Disclaimer: Still, nothing is mine.

Moving On

Hunter scanned the beach and casually walked up to a bunch of guys sitting and watching the waves. They had a bunch of surf and wake board scattered around them and it looked like they were taking a breather. "Hey, Roy," he called casually recognizing one of the guys who also hung out at the motocross track.

"Hunter, what you doing out here?" Roy said standing to do the male butting hands ritual, "Guys, this is Hunter. He hangs at the moto track. He's Blake Bradley's brother."

"Dude, your bro rides sick, man. John," one of the tanned buff men offered a hand and Hunter took it.

"You look nothing like your bro," another offered a hand, "Tim."

"We're adopted," Hunter offered the familiar response to the familiar statement.

More names were exchanged with casual greetings. "You not out there today?" One of the guys asked recognizing Hunter as a casual surfer.

"Nah, just picking up Tori for lunch."

"The hot blonde?" Roy asked and a couple of guys grinned at each other.

"Yeah," Hunter said with a small grin, "Dude, I don't know why she can't get a guy." He noted in satisfaction that a number of eyes turned out to check out Tori sitting on the water. A set came through and Tori took a wave like a pro.

"She's good. How do you know Tori?" Tim asked casually.

"She and my brother had a thing a while ago. She was teaching him to surf and he was teaching her to ride. So I saw her around a lot," Hunter said trying to act as if giving out information about Tori was no big deal.

"She teach you how to surf, too?" Roy asked with a leer, nudging him in the shoulder.

Hunter saw red, but stopped himself and took a breath in and unclenched his jaw. This was just guy talk. He could do guy talk about Tori. "Yeah, Blake was all worried about her surfing and riding alone, so made me promise to check up on her. She's cool."

"Yeah, like an iceberg," one of the guys laughed and Hunter had to force himself to unclench his hands before he knocked the guy on the chin.

"Only 'cause you tried to cop a feel that time you tried to 'teach her how to surf'," another guy laughed punching him in the arm.

"Dude, Tori doesn't need lessons. She surfs better than you," was the good natured reply and more ribbing followed. Hunter tried to smile as the guys bantered back and forth. This is what he wanted, right, for some guy to notice Tori, to help her get over Blake.

"You should ask her for a ride to the Turtle Cove Meet coming up," Tim said nudging one of the guys. Jake, Hunter thought his name was. He seemed pretty quiet and intent on watching Tori out on the water.

"Yeah, I'm sure she can give you a ride in that van of hers," another guy said snickering, and the guys closest to him pushed at him good naturedly.

God, Hunter thought in amazement, it's a miracle any guy got a date at all. If girls heard how they talked about them. Suddenly, Jake spoke, "Maybe I should. She would toast all the girls in her division."

A couple of guys agreed and started commenting on her style and surfing ability. Hunter slowly relaxed as the conversation moved to the technical aspects of surfing. His eyes followed Tori's every move and he realized, probably for the first time, what guys saw when they looked at Tori. The thought came unbidden into his mind, but she's so much more. He blinked startled, a dawning horror coming over his face.

Tori narrowed her eyes as she sat on her surfboard and watched Hunter chat with a bunch of guys on the beach. He said he was going to meet her for lunch after he had his morning beach run. Usually he was late, not that Tori minded the extra minutes out on the ocean, especially if the waves were good. Today, however, Hunter was early and instead of trying to hook up with any cute girls at the beach while he waited for her to get out of the water like he usually did, he was talking to a bunch of the regular surfers. Unless he had suddenly turned gay over night, something was up.

Resigned to going in, she waited for a final wave to ride in and then nimbly hopped off her board and undid her leg leash before doing one last rinse in the ocean water. Hunter trotted up to her, "Let's go Tor, I'm hungry. A couple of the guys were mentioning how there's a competition coming up at Turtle Cove, going to go?"

"You were talking to them about a surf competition?" Tori asked confused as she picked up her board, which Hunter immediately took from her as they walked up the beach to the fresh water showers.

"Uh, yeah," Hunter said suddenly glaring up the beach. "I was pointing you out and they said you were really good and should enter. Some Jake guy."

"Jake?" Tori game him an odd look, but then shrugged. She wasn't going to let Hunter's odd mood ruin the morning rush she got out of having a good ride. She scooped up her towel and beach bag on the way to the showers and handed Hunter the keys to her van. He obligingly took off to stow her surf board while Tori went to clean off a bit.

She stood under the fresh water to get the sticky feel of salt off her skin. She smiled as she stripped off the top of her wet-suit, revealing her blue tank suit underneath, to rinse out her hair. Coming out of the shower spray and opening her eyes, she noticed a number of the local surfers nudge each other and look surreptitiously at her than at each other. Thinking this was unusual behavior, but deciding to ignore it, she stepped out of her wet suit. Maybe they were still thinking about her in the surf competition. She rinsed out her wetsuit as she usually did and when she was done, moved to her bag to pull out some hair conditioner and a comb.

She started to untangle her hair when a voice called out, "Hey, Tori!"

She looked up to see one of Shane's cousins approaching. "Hey, Valu, how are you?" She waved at his friends, who had joined the bunch of local surfers as she was cleaning off the ocean water and sand.

Very casually, he leaned in for a brief hug and kiss on the cheek, a familiar greeting among Shane's Polynesian family. When he was standing very close to her, he said under his breath, "You got a cover up in that bag, girl? You got a serious audience."

Tori's brows furrowed, "What?" she asked as she quickly finished with her hair and then dug into her bag to pull out a long sarong skirt that she deftly tied around her hips. She took a casual glance around and noticed the now fairly large group of guys that she knew trying to look like they weren't checking her out. "How weird."

"What don't think you are pretty enough to be noticed?" Valu asked with a laugh tugging at a strand of dark blond hair.

"No, it's not that," Tori said with a grin at the handsome young man, "It's just this is kind of strange. You know most times, I'm one of the guys and none of them ever notice me at all. It's not like I've done anything different today than I usually do and I'm not even in one of my 'I wanna look hot at the beach bikinis' and suddenly today everyone's checking me out. Guys that never looked twice at me before?"

Valu shrugged and said with a wide smile, "Well, pretty girl, just to let you know, the sarong doesn't hide any of your curves. I gotta hit the waves. See you?" He leaned in again for a kiss on the cheek and jogged back to his friends as Tori waved at him.

"Friend of yours?" Hunter had approached and was glaring at the tanned young man that was trotting down the beach with a long board under his arm.

"Valu, he's one of Shane's cousins. He's a nice guy. Plays guitar and has the voice of an angel," Tori said as she slipped into a casual, almost sheer beach cover-up.

"Sounds like you like him," Hunter growled as he noticed the other guys in the area checking her out. Tori had been trying to tie a bow at her back, and was startled to feel Hunter's hands brush hers away as he cinched the top around her waist loosely.

"Are you o.k.?" she asked.

"Fine," he said brusquely, "let's go."

With a roll of her eyes, she picked up her bag and held out her hand for the van keys, which Hunter gave to her. "Thanks for stowing my board."

Hunter just grunted with one final angry look around. Tori just shook her head. He must just be in one of his anti-social moods, she thought as they walked to the van. "Want to see if Kelly will give Dustin a break for lunch?" she asked.

"No," Hunter growled as he opened the van door and climbed into the front passenger seat.

"What is with you today?" Tori asked baldly as she stared at him from the open driver side door.

Hunter laid his head back against the head rest and closed his eyes taking a deep breath as he felt the van shift slightly as Tori climbed into the driver's seat and closed the door. "Sorry, Tor, nothing's wrong. I'm just feeling anti-social. I'll do better at lunch," he said with a resigned voice.

A little worried, but willing to let Hunter slide, Tori smiled and said in a gently teasing voice, "You better."

Hunter just sighed again as Tori started up the van. How could he tell her that what was wrong with him? How could he tell her that as he was trying to get the guys on the beach to notice her, for the first time, he really noticed her? How could he tell her that as he watched the guys he had talked to check her out, he wanted to be the only one checking her out? How could he tell her when Shane's cousin casually touched her he saw red? How could he tell her that he realized for the first time that he had totally fallen for her?