Page 84 of The Grumpy Side of Paradise

“Adam?” The muffled voice outside my truck is familiar, but impossible. The icy, snow-covered windows allow only a blurry view outside. I have to open my truck door to confirm my imagination is playing tricks on me.

It’s not. But that doesn’t make it any easier to believe who’s standing in front of me.

Chapter 39

Evie

“Dakota?” Adam says.

I jerk my head to the side to see around him. A tall woman draped in a camel coat and red scarf stands in the open door. Thick blonde curls spill over her shoulders. She’s vaguely familiar. I’ve seen her in pictures with Georgia but never met her myself.

“Hi,” she says softly to Adam before craning her neck to get a better look at me. “Evelyn, right? Georgia’s told me about you.”

“Evie, actually.” She’s not taking away the name that Paradise gave back to me, even if she’s here to take Adam away.

Not that he’s ever been mine to take away. Especially after today.

“What are you doing here?” Adam asks.

“I came to see you.” Dakota steps closer, and Adam, still in the driver’s seat, loosens his grip on the steering wheel. “Can we talk?”

“I should go inside,” I say, but I don’t move.

Adam’s gaze goes from Dakota to me. I can’t read his face, but he hasn’t turned off his truck. For a second, I hope that he’ll pop it into reverse and get us out of here. Maybe he could reverse all the way back to this afternoon when things were perfect. We could stay at that point of time forever. The place before I betrayed him. The place where Dakota still held that distinction and was thousands of miles away in New York.

But Adam doesn’t back out of the driveway. Instead, he gives me a curt nod and shuts off his engine. “I’ll unload this stuff at the house tomorrow.”

With that, I blink, then nod back before sliding out of his truck.

“Nice meeting you,” Dakota calls after me.

I glance back long enough to say, “You too,” and see Adam is climbing out of his truck. I don’t see his hand on the small of Dakota’s back as he leads her to his door, but I imagine it as I run up the stairs. Shortly after closing my door, I hear his door shut.

I power up my TV and turn the volume way up to keep from hearing anything downstairs. Then I pace. If it weren’t snowing and dark outside, I’d run. I’m tempted to do it anyway. The risk of hypothermia or frostbite is worth it if it means I can forget about the worst end possible to the perfect day.

My phone buzzes, and when I see Georgia’s name, I stop my pacing. I’m unreasonably mad at her. I want to blame her for everything that went wrong today and for putting me in Adam’s path to begin with. But I also really need a bestie to talk to.

“Did you see the contract?” she says as soon as I answer. No hello. But that’s Georgia. No beating around the bush. “I emailed it.”

“I haven’t had a chance.” I leave the TV on and go to my room. A warm bed and fuzzy pajamas are the only things I want right now.

“Well, hurry up and do it! We need to get to work!” She’s squealing loud enough that I have to pull the phone away from my ear.

Georgia keeps talking, telling me all the details about filming and production, while I curl up into bed.

I wish I could share her excitement. I want to do this project. I want the exposure it will give me and the potential for bigger things. More than that, I want to stay in Paradise. Most of all, I want to be with Adam.

But I’ve lost my chance for that. If all we had to work out was our different views about the Little Copenhagen resort, I’d still have some hope. I know I could have handled the whole Instagram thing better, but I’ve seen Adam work to forgive his brother. I’m confident we could work through that, too. He’d forgive me, eventually.

Dakota, though?

There’s no working around her. She’s the love of Adam’s life, and I doubt she’s back for a quick visit. I saw the look in her eyes. She’s still in love with Adam. No doubt she’s come to her senses and realized what she gave up when she left him.

He’ll take her back. It kills me to think about it, but that’s the reality. Why would he give a second thought to someone he’s known for a month when the woman he’s loved since he was fifteen is here?

When I ran cross-country, I put my all in, but there were racers I knew I couldn’t beat. They were faster and better than me, even on their slow days.

Dakota is all of those runners wrapped in one. I can’t compete with her.

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