Body Surfing (31 page)

"No!" she calls back to him.

"What's the matter? Don't you trust me?"

"Trust you?" she calls, laughing.

Ben turns and makes an expert dive into an oncoming wave.

She leaves her clothes in a pile. She raises her arms. The air is soft and luscious on her skin. She runs toward the ocean, gathering tremendous speed as she goes.

Acknowledgments

A novel almost never belongs solely to the author. I have had several editors for this one--some of them professionals, all of them friends. I list them here in the order in which they looked at the manuscript. John Osborn. Rick Russo. Katherine Clemans. Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. Michael Pietsch. Asya Muchnick. Celeste Cooper. Elinor Lipman. Pamela Marshall.

About the Author

Anita Shreve is the critically acclaimed author of twelve previous novels, including A Wedding in December, The Pilot's Wife, which was a selection of Oprah's Book Club, and The Weight of Water, which was a finalist for England's Orange Prize. She lives in Massachusetts.