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Jake reread the article and stared at Nick’s photo some more as he downed a light breakfast.

His thoughts about Nick had been racing around in his head and he started talking to himself to try and sort things out.

“He liked you, you know.”

“No, he was just being friendly, sucking up to raise more money.”

“He asked about the sex wax!”

“It’s just a product name, asshole!”

“He gave you his number.”

Jake pondered this for a moment. Yes, he had. He rushed upstairs, searched for his jacket in the laundry basket and fished out the scrunched up paper with Nick’s number scrawled on it. He hadn’t even put his name on it, like he knew Jake would remember whose number it was. Still confused and not able to determine if Nick had caught on to his flirting or not, Jake did the only thing he could think of doing. He picked up the phone and dialled.

A sleepy sounding voice picked up, just as Jake was about to give up and set the phone back in its cradle.

“H’lo?”

“Nick? Nick Carter?”

“Yeah. Who’s this? What goddam time is it?”

Jake chuckled softly. “It’s 11am, man, time to rise and shine.”

“Dude…I don’t shine before at least 5pm.”

“You miss the whole day doing that. You have to get up and embrace the morning.”

“There’s only one thing I embrace in the morning, if you get my drift.” Nick snorted. “Now, who is this? Any asshole friend of mine knows to call after 4pm.”

“Well, I only met you last night. I didn’t get your phoning hours.” Jake half apologized.

“Jake? Jake man, why didn’t you say who it was? I was about to go all Rambo on ya!”

It was Jake’s turn to snort out a laugh. “Sorry man. I didn’t realize you were a sleeping beauty.”

“It’s no problem, dude, not at all!”

Jake smiled to himself. Nick seemed happy to hear from him, that was good.

“I was just calling to see, if maybe, you’d like to get together for lunch. I wanted…”

“I’d love to man! And surfing after?”

Jake thought for a moment. Surfing could be good….very good, and could lead to other good things. “Surfing would be awesome.”

“Rad! See you around, say 1pm?”

“Great. That will be…great.” Jake nodded, trying to control his voice.

“K, see you later! And Jake, I’ll bring the sex wax, but next time it’s all on you.”

Nick rolled out of bed and went to find his O'Neill board shorts, wondering where he'd tossed them. He was ...what was it. excited? He guessed that's what it was. he was excited Jake had called. Jake was a big name. and yet, he'd called. That was pretty fucking cool. He had someone to surf with and then lunch. he automatically wondered what would be said about lunch. He figured they'd probably end up somewhere that everyone - at least paparazzi- would see them. What story would they make up about them now?

Nick had been mercifully gone from the tabloids for a while and he was thankful for that. He did his best to stay under the radar, but sometimes just going out to dinner with his little brother got him in so many pictures he couldn't believe it. And now he was going to be with someone like Jake. this had all the potential of. a disaster? Whatever. He was just going to hang out with the guy - maybe have a new surf buddy and get someone involved in an organization he cared about.

He snagged his shorts from where they were peeking out from under the bed and grabbed his Quicksilver rashguard . he didn't care if it made the other surfers think he was a pussy - he was keeping his damn shirt on while he surfed.

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Nick shoved the surfboard into the back of his Escalade and headed out toward the beach, thinking about Jake's phone call again. He'd said some interesting things. get up and embrace the day. Nick smiled, he liked the sound of that.

He liked the straight-forwardness, too. Chicks were so weird about phone calls. waiting for just the 'right time' and making everything sound so different than what it really was. Jake called, he wanted to hang out, now they were. Cool.

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Nick got out of the SUV and slipped off the shoes he'd been wearing, tossing them in the backseat and going to get his board out. He looked around at the crowds of people - not too bad of a crowd for early afternoon. He walked out toward the Pier, trying to subtly glance around. He saw a dark-haired guy standing off to himself, board stuck in the sand, and headed in that direction.

As he got closer he could see it was Jake. He stepped up beside him, glancing around at the other surfers. He noticed Jake was wearing a rashguard, too, and felt better. "You ever feel like you're the only one with clothes on out here?" he asked, laughing. He was glad the girls wore next-to-nothing but he was happy to stay dressed.

Jake turned and looked at him, "Hey man." He looked Nick up and down and then reached to pull off his shirt, dropping it in the sand. He smiled, "Now you ARE the only one."

Nick chuckled. "Guess so." He noticed Jake's eyes lingering over him, but dismissed it. He wasn't about to take his shirt off now - not with Jake all ripped and buff. His gut was staying covered.

"Seriously, you're not gonna take that off?" Jake asked.

"Tattoos. draws attention." Nick said, dismissing the question.

Jake cocked his head in curiosity. "Tattoos?"

"Yeah. I love them.and all the little girls notice them.so it's just easier if I stay covered." he said, hoping that sounded convincing enough.

"O-kay. the shirt stays on." Jake grabbed his board, "You ready to get wet?"

"Hold up, dude. you're forgetting the good part. rub it, THEN ride it." Nick said, tossing the tin of sex wax to Jake.

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Nick crashed onto the shore, coughing from the ocean water he'd ingested when he wiped out. He wiped his face with his hands and looked up, noticing that he'd just about landed at Jake's feet.

Jake chuckled a little and held his hand out, "Your feet were too far apart."

Nick jumped, letting go of Jake's hand as soon as he was standing, "What?"

"Your feet were too far apart. you can't expect to stay standing if you've got no balance." He explained.

"Oh.. right. I just switched from a longboard. what I learned on. to the shorter board. I'm still trying to figure it out." Nick explained, realizing that Jake must have been watching him pretty closely to have noticed that. Huh. It was like having a personal surf tutor.

Jake smiled, "You'll get it. New things just. take some acclimation.time for your body to accept it. then it's like second nature."

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Nick leaned away from the table, running his hands through his still damp hair. He'd always liked the way his hair looked after being in the ocean, he didn't even mind the way the saltwater seemed to cling to his skin, just the slightest sting when he'd move and his clothes would rub against his skin. There was something just . natural about it and he liked it. Jake hadn't headed over to the open-air shower area, so he figured the after-ocean feeling must not bother him, either.

He sat back up to see a mysterious grin on Jake's face - like he was a little bit amused and a little bit. something else. "So, uh, what do you usually get here?" Nick asked, picking up a menu. He'd not been to this place before, it had been Jake's suggestion and he was fine with trying new things.

Jake rattled off a list of the dishes he enjoyed while Nick tried to skim the menu and find the things he was talking about. He looked up when he heard a gasp- and saw the waiter standing beside them- his eyes looking quickly back and forth between the two men. a look on his face that made Nick pretty sure at least one of them was parading around naked in the guy's head just then. Jake chuckled at the expression Nick had and made his order, trying to move things along and get the waiter gone. probably back to the kitchen to start gossiping about why these two were having lunch together.

Nick quickly ordered the first thing he saw on the menu and handed his menu back over to the waiter. He waited until the waiter had retreated and looked over at Jake, "Did you get the feeling he was wondering what color your boxers were?"

Jake laughed devilishly, "I'd have to be wearing a pair before he could guess."

Nick nearly choked on the drink he was about to take because he started laughing. "You, too, huh?" The wide smile that crossed Jake's face made him smile, too. Looked like they were going to get along pretty well.