Page 17 of Broken Hearts

A high-rise hotel with hundreds of rooms, three restaurants, a spa, two bars. The number of jobs something like this could create is unimaginable. Isn’t that what these people want? To be able to have something like this in their backyard, the tourists boosting the economy.

It’s why my dad built The Pipe Dream here, like my mom said, he knew the town needed it. Maybe the town needs more than just a small surf shop.

Surrounding my dad’s house and shop is just land he owns, tons and tons of land. I wonder if he planned to expand The Pipe Dream one day. Maybe he hoped he’d have a family.

I push all the papers aside, a decision that feels far too hard to make under these circumstances.

Stepping outside, I look around. The ocean to the front of me, and the mountains to the side. It’s stunning, like a postcard and I remember this view, loving the way the white flowers dot the mountains and the vegetation surrounding my dad’s house.

I take in a ragged breath, my chest shaky as I remember a story he told me when I was here at twelve. I had come in from collecting flowers, my favorite were these white blossoms that looked like they were missing their other half.

“Sage, those are naupaka flowers,” he said, his words soft and calming. “They’re special.”

“Really?” I asked, feeling like I found something that most people didn’t know about. And coming from New York, they were unlike anything I’d ever seen.

“Naupaka was a Hawaiian princess who fell in love with a commoner. That was forbidden,” he said, winking at me. “They consulted several elders and priests, and they were eventually told there was nothing to be done, and they could not be together. Naupaka was horribly upset and took a flower out of her hair and tore it in half.” My dad took one of my flowers, running his finger over the missing half as he smiled.

He handed it to me to inspect, but I already loved the flower for its missing part.

“She gave half to the man she wished to be her husband and told him to return to the water and live his life as a fisherman,” he continued. “She escaped to the mountains to grieve. And, to this day, you’ll see naupaka both by the water and in the mountains, each with their distinctive half-flower.”

“Fuck,” I mutter to myself, the sadness a heavy ache in my chest. I run my hands over my face, tugging them through my now wind-whipped hair.

I missed so much.

I turnand walk back to where the guys are sitting, Kai now laughing at me.

“Burned, huh?” Kai asks with a grin. “Knew you fucking liked her though.”

“Fuck off,” I reply, flopping into my seat, having no desire to tell them about whatever that was just now with Sage. I don’t even know what it was or what the hell possessed me to go over there and ask her to stay.

Why the hell was I suddenly thinking about kissing her?

Fucking hell.

“Gonna guess that was Mitch’s long-lost daughter?” Tanner asks, shocking the shit out of me.

My head snaps around to where he sits next to me, an unreadable expression on his face. “You knew he had a daughter?” I ask and Tanner just nods as he takes a sip of his beer. “Did you two know?” I ask, turning to Miles and Kai.

“What?” Kai says, clearly confused. “Mitch has a daughter?”

I turn to Miles, the quieter of the two of them, and he just shrugs and says, “Nope, had no clue.”

I turn back to Tanner, more confused than ever. Why was Mitch so secretive about his daughter and why do only select people apparently know about her? And why the fuck has Tanner never said anything?

“When did you find out?” I ask him, my words harsh.

“When she was born,” he replies, as though it’s obvious.

My eyes widen. “And what, you never thought to mention it?” I blurt out, angry.

Tanner blows out a breath, sinking lower into his chair. “It wasn’t for me to tell, Nate,” he says. “Mitch stopped talking about her a while ago and asked me to do the same, and I respected his wishes.”

“Why the fuck didn’t he want to talk about her? Or anyone to even know about her?” I ask, knowing Mitch never seemed like the kind of guy to keep secrets. He was pretty much friends with everyone on this island and it always felt like we were all friends with him too. Like hanging out with Mitch was one big family gathering where everyone was always included.

Tanner takes another long sip of his beer as though he’s contemplating his answer. None of us say anything as we wait for him to speak. Eventually, he lowers his beer and says, “That’s not an easy question to answer, and to be honest, I’m not sure I know the answer anyway.” He pauses to take another sip of his beer. “I know he had regrets about it all, and maybe that was a part of it, but I don’t know the full story.”

I shake my head, knowing that answer isn’t good enough, that it doesn’t even begin to answer the multitude of other questions I now have about Mitch. I seriously thought I knew this guy who took me in, no questions asked, who protected me and gave me a place to live and a job, and so much more.

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