Page 69 of Hail Marry
I elbow him.
“We,” he corrects himself. “We’dlove to rent it from you. I’m assuming you’d like to do a credit check?—”
The man waves that suggestion off and smiles at us. “I’m old school. I go off my gut. You’ll pay on time, right?”
“Absolutely,” Luca says. “In fact, I’d be happy to pay for a few months upfront.”
We sit down at the deck table with glasses of water while Mr. Ross gets the contract his niece drew up. Luca and I look it over, and Luca insists on changing the rental amount to 50% higher than what Mr. Ross has listed.
I smile as I listen to him bully the man into accepting more money. Luca insists he’s not a good friend. He’s so much more than that, though. He’s a great person all-around. What person negotiates their rental rateup?
“He can be really bossy,” I say to Mr. Ross, sending a smile at Luca.
We sign our names on the contract—with a move-in date of next weekend—then Mr. Ross takes it inside to make a photocopy, something I end up having to help him with.
I keep having to remind myself I’m not actually going to be living here. It’s depressing, but like Luca said, I can come anytime I want.
Mr. Ross and I head back outside, where Luca’s looking out over the ocean by the beach equipment.
“Do you two boogie board?” Mr. Ross asks.
“Yes,” I say at the same time Luca says “No.”
Mr. Ross chuckles as I shoot a questioning look at Luca.
“I’ve never tried,” he says.
“Never tried boogie boarding?” I say with the same incredulity I’d use if he told me he’d never tasted chocolate.
“Sounds like you’d better take those for a spin,” Mr. Ross says with a twinkle. “You can’t live here without knowing how to boogie board, Mr. Callahan.”
“I didn’t see that in the contract,” Luca says with a little smile.
“The fine print,” Mr. Ross teases.
I grab two boards, deaf to Luca’s excuses about not having swimsuits and the sun going down soon. I pull him through the back gate and down the steps to the beach. He finally gives up when I pull him into the water. It’s a good thing too because I couldn’t drag him anywhere he didn’t want to go any more than I could drag an anchor.
The horizon pulls the sun downward like a magnet while I teach Luca the refined art of boogie boarding. To my utter annoyance, he eclipses me in skill within half an hour. He starts taking pleasure in guiding his board as close to mine as possible while we ride the waves. I’m not one to back down, so it becomes a battle to see who can knock the other person off their board. He has an itty-bitty advantage over me in size, but I do my best to yank him with me.
It gets too dark to continue safely, and we ride the last wave in.
Our clothes are plastered to us, and I keep my eyes trained away from Luca’s body. They sneak a few peeks anyway.
Mr. Ross is inside his kitchen on the phone, so we set the boards back where they were and head to the car. I’ve got sand in every crevice of my body, including parts hitherto unknown to anatomy experts.
Luca suggests we get ice cream from one of the nearby shops, but I’m already cold, so he buys warm churros instead. We re-live the best boogie boarding moments as we eat them by the light of the rising moon.
I pull out my phone. “We need a picture.”
“We do?”
“Yes,” I say decisively. “I’m in desperate need of photographic evidence for Jess—she’s my coworker, and she’s kind of obsessed with us—and didn’t Preston say we should be sending him more pictures?”
“True.”
I put my phone up for a selfie, and Luca rests his head against mine as he looks into the camera. There’s none of the awkwardness that was there when I forced him to take that first picture to send to my family. It just feels…natural, him and me.
***
