Page 81 of Under the Waves
Then, no other than Nathan Slater appeared.
Nate was now paddling out onto the waves wearing the biggest fucking smirk I’d ever seen, and I lived with fucking Jakson Calloway for crying out loud. The commentators for the heats started to pick up on what we all stopped to watch and began shooting out all kinds of bullshit about the two of them.
“He shouldn’t be out there, Jasper.”
“I fucking know that,” I snapped. I immediately closed my mouth, sending Poppy an apologetic glance. I didn’t mean to snap at her, it just…came out. She sent a small nod my way and the guilt building in my stomach started to ease.
“What the hell is that idiot doing?”
Lachlan, Xander, and Kai appeared besides us. All three of them had their wetsuits hung low around their waists with their boards tucked beneath their arms.
“How’s our girl doing?” Lachlan nudged Lia’s side playfully, smiling down at her as he took off the wired headphones from around his neck. He offered her the other earbud. Lia hesitated before taking it, offering him a small smile back. It took a huge amount of effort not to stare because the only person’s headphones I’deverseen her wear were Jakson’s. He always kept them with him. I knew she was trying to show Lachlan—showall of them that she was okay. I doubted she really was.
Hell, I doubted that she had been okay for a long time now.
“He’s going to seriously hurt himself if he doesn’t stop, Cap,” Kai stated, looking directly at me whilst the others glanced out into the distance. “There’s a reason we all warm up beforehand.”
“He didn’t even meet us for prep like you told us all too with coach. He just got here and paddled straight out,” Lachlan chimed in, glancing between us all as he dug his board into the sand to lean against it. “You should’ve seen him, Jas. He was so fucking pissed off it was crazy.”
Lachlan offered Lia his hand and she took it, leaning back against his chest. Something he whispered to her had her smiling again, but it only took a few seconds for that to disappear too.
Xander’s cold glare settled on me. “Fuckthat. He’s being reckless, and you’re his captain. What the fuck are we doing here? You need to teach him to stop being so impulsive and stop fucking letting him get away with it constantly. It’s utterbullshit, man.” He looked to Lia then, gaze softening as he did—the coldness replaced by something else. I wasn’t sure what it was…but it was more than he did for anyone else.
Then, Xander smiled for her.
His lips pulled upwards, strained. The whole motion looked uncomfortable for him…but he still did it for her. Lia had always shown everyone that they were worthy of being loved, and for that, he would always share some lonely, torn out part of his blackened heart with her.
I realized then it wasn’tjustme who saw Lia like family. We all did in our own ways. Lachlan had always tried to make her smile like the ridiculous comedian we all knew him as, and not once had I ever seen himnotbe successful in pulling a grin to her lips, if only for a few fleeting seconds.
And Kai? He looked out for her in every way that he could. Granted, he was always busy at the diner helping out his parents, or buried neck deep in essays or a book about the philosophy of god knows what…but healwaysmade time to see her.
Lia may have lost her only biological older brother, but she gained four more in all of us. And even though I knew she loved us all in her own way, none of it compared to her love for Jakson Calloway, and if it came down to saving the world or saving him, she would choose him, every time.
Because Jakson Callowaywasher world.
There was no world for Lia Davis where Jakson Calloway didn’t exist.
She treasured him and his place in her life. It wasn’t just like he was a piece of a puzzle, easily removable from her life.No, he was entwined with every inch of her soul because whatever those two were made of it was the same in every way that counted.
All I ever wanted was to be enough for her, for them both, but I knew that I would always come second, and you know, that fuckingsucked.
I’d known her practically all my life—I was the one who held her when she couldn’t breathe from crying too hard, the one who hid with her and her siblings each time the voices got too loud…I wasalwaysthere for her, but none of that mattered.
She chose him a long time ago, and I just had to be okay with that. Otherwise, I risked losing her entirely.Risked losing them both.
Thinking about my teammates and everything they’d done for not only Lia, but for each other—it was another kind of pain. The kind that sneaked up on you when you least expected it. We never once fell apart from each other. Despite all of our struggles, together, they made us stronger.
They made us afamily.
Not one of us had any kind of normal childhood, and I think, maybe if we did, none of us would be here right now as close to one another as we were.
“Look at them now! Fighting for waves, bringing their all…but who will end up on top?”
The commentators voice boomed like a jackhammer to my skull. Nate angled his board so that he nudged Jakson out of the way, sending him stumbling. Lia gasped, drawing in a sharp intake of air. Everyone was watching now, holding their breaths as they both tried to fuck each other over. Surf etiquette be damned, they were acting like recklessidiots.
“He can’t do that!” Lachlan yelled, brows crossed in rage across his forehead. His grip tightened around Lia who looked as pale as a ghost watching them fight out on the waves.
“Everyone knows Nate doesn’t give a crap about rules.” Xander spat on the sand, those cold, whiskey eyes narrowing like daggers.