the counter tops. The house was completely empty apart from us three. Strange. Normally it took at least an hour or two to get everyone to leave. The more I scanned over the rooms, the more I noticed the lack of cups on the floor and the lack of liquor stains on the carpets. No broken furniture or shattered glass. It was quiet.
Too quiet.
As if sensing my thought trail, Kai said, “We toldeveryone to leave, like you said.”
Lachlan’s brows crossed as he took a swing of his beer. “It was so weird, Cap. We didn’t even have to force anyone out. Took like ten minutes, tops.”
Kai nodded in agreement. “Very weird.”
“Stop agreeing with me. It’s weird,” Lachlan grumbled.
“Stop being childish,” Kai retorted back.
“Me?” Lachlan gasped. “You’re the one with a giant stick up his ass about the philosophy of paint drying! Honestly, if you didn’t look like a sexy version of Clark Kent, girls would find you so boring.”
“I’m sorry my conversation skills and intellectual capacity exceeds yours,” Kai smirked.
I slammed the fridge door shut and began to walk towards the porch, leaving the two of them behind to argue about God knows what. Though, both of them appeared by my side within seconds.
“What’s that noise?” Lachlan questioned as I opened the sliding French doors that opened up onto the beach behind Jakson’s house.
Lachlan stumbled, lips agape. “Oh shit.”
I could feel Kai glare at Lachlan behind me.
But in front of me?There was a fucking beach bonfire happening. Heat immediately reached me, blasting at me like a furnace. My fists clenched as I scanned the beach for Nate and his minions. It was illegal to have a beach bonfire in summer here because of the huge risk of wildfires, but hey, being illegal just made it more desirable to them.
We all want what we can’t have.
At the surf school, I always made sure to remind the kids I taught about the dangers of wildfires and beach etiquette. It was the right thing to do, and if I could prevent even one death from something so easily avoidable, then it was worth it. It wasalwaysworth it.
Hawthorne Hills golden surf captain.
That was me.
I was cautious about who I let close to me because one wrong move and my entire reputation could be ruined, and then the possibility of making Pros would be crushed beneath my feet—andthatwas unacceptable for me. It was Pro or nothing,and I would do nothing to endanger that future. Especially start to care about a feisty, tall brunette with a fucking amazing mouth that drove me insane.
I was thecaptain—I had my guys to look after. I had to secure us a place in the state surf series championship this academic year and bring home gold because anything other than that was unacceptable for Hawthorne Hills Elite Academy’s surf team. It wasn’t unachievable for us, after all we were some of the best surfers in the state and thanks to the coaching and guidance from the Elite Academy’s coaches, we were a force to be reckoned with.