Meet Me in Hawaii by Georgia Toffolo (best affordable ebook reader TXT) 📗

Stupid question. He knew why well enough. He was too busy being caught up in her and her invitation to think straight.

So here he now was, surrounded by sun-drenched men and women all looking perfectly at home laughing, cheering on their mates, groaning at what they called wipe-outs, and there was he, a city boy, dressed in his usual shirt, shorts and trainers. He toed off the latter, stuck his socks inside and pushed his aviators up his nose – at least they helped hide his sudden confusion.

‘Hey dude, you lost?’

Some shaggy-haired guy, lanky but muscular and wearing just a pair of low-slung board shorts, paused before him and raked his hair out of his eyes as he squinted at him. He sounded Australian, hardly a local himself.

‘I’m that obvious?’

‘’Fraid so,’ he said, taking in his ensemble. ‘You here to watch?’

He nodded. ‘You don’t happen to know Malie Pukui, do you?’

What a stupid question. The place was teeming with people, he might as well have just walked into the centre of London and asked a tourist if he knew his father.

The guy’s eyes lit up. ‘You’re kidding, right?’

Todd frowned. ‘No…’

‘Everyone knows Malie, she’s a beaut! Not many that can handle a wave like her, male or female.’

Now he felt extra foolish; of course a surfer would know who she was. ‘She told me to come watch her surf. Is she around?’

‘Is she around?’ He gave a laugh. ‘She’s out there, dude.’

The guy turned to face the sea, his hand over his eyes as he scanned the surfing dots. How he could identify anyone from here, Todd had no idea.

‘See that cluster of surfers off to the left, in the line-up?’ He gestured with his hand and Todd felt his heart lurch again as he watched the waves swell and curve.

‘Yes.’ His voice sounded distant as he strained to make her out, not daring to believe she was being lifted by waves as tall as these.

‘She’s in the pink and white, matching the colour of her board… and it looks like you’re in luck, this wave’s hers.’

‘How can you—’ He was about to ask how could he tell but then she was moving, taking off on the lip of the wave, its face colossal and curving as she ripped down it so fast he couldn’t breathe. And then she was turning back into it, taking it horizontally, as it curved over the top of her, dwarfing her. She looked tiny, vulnerable, and surely she was going way too fast?

The spray kicked up in the air, one minute she was visible, the next she was gone. Gone. His stomach lurched.

‘Wait for it. Wait for it…’ It was the Aussie who spoke – Todd couldn’t have found his voice if he tried – and then suddenly she erupted from the closed end of the wave, her arms outstretched. He could imagine her whoop from here but any sound was drowned out by the thundering crash of the wave, the cheers from the shore.

‘Pretty special, ain’t she?’ The Aussie fist-bumped his upper arm, waking Todd from his trance.

He swallowed. ‘Yeah.’

‘You can come sit with us if you like; knowing Malie, she won’t be in for another half an hour.’

It beat sitting like an outsider. ‘Cheers.’

He couldn’t tear his eyes off her as she navigated the waves, taking on another and swinging the board up through the air.

‘Yeah, go, Malie!’ the Aussie bellowed, his fist pumping the air now. ‘You see the air she just caught with that one?’

Yeah, he saw all right; the leap of the board, the image of her as she twisted round to come straight back down the wave, the speed, the power, the control, it was mesmerizing – and he almost walked straight into a red flagpole. He sidestepped it and looked up: WARNING. Rip currents. You could be swept out and drown. IF IN DOUBT DON’T GO OUT.

Alongside it was another: WARNING. NO SWIMMING.

He could see further red flagpoles dotted down the beach.

‘No swimming doesn’t apply to surfers then?’ he asked.

The Aussie laughed, ‘You’re funny.’

He wasn’t intending to be.

‘Whoa, not cool.’

Todd looked to him, but his eyes were on the water. ‘What’s not?’

‘She just got dropped in on.’

‘Dropped in on?’

He tried to see her but the bright pink and white had vanished. Then he saw the board fly up through the air, no Malie. His chest convulsed. ‘Where is she?’

‘She wiped out; someone took her out. Not cool, not cool.’ He shook his head and carried on walking.

‘Hey, shouldn’t we get the lifeguard?’ He stared at the spot where he could make out glimpses of her board in the white froth. Surely, she’d been under too long. ‘Hey… hey…’ he chased after him, ‘what if—’

Before he could finish, she appeared, tossed out by the wave, her body launching from the water and relief swamped him, his skin awash with goose bumps.

‘See, she’s got this, and she’s seen worse, believe me,’ the Aussie said, clearly unperturbed.

It wasn’t even 9 a.m. and Todd suddenly needed a drink.

‘Hey, don’t look so spooked! It’s all good.’

He nodded, knowing his voice wouldn’t work.

‘She’d be Queen of the Pipe if only she’d put her name down, it’s crazy that she doesn’t.’

‘Queen of the Pipe?’

‘Yeah, it’s the big wave-surfing competition that hits this spot in a few weeks’ time. It’s all over the TV and everything. She’d take the crown easy, it’s not like we haven’t gone on at her about it either, but she reckons she’s too busy at the surf school.’

Todd thought about it and wondered if that truly was the case. ‘Do you think—’

He was cut off by a shout, ‘Hey, who’s your friend, EJ?’

It came from a group of four surfers lounging off to the right, all in a similar state of dress as the Aussie.

‘A friend of Malie’s, I said he could hang with us until she quits.’

‘You mean Todd?’ The guy who spoke looked like Kalani, only a younger model. He’d put money on them being