Free She Writes Love... by Sandi Lynn

laptop, picked up Romeo, and headed to bed. I already knew that I’d be up all night thinking about Ben and tomorrow’s surfing adventure.
    ****
    “M eow. Meow. Meow.”
    I opened my eyes to Romeo staring me in the face and yelling that he was hungry. As I looked over at the clock and saw it was seven, I climbed out of bed and headed to the kitchen for coffee and a can of Fancy Feast. Romeo followed behind me and stood by his bowl in anticipation of the can opening and food hitting his bowl. Grabbing my phone and cigarettes, I headed to the garage for a smoke. Nothing important was sitting in my email, which was always good, and there were no missed calls or text messages from anyone in my family. I knew Keaton would be at the beach this morning around six or seven like he always was, so telling Ben to meet me at nine was safe. It was bad enough that I was going to be interrogated tonight at family dinner. After I changed and packed my bag, I grabbed both surfboards, strapped them to the roof of my car, and headed to the beach. My stomach was doing flips and I felt like I was going to say something stupid when I saw Ben. When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw Ben’s truck and an open space next to him. As I pulled in, he was just getting out.
    “Hey.” He smiled.
    “Hey. Did you just get here?” I asked as I got out of my car.
    “Yeah. I just threw the truck in park when you pulled up next to me.”
    He walked over and helped me untie the surfboards from the roof. I opened the back and took out my bag. As I was putting on the wetsuit, I couldn’t help but notice what Ben was wearing.
    “Board shorts?” I smiled.
    “I did a little research and went to the store last night. I wanted to be prepared.”
    I handed him his board and I took mine. As we headed down the beach towards the water, I scanned the area for Keaton. The good thing was that it was a cooler than normal day and there really wasn’t anyone at the beach, so we pretty much had the water to ourselves.
    “You’re not afraid to be cold, are you?” I asked.
    “Not at all.”
    “Good. The water can be pretty cold this time of the year.”
    I gasped when he took off his navy blue t-shirt. The definition of his abs, Apollo belt, and his happy trail were arousing me. Ben Preston, the fireman, was way sexier than I thought. I snapped back into reality and tried to get my hormones under control before we hit the water.
    We put our boards in and I told him to paddle and follow me. As soon as we paddled far enough away from shore, I sat on my board and went over a few tips with him. I felt embarrassed because he was smiling at me the whole time I was talking.
    “A wave’s coming. Watch me first and then you can catch the next one.”
    “I would be more than happy to watch you.” He smiled.
    As soon as I felt the pull of the wave, I stood up. “Woo hoo,” I yelled. When the wave ended, I paddled back to where Ben was.
    “Wow. That was amazing.” He smiled.
    “Thank you. Are you ready?”
    “Yeah. I think so.”
    “Okay. Watch the wave line and when I say ‘go,’ start paddling towards it. Remember to keep your back arched as much as you can to avoid the nose of the board dipping down. You want to keep that up.”
    “Okay. I’ll remember.”
    “Let’s go.” I smiled as we both paddled out to the wave. As the wave was about to break, I yelled at Ben.
    “Pop up, now!”
    He did and then stood up and was able to ride the wave for a couple of seconds before falling over. I couldn’t help but laugh because I was having flashbacks of Keaton.
    “It takes a lot of practice,” I said as I paddled over to him.
    ****
    Ben
    T he water was cold, but I didn’t care. Watching Paisley surf was exciting. And I mean in more ways than one. I never knew a girl that surfed before and it was quite a turn-on. As the wave crashed down on me and I lost my balance, I didn’t care because, for a few seconds, the adrenaline that shot through my body was