I sighed and put down my pen. My cock was throbbing so hard, so desperate to explode, but I couldn’t do it. I had to wait. I had to save myself. I was so tempted to grab my cock and cum all over my hand but I didn’t. Instead, I made some tea and brought it back to my bedroom. I lay back on the bed and was asleep before I even had a chance to drink the tea.

I woke at the crack of dawn. I hopped out of bed and got right into my wetsuit. I felt so good, so fresh. Five minutes later I was out the door and on my way to my favorite morning surf spot.

I knew I’d be seeing Meadow today. I had so much to tell her. So much to explain and apologize for. And I knew if I made things right, there’d be every chance for a relationship between us.

She was why I came back. I could have stayed in Mexico, but I knew I’d never forgive myself if I let her slip through my fingers.

I pulled into the parking lot and saw a bicycle in the grass. So much for having the beach to myself.

I parked and started to get my board off the roof. That’s when I looked up and noticed Meadow!

What was she doing here?

She was in the grassy area by the edge of the cliff, a few hundred yards away. She seemed to be running around, chasing after some papers that had been caught in the wind.

She was the last person I expected to find, but I was glad it was her. It would give us a chance to talk. We had a lot to discuss, and this was the perfect place for the discussion I had in mind. It was beautiful, romantic, and the sun was still rising over the hills, painting the sky pink.

I lifted my board under my arm and made my way toward her to help get those papers under control.

“Meadow,” I shouted to get her attention.

She was bent over, grabbing a piece of paper, and she stood up see who it was who just called her name. She turned toward me and I gave her a wave. I had no idea how she felt about me.

Would she give me a chance?

Would she make me work to regain her trust?

Whatever she wanted, I’d do it. I’d do anything to prove my feelings to her.

She froze on the spot when she recognized me. In the same instant, the paper she had just caught flew back out of her hand. She yelled, “shit,” and started running after it.

Next thing I knew, she tripped and was struggling to regain her footing. She stumbled toward the cliff and there was a dip in the ground that caused her to lose her footing completely.

One second she was there, waving her arms to regain balance, and the next she was gone!

Before I’d even processed what had happened, I’d dropped my board and was sprinting toward her. She’d gone over the cliff!

I ran and ran, desperate to get her back in sight. I ran faster than I’d ever run before in my life. There was no way I was going to let the ocean take the woman I loved again.

As I got closer to the edge of the cliff I noticed the swell on the surface of the water and the crashing waves. The ocean wasn’t calm, it was rough, just like it had been the day I lost Carolyn.

I was a good forty feet above the water and as I got closer to the edge I didn’t slow down a single bit. I just ran right to the edge and leapt. Only when I was already in the air did I see Meadow below in the water, flailing her arms. Rocks were everywhere below me but I had time to process the fact that she hadn’t hit any of them.

She was still alive!

I hit the water like a ton of bricks. It felt like being in a car crash. Everything went black and silent. The water was ice cold. I sank and sank and wondered if I’d ever get back to the surface, and then, all at once I was gasping for air and back in the light of day.

I glanced around frantically, desperately searching for Meadow. She’d been there a second ago. I knew she was still there, somewhere.

I was dangerously close to the rocks and knew I wouldn’t last long in such violent waters, but I didn’t care about that. I couldn’t think about anything except Meadow.

I dove down into the water and came back up a few moments later. Where was she?

The waves were crashing down on me, driving me closer to the rocks, and in every direction, all I could see was the swell of the rising waves around me.

“Meadow!” I called. “Meadow!”

Water crashed over me and a mouthful of sea water choked me, but I kept calling her name.

“Meadow!”

I shouted and shouted and even as my brain started telling me I wouldn’t find her, I kept shouting her name. I started to lose my breath and when the next wave crashed over me, it caught me just as I was yelling her name.

The water crushed me, driving me under the surface, and I coughed and choked on the water in my throat. I struggled to swim, to get to the surface, but I was disoriented and couldn’t figure out which way was up and which was down. Another wave, and another, crashed around me, sucking me in the currents and then I felt sharp rocks ripping through the flesh of my legs.

Blood!

That was just what I needed. I was basically a piece of shark bait, drowning in the water at the bottom of a fifty foot cliff.

This was it. This was the end.

I realized it all at once and the irony of it struck me. The karma. I’d failed to rescue Carolyn and Tamara. I’d failed to rescue Meadow. And now I was paying the price for that failure. The ocean had given me two chances to save the woman I loved, and I’d failed twice. There wasn’t going to be a third time. The ocean was taking me now.

I swung and kicked and tried to swim but it was no good. The water and current was too powerful.

My lungs were burning, gasping for oxygen. My vision started to black out. I was dying.

This was it. The moment of truth. I’d finally gotten over the pain of loss, I’d finally allowed my heart to open up again for a new woman, and it was all being taken from me before it ever began.

And then, in the center of the darkness, I saw a glimmer of light. I’d heard so many times about the tunnel people saw when they were dying, and figured that was what this was. I swam toward it and the light got bigger and brighter. Then I realized, the light wasn’t the end of my life, calling me for heaven, it was a figure, moving.

It was a person. It was a girl. It was Meadow!

Dressed in white, reflecting the sunlight, she was trapped at the bottom of the water, but she was still moving. With every ounce of my being, I swam toward her, grabbed her body, and then pushed off the ground back for the surface of the water.

We broke the surface together, her in my arms, and together we gasped for oxygen, pulling the air into my lungs.

Meadow coughed and I held her tightly as I started kicking and swimming away from the cliff.

“Kane,” she gasped finally, as she caught back her breath. “I thought I was dead for sure.”

I was holding her so tightly I must have been hurting her, but there was no way I was loosening my grip on her. I wasn’t going to lose her again. If she went down, I went down with her.

“I’ve got you, Meadow. I’ve got you now, and I’m never going to let you go.”

I kept swimming, all the way around the cliff and in toward the sandy beach. The water grew smoother and less treacherous as we got away from the cliffs, and in a matter of minutes, I was pulling her out of the water and onto the warm sand.

“You’re safe now, Meadow. I’ve got you.”

I could tell by the look on her face and the way her body was trembling that she was terrified. She took a deep breath and held onto me even tighter. I lay her on the sand and lay on top of her, trying to do what I could to warm her up. I knew it was shock more than the cold that was causing her to tremble but my instinct was to keep her safe and warm, to protect her, now and for the rest of our lives.

From what I could tell, apart from the gashes in my leg, neither of us had suffered any injury from the fall.

“You don’t need to be afraid anymore,” I said in her ear as I felt her body relax.