4. River

4

River

We were all sitting on Raven’s back deck when we saw surfers showing up further down the beach. They all wore black wetsuits, so it was hard to tell who was who until she came walking down the beach.

It was already around four, and Gage asked Kat what time she surfs, so we didn’t show up early in the morning. I noticed the waves were high, and I could only hope that Kat knew what she was doing.

Her hair was in a long braid, her wetsuit was half on, and she was wearing a white one-piece bathing suit under it. She walked with some other women dressed similarly to her. My body reacted. My cock became hard in an instant.

She carried a surfboard larger than herself, and I observed her gracefully placing it on the sand before she started pulling up her wetsuit. My gaze shifted to the guys on the deck, wondering if they had also noticed her presence.

“Damn, I forgot how hot she was. I’m going to ask her out,” Raven said, keeping his eyes glued on Kat.

“We can’t date co-workers,” Tag said .

“I don’t work with you guys yet.”

“She’s married,” I blurted out before I even thought about it. I knew Raven had a way with women—they all loved him. Hell no, he wasn’t getting close to Kat. The guys looked at me, then shrugged. They also knew Raven.

Everyone watched as she ventured out into the turbulent waves with four other surfers, and the entire ocean seemed to mirror the wild conditions. Glancing out at the waves, I felt uneasy. They looked like they could swallow her up, but she kept pushing herself further out.

We were all good swimmers, which was a condition for becoming an Army Special Force member. We had to be the best at everything we did, so we were used to all the dangers of the ocean and on the ground. We are the Golden Team and the best at what we do.

It’s just that Kat looked so tiny out there with those damn huge waves. I jumped up and walked to the railing, wanting to see if I could see where she was.

“There she is,” Tag said, standing next to me. “She’s still going further than the others; she knows where the big waves are. She’s going to try and ride it in. Her friends from the restaurant are going out with her.”

“I hope to fuck she knows what she’s doing,” I stated, “What do you think?” I asked Gage as he stood looking out at the deep blue ocean where Kat McDonald was waiting to catch a wave. She looks like a dark speck in the sea. I couldn’t see her features; she was so far out.

“I think she’s going to do it,” Gage said. Look how confident she is. She sits there daring the sea to send her the largest wave it has.”

“I think she’s so damn awesome and beautiful, sitting out there where the sharks live like she hasn’t a care in the world. Only we know the real Kat.” I said, and I could have bitten my tongue off when Gage looked over at me.

Tag grabbed a pair of goggles from a table to see better. “I’m waiting to see if she can ride that wave in; it looks pretty big. I can’t imagine that she will make it in. How could she control that surfboard? It’s way bigger than she is.”

“Here she comes,” Gage said; we stood there with our breaths held, watching Kat as she rode the wave in.

I held my breath, so scared I wanted to shout at her and ask her what the fuck she was doing, risking her life just to stand and ride a fucking monstrous wave to the shore. I bet it was as exhilarating as it looked. Is that why she did it? Was it for the excitement and the thrill of not knowing what would happen?

“She’s going to do it,” I shouted as we watched her riding the wave in; I could see the smile on her face. “What’s that?” I asked as I saw another surfer cutting right in front of her; he was going to hit her.

I jumped the eight feet off the deck and took off running. The guys were right behind me. I heard shouting on the beach as others saw what we saw.

The surfboard hit her; I saw it so clearly that I knew where she went down. I jumped into the wave, swimming hard. I’m glad I was a damn good swimmer.

I had to reach Kat in time. I kept diving under and saw Tag swimming next to me. Another dive under, and I had her.

She was bleeding a little, and I prayed there were no sharks in the area. Tag grabbed the surfboard, and we put Kat on it. Both of us pushed her to shore .

The others were waiting for us as we reached the shore. I checked Kat’s injuries—she’d need stitches on her shoulder. The other surfboard must have had hit her pretty damn hard, judging by the cut. She also had a significant bump on her head, and I was more worried about that than anything else.

Kat opened her eyes; I knew she wasn’t focusing on my face. She smiled and whispered the name Conner before closing her eyes again.

“Let’s get her to the hospital,” I said, picking her up and carrying her to Tag’s vehicle.

Gage grabbed our things and followed behind me. “She must have been thinking of her baby boy. Kat said his name was Conner. I hope she doesn’t start crying again. It’s so hard watching her cry and not being able to make the pain go away,” Gage said.

“If you don’t stop yapping, I’ll start crying,” Tag joked. I heard a faint chuckle and glanced down—Kat’s eyes were still closed, but she had a smile on her face.

“Are you awake?” I whispered, but she didn’t respond, her smile lingering as we drove.

She didn’t say anything, but her smile stayed on her face. When we pulled into the hospital's emergency room, they had a bed outside waiting for her. The guys must have called ahead.

They rushed inside, and we followed. A nurse turned to us and held up her hand. “You all have to wait in the waiting room,” she said firmly.

“She’s my wife,” I said, surprising myself more than anyone else. “I’m going with her. ”

“All right, but only the husband. The rest of you will have to stay in the waiting room.”

I followed them inside, still a little shocked at my own words. I helped remove her wetsuit, and as the doctor examined her, he noticed a few scars on her thigh and back. “These look like bullet wounds,” he remarked.

“Kat was a medic in Afghanistan and Iraq; she was sent back to the States when she was shot in the back.”

A nurse handed me a green hospital shirt to wear, and that’s when I realized I was shirtless, wearing wet swimming trunks.

“Why don’t you sit down somewhere? You’re making everyone nervous with a body like that and standing here like you will kill anyone who does something wrong,” the nurse teased.

“Sorry,” I said. Kat opened her eyes and smiled at me. “River, I’m going to be fine; stop worrying. Can you give me a ride home? I don’t think I can drive; whenever I open my eyes, I feel like I’m going to vomit,” she said, closing her eyes.

The nurse looked at me and pointed two fingers at her eyes and then at me, telling me she was watching me.

“Why do you surf those huge waves? They are fucking dangerous,” I said, watching her closely.

“I wonder who the kid who cut me off was. That’s against the surfing rules. He’ll be lucky if they let him back on the beach.”

She didn’t say anything else. I assumed she went back to sleep as the doctor examined her head. The damage was mostly on her shoulder and the back of her head. “I’ll have to stitch up her shoulder, so I’m going to give her a pain shot so she won’t feel anything.”

Kat opened her eyes and looked at me. “Once, when I was out surfing alone, I was so far out there all by myself, where only stupid people go. I started to paddle back to shore when I realized how far out I was. For some odd reason, I stopped and sat straight up on my board, looking around.” She stopped talking and had a faraway look in her eyes.

She looked at me. “Something told me to look around, and I felt like I would see a shark. I was almost afraid to turn my head. That’s when I saw something black in the ocean not far from me. I thought it was a seal, but it was a boy with a wet suit on,” she took a deep breath.

“He kept going under, and I dove in so many times before I got hold of his leg. My arms were killing me, but I pushed him up on my board and started doing CPR. I was so scared. Some lifeguards met me on the beach. They said they had been hunting for him for six hours.”

“That was a miracle for that boy,” I replied.

“Yeah. He lost his board—he didn’t have it secured to his ankle. He was only eleven, and his name was Conner. When he told me his name, it shook me to my core. My legs went weak, and I almost fell on my face,” she wiped her eyes.

“His parents were crying on the beach, and the ambulance was way down the beach. They never would have found him. I could never figure out how I ended up in that part of the ocean because when I started that morning, I was two miles down the beach,” she whispered.

The doctor and I looked at each other. “I remember that boy. His parents tried finding you, but you didn’t come to the hospital,” the doctor said.

“That’s when I met Josh and Mitch, and before I knew it, they had me out there catching waves with them. It helped me at the time—the bigger the wave, the better.”

“But now,” I asked .

“Now, I don’t need that kind of excitement to take my thoughts away anymore,” she replied as the nurse returned.

“You have a concussion. Do you have anyone who can stay with you for the night? You need to be woken up every hour.”

“Here is a prescription for her. It needs to be filled; it’s the ointment for her shoulder,” the doctor said.

“I’ll stay with her,” I said before thinking about it. I took the prescription, and the nurse pushed her into a wheelchair, wearing a hospital gown. I carried her wetsuit. We went to the waiting room, and I handed the prescription to the guys to get filled.

Kat looked at me, smiling. “You don’t have to wake me up. I’ll set my alarm. Thank you anyway. That is so sweet. I won’t tell anyone that you are the sweetest man I know. They wouldn’t believe me anyway,” She grinned as she looked at the nurse.

“I’ll find you some scrubs to wear home.”

“Thank you,” Kat said.

We had Tag drop us off at my vehicle. I left my vehicle at Raven’s, and Gage drove Kat’s vehicle to her house to drop it off. I noticed her board was already tied to her little car.

The guys got out and made sure it wouldn’t fly off. Gage squeezed inside, trying to adjust the seat so he had some room, but he looked like a sardine squeezed in there.

I heard everyone chuckle as Gage drove away. “Would you mind if we stopped at my place so I could change and grab a few things?” I asked.

“No, I don’t mind at all,” Kat said, smiling.

“You seem different since we went to Texas,” I remarked.

“I feel different; I believe going there and facing all that pain has helped me greatly. I missed my family, and telling you and the others about my life helped me more than I ever thought it would.”

“How are you feeling?” I asked, glancing at her.

“I’m a little tired, but I’ll be fine by tomorrow. I can set my alarm to wake me every hour. I’m sure you have loads of things to do.”

“Kat, that will not be happening. I only have to wake you every hour. I’ll call in Chinese food for dinner.”

“Yummy, the ocean always makes me hungry, but I feel a little queasy. I’m not sure I can eat anything.”