clear water || jake nolan [on hold]

2

Chapter Two
"Bondi Barbecue"

After leaving work that Friday, Aryn, Natalie and Scarlett went down to Bondi. Emily had invited them to come hang out with her, Billy and Leo.

They found Emily and the boys down at the North End flags and sat down with them. They sat for a little bit building sandcastles and talking before taking their regular clothes off and going down to the water.

They didn't go any farther than the shallows because of the boys and Scarlett, but Billy and Leo did manage to catch some Minos and Aryn put Scarlett's feet in the water for the first time.

It wasn't long until they were all spotted by the lifeguards. Harries brought down the rhino with Jake and another lifeguard who Aryn hadn't met yet. Harries hops off and makes his way to his niece. He pulls her in for a bear hug and takes Scarlett out of her arms once he pulls away. He hugs Natalie as well before turning to Jake and the other lifeguard.

"Jake you already know Aryn and Scars. This is Aryn's best friend Natalie." Harries introduces Natalie and Jake. "Harrison, you don't know any of them, so this is my niece Aryn. This is her baby Scarlett, and this is Natalie, Scarlett's god mother and Aryn's best friend, she's basically my niece too."

Natalie and Harrison shyly smile at each other and say hello. Aryn and Jake end up standing next to each other and they look at each other with a smirk.

"How's your day been?" Aryn asks Jake as Harries and Emily play with the kids and Natalie and Harrison start talking.

"Good, not too crazy. How's your day been?" Jake replies and smiles at Aryn.

"Great, actually. Things are finally going well." She says as she looks at her daughter.

"I'm glad your doing better. I know everyone who follows pro surfing was worried about you." His words cause Aryn's heart to start beating faster.

He knew her before now?

"Were you worried about me too?" She asks quietly.

Jake blushes and stammers. "Well. I-. Yeah. I was." He breathes. She smiles and laughs.

"You're really cute." She blurts without realizing. Jake just smiles and stares at her.

"You're really cute too, but seriously I'm glad you are back to almost normal. Everyone here has followed you for years. We were all worried about you and I'm glad your injury and accident weren't as serious as they could've been." She glances over at him and gives a weak smile.

"The truth is, no one except Natalie and my sister knows exactly what happened." Aryn says quietly. "A lot of things went wrong that week, but a few good things came out of it too." She says as she watches Harries play with Scarlett in the water.

"Scarlett?" He asks, also watching his friend with the baby.

"Yeah, she's my little miracle. She'll never know how much I needed her. I still need her now, but I really needed her then."

"She's lucky to have you." Jake says genuinely. He pulls her in for a hug when he notices she's overthinking.

"Thank you, Jake." She whispers. "I've never really told anyone that, it just kind of came out. It's really easy to talk to you."