Cinderella in the Surf (18 page)

"Not bad, rookie," Missy says, tossing a cleaning rag over at me.

I smile and snatch it out of the air. "It's kind of boring when you don't send any customers into a rage."

Missy laughs. "I dunno how Lydia would feel about that."

"Maybe I shouldn't test it. How'd you two get by on your own here?" I ask, turning around and brushing crumbs onto the floor.

"Oh, it's not just us," she replies. "I mean, it is during the week, usually. I'll go from eleven to nine or so and then there's a weekend crew and sometimes those guys'll cover for me if I need a day, y'know? And Lydia helped with the tables a lot. I like cooking, though."

I smile. "You're good at it, too. I'm kinda glad I came back."
 

Missy nods, then jerks her head back in the direction of Lydia's office. "Yeah, you're not the only one."

I'm about to respond when the front door opens, and I whip my head around, ready to tell whoever it is that we're closed for the night and they'll have to wait until tomorrow to get their taco fix.

"Hoaloha, so glad I found you! They said you'd be here."

I blink as Ahe rushes into the tiny dining room, out of breath and with a sweaty forehead.

"Who did? Ahe, what's going on?" I drop the rag and hurry over to him. "Is it Mom and Dad? Seth? Are they okay? Tell me!"
 

He sucks in a deep breath. "I will if you give me a second to talk. They're fine. Everyone is fine. Why are you here?"

I frown at him. "I work here."

He waves his hand in front of his face. "I know that. How else do you think I'd find you?" He shakes his head like he can't believe he has to explain this to me. "But what are you
doing
here now? Don't you got somewhere else to be?"

I glance over at Missy, who's staring back at me with a confused look on her face, then back at Ahe as I run through my mental calendar.

It's summer, so there's pretty much nothing on it, and I have no idea what Ahe's talking about.

"Don't think so."
 

"Rachel! Where is that head of yours these days? Up in the clouds with that Walker boy, I'm sure," Ahe says, and my stomach twists slightly at the thought of him, but I'm not in the mood to go down that path now and fill him in on all the bloody details. "The ball. It's happening now."
 

I swallow hard. I've completely forgotten about the ball. "I'm not registered for the competition. It'd be weird if I went."
 

Even as the words leave my mouth -- and even though they're true -- they hurt.
 

I've been looking forward to surfing in the Invitational for as long as I can remember, and part of that, even if it was only a small part, was because of the incredible stories I'd always heard about the ball.

The night before the Invitational, all of the organizers and all of the past winners and people who are signed up to take part in the upcoming one get together at a local resort.
 

It's just a lot of getting to know other surfers, wearing something other than a bikini or wetsuit, and having a heck of a good time.

Or that's what I've heard, anyway.

And since we never had enough money to send me to a different place for all the other past contests, this was the first year I'd been planning on going.

So much for that.

Add one more line to the list of things I've lost because of Alex.

"Nobody'll blink an eye seein' you," Ahe says. "You belong there."

I pick up the rag. "Not anymore."

"Rachel."
 

Ahe's voice is different, like he's tired of putting up with me. I stare at him, daring him to break eye contact first, but he doesn't and I'm the one who looks away.

"Give me one good reason I should go there and listen to Piper Monaghan tell me why she's the best surfer that ever lived."

"Is she right?"

It's a simple question with a simple answer, and it doesn't take too long for me to figure it out.

"No."
 

Ahe just raises his eyebrows and I feel a smile start to spread across my face. I ball up the rag and turn around to look at Missy.

"Go," she says, grinning. "I have no clue what you guys are talking about but it sounds important. I can finish up here."
 

I toss the cloth to her, grab my bag and leave the restaurant with Ahe.

He turns to me and smiles.

"You're making the right choice."

I only wish I felt as good about it as he sounds.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The ball is happening at one of my favorite resorts downtown. All of the palm trees lining the entrance are wrapped in thousands of tiny twinkling golden lights.

"Wait," I hiss, reaching out and grabbing his arm as he's about to pull open one of the heavy oak doors leading to the grand ballroom. Loud, happy chatter buzzes from the other side. "I can't go in there like this."
 

For the first time, I realize Ahe's wearing nice, pressed khakis, a button down shirt and a tie.
 

And I'm in my baggy gray Trippy Tim's shirt and a pair of black yoga pants.
 

Plus, there's a giant brown glob of taco sauce underneath the 'm' on my shirt.
 

Hot.
 

Ahe takes in my outfit, then frowns and tugs at his collar, which doesn't make me feel a whole lot better.

"I'm not so sure what we can do to fix that."

"Well, we're gonna have to do something."

We're staring at each other, Ahe clearly wishing I'd forget about my clothes, and me hoping he'll snap his fingers and produce a gorgeous dress for me to slip into.

"Some fairy godfather you turned out to be," I mutter under my breath.

The door creaks open and a very obviously drunk couple comes stumbling out into the hall. Ahe grabs the door before it slams and I get a glimpse of the ballroom inside.

A glimpse of the dance floor.

A glimpse of one very familiar-looking blonde head.

Nestled in the arms of one very familiar-looking blonde guy.

The DJ set up in the corner of the room plays a slow song, and it's calm inside, just a low hum from hushed voices.

"Is that Walker?" Ahe sounds confused about what he's seeing. I, on the other hand, feel like a tire that's suddenly gone flat.

"Yep."

"Who's he with?" Ahe squints, then gasps. "That's Piper Monaghan."

I pretend hearing it out loud doesn't hurt me, and maybe it shouldn't, but it's like thousands of tiny knives are ganging up on me at once.

"Yeah. He's allowed to hang out with whoever he wants, I guess."

"This isn't right, hoaloha. They don't look right."

I'm watching them together, all dressed up and lovely, and it just makes me feel sick.

"Rachel," Ahe says when I keep quiet. "You gotta do something."

I shake my head and lean back against one of the tables. "I can't. He broke his promise."

I stare at the two of them, looking so much like a couple in the middle of the dance floor, trying to block out all the things pulsing through me right now.

And then it happens, like a bolt of lightning streaking across the sky without a warning, the
 
storm already here.

Piper lifts her head from Walker's chest and looks up at him. When she cranes her neck, I know exactly what she's angling for, and that's when I stop thinking.

I'm not worrying about my clothes, about taco stains, about Ahe or money or surfing or Alex or any of it.
 

I'm inside the ballroom, marching straight over to the dance floor, to the couple that so clearly does not belong together.

And it's about to get a heck of a lot louder in here.

I storm over to them. They aren't talking. Piper has her head pressed up against his chest, her eyes closed and a dumb far-away smile on her face. Walker's looking away from me. I don't know what he's thinking.

But that doesn't stop me.

"What the
hell
is this," I hiss, thinking that if I keep my voice down, I'll avoid creating a huge scene at the opening ball.
 

Piper's eyes pop open, but as soon as she sees me, the smile on her face goes from lazy and happy to amused and predatory.
 

As if she's really going to enjoy this.

I doubt it.

Walker is slower to react, or maybe it's just in my head, but I watch as he turns to face me.

And it takes a few seconds for his expression to change when he figures out what's going on.

"Rachel!" he says, letting go of Piper like she's suddenly burst into flames. "Why are you here?"

"That's a great question," Piper adds. "This is for people who are surfing tomorrow, you know. Not drop-outs."
 

"Then I guess I should ask you the same thing," I say, keeping my eyes firmly trained on Walker the whole time. A faint -- and satisfying -- blush clouds his cheeks.

"He's here because I asked him to be," Piper says even though I still haven't acknowledged her.

I guess she isn't going to go quietly into the night like I'd been hoping.
 

That was wishful thinking, anyway.

"So you came here with her."

It takes awhile for Walker's eyes to meet mine, but eventually he knows he has no choice but to look at me.
 

"I, um, I -- "

"It's really not a difficult answer," I snap. "You either did or you didn't. But it's also kind of obvious to anyone with one eye and half a brain."

He shrugs. "So what? It's not like I said no to you to come here with her."
 

"So what?" I snap. "So what? Are you kidding me with this right now, Walker? Who
are
you?"

He throws his hands up in the air. "I don't know what you want me to say, Rachel. You're up, you're down, you're mad at me for breaking a promise and don't want to talk to me, now you're made at me for going somewhere without you. You don't know what you're doing and it's getting kind of hard to keep up with all the mood swings."

I press my lips into a tight, thin line. "That's not an answer."
 

Walker rolls his eyes. "It's still the truth."

"What's with the outfit, anyway?" Piper asks, her nose scrunched up. "You look like your shift just ended at a fast food joint."
 

I focus my attention on her for the first time since I marched up to them. "Actually, it did," I snap, and watching the look on her face shift from smug to surprised is worth it. She shuts up after that.

"Now that that's cleared up, can I talk to you?" Walker says to me. He glances at Piper out of the corner of his eye. "Away from here?"

She doesn't like that. "Walker! We're in the middle of a dance."
 

As if he's listening to our conversation, the DJ ends the slow song and a fast one starts playing over the speakers.
 

"Guess that's over," I say.

"Rachel?" Walker turns and walks off the dance floor without waiting for me to respond.

Like I'm not going to follow him anyway.

Walker heads right out of the ballroom and I'm behind him all the way through a maze of hallways until he pushes his way through a door and into a courtyard near the resort's pools with the same lighted palm trees.

It's beautiful out here, one of my favorite places in the whole town.

And it kinda sucks that I'm here in such a pretty, happy, romantic place with Walker under such crappy circumstances.
 

There are empty chairs lining the patio, but he doesn't sit down.

"Okay, Rachel," he says, turning to face me. "What's the deal here? What's going on?"

"I don't know what you mean."
 

"Cut the crap. You're driving me nuts. I meant what I said in there, you know. It's something different every day from you. I don't know how to react anymore."

"You're not the only one," I fire back. "Talk about what happened to me, but what's happened to
you
?"

"I'm the same as I always was."
 

I laugh. "Yeah, okay, Walker. Whatever you say."
 

He folds his arms across his chest. "Give me one example."

I pretend to think about it. "Let's see, I didn't think you'd ditch me to surf with Piper Monaghan all afternoon, but that sure happened."

Walker just rolls his eyes and blows out some air, and I'd be lying if I said his reaction doesn't surprise me. I'm not sure what I'm expecting from him when I throw out the Piper card, but an eye roll definitely isn't it.

"Give it a rest, Rachel. You act like Piper is this horrible devil chick that fell out of the sky just so she could make your life suck. She's really not that bad."
 

I glare at him, hardly able to believe a word coming out of his mouth. "Well, that's lovely for you two, then. But she's still gonna be the chick that told me she's glad Alex died so she could win a surfing crown. She's a peach."

"Maybe that was a misunderstanding."
 

My eyes bug out slightly. "Why didn't you ask her to teach you how to surf instead of me? I was perfectly fine never going near another board again until you dragged me back in."

"Because you're never going to do it on your own."

"Maybe that's okay with me."

He shakes his head. "It's not."
 

"You have no idea what you're talking about."
 

"You're confused, Rachel. You've been spinning since Alex died and that's obvious. But at some point, you're gonna need to start pulling yourself together."
 

"Oh, sorry I'm such an inconvenient mess," I snap.

"Dammit that's not what I said and you know it."

"Is there some manual that everyone got but me that tells you how to act when your best friend drops dead? Because that's what I'm hearing from you, Walker."
 

He sighs. "I'm not talking about that, either."
 

"Well I don't think I'm acting crazy, but apparently I am, and I'm the only one who doesn't know it."