Page 23 of Broken Hearts

“Awesome,” I say, feeling the weight of Sage’s gaze on me. “You want to grab the boards first?”

Tanner nods and turns to walk outside. Sage and I follow, and I grin when I see Kai leaning against the side of the van that’s emblazoned with the wordsOlsen Boards,their company’s name.

“What, you didn’t want to come in and say hi?” I say, grinning at Kai as we give each other a half-hug, half-handshake thing.

Tanner snorts out a laugh, and Kai chuckles as he jerks a thumb toward a couple of girls standing by a car, giggling and looking over at us. “Attending to other matters,” he says.

“Of course you are,” I say with a laugh before I half-turn, gesturing to Sage who’s hanging back a couple of steps. “Kai, this is Sage, Mitch’s daughter. Sage, meet Kai, Tanner’s oldest son.”

Kai’s grin widens. “Hey again, pretty lady.”

“Hi,” Sage replies, her cheeks flushing a little.

“Tanner makes boards, and we, well, Mitch sells them in the shop,” I say by way of explanation. “He does customs too and Kai and Miles, his other son, help him out.”

Sage nods. “And he said something about Alana’s?” she now asks, a nervous edge to her voice.

“Yeah, Tanner is making her a board for Maui Pipe.”

Sage nods, even though I know she had no idea what Maui Pipe was until I told her. “Are you designing it?”

I laugh, shaking my head as I say, “No, I don’t design boards.”

“But he,” she starts, casting a quick glance back at Tanner. “He said he wanted to see your ideas?” She’s blushing again and fuck me if it isn’t kind of adorable.

“Nah, I don’t design boards,” I tell her. “I just design the decals for them, that’s all.”

The back door to the van opens, and Tanner starts handing boards to Kai. I watch as Sage turns to see, her eyes widening when she takes it all in.

“And you…you did these?” she asks, pointing to the boards Kai is now carrying toward the shop.

“Uh huh,” I tell her as I make my way around to help. “I like to draw. Tanner likes my designs. It’s no big deal,” I add, shrugging, even though to me, it’s a fucking huge deal.

To have my design on an Olsen board is seriously next level, and I have no idea how or why Tanner agreed to it, but holy shit, I am not wasting the opportunity. I will draw anything he wants if it means my name gets attached to the boards he makes.

Sage steps over to the back of the van, holding her arms out now as Tanner hands her a board, a huge smile on his face. It’s clear she’s never held a surfboard before because she holds it across her forearms, rather than tucked under her arm. But when she doesn’t move, I watch as her gaze drops to the pattern that’s been put across the bottom of the board.

“You did this?” she asks, her words low, her eyes tracing the lines of a giant orange octopus whose tentacles are stretched out across the bottom of the board, one half stretching right to the tip, the other half stretched down to wrap around the fins.

I nod. “Yeah.”

“Wow,” she murmurs, almost to herself. “It’s…” She trails off, lifting her eyes to mine. “It’s amazing.”

I shrug, trying to act like it’s no big deal even if her words have my heart pounding in my chest. “I mean, it’s cool, yeah, having them on their boards.”

“No, Nate, it’s…you’re, like, really talented,” she says.

I laugh as we turn and head toward the shop. “Thanks.”

“Did you, like, study art or something?”

I let out another laugh, louder this time. “Fuck no, I barely finished high school,” I tell her. “Drawing’s just something I really like to do.”

I watch as her eyes drop to the board again and she swallows hard. She doesn’t say anything more, and I can’t help but wonder what she’s thinking. If she’s maybe thinking that this isn’t just a surf shop that Mitch set up and made money from. But it’s an avenue for Tanner to sell his boards, an opportunity for me to get my designs out there. A place for me and Alana to work.

I mean, sure, if she sells it and we lose the shop, Tanner will still be fine, but will I? Will Alana? This isn’t just a job for us, and I really need Sage to see that.

“Okay, so Alana’s board,” Tanner says after we get all the boards inside.

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