Act II of Nyra’s Journey
New Adult Romance
Date Published: November 2022
Publisher: PhoenixPhyre
He’s nothing like her hopeful dream—and everything she wants.
Nyra’s transition from college grad scrambling for her first career job to full independence is as on track as it can be, these days. With her new marketing job is going well, even if she’s still living at home,Nyra’s pretty sure the light at the end of the tunnel is not an onrushing train.
Still, she gets bored, sometimes. A whimsical decision to take up surfing brings her together with Tai Abrega, a professional surfer and shaper so delicious Nyra’s imagination hasn’t even gotten around to fantasizing about a man like him, yet. Surfing awakens a latent, mystical connection with the sea along with a driven passion for the man himself.
But embracing one possibility often demands abandoning another. How can Nyra fit Tai and the seductive siren song of freedom into her “safer” vision of perfect? Can she blend her conventional world with his freespirited lifestyle, or is she doomed to disappointment and heartbreak? New Adult fans of It Ends with Us and Finding Perfect are sure to enjoy this upbeat tale of hope.
The Year of Maybe Act II of Nyra’s Journey continues the story begun in Best-Case Scenario.
Chapter XIII—Sunny, Windy and
Warm
Nyra’s steep take-off earns her an
appreciative hoot from Tai as he paddles back out. Brisk but warm offshore
winds fan the wavetop into a silvery gossamer veil of spray blown back out to
sea. She sinks the tail of her board and climbs the wave face for a vertical
lip bash. Like she’s been doing it forever, she whips the nose of her new board
straight down and loads up for a down-the-line race to the shoulder.
The wave is lining up perfectly, walling up but giving her
plenty of wave face to carve a few graceful turns, and a roundhouse cutback.
The inside section pops up without warning, and Nyra barely has time to bottom
turn and get out before the wave sections in front of her.
Catalina and San Clemente islands seem to loom unnaturally
close, she notes, as she paddles back out, alert for a possible clean-up set.
As another wave looms up, already feathering to break, she claws for the
horizon.
“Trestles today,” Tai had said when they met at San Onofre.
“Lowers. Shape’s perfect and it’s overhead.”
“Okay,” Nyra had agreed.
Crowded, but she sticks close to Tai and quickly figures out
where the peak’s forming. Her confidence has grown exponentially over the last
couple months, and she works her way into the informal rotation, without even
thinking about it. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to paddle out with Tai. Instant
respect. Everyone knows him and is very much aware of his recent win on the
circuit.
Tai’s sitting casually on his board, one foot up, studying a
cut on his instep, as she paddles alongside from her last wave. The sullen flow
of blood from his foot isn’t life-threatening, but the thought of infections
creeps into Nyra’s head. “What happened?”
“Ahh, cut it on one of my fins.” He shrugs dismissively.
“Shouldn’t you—”
“Nah. It’s not like it’s a coral cut.’”
“Maybe she’s right,” one of the guys they’ve been surfing
with says. Brock, if she remembers correctly. “You’re shark bait.”
“Outside,” Tai says. He slips prone and starts paddling as
another peak pops up. “Tide’s pulling,” he adds sidelong. He races one of the
locals for the peak, sinks the tail of his board, takes one double-armed
stroke, and drops in with insolent grace. He disappears behind the wave, to
reappear thirty feet down the line, the point of his board stabbing at the sky
as he smacks the lip vertically and disappears, again.
When he reappears, he does a front-side floater before
dropping out of sight.
Tai’s been feeling it ever since he won the South Africa
contest. Understandable, with major corporate sponsors lining up to catch the
front end of his rising stardom. Ny had half-expected him to ghost her. But he
had called her from Johannesburg to tell her he’d won and again after his stop
in Tahiti to catch a Teahupo’o swell on the way back from Africa. To her
surprise, he asked her to meet him at the airport. They’d surfed together the
last two weekends since.
“Looks like you were trying to do a floater,” Nyra says, as
Tai paddles alongside.
“I did,” he agrees. “Took it all the way around, too.” He
nods out to sea. “And maybe we should call it a day. Santa Ana’s dying anyway.”
Following his gaze, Nyra is surprised to see the bank of fog
closing in. Where the hell did Catalina go? It was visible just few minutes before.
“Wow. That was quick!” The first hint of the on shores
tickles her cheek with a loose lock of her hair.
“Yeah, when the offshores die that quickly, it usually means
a dramatic change in conditions. Bet the fog goes five miles inland by noon.”
Nyra looks at him in disbelief.
“It happens,” Tai assures her. “OMO’s a fickle woman.”
“Or a fickle man,” Nyra adds.
They both laugh. Our Mother Ocean (OMO) can be full of
surprises, Nyra’s learned. She accepts the gender identity and nods at a peak
building in front of them. She paddles for it, with Tai right behind her. They
ride their last wave in together. By the time they’ve slipped out of their
spring suits, under beach towels and into street clothes, the first wisps of
fog are already closing in.
Nyra has slipped into her turquoise beach dress with the
lace plaquette and passes on a bra, expecting—hoping—that Tai will notice.
“Are you as hungry as I am?” Tai asks.
“Starved.”
“Ever been to Pipelines?”
Nyra shakes her head.
“Follow me,” he suggests. He waits behind the wheel of his
pickup while Nyra unlocks her Veloster and keys the ignition.
About the Author
Dirk’s path to authorship wasn’t quite an accident, but almost. Through his two previous careers, first as a Marine officer and subsequently as a corporate trainer, Dirk started way more stories than he finished.
But when his employer filed for Chapter 11 in the backwash of the 2008 financial melt-down, he found himself cordially invited to leave and not return. Out of work and excuses, he focused on finishing his first novel, West of Tomorrow, while looking for another career position.
Since then, Dirk has written and published Best-Case Scenario, Act I of Nyra’s Journey a collection of short fiction entitled, Through the Windshield as well as Tier Zero and Eryinath-5, The Dancer Nebula, Vols. I & II of the Knolan Cycle.
The Year of Maybe, sequel to Best Case Scenario, is due out in Novemeber 2022.
Dirk also contributes to Medium, blogs on his website, and will accept editing work, by special request. Besides his work as a writer, he is an accomplished snow skier, woodworker, photographer and a compulsive gym rat.
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Great excerpt, The Year of Maybe sounds like an excellent romance to read and I like the cover!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing it with me and have a fabulous day!
Thank you for sharing this book synopsis and excerpt, this sounds like a wonderful story and I am looking forward to reading it
ReplyDeleteFun excerpt! Makes me wish I was in the ocean right now!
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