Forbidden Depths

Chapter 11: Ripcurl

(Asher's POV)

Asher hadn't felt this amped up in a long, long time. Not only did he not have those awful recurring nightmares about him and his dad for once, but he woke up next to a beautiful woman who was fun and sweet.

With an actual spring in his step, he met his surf students Jackson and Gilbert, two teenage string beans from Hong Kong. After teaching them how to pop up on the beach, the three of them had a blast trying, and sometimes even succeeding, doing the same in the water as the sun rose pink, orange, and gold off the Tucunia Sea.

Afterward, he even met up with some experienced surfers who traveled here on a surf trip. Tucunia had the reputation of being a 'closely guarded surf secret' and rivaled Hawaii and Fiji with some best reef breaks. He and Eva had even discussed coming here on a surf trip since the Global Surf Association didn't have competitions here yet. They never got around to it, though.

Yet, soon any regrets of never taking Eva here to help her develop her surf skills flew out his mind like the gulls in the sky as soon as he saw Barlow jog down the beach to ready the dive boat. It's not like he picked the reef next to the surf shop to wait for a certain redhead to walk out on the beach, it just happened to be great conditions this morning.

He wasn't like, a creep or anything, not like that guy last night. Of course.

After what seemed like an hour, a head of shining cinnamon hair and her long legs emerged from the back of the dive shop with the others. And man, did her new red hair just awaken something primal in him. He forgot to say it at the time, but he knew he'd have another chance to talk to her. She couldn't be flying out tonight, not right after a dive at least.

The dark-haired sufer decided to turn it up a notch. Showboat a little like she had when she played pool. Asher felt the water, feeling that a perfectly sized, medium-hollow wave was forming. He had a feel for the water and waves and how they formed ever since his mother taught him how to swim.

He paddled quickly, popped up, keeping a low center of gravity, turned sharp, and knew, just knew, he could execute a favorite aerial trick he'd use in competitions that would get her to look if she wasn't already. With a hard bottom turn, he sliced up a near-vertical part of the wave, grabbed the back of his board, and launched into the air. Sky and sea spun around him in a wheel, rotating a perfect 360, watching the ocean beneath him.

In that second of airtime, he felt invincible, free, and on top of the world.

He landed the trick beautifully, a smile bright on his face as he let out a little whoop.

“Damn, that was a perfect Kerrupt Flip, and he made it look easy," one of the seasoned surfers behind him said.

The brunette smiled, turned, and paddled back around to catch another wave, this time riding the inside of the barrel, his fingers gliding through the wall of water, surrounded by a tunnel of water. His cheeks began to hurt, and he realized it was from laughing. The green-eyed man missed this light, bubbling feeling he got when he caught waves, which was crazy because he'd been out here almost every morning and most evenings surfing.

The ocean just hit differently this morning.

He heard the engine of the scuba boat kick to life, and he hoped the woman with eyes like honey and a smile just as sweet saw him at his peak.

Paddling in and getting back on the beach to get ready for his lifeguarding duties, he spotted Orlando leaving the gym, shirtless with his muscles and tattoos on full display. He supposed everyone came to Tucunia to show off a bit.

“Someone looks happy…you and that pretty new girl with freckles or someone I know?" Orlando pointed at him, rubbing a towel across his closely shaved head.

Orlando stood just a little shorter than Asher but was a relentless gym rat that packed on the muscle, saying something about 'making up for lost time'. He guessed he didn't do much athletic stuff as a kid which Asher could understand. The most he did as a kid was surf, wrestle, and get into scraps at the prep academy he attended with Colton until he went to high school.

“A gentleman never asks, and a lady never tells," Asher laughed back, pouring some coffee from a thermos.

“I'm glad, man. For a moment I thought you had gotten back together with Eva." The buff man with sepia skin clapped his shoulder and the brunette choked on his coffee.

“No, wow. Jesus, why did you think that?" The green-eyed man recovered from spitting coffee into the sand, pounding a fist into his chest.

Asher caught the man's dark eyes furrow in confusion, widened in surprise, and then settled on a neutral, friendly expression.

“What would you do, for real, if she came to Tucunia?" The buff surf instructor put on a rashguard and tossed Asher the sunscreen.

“Uh…" Asher uttered, about as intelligently as a jellyfish he almost got stung by earlier this morning. “I don't know, man, probably nothing. She blocked me, remember? 'Sides I got real things to worry about, like how I'm gonna fix my boat and afford to eat at the same time." Asher frowned; his chest suddenly heavy like lead.

Eva coming to Tucunia? No way, even if this place was an amazing surf spot, it wasn't famous enough for her to come out here, especially since she was surfing way less than she used to, if she even still surfed at all.

If Eva wanted back in his life, he'd struggle not to give it a shot, but she'd have to apologize. She'd have to show him that she was serious, and cared about him. He didn't want to get caught up in Eva Kilmer's killer riptide again if he knew deep down that she'd just leave him adrift to drown again.

Then again, she'd also want nothing to do with him, especially after the one message he got from her private i********: after the disaster at the Global Surf Championship that ruined his career.

He still had it saved on his phone.

It read: 'Looks like I was right. If I had stayed, you would've brought me down with you.'

Asher suddenly felt antsy, like he wanted to go on a run to work up even more endorphins.

Instead, he took off his rashguard and began to slather on sunscreen for his lifeguard shift. It was getting too late to surf, so he figured Orlando must have a windsurfing lesson.

“You are getting skinny, Ash…" Orlando made a face like he finally understood something, and a smile slid across his face.

“Hey, compared to you, maybe, but not compared to the students I had today!" Asher defended himself.

Orlando just flexed and the green-eyed surfer just flipped him off.

“So, tell me about strawberry shortcake." He smiled, taking the clipboard to write something down.

It took a beat for the fit brunette to figure out what Orlando was talking about, but when he did, Asher smiled on reflex.

“She's cool." Asher looked wistful and Orlando's eyebrows his hairline. “Don't give me that look. She's just fun and nice. Funny, too. Pretty. Beautiful but like in a…whole person kind of way? Like I can't say why, she just is."

Orlando laughed and put on his neon green wraparound sunglasses that made him look like a bad hip-hop artist from the early 2000s. He wore them every time he taught windsurfing and for some reason the chicks loved them.

“Asher Rafael Aquino, are you falling for someone?" the one-man gun show asked while walking to where they kept the windsurfing board and rigs.

The green-eyed man didn't spit out his coffee this time, he knew what Orlando was after.

Orlando was not as sneaky as Barlow was, trying to play matchmaker or whatever, but he could tell the buff lifeguard also liked sticking his nose in other people's love lives. Asher didn't get why they were this invested, or what he did to deserve two die-hard romance spies going full James Bond on his life.

He also regretted ever showing his driver's license to Orlando, proving at one time he had long hair, and he memorized his full name and birthday.

“She's not a local, Lan," Asher said flatly with a hint of a grin.

“Neither is Barlow's fiancee, and look at them" The man wearing the worst neon-green sunglasses pointed out.

Asher rolled his eyes.

“For all I know, she flies out tomorrow, and I'm nothing but some hot stud she can tell her sister about."

Orlando c****d his head. “You know she has a sister? Did you guys…talk!?"

This time Asher rolled his eyes so hard he thought he'd get a headache. “Go to your lesson, do your job!" the handsome, tan brunette called out, scowling that he let that detail slip.

“I gotta sense about these things!" the buff man called as he jogged down the beach with both the board and the rig.

“Both Lan and Barlow need a life," he moaned, sitting on top of the lifeguard stand with his whistle and rescue buoy.

Neither he nor Orlando had to save anyone yet so far, except administer some minor first aid when parents neglected their kids and they tried to pick up a crab, or a random jellyfish sting. Sharks didn't come up here hardly at all, and if there was one it was a reef shark that often skittered away.

So, it left Asher a lot of time to think when he picked up the binoculars to scan for dangers.

Sometimes, he thought about life, and how he could've done things differently.

The green-eyed twenty-seven-year-old thought about Brazil where he spent all his time with his dad. He thought about the car wreck with his dad too, and the vehicle filling with water. He thought about high school wrestling and how universities scouted him and offered him scholarships but stayed behind in Cali to surf and dig his mom out of debt.

The brunette would reflect on Eva and how he should've seen things coming and convinced her he could do better, he could change.

He deliberated about whether he could ever win his good name back and get off the surfing blacklist after the fiasco back at the Global Surf Championships in San Clemente four months ago.

Asher considered if he should just sell his prized catamaran his grandmother made him promise to keep in the family, to Colton instead of moving out here, stalling out his life.

However, today, he wasn't thinking about any of that.

The Brazillian-American surfer was thinking about how great he felt waking up with his arm around someone this morning. How even though they weren't going to be anything, he felt whole for the first time in ages. Like waking up next to a woman with hair like cinnamon and every six minutes would let out a small snore sound wouldn't be the worst way to live life.

He continued to scan the water, spotting some floating debris from the storm from last night that could pose a problem, but otherwise, it was a quiet morning on the beach.

Then he saw a boat on the horizon.

Barlow's piece of crap, about to die any minute, dive boat was chugging back in. He used the binoculars to scan the boat, and soon he saw a glimpse of a red ponytail sitting at the back.

He let out a little breath of relief.

Asher had never told Barlow or anyone that he was nervous about diving. He'd never done it before, but it just felt risky. He'd been deep in the water before, trapped, and without air. It wasn't fun and diving looked like it could be exactly that.

The boat soon came in and everyone hopped off, Seeley included. She looked vibrant—happy—and that was when he realized more time must've passed because the dive boat always came back like clockwork at 1 p.m.

His stomach felt like an empty pit.

“Hey, man, you can go for lunch now." Orlando knocked on the lifeguard stand to relieve him, still wearing his dumb sunglasses.

“Thanks, how did your windsurfing lesson go?" Asher asked, climbing down from the stand.

“I think he was more concerned with looking cool than actually learning how to surf, but is what it is… Hey, your girl is going to the Charm for lunch." The dark-skinned man's grin was all teeth like a shark.

“I'm surprised you can see the right colors with those ugly glasses." Asher gave him the reports and bounded off toward the showers for a quick rinse; he didn't want to smell like seaweed when he surprised Seeley.

“I can see a whole lot more than the right colors, you a*s!" Orlando called out and Asher laughed in response, planning to make the most out of his lunch hour.