But then on Thursday, I was sitting on the bench near the pool trying to tuck my hair into my swim cap and Laurent sat down a few feet away from me. My body tensed. I was shocked. We were nearly side by side. I could feel the intensity of his body. He smelled like the ocean.

My heart started racing. I turned to look at him just to see what he wanted and he was studying my face as he smiled.

I gulped.

"You have something on your nose," he mumbled, tilting his head to the side as he seemed to examine me.

I blushed, lifting my hand to wipe away whatever I feared he was referring to.

But, his fingers swiftly intersected. He touched the tip of my nose with his pointer finger and thumb and pulled something off.

My eyes widened. "What was it?" I demanded.

His body tightened and he scooted away from me slightly. With a devilish glint in his eyes, he glanced past me, and then, to my surprise, he chuckled. "It was nothing."

Maybe I was wrong, but I got the feeling he liked teasing me. "What?" I was confused. "Then why did you take it?"

He raised an eyebrow as his expression became serious. "It was an angel kiss." He was sitting up particularly straight; his back was tense which gave me the impression that it was uncomfortable for him to be close to me.

"An angel kiss?" I asked, astounded.

"Yes." I couldn't tell what he was thinking. "People call them freckles." He lifted his eyes upward before reconnecting with me.

Now I rolled my eyes and exhaled in exasperation. "You can't take a freckle off my face." I laughed lightly.

"Well, I did." His silky voice was musical. He turned his pointer finger over and held it out to me. There was still a considerable amount of s.p.a.ce between us, but I saw his nose flare.

Even though my hands were sweating from nerves, I took his finger into mine to examine it. Electricity shot through my body at the touch. His fingers spread and then tensed as I held to him. He looked like he was in pain.

"See there." Sure enough, with his other hand he pointed at a tiny brown freckle on the underside of his pointer finger. "It's your angel kiss."

I laughed as I tried to wipe it off to no success. "It's stuck," I exhaled.

He scoffed. "It's mine now." His eyes smoldered at me. I liked how he was acting. Then he got up off the bench and dove into the pool.

I didn't know what to think. I was breathless. My mind was racing and it took all I had to make it through practice. I just kept thinking about Laurent. But, as before, he swam on the far side of the pool and didn't even so much as look at me the rest of the day.

I made the decision right then. I had to know everything about him. There were so many unanswered questions and now that my restriction was over, I didn't have to return to the apartment right away. After practice, instead of taking a ride with Ashton, I tried to follow Laurent home.

For awhile now, I had been contemplating this. I knew he walked home every day, so I figured he must live close by. Desperately, I wanted clues. I had to know how he made those magical things happen. I had to know if I just imagined it all or if my perceptions were based on any sort of reality.

After practice, I dressed in a hurry so I could get a head start. For the past few days, I had been watching to see the direction that Laurent walked home. And when I was in Ashton's car, we pa.s.sed him on the road two of the times. So, today I rushed out of school and to the area I had seen him walking in the past.

I headed down busy Pico Boulevard toward the beach past all sorts of storefronts, auto shops, and business buildings. Once I got to the farthest place I had seen Laurent, I waited behind some trees between a hamburger shop and a shoe store.

Maybe ten minutes later, I spotted Laurent walking down the sidewalk. Once he pa.s.sed me and was a considerable distance ahead, I started to follow him.

The boulevard was loud with city noise and crowded with cars, so there was no way he would hear me behind him. Even if the street had been quiet, he wouldn't have detected me simply because of the sheer distance between us. And if he happened to turn around, he couldn't recognize me from this far behind him.

I kept a sharp eye on him and followed along. There was a slight rhythm to his movement. I wondered if he was singing a song to himself and keeping time with his body. He stopped for a moment before a beauty shop parking lot and handed a homeless man some money before continuing on and turning onto Ocean Avenue.

Nervous that I might lose him, I hurried ahead. But, to my dismay, once I turned onto Ocean, he was nowhere in sight. Anxiously, I looked around in the various yards and store parking lots that lined the avenue. In disappointment, I gave up. He must have turned down another street or maybe he lived in one of the houses and had already gone inside. I rea.s.sured myself though. Tomorrow, I would wait for him on Ocean Avenue this time and, hopefully, I would discover where he lived.

I decided that because I was so close to the beach, I would go surfing. There were rental shops with pristine boards at the peer, so I got on the next city bus in pursuit of my destination. At least, I could lose myself in the water.

Once on the bus, I didn't even take a seat because the peer was close. In no time I was at the rental store. I noticed that while I was trying to pick out a board, the clerk kept staring at me.

Finally, I turned to him and said, "Do you want something?"

He didn't respond.

"You keep staring at me," I said, knitting my brows as I looked from the line of surfboards to him. My dad generally encouraged me to take an aggressive stance to unusual behavior. Usually, I didn't listen to him, but today my mind was on fire.

He laughed and ran his fingers through his bleach blond hair. "You want to get coffee with me? My shift's almost over."

I tried not to laugh, but some choppy air released involuntarily from my lungs. "Oh-thanks." I wasn't expecting that. "I can't right now. Maybe some other time." I had no idea what to say. Who asks someone out when they're about to go surfing?

"Oh, yeah, sure." He smiled weakly. "The board's on the house."

"Really?" I asked in a surprised tone.

"You betcha. Just bring it back by 9:00."

"Okay. Thanks," I said as I picked out one I liked.

I was relieved to get into ocean. The water was a comfortable temperature and the waves were almost perfect. The sun was starting to set on the horizon, giving the sky a fiery red color. It was beautiful. What a great way to end the day.

That night I slept like a baby.

The next day at school, Laurent acted as if he hadn't even talked to me the day before. He seemed even angrier than yesterday and it looked like Marine gave me a dirty look. It wasn't clear to me if she was interested in Laurent romantically or not, but I got the feeling that she was dating Pascal.

It was the same at swim practice-Laurent seemed to not even know I existed and he swam again on the other side of the water, away from me.

When I was getting out of the pool, Ashton called over, "Hey, Grace, wait up." He swam over to me and we got out together.

"How about I pick you up at seven?" He was referring to our night surfing date.

"That sounds fine," I said as I looked over at Laurent who was still doing laps in the pool like a speed demon.

"He's fast. Isn't he?" Ashton lifted his chin in the direction of Laurent.

I shook my head lightly and shrugged my shoulders. "Who?"

"Laurent Moreau," He laughed, as if I should have known who he was talking about.

"Oh." I frowned. "I hadn't noticed."

"Who wouldn't notice that? The guy's as angry as h.e.l.l." He laughed again.

I squinted in Laurent's direction, acting like I was trying to figure out what he was talking about. "I guess I just wasn't paying attention."

He smiled. "That's good-focused on winning-right?"

"Huh? Winning what?"

"The swim meet." He wrinkled his nose. "What else is there?" His smile was so big now. It looked like he was enjoying my cluelessness.

"I don't need a ride home today," I said as we got to the entrance of the girls' locker room.

"Ah, man." He grabbed his heart playfully. "I guess I'll survive the few hours that we're apart."

I laughed. "Oh, don't pick me up at my apartment. Instead just meet me at the beach with Agatha and Danny. I'm going to start surfing early."

He chortled. "You are crazy, Grace." He seemed to enjoy my oddities. "Okay. See you before the peer around 7:30ish."

"See you." I rushed to quickly change into my clothes so I could make it to Ocean Avenue before Laurent.

What the h.e.l.l?

I waited for Laurent behind a dumpster on Ocean Avenue, but he never came. After about a half-hour I headed to the beach in disappointment. I had so been hoping that I could discover where he lived that Friday.

After I arrived at the peer, I was relieved to see that a woman was renting the surfboards out today. That guy that asked me out the evening prior made me uncomfortable. This clerk didn't bother me at all. She was on her cell phone the entire time.

When I surveyed the boards that were lined up against the wall, I was happy to find the same one from the day before. I paid the lady as she talked to her friend and carried my board out to the sand where I laid out a towel and took off my clothes-my bathing suit was on underneath and still damp from practice.

This evening the surfing wasn't so great. There were some reckless teenage boys driving a speedboat too close to sh.o.r.e. The engine noise was distracting from the usual natural rhythmic sounds of the waves. Where I usually sought solace, there was disruption.

The boys were taking turns trying to water ski even though they were completely inept at it. As far as I knew, I didn't think water skiing was allowed in this area, but the lifeguards weren't around and n.o.body did anything about it.

After catching the first wave awkwardly, I started paddling back out with my stomach flat down on the board. As I made my way through the surge, to my surprise, I thought I saw five heads poke out of the water a short distance from me. But, as quickly as I saw the heads surface, they were gone. Most likely it was my imagination, but I thought they looked like the French exchange students.

If the people I saw were the French kids, I wondered if they saw me. Even though it shouldn't have, it shocked me to imagine the tres beaux out swimming about at the same time as I was surfing. It was a popular place to swim and surf, so I shouldn't have been surprised, but something about the way their heads all surfaced together and then dived back under in unison seemed odd.

I continued to watch for the people to resurface, but I didn't see anyone again. The light was dim now as the sun had nearly set on the horizon. It would be difficult to see them.

The motor boat engine was driving me crazy. Those guys were messing up the breaks on the waves with their careless shenanigans. I wanted to yell at them, but they wouldn't have heard over the engine roar.

As I turned my board around, I was distracted as I watched for the swimmers some more. I kept looking and looking, but couldn't find them. Then that darn boat cut way too close to me as I was trying to stand up.

I felt a sudden pull at my leg and I went flying off my surfboard. Terror overtook me. For a moment, I didn't know what was happening. It was all occurring so fast.

Something had jerked me so hard. Then I realized the boater's water ski rope had caught onto the tether that was wrapped around my ankle and the surfboard. My mind was spinning. I was going to die. I tried to pull the Velcro from my ankle to release myself as I was being pulled at tremendous speed through the water, but the boat pulled me so roughly and fast that the tether broke from the surfboard and twisted up with the water ski rope.

I was being pulled out to sea. My lungs felt like they were going to burst. The water was choking me. I couldn't breathe.

"I'm going to die. I'm going to die," I thought. My leg felt like it was going to be ripped out of the socket.

But then, seemingly coming out of nowhere I saw Laurent beside me. He grabbed onto my limbs for an instant. It wasn't possible. My body was being pulled through the water too fast. There was no way he could swim rapidly enough to keep up with the high speed of the boat. But in the same moment that he held to me, he tore the tether from the ski rope with his teeth.

And then I don't remember anything else.

Suddenly, I woke up choking. I coughed up water. Someone was giving me CPR on the sh.o.r.e. My eyes popped open. It was dark out now, but I saw clearly that the person on top of me was Laurent.

"What the h.e.l.l?" I coughed out.

He moved off of my body and carefully helped me sit up. "You're going to be okay, Grace-as good as new." His voice had a musical quality to it, but his eyebrows were knitted together like he was worried. "You won't even have to go to the hospital." His too perfect face looked pale and his piercing eyes seemed watery. I wondered if he had been crying.

For another minute I coughed. He was patting my back. I tried to replay in my mind what had just happened.

My breathing started to regulate. Oddly, I felt just fine. I was dazed and everything seemed sort of surreal, but I felt good. Really good.

He opened my balled up hand and grabbed something from it before I had a chance to see what he took from me.

"What was that?" I asked, still trying to piece together everything that had occurred.

He put whatever he had taken from my fist into his short's pocket. Then he smiled at me, but his eyes looked troubled.

"You saved me," I said, my eyes widening as I started to remember what had happened. "It wasn't possible."

His expression was unreadable. "I found you here and it looked like you needed help, so I kissed you." He smiled teasingly now, chuckling under his breath.

I ignored his play. "I was in the ocean," I stammered as I looked out to the water. The speed boat was gone. "There was a boat that was dragging a ski rope and it caught onto my ankle tether. I was being pulled out to sea. You swam up to me at superhuman speed and cut the rope with your teeth." I looked at him in astonishment. "How the h.e.l.l did you do that?"

He shook his head. I sensed the anger rising up within him, but he controlled himself. "That didn't happen, Grace."

b.u.t.terflies fluttered in my stomach when he said my name. Now was not the time. "Yes, it did happen," I insisted. "I was going to die." I looked at him piercingly. "I should have died. But, you grabbed onto me." I thought about it for a moment. "How did you do that?"

His expression looked playful as he chuckled, but I saw fear in his eyes. Was he trying to cover for himself? He seemed to be evading the situation. "That's insane," he insisted. "Everything you are saying never happened. It isn't possible."

"I know." I looked at him darkly. "It isn't possible." I rubbed sand between my fingers nervously. "It's not."

Behind his exasperated smile, I sensed danger. I questioned whether I should implore further. I was afraid I shouldn't have seen what I saw. "I know what happened. Your teeth..." I paused for a moment. "You cut the rope with your teeth..."

He interjected, "Stop, Grace." There was a pleading quality to his voice. He exhibited the same usual tension in his body: the flared nostrils, the clenched jaw, and the narrowed eyes.

"Why are you denying it?"

"Don't go there." His silky voice was soft.

I looked over and noticed my surfboard just feet away from us. At once, I stood up. He joined me, putting his hand on my shoulder. I think he was concerned that I might lose my balance. I walked over and the tether was frayed and torn from the board from the initial break just as the boat started to drag me. And then I saw something sparkle on the board's center. It was my sapphire ring resting on top of it.

"Did you put this here?" I demanded as I picked up my ring.

"You keep losing that thing," he joked, but then his mood shifted suddenly. He looked over my shoulder. "Your friends are here."

I turned and saw Agatha, Danny, and Ashton waving at me from quite a distance as they carried their surfboards through the sand toward us.

"Take care of yourself, Grace." In the opposite direction of my friends, he turned and walked away in a sort of strut toward the peer. I watched him as he moved away, but then he threw his head back, looking at me over his shoulder. "Your lips are soft," he almost sang the words.