Chapter 20

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"Surf's up!" Alex screams as all three of us race towards the water, loving the high that comes with riding the waves and being in control. A few hours earlier, we'd taken lessons and now we were roughing it out in the sea. Our teacher had called us naturals!

"Come help me bury Daddy!" Emily calls excitedly as we stalk back to the area of land that has been claimed by our group. She's knee deep in the upturned soil, pouring bucket after bucket of sand over Uncle Harry and he just lies there loving it, not saying a word.

"That's not the best idea Em." Alex replies, plopping lazily onto a beach towel.

"Why not?" she asks, scrunching up her pert little nose. "Daddy's okay with it, aren't you dad?" she turns to Uncle Harry.

"Of course I am Sweetie." He replies, bellowing with laughter and at that, my heart twinges.

There was a time when Kenny and I were like that, I think, blinking repeatedly and pretending to look for something in my bag to draw attention away from me while I get my emotions in check.

"Well what if the crabs get him?" Drew asks just as I'm tuning in to the conversation again, a wicked glint in his eyes. "What are you gonna do then?" he smirks.

"Oh, do stop filling her head with rubbish!" Aunt Olivia shrieks, coming to the rescue of poor Emily whose rosy cheeks were beginning to pale.

She tosses her empty water bottle at us as we chuckle. "Mind throwing that away?"

"Sure mum." Alex replies, getting up quickly. He gives me a knowing glance and I get to my feet as well, tagging along.

After placing the bottle in the recycling can, we both decide to get some drinks instead of heading back. It's a great excuse to hang around the restaurant over at the corner and people watch. Or rather, girl watch.

It only takes a few minutes of sipping on cokes to get our eyes fed. I mean beaches are usually full of hotties, that's a given but this particular beach? It's something else.

"I spy with my little eye, something that's red." Alex says and I try to follow his line of sight.

"Is it that pretty brunette in the red bikini coming over here?"

"Uh huh." He replies, nodding. "We should talk to her."

"Totally." I agree, ordering another coke.

Turns out we didn't have our work cut out for us because the girl, well she practically threw herself at us, making conversation, jumping excitedly and giggling at nothing in particular. It was not fun.

As subtly as possible, Alex and I detach ourselves from her and walk around a bit more, people watching.

'That girl was su-

"Oof!" I exclaim instead, nearly coming head to head with a stranger. "I'm so sorry." I say, embarrassment tinging my cheeks.

"It's okay." She smiles. "I mean, it happens to the best of us." She says, shrugging.

Alex snorts and I direct a glare at him. "Are you okay though?" I ask for lack of anything else to say. I mean, she was obviously unscathed but she's pretty and that means I want to talk to her a little bit.

"Yeah, I'm good." She replies.

"I'm Ricky and this is my friend Alex." I say, pointing over to Alex.

"Nicole." She says and Alex and I nod.

"Are you from around here?" Alex asks. By this time we're walking again.

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