Page 42 of He Loves Me Knot
“Whatever you need. I’ll help any way I can.” Kyle nodded toward Callum. “But I don’t like that he’s manipulating you. Be careful with that guy, Liddy. I don’t trust him.”
“You ready to try?” Victor said, paddling over toward Liddy. He stood beside her board. “I’ll help. Look back toward the ocean with me. When you need to paddle, I’ll tell you go and give you push. Then paddle.”
Kyle winked at her as Victor positioned her board perpendicular to the shore. She took a nervous glance back over her shoulder, comforted to have Victor standing there holding her board.
Then a wave started toward them.
Shit, I should have been paying more attention to what Victor said.“Go, go, go!” Victor said, pushing her forward.
Whatever Callum had said about this being a beginner beach, now that she was on top of a board and paddling toward shore with a wave coming toward her, goose bumps rose up her arms. She kept paddling, hoping the board would just glide on top of the water and the wave would carry her to shore the way it had with Callum and Victor, but it seemed to crest behind her.
Liddy gave a horrified glance backward, then ducked her head, jumping off the board as the wave crashed down on top of her.
Water filled her nose and lungs as she tumbled with the wave, sand and shells filling her suit. She blinked, trying to find a sense of direction, vaguely aware of the board yanking at her ankle.
Then she slammed into the shore, the sand digging into her cheek painfully. She came up, coughing, only to feel the wave suck back, dragging more sand and water through her bathing suit and the board pulling her into the sea before another wave crashed over her.
A pair of muscular arms lifted her from the sand, just as deftly releasing the ankle strap. Liddy blinked back the stinging sea water to see Callum holding her against his chest, his arms around her back and under her knees. His dark brows furrowed with concern. “You okay?”
She coughed, still feeling like she was choking, the grit of sand in her teeth. “I’m fine,” she managed. Water ran from her nose and she swiped it away.Oh, I hope Callum didn’t see that.
“If it makes you feel better,” Callum said, carrying her onto the sand. “The first time I wiped out, the waves sucked back my board shorts. Left me bare-arsed on the beach. So you’re still doing better than I was.”
She choked out a laugh. “Are you serious?”
“I never lie.” Callum’s eyes sparkled with amusement as he set her down. “You know, except about having a girlfriend. And knowing how to surf. And maybe one or two other things.”
“So basically you lie all the time.”
He handed her a towel, and she wiped her face with it.
“I’m not lying about the surfing thing, though. I was twelve years old and just hitting puberty, too. And the girl I had a crush on was watching. That moment might have haunted my nightmares for a good decade or more.”
The girl he had a crush on . . . most likely Sophia.Why hadn’t he just named her?
Victor came rushing from the water toward them, carrying her board. “Are you okay, senorita?”
Liddy nodded and squinted toward him with a thumbs-up. “Yeah, I think I’m just going to take a break for a bit.”
“Okay. See you soon,bella.” Victor winked and hurried back to Kyle and Granny.
Callum sat on the beach beside her. “That fellow is laying it on thick, isn’t he?”
“Maybe if my boyfriend would step up instead of flirting with my grandmother, he’d lay off,” Liddy said with a chuckle.
Callum brushed her cheek with the back of his knuckle. The move was surprisingly gentle and her eyes darted toward his.
Where did that come from?
He pulled his hand back. “You’re bleeding a bit, Liddy.”
“Yeah, I face-planted into the sand.” She sighed, staring into the serene sky. “This is why I don’t do this sort of thing. I’m lucky I didn’t get really hurt tumbling in the water.”
Callum wrapped his arms around his bent knees, clasping his hands. “We all get hurt. Sometimes by just sitting on the sidelines.”
She pressed her lips together. Was he implying that she’d missed out on things by never trying?What does he know?
She was tempted to tell him off, but a shadow crossed over them. They looked up to see Logan, Quinn’s youngest brother, stop beside them.