Dawn Patrol Read Free Page A

would be enough to deliver him to us. And I needed Esme to believe it too.
    â€œI don’t know. But we have to hope, right?” I said.
    â€œI guess.”
    â€œYou know it.” I squeezed her shoulders. “Let’s go get some dinner. I’m starved.”

chapter four
    We slept soundly and awoke well rested. The tide rolled in and out beneath our hut. I turned over to find Esme staring at me.
    â€œYou snore,” she said.
    â€œI do not.”
    â€œYou are the last person who would know it, Luca. So I’m here to tell you, as the only person who has ever shared your bed, you snore.”
    â€œYou’re not the only person I’ve ever shared a bed with.”
    She grinned. “I’m not, am I? Do tell.”
    â€œI’ll have you know my cousin Jeremy and I used to camp out all the time. And when I went to San Francisco with Kevin last year, we shared a bed.” At the mention of Kevin’s name, we both fell silent. Esme rolled out of her sleeping bag and picked up a sweatshirt off the floor. She walked to the window and gazed at the ocean.
    â€œI guess we missed dawn patrol,” she said.
    The best waves of the day are often during the early morning tide. Any surfer who rises to catch them is part of what is called the dawn patrol. There’s something mystical about being out in the ocean as the sun is rising. It’s peaceful and different from any other time of day. It feels as though everything is starting over again.
    I slipped out of my sleeping bag and pulled on a pair of shorts. “Yeah, I guess we did.”
    â€œIf Kevin’s here, he would have already been out surfing.”
    I opened my backpack and retrieved a breakfast bar. I had eaten a hundred of these since leaving LA. They weren’t getting any better. “By now he’d be back in bed dreaming of giant waves. Speaking of which, what are the waves like?” I went and stood beside her.
    â€œStill coming in pretty nice. There are people out on both breaks.”
    I could smell fish cooking somewhere. Birds were calling to one another in the jungle, and the mist from the ocean was fresh and cool on my face.
    â€œWant to get some breakfast or head straight out?”
    â€œLet’s go out. I’m not hungry.”
    The waves were rolling in. Four or five waves would come in and break, and then there was an interval of calm. Fish swam beneath our boards, and during one lull I saw a turtle. The waves were a reasonable height, six or seven feet, and curled nicely when they broke. I took the first good wave, rode it out and then sat on my board to watch Esme. She dropped into a seven-foot wave and rode in the barrel, white foam lapping above her. She got ahead of the wave, shot out the end of the barrel and launched herself up and over the backside.
    â€œVery nice,” I said when she paddled over to me.
    â€œThese are beautiful.” She grinned.
    I was relieved to see her happy. As we paddled back toward the break, I saw the surfer from the day before who hadn’t wanted to speak to us. He was bobbing in the middle of a pack of surfers.
    â€œThere’s that guy from yesterday,” I said. “Think he’ll try to avoid us again?”
    â€œI don’t think he was trying to avoid us,” Esme said. “It seemed to be more of a language issue.”
    â€œI’m not so sure,” I said. He hadn’t seemed freaked out by a couple of gringos. He seemed as if he wanted to get away from us. “But, whatever. Let’s go talk to them.”
    Another set came in. The break shifted slightly to the left. We duck-dived through each wave. By the time we got out to the break, there was only one surfer there.
    â€œWell, hello again,” Alana said.
    â€œFancy meeting you out here,” I said. A couple of surfers paddled toward the shore. “Where did everyone go?”
    â€œThey cut to the other break,” Alana said. “It’s