Nineteen-year-old Kennedy Greene has lived in Portland, Oregon her whole life; she's not well-aquainted with warm, sandy beaches. So naturally, when her freshly-divorced parents decide to ship her off with her self-employed, free-spirited Aunt Layla...
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As Kennedy fell off her board for the seventh time in the past ten minutes, she began to let defeat take over. She laid her head down on the epoxy-coated surface and groaned loudly.
"Giving up already?" Carter asked her, paddling over.
"This is too hard. There's water in my eyes and up my nose and down my throat and I'm never learn anyway," Kennedy sighed sadly.
"You quit way too easily. Do you think you're supposed to ride a wave all the way to the shore the first time you ever get up?" He asked her.
"Don't give up, Kennedy! It just takes time," Andria encouraged as she paddled out past Kennedy and Carter to catch another swell.
"I think I'm done for today," Kennedy stated, pushing her board back to the sand.
"Do you wanna ride with me?" Carter asked once they both stood ankle-deep, genuinely trying to be helpful for once.
"How does that even work?" Kennedy set her borrowed board down next to her towel.
"You'll see, come on," Carter responded, a grin taking over his face as he offered Kennedy his hand.
Reluctantly, she took it and let him lead her back out to the crests and falls of the water. Liam wolf-whistled as he ran past the two, seeing their interlocked fingers. Kennedy rolled her eyes and tried to remove her hand from Carter's, but he held tight and shot a wink back toward her.
"You're cute when you blush, baby," he said, a cocky look in his eyes. Kennedy was hoping he wouldn't notice the pink in her cheeks.
Once they were on the water, Carter helped Kennedy sit at the front of the board, "accidentally" touching her ass in the process. She slapped his hand away, which only made him grin wider before he hopped onto the board himself and began paddling them out further.
Kennedy stayed sitting on her butt, her fingers curled around each side of the board in an effort not to fall off. Carter saw a wave that he liked and turned his board around, paddling quickly before gripping the board and jumping to his feet, stretching up to full height. He grabbed Kennedy's hand and, keeping the board steady, helped her to her feet.
"Don't move too much or we'll fall," Carter instructed as his hands rested on Kennedy's hips, guiding the board straight toward the beach.
The feeling was indescribable. Kennedy felt like she was flying through the air, weightless on top of the surge beneath her. She tried to ignored the feeling of Carter's hands on her body, and tried even harder to ignore the annoying goosebumps that they raised.
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