Paradise Wild (Wild At Heart Book 2) (5 page)

Give it a rest. It’s just like that night with Alberto. Nobody was out there then, either.

She thought back to that night only a few years ago when she had wanted nothing more than to drive straight to their cramped studio apartment after closing the microbrewery for the night. But Alberto had steered the car to a neighborhood near Ocean Beach, parked in a friend’s driveway, and walked with her to the shore. Ellie’s exhaustion masked her nervousness until they stood alone on the vast, dark expanse of sand, the San Francisco night enveloping them like a thick, damp, uncomfortable sheet. She struggled to make out sounds above the consistent crash of the waves.

“Can’t we come back in the morning?” She tugged at Alberto’s sleeve. “People get murdered out here.”

Alberto, silent, had pulled her farther onto the beach. Ellie bit back her resentment, feeling as though she’d been doing a lot of that lately. She distracted herself, organizing the following day’s activities, prioritizing those she could squeeze into the few hours between the morning alarm and the eleven a.m. opening of the restaurant attached to the brewery.

When am I ever going to get enough sleep again? Maybe if somebody stabs us out here, I’ll end up in the hospital and can get some rest.

She smiled at the thought.

I could sleep in and get meals brought to me for a change.

She swung Alberto’s hand. This kind of crazy detour from life’s normal course was one of the things that had attracted her to him. His sense of adventure. His willingness to take risks. His boldly stepping forward without regard to the consequences. She decided to make the best of it.

He stopped by the water’s edge and launched into a speech about the vastness of the ocean. It blended in Ellie’s weary mind with the rush of the water. The words entered her mind as blurry, indistinct sounds, their meaning irrelevant, only Alberto’s physical presence a comfort in the semi-darkness with the city’s glow at their backs.

“…break up.”

The short phrase registered in Ellie’s thoughts seconds, perhaps minutes, after it had been uttered.

“What?” Ellie’s head snapped to look at her companion. “Did you just say ‘break up’?” She struggled to make out the details of his face in the gloom.

“I said, I don’t really see you fitting into my future. Our dreams don’t align.”

Ellie jerked her hand from his. “You walked me out here in the middle of the night to break up with me?”

“I thought doing it here would make it something you’d remember.”

She shuddered, suddenly afraid of much more than the myriad possible strangers roaming Ocean Beach at one in the morning.

“I turned my life upside down for you. And now you want to break up?” Ellie put her hand on her hips, anger flashing from her eyes in the darkness. “How the hell did you think I’d forget this moment?”

Back on the beach in Maui, Ellie sighed.

Alberto was a shit. Celine was right. I would have broken up with him eventually. He just beat me to it.

She kicked at the shallow water dancing in the light of her phone, realizing for the first time that Alberto had been right too.

We
didn’t
align. Maybe if we’d been more honest with each other from the beginning, instead of always doing what we thought the other person wanted, something could have worked itself out. But the way it was, it had to end.

It felt like a revelation, and with it, the Maui darkness seemed to lift slightly. The constant washing of the sand sounded less grating, more soothing. The deep stillness behind her felt less creepy, more inviting. The stars above floated less distant, more glorious.

Ellie strolled back to the house and crawled, unwashed, onto the bed next to the already dreaming Viv, whose nose twitched eagerly on the pillow.

“First day in paradise.” She rolled on her side and gazed out the window at the flickering stars. “Wonder what tomorrow will bring.”

Chapter 5

Ellie awoke with a start, disoriented and sore. A rhythmical thumping issued from the corner of the room. She shielded her eyes against the strong sunlight that streamed in through the window above her bed. The rays illuminated Viv pouncing periodically against the wall.

“I spent thirty bucks on toys for you yesterday, buster.” She glanced at the undisturbed pile of pink and purple furry animals in the corner. “Should have known better. There’s no gecko like a real gecko.”

For breakfast, Ellie, clad in shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops carried a cup of coffee and a small banana across the scraggly lawn to the shore. The powerful morning sun warmed her back. The blue ocean shimmered. The two distant islands, one nestled in the embrace of its much larger cousin, glowed a deep pink. Birds chirped, cawed, and cooed all around her in the fragrant trees and bushes. Palm fronds rustled, bending slightly in the northern breeze.

She waded into the water above her knees, still surprised by its warmth, and turned back to look at the house.

From this distance, it looks like a fixed up rich person’s house. Kind of.

She relaxed. Warm, velvety air caressed her. The tide lapped at her legs.

Then a large wave broke half way up her back. She stumbled forward, coffee sloshing. She barely regained her footing.

And that, folks, ends any idea I had about swimming here.
She scanned up and down the shoreline. The only figures were two stand up paddle boarders in the distance, smaller than grains of rice on the horizon.
I want me a beach with a lifeguard.

An hour later, Ellie drove slowly along South Kihei Road in search of lifeguard stands. When she had passed a few, she pulled into a small strip mall to turn around. While she waited for a Mustang convertible to back out of a spot, the banner in front of a snorkeling shop caught her eye:
‘
Free mask and fin rental with lessons’
.

Ellie pulled into the convertible’s slot.

In the store, photos of sea turtles and brightly colored tropical fish covered the walls alongside snorkels and masks that dangled from the ceiling.

“Aloha.” The teenager behind the counter stepped out to greet her.

Ellie pulled her long ponytail over her shoulder. “Hi.”

“Can I help you?”

“I saw your sign outside. About free lessons.”

“Snorkeling lessons, yeah? They’re forty dollars. But you get a free rental set when you sign up.”

Ellie looked at the boxes of fins on the floor. “How long is a rental?”

“Twenty-four hours.”

Ellie’s eyes glittered impishly. “Twenty-four makes it sound like a long time.”

The youth looked at the floor. “Well, it’s one day.”

Ellie tapped his arm playfully. “I’m teasing. Look, I’d like to sign up for a snorkeling lesson if you have something this morning. I’ll buy the gear. I’m going to be here for a few months.”

“Do you live here? I can give you the kama’aina rate.”

“The what?”

“The rate for locals.”

“Thanks. But I’m not local. The only ocean swimming I’ve done was at Rehoboth Beach. In Delaware.”

“Delaware? What state’s that in?”

Ellie laughed. “That’s a trick question. Do you have lessons this morning?”

The boy returned to the counter. “Yeah. Noa’s teaching a class in an hour.” He nodded to the back of a darkly tanned man patiently helping a gray-haired woman with fins.

“Okay. Sign me up.” She handed him the business credit card with only a twinge of unease.

Learning to snorkel must fit in my job description somehow.

The class met at the north end of the first of three beaches all called Kamaole. Ellie deposited her tunic, towel, and flip flops above the high tide line and joined the small group standing near the water. They were easy to identify, with identical orange snorkels and masks hanging from their hands. A man approached them from a stairway tucked between the palm trees and rocks, yelled something, and waved. He limped slightly and Ellie’s fantasies of meeting another Baby Hater fell away as she took in the instructor’s brown hair that had been cut so long ago all style had faded to fringe, his wiry, almost emaciated body, and the baggy board shorts held up precariously on jutting hips.

The other students were two Vancouver families with three children each and an older couple from Dallas. Ellie recognized the older woman as the one from the store. The instructor, Noa, made them laugh with his short bio of how he moved from the Bronx to Maui. Then Ellie made them laugh when she blew into the bottom of the snorkel instead of the mouthpiece.

Noa brushed her arm and whispered as he passed her. “Wish you were holding something else in your mouth.”

Ellie narrowed her eyes and shot him a look, but he was helping adjust a young girl’s mash. She shrugged.

In the water, Noa took a hands-on approach to instruction. He held the children up under their stomachs, one floating on each side of him. He carefully eased the older couple into their fins, submerging to made adjustments while the woman giggled.

“Ooh. I’m ticklish. Oh, my.”

“Don’t let him do anything I wouldn’t, eh?” Her husband peeped anxiously beneath the surface with his mask.

The woman splashed water at him. “Honey, the last time you removed my shoes was on our wedding night.”

During Ellie’s turn, she wondered about Noa’s needing to support her flat stomach while she practiced kicking. When he moved his hands to her thighs to adjust her style, she pulled slowly away. He gave her the thumbs up sign and motioned for the group to follow him.

The shimmering blue world beneath the waves amazed her. Ridges in the sand far beneath reminded her of Italian marbled paper. Cream-colored fish with whiskers sifted for food. Black lava rocks loomed in the distance. Ellie pushed to one side the “Jaws” theme that had been playing softly ever since she entered the water.

The older man pointed to long, skinny fishes that looked to Ellie like silver sticks. A small maroon box dotted with white spots darted beneath her. Schools of glittering flat yellow and white gems inspected the expanse of coral ahead. Sea urchins shone in hues of black, gray, white, and red.

Suddenly, something brushed her chest. The snorkel muffled her scream. She whipped around to see Noa at her side and shook her head at him. Her bikini, her hands pantomimed, was off-limits. He shrugged, gave her another thumbs up sign, and paddled toward the two families.

Ellie kept the others in sight but steered clear of Noa. As the coral grew thicker, fish swam in greater profusion around her, their color and variety beguiling. She followed a lustrous blue and green shape with a funny bump like a BMW antenna between its eyes. Out of nowhere, a large bulk caught the corner of her eye. She screamed down her tube again and turned toward it.

The enormous sea turtle swam unconcernedly past, its shell longer than her torso, its yellow and brown flippers blending in with the mottled light. Ellie followed it at a respectful distance, transfixed. After surfacing for air, it floated gracefully downward, limbs outstretched like a Star Trek Klingon Bird-of-Prey, to a resting place under a rock.

Ellie surfaced, awestruck. She struggled in the strangely heavy waves to look around for her companions.

I have to show you this.

But she didn’t see anything. Except the moored sailboat she had noticed from the beach. It had been small and enticing then. Now it loomed large and parallel to where she swam. The umbrellas on the beach, in contrast, seemed miles away. She looked down.

Oh, no.

The ocean floor was distressingly distant. Music reverberated in her head, this time at much higher volume.

Dah-dum. Dah-dum.

Ellie spotted orange dots close to shore.

Snorkels.

A high wave swamped her. Water filled her snorkel. The gurgling noise of her own breathing terrified her. It sounded like she was drowning. She sucked in salt water with her next gulp of air and spat the snorkeling tube out. She gasped.

Dah-dum.

All her limbs tingled.

What was that?

She stuck her head in the water and spun around like a top, checking the deep for an approaching shark. Her head emerged, sputtering. Another wave splashed against her face and she took in more water.

Dah-dum.

She felt the jaws clamp her arm. She yanked it free, screaming and kicking.

“Hey, don’t panic.”

The words took a few moments to register. Ellie swiveled toward the speaker. She saw a black-masked man with a snorkel dangling from the side of his face. The eyes visible through his mask registered concern. He held his hands above the surface.

“You looked like you were in trouble.”

Ellie coughed as another wave sloshed against her.

“Put your snorkel back in.”

She shook her head, hacking.

“The waves will keep coming. Put it back in and let me get you back to shore, okay?”

Ellie nodded and replaced her snorkel.

“That’s it. Now give me your hand.”

The man held his hand out to her. She clenched it with a strength borne of terror.

The man chuckled. “What a grip.” He smiled and Ellie exhaled. She nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

“Okay. Here we go. Kick along with me and we’ll get there faster.” He replaced his snorkel and put his head in the water. Ellie followed suit.

As they traveled slowly toward shore, she periodically glanced at her companion. He met her looks and nodded. She felt her heartbeat gradually slow. As the ocean floor ascended to meet them, her breathing grew steadily calmer. Finally, he motioned for her to stand.

Ellie ripped off her mask.

“Tera firma. Thank goodness.”

The man looked pleased. “Welcome back.” He pulled off his own gear. His wavy, dark brown hair glistened. Ellie noticed for the first time his thick, smooth chest and bulging biceps.

She rubbed the tension out of one shoulder at a time. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there. I totally panicked.”

“Was this your first time out?” He bent to remove his fins.

“I was in a class.”

“An invisible class?” He squinted at the ocean. “I didn’t see anyone out there with you.”

Ellie had trouble removing her eyes from her intriguing savior. But she finally shaded them and scanned the horizon. “Over there. By the rocks. I think that’s them.” She smoothed her hair, preparing to put her mask back on.

The man shook his head derisively. “You’ve got a lousy instructor if he hasn’t noticed you’re gone. You should get out and rest. You had quite a scare.”

Ellie tugged with elaborate nonchalance at a string of seaweed tangled in some strands of hair. Her face reddened. She held her hair back with one hand and turned the seaweed side away from her companion. “I should get back out there.”

He put his fins back on his feet and pulled on his mask. “Then I’ll go with you.”

Ellie blushed. “You don’t have to.”

“I was a life guard in high school. Humor me.”

Ellie laughed, took another ineffective yank at the seaweed, and donned her outfit. The man held out his hand. Ellie looked at it, reddening further. But she acquiesced when he didn’t let it drop. His grip felt warm and comforting. It banished the horrible theme music from her mind. They strode together into the shallows.

Under pretext of watching fish, she stole glances at her swimming mate as they headed out to the group. His muscles rippled as he glided by her side. She tried to relax her hand in his, but something in her didn’t want to let go.

She kicked more slowly as they approached the class. Noa swam toward her.

“Hey.” Noa scrutinized her rescuer, who still held her tightly. “You didn’t pay. This class is for participants only.”

Ellie felt her companion’s arm stiffen. “Some class,” he said. “You didn’t even notice she was in trouble out there.”

“Try doing my job, dude. They give me more people than one person can handle. Besides, I’ve got my eye on her, don’t worry.”

Ellie turned away from Noa, lifted her mask, and rolled her eyes at her new friend. “Thanks.”

He grinned. “You be careful.”

“I will.”

Ellie watched him swim away, wishing she had the guts to race after him.

But he’s bound to be like Baby Hater
, she told herself.
Wife. Kids. Pet hamsters.

She jumped at a voice in her ear. “Stick close to me.” Noa smirked behind his mask. “I can show you plenty.”

***

Later on the beach, the children from the class carted wet sand from the ocean in conveyer belt fashion to craft their growing sea turtle sculpture. Ellie, wrapping her hair, seaweed and all, in a towel, watched them.