08/30/2025 Snippet, BANSHEE BEACH (74,492 words)

This passage might need working on.

Lucas loomed over me, blotting out the noonday sun. “Hey, Tom. Isn’t this your hat?”

I groaned, and levered myself to something like a sitting position. The sodden mass of fabric flopped down the other sodden mass of fabric that was my shirt and ended up in my lap. “Yeah, probably. Deserter.”

Lucas offered me an arm up, but his face was concerned. “What, did something happen? I thought it’d be fine for me to go check on that thing.”

“What? Oh, no, not you.” I twisted the fabric until the water gushed out, untwisted it, gave it a good final shaking, and put my hat back on my head. “Things got a little busy at the end of the surfing lesson.”

“He means he wiped out,” Catty corrected me, before looking up from her board to focus on Lucas. “Not bad, for a first timer… oh. Hi.” I swear, her voice went richer in two syllables. Lucas focused back on her for the first time and — burped. Loudly. I mean, everyone within twenty feet noticed.

Catty sure did; the flush starting to rise in her cheeks abruptly winked out, like a sunrise hiding behind a storm cloud. “Friend of yours, Shamus?” she asked me, dubiously.

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