The Year of Chasing Dreams (11 page)

“Thought that was you,” Alyssa said, coming over. She wore a short gold lamé dress that barely covered her crotch. “Enjoying our Aussie night life?” Alyssa’s eyes were half closed and Eden quickly saw that the girl was very drunk and very high.

“What’s not to love?”

“You here with Garret, I suppose?”

“And Tom and Lorna.”

“Ah yes. The lovers without a cause. Two losers.”

“Bitchy thing to say.” The words were out before Eden could stop them, but she didn’t like Alyssa’s put-down of two people she liked.

“Being nice isn’t my forte. Never been necessary to ‘be
nice.’ ” She said it as if hatefulness were a virtue. “And I’m sure Lorna’s told you how
wrong
I am for Garret.”

“We have better things to talk about,” Eden said, not wanting Alyssa to know she’d even been a blip on Eden’s radar. “Work out your own problems with Garret. He and I don’t have any.”

Alyssa’s eyes slitted. She reminded Eden of a cobra about to strike. Alyssa wedged her body between Eden and the door, leaned into Eden’s face until the smell of cigarettes and liquor made her eyes water. “You do
not
matter to me,” Alyssa spat. “You are nothing.”

Eden flinched. Feeling like a nothing, a nobody, lonely and worthless, had once led her to cutting, self-mutilation, to manage her emotional pain. Wasn’t that all behind her now? She couldn’t let this hateful girl tear her down. Not in some club thousands of miles from home. Eden reached deep into herself, then said, “Why don’t you ask Garret if I’m a nothing. Because that’s not how he says he feels about me when we’re alone. That’s not what he tells me at all.”

Just then another girl brushed by Eden and Alyssa, giving them sour looks. “Could you two move? You’re jamming the doorway.”

Alyssa suggested something for the girl to go do with herself, and the girl scampered out the door. Alyssa turned back to Eden, but her spell was broken. Alyssa knew it and tried to regroup. “But you will leave. You are going back to America.”

“Not soon. Wouldn’t want to miss the beach party.” Eden delivered the line with forcefulness, letting Alyssa know she wasn’t surrendering any time she had with Garret.

“Just listen, bitch,” Alyssa said through half-clenched teeth. “I was Garret’s girl long before you came on the scene, and I will be his girl long after you’re gone. Trust me.”

With equal venom, Eden fired back. “
Trust me
. He left you in the dust a long time ago. So get out of my way, or I’ll take you down right here on the bathroom floor.”

Looking shocked, Alyssa threw her head back, but she stepped aside. Breathing hard, she gave Eden the finger, jerked open the door, and left.

Eden was still shaking when she exited the bathroom. She looked around but saw no sign of Alyssa, so she steadied herself on the wall and struggled to get her adrenaline under control and lose the feeling that she might heave. She regrouped, replaying the encounter, and realized that her reaction had been telling. She cared more for Garret than she’d allowed herself to admit.
Good to know
. Anything worth having was worth fighting for—the Beauchamp philosophy was rubbing off on her. Eden gave herself a self-satisfied pat, then sobered. She and Alyssa would face off again at the beach party.

Bring it on
.

Eden wore her best bikini to Bondi Beach, and when she removed her cover-up, the look on Garret’s face told her she’d chosen well. “Outstanding,” he told her, twirling her by her fingertips.

Many of his friends had already arrived and staked out their territory. Garret introduced her to a sea of faces with a litany of names she knew she’d never remember, but seeing Lorna and Tom made her more comfortable. Thankfully, Alyssa hadn’t yet arrived, and Eden found herself hoping she didn’t come at all. The encounter at the club still felt like a bad hangover.

Eden, Lorna, and several girls spread towels on the fine yellow sand and watched the guys hit the waves with their boards. All surfing was done in water at one far end of the beach, well away from the rocks that clustered below large bluffs soaring above the ocean. Bathers were left to swim in the blue water between two flags positioned in the sand, without fear of being run over by surfboarders. One of Garret’s friends had brought along a big board for Garret, because he and Eden had ridden
the bus and only brought along the smaller wave-skimming boards. Eden had gotten good on hers at Manly Beach, but the waves there had been smaller. Here at Bondi, the surf intimidated her. And while the steady roll of breakers made for good surfing, Eden decided that sitting on the sand and watching suited her just fine, and said so to Lorna.

“No worries,” Lorna said. “I never liked surfing much myself. Hate the tumble when I fall. Tom and Garret are pretty good. We’ll just cheer for them.”

Garret had style on the board. He paddled out and waited for an ocean swell to his liking, and just as the wave began to crest, he stood on the board and rode it as long as possible, sometimes all the way into the shore. Occasionally he even tucked himself into the curl—no easy feat, Eden was told.

At one point, he jammed his board upright in the sand and jogged over to the spread of towels, leaned down, and gave Eden a salty kiss. “Care to try?”

“Maybe later.”

“Come on. I’ll be on the board with you.”

“Try it.” The voice from behind them was Alyssa’s. She sauntered to the front of the towel, looked down on Eden and Garret. Her height was impressive, her bikini couture, and her hair like spun gold.
Looks like a freakin’ sea nymph
, Eden thought sourly. “You might like it.”

Eden forced a chipper smile. “Guess it won’t hurt to try.”

Garret pulled her up, gave Alyssa a polite but disinterested nod, and led Eden to retrieve the board. He put it in the water and walked it out with her in tow until the water was deep enough for the board to float freely. “Straddle it,” he said, and helped her get astride it, then put himself on the board behind her. “Now paddle.”

She cupped her hands into the water and together they
went farther out. She was half terrified, half exhilarated. “Water’s cold.”

“Pacific Ocean. Doesn’t get very warm.” He kept glancing over his shoulder, looking for the right wave. “Let the wave do the work,” he said into her ear.

“Do I have to stand up?”

“No, we’ll just ride a few in, but put your feet up on the board. Here comes a nice one. Hang on.”

She felt the board lift as the water rose beneath them, and for a moment she felt as if she were on a roller coaster. She gripped the sides of the board and they coasted, then slid down and toward the shoreline. The sensation was amazing. Lorna and the other girls were there to meet them when they nosed ashore. The girls clapped, and once Eden stood, she bowed theatrically. Garret hugged her, lifting her off the ground. “That’s my girl!”

She kissed him, but noticed that Alyssa hadn’t stayed around for the show.

The food appeared, and everyone ate on the grass of Bondi away from the sand and surf. Eden fielded questions about her life in Tennessee, and told every story she could think of about Bellmeade, horses and bronc riding, and Ciana, her friend who drove a tractor. When the questions wound down, the men started a soccer match and the girls shopped the stores that fronted a wide thoroughfare.

“Looks like Alyssa abandoned us,” Lorna said, smiling smugly.

Eden realized it was true. “Maybe it was something I said.”

“Hope so. I guess she hated all the attention you were getting.” Lorna linked her arm with Eden’s. “Good job.”

Eden bought souvenirs for Ciana and Alice Faye. She remembered that Abbie was going to have a baby and bought a stuffed koala covered with sheep’s wool. Lorna said that she and Tom had to leave early, so Eden wandered back to the beach alone. The men’s game was still in progress, so she slathered herself with sunscreen and stretched out on a towel.

She grew hot, looked out, and saw that the ocean was now a glassy blue and calm as bathwater. Garret’s loaner surfboard was upright in the sand, and Eden thought back to Italy and the way she would lazily drift half asleep on a float in the pool. She got up, wrestled the board into the water, and walked it out until she was able to hoist herself onto the slick surface. She lay on her stomach and closed her eyes. And she thought about her life and where it was headed. The Aussie girls all seemed to have plans for their lives. They had jobs, or were returning to university. A few were married. But Eden felt just as unclear about her future as she had in Windemere. She had never loved studying and didn’t want to go to college. Nor did she want to return to her former dead-end job at the downtown boutique. The money she did have wouldn’t last her forever. She’d come all this way to reconnect with Garret, but although they cared for each other, she had no idea as to what he wanted for his life. And the distance between Tennessee and Sydney was mind-boggling. Loneliness crept over her. She should face it. She had no future plans. Not a single one.

The change in the sound of the surf roused her. She glanced up and saw that she’d drifted far from shore, closer to the jutting rocks. Waves hammered the cluster of stones. Alarmed, Eden sat upright. She straddled the board and paddled toward the open water, making some headway, but the tide caught her and she watched the shore recede even farther. She struggled to turn the board, aim it back at the beach, but the tide
was strong and she couldn’t do it. She waved her hands above her head, shouted, hoped someone would spot her.

Eden knew she was in trouble but fought down panic. Losing her head wouldn’t help her. Then, without warning, she shifted and went over sideways. Treading water, she watched the board bob away in growing swells. She took in a mouthful of water, coughed and gagged, fought to stay afloat. Then the tide caught her from underneath, tumbled her over and under, sucked her down. She opened her eyes. Seawater stung and burned. She kicked hard for the surface, spun helplessly, and realized that she didn’t know which way was up. Desperate for air, she scrambled, turned, and kicked, swallowed more water, breathed in ocean, not air.

Her lungs burned, begged for oxygen, and just as darkness closed over her, she felt hands grab her and haul her upward. A hallucination? Unable to stop herself, Eden breathed and filled her nose and throat with seawater. And the world went black.

Eden woke gasping, coughing, gagging up salt water, her lungs on fire. She blinked, saw men’s faces hovering over her. One shouted, “She’s back!” An oxygen mask quickly covered her face, and then Garret was there, hovering over her, touching her, holding her hand, tears in his blue eyes. Later she learned she’d been saved by lifeguards and that she’d gotten caught in a riptide. She was lucky to be alive.

Garret’s parents came for them, their faces grooved with concern. Back at the house, Maggie helped Eden shower and dress, clucking around her until she had parked Eden on a sofa, and fortified her with tea and soup. Then Garret took over.

“I’m all right,” Eden told him, making an effort to settle both of them. Her voice was hoarse from swallowing seawater.