Page 28 of Catch a Wave
“Plans? Actually, yes. Summer’s coming to pick me up just before lunch. We’re going to meet a friend of hers further up the island.”
Bodhi smiles. “I hope it’s Phyllis.”
“I think the name was something like that.”
“You’re gonna love her. She’s a kick in the pants.”
“Okaaay.”
He’s smiling again, free and breezy, and I only see a moment of hesitation which might reveal something other than ease in the way he’s treating me. Maybe he’s trying hard to smooth out the waters and move on. God knows I want to. Our past tugs at me like a riptide. My accident weighs on me like a boulder in my arms dragging me deep under the waves.
Bodhi tips his head down to take a bite, and I study him. The features I know almost as well as my own have only changed in nearly imperceptible ways since I last saw him. The way he carries himself is lighter, though. His ghosts and demons seem to have vanished. He’s more like the man I fell in love with, not the one I reluctantly left behind two years ago. It’s obvious Bodhi’s happy here on Marbella. I get the distinct feeling he truly moved on. I’m simultaneously relieved and crushed by the realization.
“What are you doing before you go to work?” Small talk. I can do this.
Maybe if I act like Bodhi’s just my brother’s housemate, I can curb the way my fingers itch to reach up and brush across his chin dimple. My mouth wouldn’t mind a refresher as to how his stubble feels against my lips. I feel the blush rise up my neck. I duck my head and stare into my cereal.
“I’m going to do a little yoga,” he looks up, swallows his bite, and winks at me.
Gah. That wink.
“Yoga?”
“Yeah. It’s good for keeping me limber and centered. I’ve stuck with it ever since Bali …”
His voice trails off as memories wash over both of us.Bali.
“That’s great,” I say with a bit too much brightness in my voice.
“Yeah. I stopped for a while ... after …” He sighs. “But I picked my practice up again about a year and a half ago.”
His eyes drift toward the front of the house, but it’s like he’s watching something that isn’t there.
“Look, Mav … Kalaine.” He turns his face back to me. “This whole situation can be awkward if we let it. I know it is at times—and that’s probably unavoidable. I’m trying to make it less so. But I think I’m messing up. I give you space, and I feel like I’m ignoring you, which I’m totally not. Then I talk to you, and …” His eyes plead with me. His voice lowers to a quietness nearing a whisper. “I know how badly I hurt you. I’d do anything to take that back. All of it.” He looks down and then back up at me. “But what I want more than anything, now, is to be friends and move past all of what we left behind. Maybe when you’re ready …”
Friends. I should be thrilled. He’s been nothing but accommodating, or at least trying to be. Thisisawkward. He’s not wrong—and it’s awkward for both of us, not just me.
“Yeah. I think we can be friends,” I agree.
My heart throws a fit rivaling a toddler in the cereal aisle. I push the cart onward. Nope. No. I’m not going to wish for more. And holding a grudge is way too exhausting when I’m already overwhelmed with the state of my life.
Bodhi’s right. We need to aim forward.
Friends. That’s what we’re going to be.
“Would you be up for a little yoga?” He stands and takes both our bowls to the sink.
“I can get that.” I stand and follow him, clopping more steadily in my boot than I had even a week ago when I arrived here.
“Nah. Let me.” He turns on the faucet. “So, yoga? Are you down for a little sesh?”
“In this?” I point to my boot.
“Yeah. I’ve seen paraplegics do yoga in chairs. And I went to one class with a dude who only had one leg. You’ll manage.”
I’m standing next to him now, reaching for the bowls Bodhi washed and rinsed. He bumps me playfully and I wobble just the slightest.
“Okay,” I hear myself say.
