46. Jasper Ridge

46

Jasper Ridge

“ Y ou good there, Wellsy?” I chuckled, watching Kia try to capture some shots of Poppy teaching our midday class. The kids were so thrilled about having their pictures taken for the surf school’s website that they had become a little too rowdy with excitement, and Poppy looked slightly terrified trying to calm them all down.

She threw a glance over her shoulder at me and smiled, nodding her head to let me know she was okay. After yesterday, it’d been one hell of a fight to not let myself be by her side all day—the way she talked about her parents and herself …she found herself unlovable, but she didn’t know that I would give up breathing for her.

Poppy Wells was my oxygen. She was all I’d ever need.

And when she turned up outside my house in the pouring rain at three in the morning?

I knew I wanted to give her every inch of me I had.

She never told me what happened in the end. The only thing she revealed to me was that she accidentally stepped on some glass after she’d dropped a glass she was washing up. I guessed her parents got mad at her for breaking it and she just got overwhelmed by it. I was secretly, deep down, so happy that she’d come to me . She’d ran all the way to my house with glass in her fucking feet just to see me because she knew I could help ground and comfort her. I didn’t know what to make of that.

After she’d started drifting in and out of sleep with her head on my shoulder as the rain drenched us both from above, I carried her inside and sat her down on the countertop as I picked out each shard from her skin. In that moment, I was so grateful that I’d grown up with a nurse for a mother and a boss who made me do monthly first aid training. Poppy had fallen asleep soon after, completely drained and exhausted. My heart hurt just looking at her. So I tucked her into my bed, making sure she was wrapped up warm in plenty of blankets, and spent the rest of the early morning sprawled across the couch thinking about her .

“Okay, that should be enough shots for today,” Saskia smiled, thanking both Poppy and the kids, before turning to me and giving me a small wave. I nodded my head slightly in acknowledgment, returning her smile.

“I’m sorry about them,” Poppy sighed, “they’re never normally this rowdy. Must be all the excitement, I guess.”

“Honestly? Don’t worry about it, love! I’m used to dealing with hyperactive kids at the adventure course. And adults, for that matter. You did a great job, Poppy. Don’t beat yourself up about it!”

Poppy scratched the back of her neck in the same way she did when she was anxious, and I took that as my cue to walk over there, leaving behind the equipment I was halfway through cleaning. As I reached her, I wrapped my arms around her waist, pulling her back against my chest. She instantly relaxed into my touch, her hand falling to rest atop of mine. My heart threatened to burst.

“You’re safe,” I whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to her neck, just below her ear, as I rested my chin on her shoulder. “Just breathe, Wellsy. I’ve got you.”

She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to .

“You two are just too cute together, honestly.” Saskia sighed wistfully. “I wish you both all the best.” Her braids swayed in the wind as she waved to us both, turning to leave. “You guys all did great today! I just know you’re all going to make fantastic little surfers some day!” She added, turning towards the kids, who all yelled and cheered. Some of them even ran up and threw themselves at her in a hug, but Saskia didn’t seem to mind. She hugged each and every one of them back, making sure everyone who wanted a hug got one before making the trek back up the boardwalk towards the surf school.

“Are you and Jasper in love?” Pepe translated Juniper’s signing aloud as yucks and oooo’s echoed in the air around us. Poppy’s cheeks went the cutest shade of red as she slid her eyes to mine in panic.

“Of course we are,” I smirked, nudging her from behind playfully. “It’s that ‘ can’t-eat, can’t-sleep, reaching-for-the-stars, over-the-fence, World series kind of stuff ,’” I quoted from It Takes Two , one of Lia’s favorite movies. I’d watched it so much over the years that silly quotes like that now had a permanent residence inside my head.

Giggles serenaded us as Poppy stilled against me.

I backed away slightly, giving her space.

I knew her. I knew that meant she was uncomfortable, and I didn’t want her to feel like that here in our safe space. I wanted her to feel safe here. I wanted her to be able to feel comfortable and loved and at home. I wouldn’t let anything or anyone take that away from her. Not again.

Poppy gave me a small, appreciative smile as she began rounding up the kids, helping them collect their training boards and the equipment Saskia requested for the photos.

I walked back to where I left the equipment I was supposed to be cleaning, and just then, I caught a glimpse of the surf jersey she was wearing.

Not just any surf jersey.

My surf jersey.

With the faded white, block letters of my last name.

My number 2.

The one I’d given her that night—

She’d kept it.

She hated me, yet she kept it .

Poppy Wells had kept it.

My heart rose to my throat.

Just as the kids started filtering up the boardwalk stairs, leading up the cliffs to the surf school, I caught Poppy’s wrist, spinning her around to face me.

“You did a great job out there today, Wellsy.”

“Are you sure?” she questioned, biting down on her bottom lip. “I felt like I could’ve done so much more.”

“You did everything I would’ve done, and we all know how amazing I am, so you must have been close to perfection,” I shrugged playfully, to which Poppy elbowed me in the ribs with a smile on her lips.

“You’re such an idiot, Ridge,” she laughed, shaking her head in the most adorable of ways.

“I don’t care as long as I’m yours,” I replied truthfully.

Her eyes softened then, a small fraction of a movement, yet it seized the beating of my heart into silence. All the air in my lungs dissipated at the sight of her. I swore that girl took my breath away every time she even glanced my way.

“Nice words, Ridge.”

She crossed her arms over her chest.

I whistled. “Nice ass, Wellsy.”

Rolling her eyes, Poppy started walking away from me with a huff. “Nice fucking dick ,” she grumbled under her breath.

“I heard that!” I hollered, grinning wide as fuck.

She swirled around almost instantly. “ Good .”

Chuckling, I ran back and picked up the equipment before jogging after her. I swear I was trailing after her like a lost, little puppy.

“So…Sunny’s after shift?” I offered.

Poppy kept on walking. “Isn’t there literally anyone else on the planet who you could drag along with you, Ridge?”

“Nah, you’re all I’ve got, Wellsy.”

“How sorry for you.”

“I know. It’s like a bullet to my heart.”

She lightly punched my side for that comment. Though, there was a little smile tugging at her lips. Mission completed .

“Please, Wellsy,” I pouted like Jakson fucking Calloway. The guy was infectious.

She bit her bottom lip, contemplating. Her brows scrunched and the warmth that filled my heart almost sank me to my knees.

“I don’t know.”

“C’mon, Wells. We have to sell this fake dating thing we’ve got going on at some point.”

Now that caught her attention.

“So…the whole school will be there?”

Tread real fucking lightly here, Jasper.

“Nah, not at Sunny’s Hut. There will be Pres there, though. Most people will just meet at Buckley’s Bar later tonight but I didn’t think you’d be into that so I didn’t say.”

She nodded and continued walking.

I knew not to push her. She’d come to a decision on her own. As she fucking should . I’d never be one of those guys who made decisions for their girlfriends, forcing them along to shit. I’d rather she’d be comfortable. Happy .

Poppy stopped walking. She turned around to face me, opened her mouth, then shut it again and continued walking.

“You good, Wellsy?” I asked, brows drawn.

“Mm,” she nodded. “Well…okay, no, but—”

All the equipment I had been holding dropped to my feet. My eyes, all my focus, was on her. Scanning every inch of her body. “What happened? You okay? Did someone say something? Just give me a name, Wellsy, and I swear they’ll never say shit to you again—”

She elbowed me in the chest. “You big buffoon,” she shook her head. “Nothing happened .”

I stood there unmoving. “So…you’re okay?”

“Yes, Ridge,” she sighed. “I’m okay.”

My whole body seemed to relax at her words.

There was a part of me, deep down, that had this huge urge to protect her. From anything and everything. I wanted to fight for her. To get that bright as fuck spark back into those sad, green eyes. She was so… small . Fail. She reminded me of Lia. The hollowness. The grayness. I could feel her bones every time we hugged. It fucking shattered me. I understood now why Jakson pestered my mom to teach him how to cook. He made all sorts of things for Lia, and then ate every single thing she baked afterwards.

“Do—” she started before clamping her lips shut. “No, forget it. ”

“Wellsy.”

“It’s nothing, seriously.”

“ Poppy .”

“Fine. Fine . Do I…do I make you happy, Jasper?” She asked shyly, looking up at me through her lashes with the most adorable of expressions across her face.

“Wellsy,” I breathed, stepping towards her slowly until she was all that I could breathe, “you make me feel like the luckiest guy in the. Entire. Fucking. World .”

“You can’t possibly mean that…” She whispered, diverting her gaze.

I stepped closer. “I do. Every word of it.”

She looked at me then—those big, sad green eyes glistening with uncertainty and…something that I couldn’t decipher. Her lips parted slightly, chest rising and falling to the same rapid rhythm of my own heart. Softly, I traced the side of her jaw with my fingers before cupping her cheeks in my palms.

Poppy Wells was magnificent, scars and all.

“Jasper,” she breathed, tongue sliding over her lips in one smooth motion. Never once did her eyes leave mine. Rising onto her tiptoes, her fingers slid behind my neck, ever so gently scratching it whilst letting strands of my hair filter through the gaps in her fingers. She was so close to me now that she was all that I could see; every corner of my vision was filled with the art that was her beauty. “I’m scared , Jasper—of this, of surfing, of life . I don’t know how to do any of it anymore.”

“Surfing is our thing, Wellsy,” I whispered, letting my eyes flutter closed as our foreheads rested against one another. “It always has been ours. I won’t be in your corner because I’ll be by your side every damned step of the way. You’ve got me, Wellsy. Lean on me. I won’t let you fall under the waves.”

“What will they all think of me, now?” She pulled backwards, eyes searching mine. “What if I’m terrible, Jasper? What if I just make even more of a fool of myself by exhausting myself over a sport that was forced upon me since before I could even walk? How can I be good at this sport if it can’t even love me back? Why should I break myself to please my father when he’s the one who abandoned me? ”

Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes as her breaths came out in heavy chunks. So delicate. So uncertain. So completely and utterly beautiful .

“Screw everyone else,” I countered, gripping onto the string that seemed to tie us together. “If you want to be a quitter, then fine, quit , but I won’t give up on you, Poppy Wells, because you are worth having hope for. You hear me? You have always been worth it. You might have been competing for him, but you were surfing for you, Wellsy. You and I, we are the ocean. We are the water beneath our boards and the sand between our toes. They are just as much a part of us that we are of them, and there is no giving that up.”

Every word I spoke was truthful. The ocean ran through our veins—there was no faking a connection like that: so intimate, so delicate. We were mere atoms learning to breathe in a world that tried to starve us of oxygen. So we became each other’s lifeline. She was as valuable to me as the oxygen I breathed in each day—there was no surviving without her. We were supposed to be competing against each other, but instead, we found ourselves competing for each other.

“I’m trying , Jasper,” her voice broke just a little, those iron walls around her heart beginning to crumble. “I am. I promise.”

A single tear slipped from the corner of her eye just as I caught it with my thumb. I smeared the salty droplet across her skin as I pulled backwards just a fraction to look at her wholly.

“I know,” I breathed, repeating it over and over again as I lowered us both to the ground, stroking the back of her head as she buried herself into the crook of my neck. Tightly, I wrapped my arms around her and didn’t once let go. “I know.”

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed, afraid to even look at me. “I’m so so sorry.”

“You’re safe,” I soothed in an attempt to reassure her, “you’re okay, Wellsy. Forget about the final competition, you’re more important to me. We can take these lessons one step at a time, Wellsy. I’m on your team. You’ve got me, always .” I chuckled a little, adding, “besides, who else is going to keep me as humble as you do every day?”

She sniffled a little, shaking her head softly. “I do love knocking your ego down a few pegs…”

I smiled. “See. I’d be lost without you, Wells.”

“Yeah,” she laughed, avoiding my gaze, but I knew .

I knew her. I knew her laugh .

“You laughed just then but it wasn’t your laugh,” I frowned, pulling backwards slowly, searching her eyes for answers.

“How did you know it wasn’t?” she questioned quietly, eyes slowly sliding to meet mine.

“Because I know you , Poppy Wells, even though you don’t want me too. I could tell apart your fake laugh from your real laugh even if I were deaf. I could tell apart your eyes from the millions across the world even if I were blind. There is no inch of you that I do not have memorized.”

“Sounds stalker-ish to me,” she raised her brows suspiciously at me, a small smile playing on her lips.

I sighed, messing her hair a little with my fingers, tugging on it gently. “I’m slowly learning that I would go to the ends of the earth for you.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I breathed.

A moment later, she replied—a small whisper at that, barely audible to most, but I heard her

“I’d go to the ends of the earth for you, too, Spiderman.”