Leveling him with a glare, she shoved his shoulder. “I don’t treat you like you’re a nobody,” she said seriously before pointing at him. “I just treat you like you’re any other annoying person.”

This made him chug laugh. “That’s true.”

She sighed, and they turned down another street.

“I thought we were going to the Mexican place over there?” Sam pointed back.

She grinned. “Naw, I’ll take you to some place you’re really going to like.”

“But I thought we were getting Mexican food.”

She smiled. “Oh, we are.”

As they walked up to a chain Mexican restaurant, Sam was floored.

Tiffany let out a laugh and stared at him. “It’s crazy, right?”

“Holy cow.” And, yes, he’d said holy cow.

Next to the Mexican restaurant, there was music blasting, and the front windows to the place were open. There were two big wave pools and people lined up to surf. The manufactured current would pull them out, and then they could surf like they were really riding a wave.

“Right?” Tiffany inspected the surfers with him. “I love this place.”

“Wait.” This was blowing his mind. “You do this?”

“Duh!” She laughed and moved past him into the Mexican place. It wasn’t a sit down place. It was an order and find a seat place, but Sam loved it because they could sit and watch the people surfing.

Tiffany ordered a chicken salad, and he ordered enchiladas and nachos, not caring about what his trainer would say.

Sipping her lemon water, Tiffany ate and smiled at him.

He took a bite and couldn’t quit watching the surfers.

“You look like a kid that can’t wait to go sledding down the hill on Christmas day. Look at you.” She pointed to his leg that was pumping up and down in little staccato bursts.

He laughed. “I know. I think I’m going to make you do this after the show tonight.”

She chewed a couple of bites, sipped some water, and then shoved the food away. “Why wait? Let’s do it now.” She stood. “Bet I’ll beat you, Cowboy. I’ll stay on the board every time.”

The look in her eyes, of complete challenge, triggered his competitive side. He shot out of his seat. “You’re so going down.”

After grabbing their stuff and throwing it away, they raced over to the surfing place. The crowd had thinned out, and Sam pulled out a twenty to pay for it.

“Wait!” Tiffany put her hand on his arm in alarm. “We don’t have suits on.”

He laughed and saw some suits behind the college boy’s head in the window. He nodded to them. “Two suits please.” He pulled out more cash.

Tiffany laughed and kept her hand on his arm. “I don’t want you to have to pay for a swim suit for me.”

Rolling his eyes, he reached for a suit from the rack that he knew would fit him. “You’re not getting out of this, Chance, so don’t even try it.”

Shaking her head, she easily tugged a swimsuit off the rack and ran for the changing room.

Anticipation circled inside of him as he changed in the men’s room. At the last minute, he decided to wear the hat for fun.

When he came out, the hat had the desired effect, and she burst into laughter. She’d pulled her hair into a half ponytail and half bun kind of a thing. He quickly surveyed the red one-piece suit she’d picked up. Man, could she look any better? He tried to re-focus on the waves.

“C’mon,” she said, pulling his arm next to her. “See how you put the board down and the water shoots you back? Well, you want to make sure you keep your center of gravity focused on the front of the board so you don’t fall.”

He scoffed, “You don’t need to be giving me instructions, little lady. I grew up surfing. Plus, don’t you understand the art of war? I’m your enemy, and I want to defeat you. You focus on your own center of gravity over there.”

After the two people in front of them wiped out, they both went to their respective stands and put their boards down.

The worker nodded at them, and then water shot out. Sam had a flash back to being at a parade with his mother when the firehouse had sprayed the crowd. He’d been so small it had literally thrown him down onto his bum. This was the same thing. Whoosh. And bam. He was on his back and floating up and to the back.

He heard Tiffany’s delighted laughter. He stood and walked back to the start, seeing her still surfing the waves. “Whoot! Guess you’re not as hot as you think you are, Cowboy!”

At her taunting, a nervous excitement wound into him. Getting a better view of her, he saw the athlete that he’d seen on that first day. Her balance was flawless. Her arms were muscled in a feminine way, and there wasn’t an ounce of fat on her. Not to mention the fact that she could juggle keeping her concentration and trying to look at him. It made him laugh and want to mess her up. “Watch out!” he called out to her, pointing.

Scrunching up her face, she spit her tongue at him. “Don’t try to mess me up. I can do this all day while you’re waiting for more turns on the sidelines.”

There was a two-person line for his side that he’d have to wait for. Not liking this at all, he tapped the guy about to go on the shoulder.

The guy jerked back to him, looking upset that his concentration had been broken. “What?”

“I’ll give you a hundred bucks if you let me go in front of you.”

The guy looked like he was young, maybe high school or college. A glint of recognition showed in his eyes. “Hey, you’re Sam Dumont.”

Sam nodded. “I’ll give you a hundred bucks and sign something if you let me go.”

The guy moved out of the way. “Deal.”

In one motion, Sam slammed his board down onto the water. It shot him back so he was balancing next to her on her same wave.

They were both surfing next to each other in perfect harmony.

Tiffany was laughing so hard she started to lean forward and fall.

Reaching out, he grabbed her hand. “Balance!” he commanded, laughing at her. “Center of gravity.”

But it was too late. She lost her footing and squeezed his hand harder, pulling him with her.

They ended up tangled up at the back of the wave pool laughing and splashing. At one point he tackled her back and into the water because she continued to sing ‘I am the Champion.’

“Hey!” The ride boy called, standing above them. “You need to exit.” He pointed to the exit sign, but his eyes were bored, like he saw this every day.

Giggling they both got up and then raced to the lines.

This continued for the next hour, both of them doing pretty well. Eventually she snagged the hat and wore it a couple of times until he took it back saying, “Hey, you’re the one that called me Cowboy. I’m keeping it.”

As Sam turned back to the line, he noticed a crowd in front of the wave shop. Where there should be open space to the Main Street, there was a huddle of people filming and flashing cameras.

“Crap.” Reluctantly, Sam moved toward the men’s room to change.

After they changed, the guy that Sam had promised a hundred bucks stood waiting holding a permanent marker. “Will you sign the back of my shirt?”

Sam handed the money over and then took the marker and signed his shirt.

Tiffany was next to him, surveying the crowd. “Wow, news gets out fast.”

“Yeah.” Sam said. Sometimes he just wanted to be normal. Not that he necessarily hated being famous. He didn’t. But today he’d been having so much fun with Tiffany, and dealing with a crowd of strangers had never been fun for him.

Tiffany studied his face. “You really don’t like this attention, do you?”

He finished signing and nodded at the young man. “Nope.”

She frowned. Then her face lit up. “C’mon, let’s ask if we can go out the back.”

9