Jax

I was zooming down PCH, trying to get to lifeguard headquarters before I was officially late. The weather was picture perfect for a day on the water, but I didn't even see it as I stewed over my morning interruption.

"My chi is blocked? What the hell?" I banged my hand on the steering wheel, trying to process the crazy conversation that just happened. I didn't know what the fuck chi was, but it didn't sound good to have it stagnant. My plumbing worked fine, thank you very much, lady.

She fit the picture of some business person stepping into an area she knew nothing about. Who wore heels on the docks? Or pretty much anywhere in HB outside of some fancy restaurant? And what kind of perfume was she wearing? She'd smelled like I'd stepped out of a day spa immediately into an old Woodstock concert. Not a bad scent at all, just made me think of hippies and flowers and bellbottoms.

Furthermore, who the hell did she think she was, assuming I would jump at the chance to sell The Shack? Like she was some fucking savior in a black suit and glasses, throwing money around at us little people.

And yet...there was something about her. I couldn't put my finger on it. Or more accurately, I wanted to put all my fingers on it. Everything about her was wrong and pissed me off, but something kept pulling me in, too.

She dressed like a corporate soldier, but she couldn't walk for shit in those heels, like she wasn't used to wearing them. And who brings up someone's chi in the same breath as they offer to buy your business?

I laughed out loud, letting the anger go and recognizing the craziness of the conversation. I didn't know if I'd see her again, but at least she gave me a few minutes of something totally different from my mundane work schedule.

Plus, behind that suit, she wasn't so bad to look at. Tall, blonde, put together nicely. When I'd grabbed her arms to keep her from falling on my property and suing me, she'd felt strong, like she had some muscle on her, which was an instant turn-on for me. I was a regular at my gym and I wasn't interested in a woman who didn't value her health like I did. This girl wasn't my type otherwise, but I could appreciate an attractive female just like the next guy.

The waves were wicked today, crashing hard and toppling quite a few surfers. I'd been busy zooming up and down the coast advising inexperienced surfers to try another day. Most took the advice and rode their boards in, but some persisted, which meant I was stuck out here keeping an eye on them from my rescue watercraft or jet ski to the non-lifeguards.

I was also looking out for other water vessels and marine life. We didn't get very many sharks in HB but they were dangerous enough we always checked the water surface. The helicopter would spot a shark before we ever would, but since I was the guy out in the damn water where the danger was, I was gonna keep checking in case the heli missed it.

It was nearing the end of my shift and the aggro surfers were few and far between now that the waves had calmed down a bit. I was north of the pier when I spotted a female paddling out on a huge board. I rolled my eyes and tracked her movement, knowing I had a kook on my hands. It took her forever to paddle out since she wasn't duck diving, so each wave that hit set her back several yards. That, and the fact that she had a wide ten foot board in this area, clued me in. Long boarders didn't frequent this spot. They tended to stay in the smaller waves that didn't require a lot of turning.

I had to hand it to her, she didn't give up. She finally made it out past the break and sat up on the end of her board. While she took a break, I scanned up and down the coastline, making sure I kept her in my peripheral vision.

Not even five minutes later, I saw her start paddling as a swell approached. I cringed and gave her my full attention, pulling up a little closer. The wave hit, the nose of her board went under, and she went flying into the water. She floated up and spit out water, hair obscuring her face. Before she could reel in her board, another wave hit and she went under and repeated the sputtering. This time, she hustled to get her board and hopped on, losing her suit bottoms in the process.

And hot damn, what a fine ass that was. I was momentarily distracted from my job, paying more attention to that strip of smooth, round, white skin than whether she was breathing okay after quite a tussle with the waves. She reached down with one hand and pulled the bottoms back up before paddling out further and sitting back up on her board.

I shook my head to clear that image, knowing it was burned into my brain anyhow. Firing up the jet ski, I pulled up close to her, the motor noise catching her attention.

"Hey!" I called out to her, then cut the engine and leaned as close as I dared.

"Hey," she called back.

I could see she was out of breath. When she swiveled her board around so she could see my face, I nearly fell off my jet ski.

Hippie girl.

The girl in the VW that cut me off the other day was right in front of me. It had to be her. I didn't think I'd ever see her again, and yet here she was, in the flesh, having just flashed me her gorgeous ass. My day was going from bizarre to fantastic.

"You cut me off the other day." I hadn't meant to say that out loud, but that's what came out as I tried to keep my eyes off her hardened nipples poking through the wet rash guard she wore. Hell, it may have been her nipples that I recognized, more than her face.

"I what--?" She scrunched up her face, looking adorably confused.

"On PCH a couple days ago, you were driving a VW Bug and you cut me off to get in a turn lane. Sound familiar?"

She threw back her head and laughed. "Yep, that was me. Sorry about that."

I just stared at her, taking in her laugh, her smile, the whole picture. Her long blonde hair was loose and wet hanging down her back in a tangled mess. No make-up to create a visual barrier to who she was. She'd just been tossed around in some waves, yet she already seemed over it and completely carefree.

"No wonder you weren't so happy to see me this morning." Hippie girl was still smiling at me, oblivious to my perusal of her body, practically naked except for a shirt that outlined her pert, little breasts and swim bottoms that had already shown me what was underneath.

My gaze flew back to her face as her words sunk in. "Wait, what?" Now I was the confused one. This morning?

"At the shop?" She prompted me, the smile fading off her face.

It took another few seconds of awkward silence before I figured out what she meant. The connection hit me like a thunderbolt.

"Holy shit, that was you this morning?" I sat back down on my jet ski, completely agape that these two women were one and the same. They were so different. Something didn't compute.

"When you left, I thought I'd rent a board from your shop and see for myself what the waves were like. Maybe get a sense of why the shop is so important to you. So, here I am." She spread her arms like this was the most natural place to find the annoying business woman from this morning.

I shook my head, putting aside my confused thoughts and finally remembering what the hell I was doing there on a jet ski. "You should take the board in. These waves are too big for a beginner. Did Jonny tell you to bring that board here?"

If my employee was renting longboards to beginners and telling them to surf here I was going to have a serious conversation with the kid. This was no place for a beginner and if we didn't want to be sued, we shouldn't be giving out bad advice.

She frowned at my harsh tone. "No, he said to take it down to Blackie's, but I don't know where that is, so I stopped and parked when I saw surfers. Figured right by the pier would be fairly safe."

I frowned at her, a little pissed off that she didn't think to ask around. The ocean wasn't a safe place for beginners if they didn't have someone with them to show them what to look for. Her type of naivety kept me in a job, but I couldn't even think about what may have happened had she gone out by herself in a less populated area where the lifeguards didn't cover as much.

"Well, you figured wrong. Waves in this area are almost always four foot and today they happen to be heavy. Why don't you lay on the board and I'll tow you in?" I reached around to grab my equipment.

Her voice floated over the water, scraping my nerves. "You are not going to tow me, Mr. Big Bad Lifeguard! I'll just boogey board it in, thank you very much."

I spun around and found her arms crossed over her chest, not intimidating by any means, only drawing my attention back to her headlights. I needed to haul her in safely and get away from this chick. She was checking off all the boxes on my list of the perfect woman, at least physically, but everything that came out of her mouth was maddening.

Her attitude was starting to make everything click. The business woman from this morning was highly irritating too, so I was starting to see how these two personalities could actually be one single bundle of beauty and irritation.

"Fine. Do whatever the hell you want. I'm headed in anyway as my shift's almost up. Meet you on the sand." With that parting shot, I cranked over the engine and looped around to head on in. I wanted to gun it and leave her in my wake, but the professional in me knew that wasn't the right thing to do. I needed to make sure she got in safely.

I kept my speed slower than usual, glancing behind me frequently to check on her progress. She'd made it about halfway when a wave knocked her off the board again. I waited, counting the seconds before her head bobbed back to the surface and I knew she recovered.

My replacement met me at the water's edge with the truck. He'd unloaded his rescue watercraft already, which meant I needed to hurry up and get mine loaded and back to headquarters. I'd have to wash it down, fill it up with gas, fill out some paperwork from the day's activities, and then hit the showers.

I kept an eye on hippie girl, seeing that she'd made it to shallow water. I'd loaded up my jet ski and paused by the truck door to watch her drag her board up onto the sand. She looked exhausted, but determined. When she plunked down on the board and had a seat, I figured I'd better go over there and make sure she was okay.

For professional reasons only.