Tidal

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Authors: Emily Snow
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greedily drank in his bare
    skin. Starting from the small of his back
    and working my way up, to a long, jagged
    scar that raced diagonally from his left
    shoulder blade to just under his right
    armpit.
    When I winced, he turned to face me
    and gave me a bitter smile. “Ready to do
    this?” Without another word, he stuffed
    his shirt inside his black bag, swooped up
    our boards and jogged down to the edge of
    the sand.
    Sighing, I pulled off my own top and
    shimmied out of my shorts, rolling them
    into a tight wad afterward. Cooper
    shielded his eyes from the sun with one
    hand and called out, “Didn’t take you for a
    one-piece type of girl.”
    And as I walked toward him, I found
    myself hugging my balled up clothes to my
    stomach, creating friction against my own
    scar until my skin ached. “There’s a lot
    you don’t take me for, huh?” I said when I
    came close enough to touch him.
    He winked at me. “Just makes getting
    to know you more interesting.”
    Chapter Five
    Cooper didn’t elaborate on what he
    said, not that I expected him to, but that
    didn’t stop me from wanting and needing
    more from him. Was this the way it was
    going to be? Little comments— offhand
    remarks—that would haunt me long after
    they slipped past his lips?
    “The sea is fucking amazing this
    morning,” Cooper said at last, breaking
    the silence. “It’s unpredictable and moody
    —and you never know when it’ll try to
    screw you over—but I can’t stay away.”
    He turned to stare out at the unending blue,
    which gleamed under the clear morning
    sky. I took two wobbly steps forward,
    following his gaze with my own. To be
    completely honest, the sea didn’t seem any
    different from any other time I’d looked at
    it. It was still frightening to me.
    But that hazy expression that took over
    his face, the way every hard line of his
    body seemed to gravitate toward the
    waves—I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I
    wanted to feel that passionate about
    something other than the one thing I
    couldn’t, no shouldn’t have.
    Just as long as that something
    wouldn’t drown me, landing me in rehab
    again.
    “It’s nice,” I said. A blast of cold
    foam hit my bare feet, causing me to suck
    in a deep breath, but he didn’t notice. He
    was still mesmerized. Too transfixed to
    realize when I stopped gazing at the ocean
    to take a few steps backward and to the
    side. So rooted to the spot that he must not
    have felt my gaze heating the side of his
    face, on the tattoo written across his rib—
    I couldn’t make out what it said—and
    again to the scar on his back.
    Had he gotten it surfing?
    When I closed my eyes for a moment, I
    could see myself with a similar scar. A
    scar that matched the one across my lower
    belly.
    Not today, Willow. Focus on him, on
    learning this shit, and not on that .
    I opened my eyes and sucked in a deep
    breath. “You ever gotten hurt surfing?” I
    asked in a husky voice. It seemed better
    than coming right out and asking how he’d
    gotten injured. He turned his head a
    fraction to give me an amused look. I let
    him study me for another thirty seconds,
    then I snorted, crossing my arms over my
    chest. Did he have to make me feel like
    his blue eyes were burning two holes into
    my face?
    “It’s a simple yes or no answer,” I
    stated.
    “You ever gotten hurt acting?” he
    asked.
    All the time . I could have told him
    what I was really thinking, that acting had
    hurt me more emotionally than physically,
    but then I cleared my throat and shrugged.
    I pretended to be interested in a piece of
    lint on my swimsuit. “If you count stubbing
    a toe or breaking a fingernail on a prop,
    then yeah. Guess I have.”
    A flicker of disappointment passed
    over his face but it disappeared almost
    immediately. He sighed and scratched his
    head before sweeping his hand out at the
    ocean. “You’re going to get hurt,” he said.
    “A lot. Hell, you’ll probably be black and
    blue by the time the rest of the

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